Vicki's disappearance in Nov. (?) 1967 and reappearance in April (?) 1968

Feedback sought on one of Dark Shadows' darkest, most shadowy, inexplicables!

I think it's just sloppy writing.

I think it's just sloppy writing.

I think that about sums it up, Amy Jennings Fan.......

I think it's just sloppy writing.

Yep, which is probably why they did it differently when Barnabas went to 1897 and events in the presents kept moving instead of stopping. 

Within the context of the DS world, it can only really be explained by rips or time warps in the fabric of time causing a fluidity with dates and such in the town of Collinsport.  All the tampering with time-travel on DS, including the seance, Quentin I's Stairway, etc did a number on the concept of time.  Why else would parallel time manifest itself in the house?  Why do dates seem to fluctuate at random?

Of course, the real reason is obviously the writers, but I like to try and figure out continuity errors within the context of the storylines.

for me what's more problematic about this is not so much the actual change of year from when the storyline  began and when it ended(which the writers had no control over)but that virtually all of the plot threads started before vicki's trip back in time get dropped like hot potatoes once she returns to the present.

[spoiler]remember that the whole point of the sceance was to contact sarah to try and find out why david was so disturbed.once they return to the present that never gets mentioned again.julia was placing vicki under hypnosis and showing her barnabas in his coffin to make her fear him subconciously.that gets dropped.burke's plane had crashed and he was presumed dead but once vicki meets peter/jeff he's never so much as spoken of again(and he was a major character).barnabas was trying to drive julia insane and was in fact planning on killing her.by the time julia gets that chic haircut she's his greatest ally.[/spoiler]

all of that gets abandoned it's it's basically full steam ahead with the monster mash that was 1968.

Within the context of the DS world, it can only really be explained by rips or time warps in the fabric of time causing a fluidity with dates and such in the town of Collinsport.  All the tampering with time-travel on DS, including the seance, Quentin I's Stairway, etc did a number on the concept of time.  Why else would parallel time manifest itself in the house?  Why do dates seem to fluctuate at random?  Of course, the real reason is obviously the writers, but I like to try and figure out continuity errors within the context of the storylines.

Really PD?  I stopped doing that years ago, I was losing too much hair!  LOL!  

I gotta go with Penny's "rips in the fabric of time" explanation. It's the all-purpose solution 

If the Collins's had problems with ghosts, vampires, mad doctors, witches, warlocks, zombies, werewolves etcetera, time warps aren't too much of a strectch are they?

for me what's more problematic about this is not so much the actual change of year from when the storyline  began and when it ended(which the writers had no control over)but that virtually all of the plot threads started before vicki's trip back in time get dropped like hot potatoes once she returns to the present.

[spoiler]remember that the whole point of the sceance was to contact sarah to try and find out why david was so disturbed.once they return to the present that never gets mentioned again.julia was placing vicki under hypnosis and showing her barnabas in his coffin to make her fear him subconciously.that gets dropped.burke's plane had crashed and he was presumed dead but once vicki meets peter/jeff he's never so much as spoken of again(and he was a major character).barnabas was trying to drive julia insane and was in fact planning on killing her.by the time julia gets that chic haircut she's his greatest ally.[/spoiler]

all of that gets abandoned it's it's basically full steam ahead with the monster mash that was 1968.

How about this.  The seance was specifically held to get in touch with Sarah.  And at the time events were moving rapidly toward the scenario the last half of HODS had.  Suppose we assume Sarah caused Vicki's trip knowing that time would be altered to such a degree that when Vicki eventually returned to the present, all the destructive plots and plans would have been forgotten.  Barnabas and Julia become friends and allies, David forgets his fear of Barnabas, and [spoiler]once he becomes human again, Carolyn ceases to be under his control and has no memory of what Barnabas is,[/spoiler] etc etc.  Even present day Barnabas never mentions his precious baby sister again.  And Sarah is never seen again.  This the price Sarah had to pay for helping to save her brother.

This the price Sarah had to pay for helping to save her brother.

No, Sarah clearly says at the seance that
[spoiler]she's angry that Carolyn pretended to be her,[/spoiler]
so she's never going to come to them again.  For once, the writers had a watertight excuse.

Sometime after I've seen all of Dark Shadows I'm going to try watching the 1795-related stuff in the order in which Barnabas experienced it - first 1795, then all the episodes leading up to the seance, then the episodes after Vicky gets back.  But in the meantime, I think that immediately after the seance
[spoiler]a) everybody forgot about David's problems because Vicky was behaving like such a fruit loop that she made David look positively normal,
b) Barnabas was initially so distracted by the fear that Vicky knew too much that he focused on that to the exclusion of the lesser possibility that David knew too much and also to the exclusion of the exquisite pleasure of torturing Julia - and then he needed her help and the whole relationship changed - and
c) without Sarah to remind him that Barnabas was a threat and without Barnabas threatening him, David lost interest in the theory that Barnabas was somehow evil, and made it easier for people to forget that he (David) had been strange for a while.[/spoiler]
I must admit, however, that it was still a shock when
[spoiler]David ran into Barnabas's arms after Adam let him go.[/spoiler]

Hi,
 One of the great plot holes of the series. I have developed my own theory...
I wonder if when Victoria returns, she has gone into the First Parallel time of the series. This would explain the following utter inconsistencies:

1.) The whole backstory of Collinwood has changed. Collinwood was now built in 1795, not 1820 or some other year of the early 19th century.
2.) Josette arrived as Barnabas's intended bride, from Martinique, not directly as Jeremiah's bride from France
3.) Jeremiah and Barnabas were now more contemporaries, instead of "the old man" that Barnabas described Jeremiah as.
Please note this still does not in any way explain  [spoiler]when Barnabas in 1897 describe seeing Laura "when he was a boy" and she had been married to Jeremiah. One can only guess that by that time the fans would have been thought to have forgotten Barnabas appeared older or close to the age of Jeremiah, not considerably younger.[/spoiler]
4.) The total lack of Barnabas     [spoiler]having ever mentioned Angelique prior to the trip back to 1795.     Up until then, it was a nebulous "they" who made me this way. You would think the way he talks about her in 1967-1968, he would have mentioned her at least once to Willie or Julia.[/spoiler]
5.) When the seance ends, [spoiler]the previous governess, Phyllis Wick I think, looks completely different (of course this is really because they changed actresses[/spoiler]
6.) If this is a parallel time, it may also explain some of Barnabas's motivations and plottings undergoing drastic, sudden changes.


These are just some examples. I think we pretty much agree however, it was the writers completely rewriting without checking for continuity or worrying about it. I be some of you can add to my list.

Does anyone else besides me wonder why they ever let the old house fall into such ruins? I can only guess that it was haunted by Josette's ghost for so long, that no one, especially early more superstitious generations wanted nothing more to do with it. 

Michael   
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