Bat, those are excellent points.  I thought the same about the Ethan/Dorian scene but I did appreciate the subtlety and beauty of the seduction involved.

I see what you mean about the character of Sir Malcolm, but I doubt whether he's going anywhere.

I think Ethan is in some ways the biggest mystery of all.  There are a lot of theories, which some fans are practically treating as canon now, but in reality, we know very little about him.

The behavior of the Caliban character reminds me a lot of Adam, but the dialogue and the way Caliban's stuff is mounted and presented is soooo much better.  And the scenes are well paced.  The Adam scenes tended to drag on and on.  I actually think Robert Rodan did some fabulous work in the role but, sadly, few fans seem willing to acknowledge that.

G.

I enjoyed the trailer.  Sounds almost like a Miss Marple story but with Tony and Cassandra and a pack of malevolent Witches.

G.

MB, are you referring to the pilot screenplay (which to be fair, is what an actress interested in the role would have been sent to read), or the final cut as shown at the Festival?  Because in all honesty, I was quite intrigued to see what Julia would do, and I remember her being onscreen all of twice, with maybe four lines at most.  Then again it was ten years ago and my short term memory is ghastly these days--and I don't even recall the Alec Newman scene that's on Youtube from that original screening; just that I thought Newman was really quite exceptional in the role (I preferred him to Ben Cross).

Miss Hu as the good Doctor left no impression upon me at all, favorable or otherwise.

G.

Julia was such a nothing role in the version of the pilot I saw; it's hard to imagine any actress being tempted by a copy of that script. If an actress had seen some episodes of the OS or of, say, hoDS, though, she might have been tempted by those versions of the role.  It's too bad that so far as I can determine, we have no idea at all what TPTB planned for Julia in this iteration.

G.

A fan just posted this charming video tribute featuring stills and screen shots of Joan Bennett and Grayson Hall interspersed with text screens about the lives and careers of each:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOFMaMCxCyE

I thought the "Arabian nights" musical track was a nice touch.

G.

I'm just now finding myself thinking how strange it is that Collinsport had a hospital.  I never thought about this before.  I grew up on a waterfront town (on the Chespeake Bay) and the one hospital in the county was located in our town, so all the births happened there. 

In the original series and in the first episode, from what the old woman tells Vicki on the train, the last thing you would expect to find in Collinsport is a hospital... or medical center of any kind.  Since the college was in Rockport, that is where I would have expected the hospital to have been as well.

Thank you again MB for all the work you're putting in on this.  Just enjoying this so much.

The first sight I recall of Julia in this was [spoiler]a scene involving the discovery of a body; I'm guessing the body of Willie's girlfriend, but I really don't remember just whose body it was.  I don't remember a hospital scene at all.  Maybe towards the very end?  It's all so vague now. [/spoiler]

G.

To fans of the 1991 DS,

I had never heard of this early 1970s film featuring Jean Simmons (Elizabeth Collins Stoddard) as a middle aged woman aggressively courted by a delectably enthusiastic Leonard Whiting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2DMCPUlkU

I'm wondering if the film was ever distributed in the US...

G.