Discuss - Ep #0478

[Watching Project]

Robservations #478

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0478

[DarkLady]

Cassangelique is only temporarily taken aback when she opens the door to Josette's apparent modern twin. But the resemblance helps Cassandra choose the first victim of the Dream Curse.

Welcome (I guess) Room of Doors. My favorite part of the Dream Curse is the fog machine.

Meanwhile, Jeff wakes up to find himself strapped to the second table in Lang's laboratory and comes to a horrifying realization. You’re going to use my face! he shouts. That’s the only part of the monster that’s still missing! You’re insane! he screams. Unperturbed, Lang answers, I am one of only a handful of men who have had the courage to challenge the laws of nature. Lang quickly tires of Jeff’s protests and injects him again, and Jeff falls unconscious once more. Dr. Lang murmurs to his unconscious victim, You should be honored, Jeff. It is through your eyes that Barnabas has chosen to see the world, and through your lips that he has chosen to speak. With these words and with a blithe disregard for antisepsis, Lang picks up his scalpel.....

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Can you just imagine if Jonathan Frid had actually decided to leave the show and RD really did take over the role of Barnabas in the form of Lang's creation?! 

[DarkLady]

The horror! The horror!

[Nicky]

It's too bad that the Dream Curse is much more ambitious than what the meager FX budget could support.  I wonder what they'd come up with if they could do it again today?

[MagnusTrask]

Can you just imagine if Jonathan Frid had actually decided to leave the show and RD really did take over the role of Barnabas in the form of Lang's creation?! 

I thought about that.   I wondered, could they have come up with this whole thing as the "perfect" way to write a quitting Frid out?  It is perfect, except for who we'd be losing, and who we'd be "gaining".   Roger Davis does a good enough job once in awhile, but he's the last guy to take on the Barnabas role.

Nicky, if they did it today, it would be with generic off-the-rack CGI that looks fake, and reminds you every moment that it's a special effect.   However, with creative effects people with integrity, given a bigger budget back then in 1968, it could have been good.   I will say that this first Dream worked fairly well.   The part I liked was the violent alarming wind.

Welcome back Maggie, finally.   Her 3rd or 4th trip to Collinwood?   So it isn't just Vicki who perceives 1795 and 1968 people as looking identical, Ang does too, meaning they really DO look identical.   This is an irritating thing, since there's no resolution to this mystery.

Guess Lang must be starting to have wet dreams about Barnabas now, since he thinks it's such an "honor" for Jeff to die and give up his face for him.   I thought Lang was his own god, but maybe Barnabas is his god now.   Maybe a time share.

[dom]

The women all look so ’68 contemporary and quite fabulous.

I picked up on what seems to be a lackadaisical tone to AM’s OVO. As if she started with a deep sigh and rolling eyes. Cass meets Maggie and decides she will start the dream curse because of her resemblance to Josette, noting the irony. Vicki asks Maggie to room JC temporarily and Maggie says she’ll do her best to convince Sam to comply. The JClark & Lang shout fest was a big bore. Lang subdues JC with an injection and straps him to a gurney. Jeff wakes and realizes that his face will put the finishing touch on Lang’s creation. Did I say I hate the dream curse? I loved the first dream – KLS, is a natch for this type of scene. I loved the whole thing except the skull at the end (the eyeballs really made it silly). I was a bit put off seeing JClark in the dream thinking it was stupid but knowing that he is supposed to move into the Evans cottage I can see where it will come into play later. I also very much enjoyed Cass/Ange’s incantation at the drawing room window. Did you catch the lilt in her voice as the scene faded into Maggie’s dream, as if she were starting to sing? It made me giggle – in a good way.

Afterthoughts: The wig is still holding up. As a kid my intro to these 1968 characters was 16 Magazine – this was during the 1897 storyline. I used to get back issues at a flea market and I think perhaps also saw photos when 16 ran the “Whole True Story” series. I was so taken with Parker as Cassandra in that wig that I fell in love with the name and was determined to name my first female child Cassandra, lol. This episode started with a bang but the whole Lang/JClark thang brought the episode down. Two mediocre talents together in the same scene - there was more ham in their scenes than on the table at a three family Easter dinner. It was so comforting to see Maggie again. I’m beginning to wonder why so many wigs? Is it less work than styling the actresses hair? I can see in some instances – like – Liz – where no one has that much hair to create such a style, and I believe Bennett goes natural eventually but ‘Vicki’ & ‘Maggie’? I don’t recall having seen ‘Carolyn’ in a wig. I wonder what the thought process and considerations are behind these decisions. And dig that crazy psychedelic ending credits! Groovy, man!Or was it far out?!!

[MagnusTrask]

Good remarks, dom.  Chuckled at Moltke's "deep sigh and rolling eyes", which I didn't pick up on.   The green-lit skull with eyeballs was an anti-climax and will continue to be.   I seem to remember later on a skull-rushing-at-you image in which the figure of the dreamer is superimposed on it, as a tiny black silhouette at the bottom of the screen, and that would make the skull genuinely scary.  I may have imagined that myself, though, as an improvement that could have been made.

I had not perceived that I was watching a wigfest.  I'm naive that way.   I didn't even get that Mary Tyyler Moore in year one of her sitcom was wearing a wig, until I was told.

[Nicky]

Oh, dear Dom!  I had a similar experience -- my best friend's mother showed me all her DS scrapbooks from the original run, comprised, for the most part, of 16 Magazine clippings, including -- and those of you who know me know how much I love this photo -- the very famous shot of Cassandra, Adam, Nicholas, and a fanged Barnabas all looming over Vicki.  When I think of DS, I think of that shot. 

One of the clippings contained in the scrapbook explained that Angelique the vampire was also known as Cassandra, and I became absolutely entranced with her dark hair and, I suppose, her versatility (modern, Mary Quant-wearing wife and vampire vixen at the same time?!?  What a wonderful idea!) 

Dom, Gothick, and I should all form a Cassandra-forever club.

[Gothick]

Nicky, I started buying 16 magazine in late June or early July of 1968.  I remember the photograph you love so much being prominently featured in the mag.  I was hooked, bigtime.

Roger Davis as Barnabas really would be horrifying.  I think I need to lie down just at the thought...

dom, that's so sweet that you wanted to name your daughter Cassandra.  Whenever I meet someone with the name, I wonder (if she is of the right age) if her Mom was a DS fan.

G.

[Uncle Roger]

I love that picture too. It was one of the first DS collectibles that I purchased as an adult.

I think that Alexandra may have worn a fall at times but that does seem to be her own hair most of the time. Kathryn did admit that at some point during the 1968 story (prior to her ecoming the governess), she was wearing a wig on camera because she had dyed her hair blonde.

[Nicky]

I've been vainly searching for it in a color incarnation for ... ulp, decades now.  The closest I've come is a terribly colorized version used in an MPI Catalogue from 1990 or so.

[alwaysdavid]

Vickie picks up on Cassandra's reaction to Maggie. She wants Maggie to take in Jeff sight unseen and I say run Maggie run.  Jeff and Lang shout at each other.
Maggie dreams and opens the door to Jeff. A nightmare unto itself. He beacons her in and she opens the door to her Mystery Date which turns out to be a dud.  A skull with eyes. Where are the ping pong ball eyes when you need them.
Lang has the injected Jeff strapped down by for some reason waits til he awakens to remove his face. Jeff in a moment of brilliance realizes the score. The psychedelic ending was fun reminding me of riding the ferry from our little town over to the city where there were funky bookstores, record shops, and other related shops full of crazy stuff.