Dark Shadows

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I’d like to start this continuation of the Dark Shadows discussion from the old board with a look at some of the new and upcoming Dark Shadows audio stories from Big Finish Productions. There aren’t nearly as many Dark Shadows audio adventures as there are Doctor Who ones, but the Doctor Who series has been around longer. The Dark Shadows audios are a mixed bag. The first release was a full-cast sequel titled “Return to Collinwood”. Later they began to release a series of interconnected sequential stories grouped in short “seasons”. More recently they’ve been going back to the timeline of the original television show and telling interstitial one-shots. As the Dark Shadows series seems to be catching on, Big Finish seems to be ramping up their production schedule. “Curse of the Pharaoh” was released in September, and the next four are set for monthly release beginning in January at a special subscription rate.

CURSE OF THE PHARAOH:

“Curse of the Pharaoh” stars Nancy Barrett (reprising her role as Carolyn Stoddard) and Marie Wallace (perhaps best known as “Eve” on the TV show) in a new role, famed Egyptologist Dr. Gretchen Warwick. The story doesn’t specify, but I assume it takes place shortly after the end of the series original TV series, circa 1970 or so. Both actresses are kind of rusty and sound as old as they are, not as young as they (Caroline, anyway) are supposed to be. Barrett was always a better actress than Wallace, and that remains true. Wallace’s shortcomings are spotlighted in this “dramatic reading” in which she plays other bit parts, most of the male (Bob the bartender at The Blue Whale, Eliot Stokes on the telephone, Carolyn’s father in flashback), which she performs in a gruff kind of storybook voice as if reading aloud to a child. The story itself is a sequel to the unpopular “Leviathan” television storyline. If you’ve never heard a Dark Shadows audio and thinking of trying one out, there are better ones to start with than this.

KEY: OB = Old Board; UR = Un-Reviewed

Return to Collinwood - 169

SEASON ONE:
S1.1 The House of Despair - 1
S1.2 The Book of Temptation - OB
S1.3 The Christmas Presence - 264
S1.4 The Rage Beneath - 7

SEASON TWO: Kingdom of the Dead - 7

DRAMATIC READINGS:

1. Angelique’s Descent-Pt. 1 - OB
2. Angelique’s Descent-Pt. 2 - OB
3. Clothes of Sand - OB
4. The Ghost Walker - OB
5. The Skin Walkers - OB
6. The Path of Fate - OB
7. The Wicked & the Dead - OB
8. Echoes of Insanity - OB
9. Curse of the Pharaoh - 1
10. Final Judgment - 1
11. Blood Dance - 1
12. The Night Whispers - 1
13. London’s Burning - 2
14. The Doll House - 30
15. The Blind Painter - 87
16. The Death Mask - 88
17. The Creeping Fog - 89
18. The Carrion Queen - 89
19. The Poisoned Soul - 96
20. The Lost Girl - 96
21. The Crimson Pearl - 114
22. The Voodoo Amulet - 129
23. The House by the Sea - 170
24. Dress Me in Dark Dreams - 154
25. The Eternal Actress - 162
26. The Fall of House Trask - 163
27. Operation: Victor - 166
28. Speak No Evil - 166
29. The Last Stop - 166
30. Dreaming of the Water - 167
31. The Haunted Refrain - 167
32. A Collinwood Christmas - 167, 264
33. The Phantom Bride - 167
34. Beneath the Veil - 167
35. The Enemy Within - 167
36. The Lucifer Gambit - 167
37. The Flip Side - 167
38. Beyond the Grave - 168
39. Curtain Call - 168
40. The Harvest of Souls - 170
41. The Happier Dead - 168
42. The Carriage Damned - 168
43. The Devil Cat - 168
44. The Darkest Shadow - 173

SEASON THREE: Bloodlust - 170-172, 181, 269

45. Panic - 173
46. The Curse of Shurafa - 173
47. In the Twinkling of an Eye - 173
48. Deliver Us from Evil - 173
49. Tainted Love - 173
50. ...And Red All Over - 175

Echoes of the Past - 176

Blood & Fire - 176

Haunting Memories - 177

Phantom Melodies - 178

Dreams of Long Ago - 178

THE TONY & CASSANDRA MYSTERIES:
The Mystery at Crucifix Heights - 179
The Mystery of La Danse Macabre - 179
The Mystery of Flight 493 - 180
The Mystery of Karmina Sonata - 180

SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT:
Trio - 180
Honeymoon from Hell - 180
Retreat -180
1:53 AM - 180

MAGGIE & QUENTIN - THE LOVERS' REFRAIN:
The Girl Beneath the Water - 180
The Sand That Speaks HIs Name - 180
The Hollow Winds That Beckon
The Paper to the Flame

GOTHIC PAPERBACK LIBRARY

1. Dark Shadows - p183
2. Victoria Winters - p183
3. Strangers at Collins House - p183
4. The Mystery of Collinwood - p184
5. The Curse of Collinwood - p184
6. Barnabas Collins - p185
7. The Secret of BC - p185
8. The Demon of BC - p185
9. The Foe of BC - p185
10. The Phantom of BC - p185
11. BC vs. the Warlock - p186
12. The Peril of BC - p186
13. BC and the Mysterious Ghost - p187
14. BC and Quentin's Demon - p188
15. BC and the Gypsy Witch - p188
16. B, Q and the Mummy's Curse - p188
17. B, Q and the Avenging Ghost - p242
18. B, Q and the Nightmare Assassin - p244
19. B, Q and the Crystal Coffin
20. B, Q and the Witch's Curse
21. B, Q and the Haunted Cave
22. B, Q and the Frightened Bride
23. B, Q and the Scorpio Curse
24. B, Q and the Serpent
25. B, Q and the Magic Potion
26. B, Q and the Body Snatchers
27. B, Q and Dr. Jekyll's Son
28. B, Q and the Grave Robbers
29. B, Q and the Sea Ghost
30. B, Q and the Mad Magician
31. B, Q and the Hidden Tomb
32. B, Q and the Vampire Beauty
33. House of Dark Shadows - p241

