quentin in the "present"

[michael c]

i'm sorry.

but i just have to go here...

i don't want to offend any of the numerous quentin fans here(sorry,annie)but i'm currently watching dvd set 22(the 1995 and summer of 1970 eps.).

for the life of me i simply do not understand what quentin is doing at collinwood in the present.

don't get me wrong.i like david selby as quentin as a malevolent ghost during the 1968 episodes.he absolutely carries the 1897 storyline and in a "parallel time" like 1970pt. the writers were free do do what they wanted with this character.

but in "real time" he needed a 'raison d' etre' and i don't think that the writers came up with one other than the fact that quentin had become enormously popular with fans and that david selby likely had a contract.otherwise he is an extremely boring and unecessary character.with barnabas we already have one former villian cast as anti-hero but when quentin goes nice things get a bit top heavy.at least with barnabas he retains an element of unpredictability and dangerousness.

i think the thing that irritated me the most here was that quentin strolls around collinwood with liz like he owns the place and in a lame-o attempt to recapture some of the magic of 1897 quentin resides in his old room gramaphone and all.this dosen't make alot of sense to me...

but by this point the writing was so sloppy i suppose i shouldn't be surprised.

[Gothick]

I thought there was a line or two in there about Liz inviting Quentin to live at Collinwood after the Leviathan catastrophe.  He had done a lot for the family at that point, and he WAS a relative.  If the dialogue wasn't there, well, it should have been!

I definitely agree with you that the idea of Quentin living in that room in 1970 is beyond bizarre.  It almost feels like somebody's idea of an in-joke.  Apart from anything else, given what had happened in that room (in the REVISED history of 1897) who on Earth would want to live there?  At the very least, the walls should have been stripped and the decor completely changed from the 1890s look.  [spoiler]I mean, a corpse was ROTTING in there for decades![/spoiler]

But, that's DS--sometimes any pretense of logic or plausibility just goes right out the window!

G.

[Barnabas'sBride]

It's a shame what they did -or didn't do - with Quentin post-1897. I agree that they just stuck him in there and developed no plot or reason for it. They didn't even give him anything else substantial to do once they placed him in the present time. He became a lot like the main Collins family and Maggie  -there to play the victim and not much else. Maybe they just didn't know how to write for two strong male leads in the long term, and that's why Quentin's character suffered in the present time. He received plenty of screen time but nothing with any real bite. He just meandered around.

[Devlin66]

was that gordon russell who took the creative pen and threw it over widows hill on these Quentin eps?

[michael c]

what they did with quentin here was doubly annoying because while they didn't give him anything interesting to do they also were determined to shove down your throat how important he was.

for instance when barnabas and julia encounter carolyn in 1995 she goes on about quentin in the same breath as she does her mother and her uncle roger and david.but before the storyline switched to 1970pt carolyn had little contact with quentin and he was only around collinwood for a month or two.she certainly didn't have the time to establish a close relationship with him or fill a scrapbook full of pictures of him.

i also think when barnabas and quentin are on screen together they sort of cancel each other out.that they are both such casper milquetoasts during this part of the story(with gerard our villian-du-jour)doesn't help.

with quentin in 1897 they created such a complex,well developed character it's a shame they didn't bring anything interesting to the table with him in the present.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

carolyn in 1995 she goes on about quentin in the same breath as she does her mother and her uncle roger and david.but before the storyline switched to 1970pt carolyn had little contact with quentin and he was only around collinwood for a month or two.she certainly didn't have the time to establish a close relationship with him or fill a scrapbook full of pictures of him.

Well, the audience doesn't completely realize it at the time, but Carolyn had had an additional seven months to become more attached to Quentin between the time Barnabas went into PT and the actual "disaster" took place in 1970 (though we are aware that there was at least an additional four and a half months). Until we see some of their interaction for ourselves, we simply have to assume there was plenty of it that we don't know about.

with quentin in 1897 they created such a complex,well developed character it's a shame they didn't bring anything interesting to the table with him in the present.

The way Quentin is mostly marginalized in the present is pretty much unforgivable. And it's certainly one of my main complaints against the Leviathans period - particularly how there is so little interaction between Quentin and Chris. But I've railed on about that so often already that all too many members could probably recite my words back to me without even having to look up any of those old posts.    So, I'll leave it at that in this post.

[Gerard]

I think one of the reasons why it's so apparent that Quentin is just a hang-around in 1970 is that he had so much coverage in the previous PT storyline.  He was basically the "star" of that plot by default - Barnabas, Julia, Liz, Carolyn, et. al., were written out for most of it because they were too busy hanging around Lyndhurst making a movie in real life.  So all the attention went to Quentin, Angelique and the "left-overs."  When the cameras stopped rolling at Gould's estate and they all came home to Manhattan, starting a new storyline, there was really nothing in it for him other than acting like a doofus who's gone gah-gah over one of Charlie's Angels.  At times, when he had screen-time, he was so dang annoying spooning over Daphne and her lilacs that I'm surprised Hallie didn't slap him around.

Gerard

[Gothick]

Gerard, I'm dying here!  Just the thought of Hallie slapping Quentin around... oh boy!

*tipping hat in salute*

G.

[arashi]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything that's been said here. Post 1897 Quentin was a wasted character with wasted oppurtunites of storyline.

And about him living in his old room... how the hell did he get there? He'd either have to go through the secret panel in the drawing room that lead to the West Wing, or traverse half of the deserted and cobweb infested wing itself from the upper hall. Also, from all accounts that part of the house was closed off so they wouldn't have to heat it. It would be FRIGIDLY cold there from late September to late April. And as Gothick mentioned, the smell in there would be none too nice. The idea that he would even reside there is beyond silly. I think he should have been given the cottage after Chris left or one of the other houses on the property.

