the time has come

[michael c]

miles,

i like your choice B.she was smokin' hot!alexandra moltke's not really my "type"  but she was one seriously foxy governess.towards the end of her days on the show she wears her hair down alot and she's extra sweet.

anyways i try not to overthink or overanalyze the character too much.i just like to see her.

[CyrusL]

I am going to have to agree that by the time Alexandra left the series, the character of Vickie no longer truly fit into the direction of the show. It is however hard to think of the early stories without her. Alexandra brought a great deal of warmth and a genuine sincerity to Vickie's innocence that worked perfectly. She was indeed as someone said earlier, "the straight man" for all the eccentricities of Collinwood. In a way, its a little sad that Vickie will not be exactly that same character if or when we have a revival. I think we can tell Vickie 2003 would have been quite different. Alexandra even when she had scripts that made her painfully naive still rose above them and made us care for her. On the other hand, I am glad she may have been spared the indignity of a "Rosemary's Baby" story to exploit her own pregnancy. I think the odd "Dunwich horror" children worked better in the Leviathans, most especially with Michael Maitland. Before I digress, however, Vickie did get a major disservice by [spoiler]having the totally THROWAWAY line about her having been killed by Jeb Hawkes in his earlier incarnation! This was a terrble contrivance just to allow a ghost of a past DS character tie in! And not just because it was Peter Bradford either. Its just disrespectful of the legacy of Vickie's character as well as wiping away the one great post Alexandra moment for Vickie when Carolyn Groves does more with that one glance back at Barnabas than the poor Betsy Durkin was ever able to do with the poor use of Vickie in her short era. That was a more proper was of exiting Vickie. I guess this kind of poor plotting almost proves that Dan thought no one would be rewatching things 40 years later.[/spoiler]
Vickie never did seem to grow as a person, even such as say Roger did. I can understand Alexandra being frustrated near the end of her run. It did make for an awkward arc when Maggie comes in as governess. Lastly, I wonder what Alexandra or even KLS might have done as Samatha Collins, one of the juiciest female parts on the last year of DS. I don't mean this in any way as a slight on Virginia Vestoff. Shadows is very lucky to have been able to have her for the role. I just wonder what Alexandra or KLS might have been able to do with a stronger, better developed character like her.
       And if anyone sees Alexandra, tell her how much we would all LOVE to have her at the 40th anniverary festival!

Michael

[jennifer]

i loved vicki when she was first on and as a teenage girl wanted to be her
i just thnk they ran out of ideas for her and when she left to have her child
there was no place left for Vicki so they didn't bother to really recast her but
to me she really was a part of DS that i'll never forget.

jennifer

[michael c]

thanks for the thoughts guys.you brought up alot of interesting points.

when i first posted this topic i wasn't thinking about it objectively.i was coming from an emotional point of view.
because of the huge volume of episodes we've all spent a staggering number of hours with these people and vicki's the one i grew the most attatched to.

since i'm watching this for the first time it's like she's leaving now and not thirty odd years ago.

with all that's been said i still can't think of the character as being complete toast.if a young governess was no longer a viable character then why would they bother to bring maggie in to replace vicki?they could just have eliminated that role and had maggie do something else.

and alexandra at the fortieth anniversary fest would be divine!

[jeffreywj777]

Sorry about the late post to this topic, but I did want to get my two cents worth in.

I was watching the original run of DS during High School. Towards the end of the Adam story line I had extra ciricular activies that kept me from watching the show for a few weeks. When I came back to the show during the start of the 1897 storyline I couldn't figure out what happened to VW as she was never mentioned at all until the Leviathin story. It wasn't until twenty some years later when I was buying the MPI tapes that the full story of VW's returning to 1795 was revealed to me.

This in my opinion is the point that DS transitioned from one type of show to another. Most people identify the introduction of Barnabus as a turning point but I disagree. The introduction of Barnabus was significant, that can't be denied, but the show at this point still revolved around VW and her adventures.

The first half of the series was definitely done in a different format when VW was the center of the story. It was Gothic, slower paced, and much more character driven. Because many of the early episodes were done in black and white it also had a film noir kind of feel to it.

With Barnabus at the center the stories were faster and more about horror than people. More of a Hammeresque feel to it with great costumes and such. This doesn't make one better then the other as I love the whole series equally. It is different and I very much like rewatching the early episodes.

[Barnabas'sBride]

Reading everyone's opinions on this topic is interesting....

I thought stefan brought up some interesting points regarding Victoria and the Julia and Barnabas angle, some of which I'm inclined to agree with.

Whenever I go back and watch the pre-1795 DVD sets, I always think to myself that teaming up Barnabas and Victoria (not necessarily romantic) was a missed opportunity and should've been seriously considered. They really were the two main characters of the show, to the point of defining it, really. Victoria gave DS its gothic mystery beginnings and Barnabas brought in the gothic horror aspect. It didn't have to be "one or the other". I feel the two should've been combined and that there was plenty still left for Victoria Winters as a character. They should've allowed her to continue to develop and involved her in the Barnabas angle, and not just as the clueless innocent. With good writing, it would've been possible, IMO.

Of course that doesn't have to mean no Julia. I think there was plenty of room for both of the characters, in different capacities.

Just my .02 (possibly .03 ) cents.

[Garth Blackwood]

What??? Victoria Winters leaves the show? Thanks a lot guys .... 

[IluvBarnabas]

For all the teasing I and others do about Vicki not understanding much after her return from 1795, I still feel a great deal of affection for her character. The show didn't exactly go down in flames once she left (in fact, thanks to Quentin and 1897 I understand the show had its highest ratings ever around this time) but I still a feel a bit of sadness whenever I watch Alexandra's last episode. She had a warm presence about her and she was able to corporate that into the character of Vicki, even when the writers dumbed down the character.