ROB STAEGER: p189

NEWSPAPER STRIPS: p241

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Episode 636 was a bit anticlimactic as far as Adam is concerned. As I mentioned before, it is Adam's last episode, but there was no way a viewer could have know it at the time. Adam was at Stokes' house and, when Jeff Clarke knocks on the door Stokes sends Adam into the back room and he is never seen again. (Neither is Robert Rodan on Dark Shadows.) 

In 637, Vicki and Jeff finally tie the knot. It's funny: I never did like seeing Alexandra Moltke with Roger Davis, but Betsy Durkin I don't mind. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

I've seen through episode 639 now...

[Amy] and David play in the west wing, and eventually Amy starts communicating with a Collins family ghost -- Quentin Collins -- via an old telephone.

...and nothing will be the same again.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

We are up to episode 642 now, so it's time to update the...

SEANCE SCORECARD:

SEANCE #1: Episode 170

Participants: Guthrie, Roger, Carolyn & Vicki (+ Laura)

Purpose: To contact Josette

Results: Josettte speaks through Vicki (in French)

SEANCE #2: Episode 186

Participants: Vicki, Sam Evans & David

Purpose: To contact Josette

Results: David Radcliffe speaks through David

SEANCE #3: Episodes 280/281

Participants: Roger, Liz, Carolyn, Vicki, Burke & Barnabas

Purpose: To contact any spirit which will answer

Results: Josette speaks through Vicki (in English)

SEANCE #4: Episode 365(461)

Participants: Roger, Liz, Carolyn, Vicki, Julia & Barnabas

Purpose: To contact Sarah

Results: Vicki sent on a "uncertain and frightening journey into the past"

SEANCE #5: Episodes 511/512

Participants: Stokes, Julia & Tony

Purpose: To contact Trask

Results: Trask manifests in the present

SEANCE #6: Episode 600

Participants: Stokes, Julia & Barnabas

Purpose: To contact Philippe Cordier

Results: Philippe Cordier speaks through Barnabas (in an outrageous French accent)

SEANCE #7: Episode 640

Participants: David and Amy

Purpose: To contact Quentin Collins

Results: Interrupted by Vicki

SEANCE #8: Episode 642

Participants: Stokes, Chris Jennings, Liz, Carolyn and Vicki

Purpose: To contact Jeff Clark

Results: Magda Rakosi speaks through Carolyn

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"And now, two moments in time are parallel. During one tick of a clock in 1968, months have passed in 2022, and vice versa. Now, only seconds remain."

Rob, unless you've watched any episodes since the last time you posted, Tracy and I are now caught up to you. There is one thing I have noticed lately. Up until recently, I have gotten the impression that the Dark Shadows writers were never more than a week or two ahead of the plot at any given moment. Here lately, though, they've been laying plot threads that won't be revealed for weeks if not months to come. Or maybe they're just fakin' it 'til they make it. In other words, some of the information revealed in the seance and by other means does come to pass... after a fashion. But 1887? And who's "Oscar"?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm stalled for a little bit. I realized I wasn't paying as much attention to the story as I wanted to, and have taken a few weeks off. I'll be back to it soon (after this really busy week, most likely). 

I suspect that the writers are dropping clues now for something they don't quite know the shape of yet. That's how you get details like Oscar (which I assume will be dropped) and a mistake in the dates. The story they're crafting takes as much of the foundation as it can, but ignores any details that get in the way. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I suspect that the writers are dropping clues now for something they don't quite know the shape of yet."

Yes, that is exactly what they are doing. (They're just getting better at it.) 

With Quentin's ghost we're moving into a storyline based (loosely based) on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

The thing I find fascinating about Dark Shadows is that it's SO MUCH like comic writing for an ongoing series. Supporting cast comes and goes according to their utility, the writing staff changes and has different interests and strengths, they build a story as it's being read/watched, they pick up or abandon old continuity according to current needs, and occasionally there's an EYKIW moment that changes the details of a previous story.

And sometimes the main character even gets squeezed out of her own story!  Pour one out for Harold Hamgravy, shunted aside in Thimble Theater when Popeye showed up and won Olive's heart. Or Johnny Thunder, who lost his strip to his occasional supporting character, Black Canary!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Fritzi Ritz was pushed aside by her niece Nancy, and what ever happened to Barney Google after Snuffy Smith made the scene?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

With [the ghosts of Quentin Collins and Beth Chavez] we're moving into a storyline based (loosely) on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. 

Also based on Turn of the Screw is the 1961 movie The Innocents starring Deborah Kerr. I had never seen it before until last night but it makes a good complement to the "Quentin's Ghost" arc.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, I'll have to check that out -- I've loved Deborah Kerr ever since I saw her in The Life & Times of Colonel Blimp!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

...and I since The Night of the Iguana.

[Tracy of Moon-T]

Joe Haskell and Chris Jennings