If Barnabas was never released from his coffin...

[The Doctor and K9]

Michael C. brought up some very good points I'd forgotten. It was foreshadowed and obviously the intent of the writers was that it was an accident. Of course, Barnabas could have feigned surprise, but now the crash doesn't seem quite as random as it did before.

[MagnusTrask]

Burke's crash:   The writers (or plotters) give a strong impression here of wanting to have it both ways.   There seem to be suggestions of both a murder and an accident.  Barnabas implies he's about to take care of his Burke problem permanently, I think.   It's a perfect way to do it.   It falls right into his lap.   But wait, no, turns out he didn't.   I think he would have spent money for someone to sabotage the plane, that's how rich bastards do things.    Or he could have appeared in the plane to do it himself.   But again, wait no he didn't.   I will guess that they felt they had to rewrite Barnabas's homicides (of an entire plane full of people) out, because it was too vicious for a popular character whom they were going to make decent in backstory very soon.

As for Amy, I had the impression that the souls of the two kids were gradually strengthening Quentin so that he came closer and closer to being able to act in the living world and leave his room.  I don't think David could have done it alone.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As for Amy, I had the impression that the souls of the two kids were gradually strengthening Quentin so that he came closer and closer to being able to act in the living world and leave his room.  I don't think David could have done it alone.

Though we can never really know. And as DarkLady theorized, perhaps Amy would have come to be at Collinwood under different circumstances. Again, we can never really know. The only thing we actually have are our imaginations to theorize how it might have still happened because there's no real reason why Barnabas' absence would have completely prevented it...

[Joeytrom]

I read that the crash was to temporarily remove Burke from DS, except Anthony George decided to leave.

[MagnusTrask]

I think AG said he thought he was leaving temporarily, only to find later that his exit as Burke was permanent.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

AG only had a six month contract (which is why Jeremiah had to be dispatched in 1795 so quickly). He only came on DS to potentially jumpstart his sagging primetime career. He actually felt daytime was beneath him - but before you judge him for that, that was the prevailing belief in most corners of acting. Doing daytime was considered the lowest job on the acting totem pole.

The irony is that because of DS, rather than getting primetime jobs, AG got other daytime jobs and he eventually became one of daytime's biggest stars, having very popular roles on Search For Tomorrow and One Life To Live.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

It never occurred to me that Barnabas may have had anything to do with the death of Burke.  I always took the incident at face-value.  It was convenient for Barnabas, and would have led to great plot development had the writers never introduced Jeff Clark.   

[Philippe Cordier]

It's fascinating to consider what DS might have been like either without Barnabas or if he had never been released from his coffin (two distinctly different options). The 1795 storyline could still have occurred but probably without Vicki Winters coming from the present day. And some of the later storylines could still have occurred, 1970 Parallel Time and the last storyline, 1841 PT. Things get much trickier trying to figure out what would have happened in the other storylines already mentioned.

It wasn't long ago that I re-watched the episodes where Burk's plane went down. There wasn't any reasonable way the Barnabas could have been involved, it was just a lucky coincidence. I agree that he was surprised by the news and secretly pleased.

[Gothick]

An interesting note about the Burke plane crash incident is that so far as I remember, this was the last time the writers played with the idea that David was actively clairvoyant.  If I'm remembering correctly, that notion began with Burke himself present David with a gift of a crystal ball, so it's in some ways fitting that after Burke left, the subplot failed to be an active part of the proceedings.  Of course, it could be argued that the "haunting of Collinwood" plot and subsequent developments still showed that David had a very special affinity for the spirit world, but that's a little different from having the gift of prophecy.

G.

[michael c]

the writers seemed to throw clairvoyance or "second sight" at a character pretty randomly, and then just as quickly take it away, if it served a particular plot at a given point...


David had it through 1967. in 1968 Vicki suddenly developed a hitherto unknown "deep psychic connection" with Barnabas. Carolyn abruptly becomes Collinwood's resident "clairvoyant" sometime in 1969/70. I feel like other characters had it on and off too.

[FreshMayonnaise]

I'd say that Willie exhibited signs of a type of psychic awareness in the episodes leading up to his releasing Barnabas.  Interesting ideas there -- how "conscious" was Barnabas while chained up? Was he seeking someone to release him since 1795?  Was Willie the first person ever to detect his summoning?

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I feel like other characters had it on and off too.

Don't forget Maggie's suddenly-psychic sensitivity during Leviathans.  I still don't know where Barnabas came up with that thought. 

[MagnusTrask]

Barnabas summons people to let him out, but he can only connect with certain rare people, or so it seems to me.   The one thing I'm certain about is that Barnabas was reaching out to Willie, but it's even possible Barnabas planted the jewelry obsession in Willie's mind to make the summons irresistible.

I've never bought the idea that Barnabas was somehow unconscious all the time he was chained up.  I think that's wishful thinking on the part of those who don't want to imagine what being conscious all that time would have been like for him.

[FreshMayonnaise]

I've never bought the idea that Barnabas was somehow unconscious all the time he was chained up. I think that's wishful thinking on the part of those who don't want to imagine what being conscious all that time would have been like for him.

I imagine that, as a vampire, he wouldn't have the same reaction to being chained in a coffin that a mortal would.  (A positive side effect of vampirism -- it cures you of your claustrophobia!)  I like to think of Barnabas as being in a highly receptive state of consciousness that allowed him to absorb the changes in the outside world, thus enabling him to adapt quickly to the 20th century.

[MagnusTrask]

I see nothing onscreen to give the impression that being chained up for 175 years was not a horrible, unbearable experience.  I see no reason not to think that he awakened every night and had to pass that time conscious, until becoming dead again at sunrise.  Vampires can deal with going into the coffin every day, yes, but that's because they become unconscious and inert (in other words, a corpse) during the day, and anyway, going into a coffin every day is a LOT different from staying in there for 175 years.  Imagine it.  Being afraid of that isn't claustrophobia, it's just basic sense.  No wonder Barnabas came out of the box psychotic, in 1967.  It's a wonder he could control it to the extent he did.