What I found most fascinating about the WB pilot and what I'd like to deal with first are the things that are different from what was previously done in other versions of DS. And one of the really good things about the pilot is that it
IS different. Thankfully, it isn't yet another remake of hoDS. Though, that having been said, it's also very much based in what we expect DS to be. I have to say that writer Mark Verheiden did an exceptional job of balancing the old with adding new twists.
[spoiler]First off, where Willie had no family in the original DS and hoDS, and he was Mrs. Johnson's nephew in the '91 series, Willie has a sibling in the pilot. The Sophia character, who is basically a 20-something version of Mrs. Johnson, is Willie's sister. (It could have been really interesting to see how their relationship might have developed and how it might have caused conflicts in Willie's relationship with Barnabas - but alas...)
Next, it isn't Willie who's first interested in doing some grave robbing - it's his girl friend Kelly Greer. It seems as if Kelly is some sort of research assistant to Prof. Stokes, and she's the one that figures out that gold has been buried in the Collins mausoleum. Willie is actually more interested in making love with Kelly, but she knocks him out of bed and onto the floor because she wants to go to the mausoleum right away. In fact, Willie's first scenes are really played more for humor than anything else, and that works well, though in a completely different way than humor was used with Willie in the '91 series.
Once Willie and Kelly get to the mausoleum, the same "lion's head watches the dove" clue for finding the secret room comes up. But rather than the lion's head being the way into the secret room, it's the dove. A very minor change there, however, Kelly injures her hand while trying to activate the mechanism to open the room, and that injury plays very significantly into the next few changes.
After the two open the coffin, no hand wearing a black onyx ring comes shooting out to grab anyone by the throat. In fact, Barnabas' rotted corpse looks deader than a doornail. Barnabas doesn't revive until after a drop of blood from Kelly's injured hand lands on his corpse's lip while she's searching inside the coffin. From there wildness ensues as, much to Willie's horror, in one of the most amazing sequences ever in any version of DS, Barnabas suddenly springs into action and attacks and completely drains Kelly. (Definitely check out
Interview: Andrew Clement over on Stuart's Dark Shadows Journal site for photos of Barn's corpse, his newly resurrected self, and a bug-eyed Kelly after Barn's little treatment.)
The next major change comes when Carolyn is attacked while walking to her car from Joe's house. Yes, we've seen the walk to the car with the Daphnes from both hoDS and the '91 series. However, the way Carolyn's attack plays out is very, Very, VERY different. There are no quick cuts between Barnabas stalking and Carolyn running, and there's no hand grabbing the throat once she gets into her car. In fact, Carolyn never gets into her car. In fact, she barely has a clue of what's about to happen to her until it's much, much too late. What she actually sees are a few leaves falling from a nearby tree. She looks up and sees nothing - but the audience soon sees a figure stealthily stalk across one of the tree's branches. Carolyn then sees a larger group of leaves fall. She looks up again, and this time she sees the withered (but now recognizable) face of Barnabas with fangs bared. He swoops down, grabs her, and carries the screaming girl up into the tree to feast upon. After having seen the attack on Kelly and then watching that sequence, basically everyone at the screening was going, "Whoa - this is amazing!!"
Another change that I suppose some might consider minor but one that I thought was very effective happens when Vicki and Barnabas first meet. As in hoDS when Barnabas first gazes upon Maggie and in the '91 series when he first sees Vicki, the pilot's Barnabas is virtually rendered speechless. But the interesting thing about the pilot is that it's Vicki who asks Barnabas if they've ever met before. It's quite apparent that their connection goes both ways.
The final major change, but one that most of us were already aware of, is that Angelique makes her appearance in the pilot as well.
What one might consider to be sort of an intermediate change is how the subject of Josette is first introduced. It isn't by way of an explanation of her history in front of her portrait, as is the case in hoDS (though a scene similar to that does take place near the end of the pilot when Barnabas shows Vicki Josette's portrait after she makes an unscheduled visit to the Old House while running after David), nor do we simply see Barnabas telling Josette's portrait that she has come back to him, as is the case in the '91 series. No, Verheiden combines other tried and true DS elements into the introduction: Barnabas shows up at Vicki's bedside, proclaims that Josette has come back to him, and prepares to bite - however, once again he can't go through with it and flees from the room. But the really interesting bit comes when Vicki awakens and looks to see if anyone was in her room, and Barnabas is hanging upside down clinging to the exterior wall of Collinwood above her window and out of her sight.
And what I suppose is the final minor change is that Julia isn't brought to Collinwood from Windcliff (as in the original DS) or from NYC (as in the '91 series) or already living at Collinwood (as in hoDS) - apparently she's already on the staff of the hospital. Liz already knows her when she arrives at the hospital after learning about Carolyn's attack.[/spoiler]
