Hi Heather,

well, this is highly extra-canonical, but one of my favorite tales is an unfinished novel Connie wrote a while back where Julia and Quentin were lovers.  When the novel starts, Barnabas (who is human) is starting to fall in love with Quentin, who's dealing with the flak from finally being released from the remnants of his curse.

It's a complicated story, and quite the maverick, but I thought she wrote Julia brilliantly--very true to GH's performance.

Steve

Welcome, Heather!  It's great to have another fan of the Divine One on board.

And Sandor, the TPTB obviously knew they had dynamite in the Grayson/Briscoe duet.  The two play off one another really well.  I sometimes wonder whether Sam might have been a little jealous of DB!  The interaction between the two is often very sweet to watch.

On one of today's soaps, instead of just appearing shirtless, Briscoe would be parading around in bikini briefs.  Now doesn't THAT warm the cockles of your heart???

G.

For years, I've wondered just where the DS writers got the idea of using the I Ching hexagrams for astral/time travel on the show.  I've read a lot of books on occult theory and practice over the years, and have read much of the I Ching itself in Chinese. Although in the Great Preface it states that the I Ching hexagrams are, in a sense, the keys to unlocking cosmic processes in which our universe originates and through which it is shaped, hence their ability to give clues to affairs of human destiny, I have never read of any description in Chinese magical lore using the hexagrams in the way they were employed on DS.

Last night I was looking at a collection of Golden Dawn materials collected and edited by English occultist Francis King in 1971.  There's quite a bit in there on astral travel.  Anyhow, in a preface King composed to one section, he quotes from some notes W. S. Seabrook published about a Working in the 1920s using the I Ching hexagrams in just the way they were used on DS.  The text implies that Seabrook got the technique from Aleister Crowley, who paved the way for the current Neo-Pagan practice of mixing and matching practically any technique from any culture into a general matrix of magical methodology. 

What's even more significant in terms of DS is that the woman in Seabrook's account threw the 49th Hexagram, KO, the Hexagram of Change or Transformation.  In the course of the Working, the woman went into a trance and had a shapeshifting experience in which she shifted into a wolf (there was no physical transformation, but she behaved and even howled like a wolf).  Before she was brought out of her trance, the woman attacked and injured a British consul officer who was present to observe the Working.

I can supply more detailed references, if anyone cares.  It was a big surprise to me to discover that there was a factual basis for all of this.  I always regarded it as one of DS' wildest ideas!  After reflecting, I'm not surprised to learn that the ultimate origin for this way-out notion is the Great Beast himself, Ali Crowley!  (Grayson staggers and moans, "YOU BEAST!")

G.

A lot of the scenes, especially in 1966, only make emotional sense if Liz is really Vicki's Mother.  For one thing, from the beginning, Vicki gets away with stuff that NOBODY else at Collinwood, not even David, can manage to do.

I also think that Liz's traumatised emotional reaction to Vicki's ultimate fate can only be explained if the reality is that Vicki was her firstborn.

G.

But... what about Abigail's scene (Clarice in the REAL DS) where she rails to Victoria for about 10 minutes about her scandalous, unspeakable clothes???  Did you miss that episode?

I have to admit I loved Julianna McCarthy's version of this in the 1990 remake.  I still laugh when I think of she said those words "cold... pressed"!

G.

Folks, just to clarify:  I'm not saying 1795 is bad.  I think overall it's a great story, even though it contradicted practically everything we had told about the past of the Collins Family up till that time--certainly everything about Barnabas and Josette (just go back 3 weeks before the start of 1795 to a long scene between Barnabas and Julia where he admits to her that Josette in life *never* reciprocated his love).

I just think that it's overrated.  Time and again, fans run polls on the best storyline, and 1795 always winds up winning.

Of the historical storylines, I personally prefer 1897.  Jeeeeepseeeee!  I don' kno NAHSSINGK!

And then there's Count Petofi, who may have been the most literate character in all American television history.

G.

"Phishing"??? How on earth do the technogeeks come up with this stuff?  And how do they get everyone to start using it?

I mean, the band just announced they were breaking up.

If there's such a thing as "Mariah Careying" on the computer, I really don't want to find out about it.

G.