Vicky's Fate

[Joeytrom]

For those who saw DS originally, was it forgotten what happened to Vicky (during Leviathan) until the later syndicated reruns as it was only in 2 episodes I think.  Or did some of you remember it?

I'm asking because I'm curious if that outcome was still thought of prior to the third year DS was released into syndication.

[Gothick]

Hi Joey,  in some markets, I think the final syndication package did include the end of Leviathan, but I'm not sure.

In the fandom community of the 1980s, fans circulated information about the complete series via zines and newsletters and towards the end of the decade, BBS forums.  Some fans had kept notes (and tape recordings, as I'm sure you know) of every episode and topics such as Vicky's fate were routinely discussed and, for those who had forgotten or never saw the episodes, they had the opportunity to learn about it.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The third year of syndication ended with 1970 PT Ep #1007, so all of Leviathans was included.

As for remembering Vicki's fate, I had honestly forgotten all about it until it came up in Leviathans when I was watching that storyline again in '88. But then as a kid I'd tried to block out most of the end of Leviathans and especially anything having to do with RD, so... And I didn't get into the fanzines until DS ended in syndication in my area, so I'd missed being reminded about Vicki beforehand. Though I actually think not being reminded was a good thing because I'd forgotten so much about the storylines that watching the show again in syndication was often like seeing some of the twists for the first time.

[Uncle Roger]

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of this interlude is that the ghost of Peter Bradford only has dialogue with two characters. One is obviously Jeb. But the other one is Angelique. She quickly dispatches Peter to his grave before embarking on revenge by construction paper.

[David]

Reportedly Vicki was killed because Curtis was mad at Alexandra for refusing to return to the show.
It made no sense of course and was the first glimpse of what was to come for that final year: a total disregard for consistency and logic.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, Peter was never supposed to turn out to be[spoiler]the ghost that was haunting the Leviathans - it was supposed to have been Paul Stoddard's ghost. But when Dennis Patrick was unavailable because he was shooting the film Joe at the time of taping, they came up with the brilliant idea (he said extremely facetiously) of bringing in Peter's ghost instead. And they had to have a justification for Peter wanting revenge on the Leviathans, so they dreamed up that Jeb killed Vicki in 1796, which really made so little sense given what had previously been established in Leviathans. But then, by that point so much of Leviathans made so little sense. (Don't even get me started on what Philip was threatened with after being arrested for all the murders!!)[/spoiler]

[michael c]

apart from finding this an unjust fate I always thought it was extremely strange writing to essentially "kill off" a character who had already long departed...

just in terms of dramatic impact it made little sense to say nothing of being completely disconnected from the entirety of the storyline.

[michael c]

as things turned out, and since Alexandra was not interesting in returning at any time, when Betsy Durkin's Victoria disappeared into the ether that really should have been the end of it...


the additional recast, and certainly the plot development under discussion here, really didn't add anything to the story.

[Gothick]

that whole couple weeks of the show was just plain whacked.  I always thought DC was too busy getting the film ready for production to pay attention to the plotting of the day series, frankly.

But who knows... It's very sad given how incredibly good the first six or seven weeks of Leviathans was.  But of course none of the fans would accept an "evil Barnabas" and demanded the storyline be terminated... an early instance of fannish pressure on the direction of a series production...

G.

[MagnusTrask]

I don't think "evil Barnabas" was one of the good things about early Leviathans.  That part I was glad to let go.  It left a bad taste in the mouth.  And there was no visible villain.  We're not about to hate him for being possessed.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The subject of "evil Barnabas" in Leviathans really has nothing to do with Vicki's fate, so let's keep to the subject in this topic. I've already split out a discussion of 1970 PT, so if people really do want to discuss Leviathans' "evil Barnabas," please start a separate topic for that.