The original bat in 1795 is what in Ceremonial Magic is often called a Servitor.  It is a being fashioned out of the Sacred Elements in combination with the Will of the Magician and exists to perform specific tasks.  In Angelique's case, she created it to spy on Barnabas and be her eyes and ears where she was not present.  When you create one, you are supposed to be very specific and sensible craftsmen with solid training will usually give a specific date or circumstance for the dissolution or "death" of the creature so it doesn't run around wreaking havoc after it's done what you wanted.  They often take the form of mythological animals such as griffins or unicorns but such beasts as cats or bats are also popular. Somewhat confusingly, there is another tradition of a Witch creating a cat, a bat, a bird, a wolf or other animal as her "Fetch."  It is linked to her life essence and if it is harmed, the Witch can suffer harm as well.  There is a story about this in the Silver John stories written from Appalachian folklore by one of the old writers--Manly Wade Wellman, maybe?  And some folklore was collected in a recent volume on faery and werewolf legends by a French scholar that has been published in English.

When Jeb summoned the Bat from Hell during the Leviathan period, that bat was clearly of demonic nature.  I think that technically speaking, it was a critter of a very different kind from Ange's bat in 1795.  Of course both were played by the same Bil Baird puppet, and I'm sure I have written far more than anyone wanted to know on this subject.

cheers, Gothick

I just double-checked, and those last 4 tracks have an asterisk which marks them as "bonus tracks."  I presume they are bonus to the previous release which must be the one you have.

Does yours include a couple of extremely rare photos in the inlay "booklet" (which is only two pages in mine)?  Mine has a shot of Joe giving Maggie a kiss (from a 1968 publicity session from which another picture of the two together has been much more widely circulated), a picture of Quentin in his post-werewolf shredded clothing posing in the drawing room set, shots of Gregory Trask and Magda, and a photo of Liz and Carolyn together from Episode 2--all seldom if ever seen elsewhere (by me).

Best, G.

Hi Charles, I have it at home and if I can remember, I will post it in this thread tomorrow.  It sounds like fun but I have never tried it.

G.

Since I just watched it recently, I would go with Nicholas' evil laughter at Cassandra's new "manicure."  (Clever thing to call it!)  It's understated and, if evil laughter can ever sound natural, fairly plausible. 

I do like Angelique's evil laugh but all too often they replaced it with some canned laugh from an actress who sounded as if she'd gotten into Roger Collins' secret Scotch stash.

Special mention has to made of Julia's demented laughter when lawyer Tony Peterson states his belief that Roger is the individual Julia does not want to get his paws on her diary.  I just love the Divine One's laughter from beyond the border of sanity: "Ra-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA-jerr!" Great stuff.

G.

Heather, you are a GEM!  I love coming here and seeing those snapshots from Gargoyles.  Thank you so much for including the scene where she rushes into the sheriff's office, goes STRAIGHT for the drawer where he keeps the "emergency liquor supply," grabs the bottle and takes a few good strong slugs.  I think as she's grabbing the bottle the deputy is about to say something like "Take it EASY, Mrs. Parks!"  Great stuff.

Thank you for a bright spot of my week!  Now, if only some good samaritan could add some snapshots of Hoffman at her most sinister and smug... I love the scene where, with gritted teeth, [spoiler]Hoffman complains to Angel/Exis, a propos of Maggie:  "I HATE taking ORDERS from her!"  ANY scene involving Hoffman in PT is truly better than Heroin![/spoiler]

A lifelong Hall-o-holic,

G.

Forget the hemlines, what about Sebastian Shaw's utterly sexxxalicious leather trousers, seemingly sprayed on!  EEEEEEE-YOWWWWW!

Talk about sights that can cause a strong man to slither in a gelatinous puddle to the floor...

G.

(For those who don't get the reference, the title of this topic is inspired by an old Saturday Night Live skit, "Coffee Talk," featuring Michael Myers as talk maven Linda Richman "filling in for my dear friend Paul Baldwin, who is STILL in Boca Raton with shpilkis in his genechtigezoink."  In this skit, Linda and two of her dear friends, played by Madonna and Rosanne Barr, were discussing "Barbra Joan Streisand" and the movie "Prince of Tides," which they kept saying was "like BUTTAH."  Madonna said "It's better than HEROIN, not that I would ever know what heroin is like!")

In honor of the imminent publication of "Grayson Hall: a Hard Act to Follow," by R. J. Jamison, the new full-length biography of our very own Dr. Julia Hoffman, I am starting this thread to discuss favorite scenes by the Divine One on our show.  Her own favorite role on the series was that of Magda--after 1969 she mentioned in several magazine interviews that Magda was "still alive" and hinted that she would enjoy playing her again.  One of my favorite Magda moments was featured in the board slide show a couple of days ago:  [spoiler]after Sandor's death, Magda tells Barnabas to bite her, so she can know what Sandor went through during his last months of life.  Even better, perhaps, is the scene where Magda takes an axe (at the end of this show) and chops the Hand of Count Petofi in two--I just love the look on her face in this scene![/spoiler]

This highlights how so many of Grayson's great moments on the show were entirely (or almost entirely) non-verbal.  I loved the scene (used by Claude North in one of his videos available on You Tube) where Julia comes to the Old House in the 1967 storyline and [spoiler]informs Barnabas that she's wiped Maggie's memory through hypnosis--and Barnabas is now going to have accept that Dr. Hoffman is in charge.  While she makes this statement, she lights her cigarette off of one of Barn's cherished candelabras, inserts it into a long holder, and casually blows smoke around the room, while he glares at her in outrageous.  It's a FABULOUS moment.[/spoiler]

I do think that in some ways, Grayson's finest acting was as Hoffman, the housekeeper in Parallel Time 1970.  You get to see her toning things way down and working with a degree of restraint not seen in her other work on DS.  I love how subtly she intimidates and condescends to Maggie in the initial days of the storyline.  One of my favorite moments is when she is talking about Quentin and says (clearly thinking of his sexual relationship with late wife Angelique, whom Hoffman idolized) "He had EVERYTHING."  The way she says the line makes it clear, with devastating finality, that in Hoffman's eyes, Quentin deserved NONE of what he had.  And then there's the great moment when Hoffman comes into the drawing room and [spoiler]sees Alexis for the first time, believing her to be Angelique back from the dead.  Her reaction is beautifully played and very realistic.[/spoiler]

I encourage other fans to share their favorite Grayson moments in this thread.

Can't wait to see the new book!  Big congratulations to RJ!

Best, G.