Gerard, it was stated in one throwaway line of dialogue that Alexis and Angelique were the *adopted* daughters of Timothy Stokes, Mad Scientist and Occultist for Hire.  Much as I adore the whole PT 1970 storyline, the thing is a graveyard of unexamined backstory.  The true parentage of the Stokes girls, Maggie and her sister, Roxanne and Claude North and how or when they became involved with Stokes, just why Stokes was so terrified of Claude... there's more, such as the whole Damion Edwards/Bruno/Trask/Angelique kerfuffle, although with the latter they do drop enough hints to enable one to realistically connect the dots.

When I refer to the Eastern and Greek communions, I write Orthodox with a capital O.

G.

I thought that Stokes in PT was a Ceremonial Magcian who had studied Aleister Crowley's texts, the Golden Dawn MSS., and probably done his own "unique" hands on research in the occult realm.  The Powers he invoked in that incantation could have been Elemental or something like the Guardians in Traditional Witchcraft.  Many students regard the latter as related to the Archangels of old Judaic secret teaching, or a mix of the Archangels and "the Watchers" or Nephilim (some call Them the Cloud People) who are very complex Beings about Whom various orders of Lore exist.  There are also some very clunky redactions of this lore inspired, from what I can tell, by video games and such TV shows as the recent series Hex (I think Charmed and BtVS may have incorporated some of these concepts as well).

Of course to really orthodox Christians, if you invoke anyone outside the standard theological hierarchy given to you by Church teachings, you're automatically dealing with the Devil, so all of these distinctions may well be less than academic to you, Magnus.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the good people" and "the good writing" coming and going on DS.  The way I have experienced the show, each storyline and chronological period is a patchwork of gold and dross--fabulous moments and stuff so excruciating I really can't sit through it any longer.  Up until 1840, the overriding, overwhelming influence upon the story and the show was Dan Curtis.  Things did tend to improve when he left the show alone due to being out of the country or off working on other projects, but he did have a tendency to come in and twist the writers' arms to produce some curve ball that had nothing to do with the existing continuity.  In 1840, Lela took over as producer and she was the one who made some of the decisions about how the story went that turned out to be quite controversial or flat-out implausible in the eyes of some fans.

cheers, Gothick

How wonderful to see him onstage again. Thanks for sharing those photographs.

G.

Again, many thanks for all those wonderful wishes!

Among those I'll miss seeing again at the Festival, you and your lovely wife Diane, Michael, will certainly not go unregarded!  I hope you have a wonderful time.

And to my charming niece Penny--keep the aspidistra flying, my dear!  We must keep the family flame burning bright! And when you're in the hotel, DON'T FORGET TO RING FOR DOOM SERVICE!

cheers, Gothick

Heather's Tom/Julia tribute was totally boss!

Many thanks, again, to those who wished me well.

Unfortunately, as some of you are aware, I'll be missing the Frid Festival this year.  I would really have loved to have gone down to see everyone but am about to move house and desperately need that weekend to working on my "escape from box hell."

kiss kiss,

Gothique
Mistress of Crawlinwood

MB, thanks for reminding me about your earlier comments about From Hell.  I'll definitely have to have a look at that film at some point in the next few months.  I have to say that nothing in Depp's oeuvre that I have seen (and I admit that I've seen very few of his films) makes me think he'd have a hope in hell of conveying the depths I'd want to see in Barnabas... but, I haven't seen the Alan Moore film so...

I also agree about Tim Burton's nutty side probably working against the project.  I just think that if the movie happens, and Burton is available, he's practically a shoo-in for various reasons... not that I know anything about how the "Industry" works, you understand (and thank god I don't, for the sake of my digestion!).

cheers, G.

I hate that whole "vampire patriarch" thing but it seems so very characteristic of meta-media in our times.  To quote the immortal Lucy van Pelt, BLEAH!

My greatest hope at the moment is that this will give a definitive green light for WB to produce a lavish, RESTORED edition of the two films--if it's not too late at this point.  I had the impression that a Hallowe'en release for the discs had been mooted but perhaps with the Depp film being given a go, they'll be more interested in marketing a higher-quality product to tie in with the ramp-up to what I'm sure they fondly hope will be the next "Pirates of the Caribbean."  Let the schlock roll on... (although, I will see that if they get Tim Burton on board, there's just a chance that the project could produce something worthy of the Shadows heritage--judging from Burton's work on Sleepy Hollow.)

G.