[michael c]

i agree that quentin should have been given the caretaker's cottage,or the carriage house,or even a room at the old house.

but i have a theory about why they stuck him in his old room at collinwood.this is of course total speculation on my part but 1897 had been the show's most highly rated storyline.by the time we get to the episodes in question here the ratings had dipped precipitously.so i think that by putting quentin in his old space(including that funky gramaphone)they were trying to revive nostalgia for that era.it was part of the quentin "branding" whether or not it made any sense.

but it is really lame that he's there.

[michael c]

just a few more things then i'll stop...

there seems to be a distinct bit of revisionist history going on during the summer of 1970.in order to increase the perception that quentin was just this dyed-in-the-wool-been-around-forever character they commit a few glaring continuity gaffes.

during the picnic episodes quentin tells david that he has been asking to use his camera "for a year".a year earlier we were still squarely in the 1897 storyline and if anything david was terrifed of quentin and hardly likely to ask to borrow his camera.sloppy!

quentin also asks the ghost of daphne why she chose now to come to him when he had been at collinwood "all these many years".in fact he hadn't been at collinwood for nearly a century.sloppy!

also,since roger is absent from this part of the storyline("in europe")quentin sort of assumes his usual role.a suited-up,brandy-swilling sceptic squabbling with liz.

they really didn't have to do this here.

[Gothick]

Hmmm. Well, maybe when Barnabas and Julia time-warped, even though when they got back everyone SAID it was 1970, it was really... 1975???

What really bugs me, Mscbryk, about the sloppy continuity in this part of the show, is all the hints and clues they gave during the Summer of 1970 about the Java Queen, Gerard's pirate crew, Gerard and Daphne's shipboard romance, Tad and Hallie's closeness to Gerard and Daphne, etc. etc. and then in 1840, NONE of this shows up!  at all!

Of course the same thing happens in the run-up to the 1795 storyline.  Nearly everything we're told about the histories of Barnabas, Jeremiah, and Josette ca. 1837 is disregarded when Vicki arrives in 1795.  Somehow, though, the 1970 continuity gaffe just seems WAY more outrageous to this viewer.

A New England curmudgeon,

G.

[BuzzH]

i agree that quentin should have been given the caretaker's cottage,or the carriage house,or even a room at the old house...it is really lame that he's there (in the west wing)

I've just watched the first few eps of the summer of 1970 and not only is it ridiculous that Quentin is in his old room, but the damn thing looks like the Maid Brigade showed up to CLEAN it!  Surely Mrs. Johnson and Harry didn't pull THAT off!  It looks as pristine as it did in 1897!  AND the room is [spoiler]intact!  No sign that it had been sectioned off to hide the remains of the rotting corpse of Gregory Trask![/spoiler]Hello??!!  Too ridiculous, even for DS!

I agree w/everyone that he should have been given either a different room at Collinwood, or at the Old House since he knew about Barnabas anyway, or [spoiler]Chris's cottage since he's now gone from the show/Collinsport.  And what's up w/that?  Do they SAY he's gone and why?  I'm only at the beginning at 1970 so I haven't seen yet.  But suddenly Hallie is there and Amy is gone.[/spoiler]And can I just say that y'all were right!  Hallie is annoying as hell!  Only 3 or 4 eps in and I hate her already!  

Thoughts on 1995: I really liked the plotline but feel an opportunity was lost.  In the scene where [spoiler]Julia, under Gerard's power, tells Barnabas to go back to 1970 w/out her because she'll only betray him again, and he says, "Not w/out you.  NEVER w/out you!", that was the perfect opportunity to hook those two up!  He could have even kissed her.  I mean, his thing w/Roxanne was about as ridiculous as Quentin's thing w/Amanda Harris!  Where's the chemistry folks?    But anyway, I generally like 1970 PT but not the characters.  The only character's I liked were: Alexis (the REAL one), Cyrus, Buffie and Liz.  Everyone else annoyed the hell out of me, although Roger was funny![/spoiler]

So far I'm liking 1970 and the groovy Sebastian Shaw!  Those leather pants??!!  Ho mama-sita!    HOTTTT!  But anyway, I  can't wait to get to the end of it so that I can officially say I've seen every ep of DS!  

[michael c]

gothick,

it's good to know that none of the mysteries being set up here get solved during the 1840 storyline because i have absolutely no intention of watching it.the 'summer of 1970' is my d.s. swan song.

buzz,

it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment but quentin does tell barnabas and julia that chris,amy and sabrina have left collinsport.a stunning lack of any sort of a conclusion to a storyline that they allowed to languish for way too long.

they should have found some way for barnabas to reverse the curse in 1897 because once the show returned to the present and the leviathan storyline started it was obvious that this was not a priority anymore.

[arashi]

Hmmm. Well, maybe when Barnabas and Julia time-warped, even though when they got back everyone SAID it was 1970, it was really... 1975???

What really bugs me, Mscbryk, about the sloppy continuity in this part of the show, is all the hints and clues they gave during the Summer of 1970 about the Java Queen, Gerard's pirate crew, Gerard and Daphne's shipboard romance, Tad and Hallie's closeness to Gerard and Daphne, etc. etc. and then in 1840, NONE of this shows up!  at all!

Of course the same thing happens in the run-up to the 1795 storyline.  Nearly everything we're told about the histories of Barnabas, Jeremiah, and Josette ca. 1837 is disregarded when Vicki arrives in 1795.  Somehow, though, the 1970 continuity gaffe just seems WAY more outrageous to this viewer.

::laughing:: I think they set a bunch of stuff up for EVERY time travel storyline that never came to pass and was ignored completely, or totally rewritten!