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
Replies
Nice comments! I love evil, conniving Julia! She's a ton of fun.
And if only it were a fishing trip. Most of the cast has scampered off to film House of Dark Shadows, the first Dark Shadows movie!
I've now crept along to episode 990. With 989, the show makes a little leap, putting us in Cyrus's head. It's now several hours since he took his formula and collapsed on the floor, where we last saw him. He wakes up with his glasses broken and an IOU in his pocket from someone he doesn't know. Soon, a cop shows up at his door asking where he was last night, because a) his fiancee was attacked, and b) her attacker, who we don't have a clear description of, but he DEFINITELY WASN'T YOU (my god, man he has a MOUSTACHE!) was seen coming to this house, unlocking it with a key, and was never seen leaving.
So we're experiencing Cyrus's blackout along with him, which is a nice trick while he turns into Buddy Love or whoever.
Meanwhile, Sabrina is being comforted by Carolyn -- and in the next episode they go to Collinwood proper so a) Lush Willie gets to put the moves on Alexis, who he thinks could be Angelique, and b) they can all do a seance at traumatized Sabrina's bidding, reenacting the one from six months ago when Angelique died but with Alexis in Angelique's seat, and by the end of it Sabrina is pointing at her sand saying "murder" and Alexis faints. So all in all, this was an excellent idea.
And now I've seen through episode 994. There's been little progress on the Jeckyll/Hyde front -- Sabrina and Cyrus have been arguing a bit, and Dr. Gladstone showed up, persistently probing into the experiment but getting nowhere, and Cyrus got really snippy about the purity of ingredients.
On the Angelique/Alexis front, we meet their Aunt Hannah, a card reader/psychic, who confirms that 1) Angelique really does have a twin sister Alexis, 2) Angelique's presence remains in Collinwood, although whether she's Alexis or has taken another form, who knows, and 3) everyone's in great danger. Also, she saw an inverted Tower of Destruction card as David played with her tarot, and kind of freaked out.
If Alexis is really Angelique, she's finally mastered her excuses for doing things the same way. Whether it's fluffing pillows, trimming flowers, or even simply humming, her answer is simple: Her mother taught them both to do these things, and they both imitated her. So there.
Also, a piano started playing on its own, and an incriminating piano score with bood on it appeared to Quentin. So we're definitely in spookytown. Plus there's a new servant, a butler named Trask, who has returned just as we've been told Hoffman is taking some time off. (Everyone's making movies!)
Finally, a ghost of someone we haven't met before -- Damian Evans -- is haunting Collinwood, and took Amy into the basement, then disappeared. His presences is really freaking out Bruno, Quentin, and Trask. As far as I can tell, he's not someone we've seen before in any timeline.
Following up with episode 995. Amy reports that she's seen Damian Evans, and that he disappeared in the basement, which Quentin checks out for hidden doors. (I'm amazed he didn't find one, whether or not Damian needed it!) Trask runs over to warn Bruno about Damian, and Bruno gets a threatening call (and then a visit) from the ghost. He rabbits to Cyrus, who finally relents and allows him to stay, but tells him to stay out of the lab. Then Cyrus mixes another potion and drinks it, and a hideous transformation occurs...he now has: dark hair and a mustache!
This show has given us trasformations into werewolves. I'm not sure how they thought we could be impressed by a dude turning into a different-looking dude. (Nonetheless, Mr. Mustache is John Yeager, and he owes Cyrus a hundred bucks.)
I've seen through episode 998 now. John Yeager has hit the town! He's terrorizing Buffie, a waitress at the Eagle (the Parallel Time Blue Whale), and beating up the lug who's into her, Steve! (I think he beats on him three times over two episodes!) He's paying for damages with Cyrus's checkbook! He's renting out all the rooms in Buffie's boarding house, but Buffie is too broke to leave! He even made her lie to Quentin, whom she liked when she worked at Collinwood!
As for Quentin, he's bouncing between this storyline (trying to figure out what sort of hold Yeager has on Cyrus, who claims he's a subject of his experiments, and that's why he's bankrolling him and has given him the key to his lab), the haunting of Bruno by Damian Evans's ghost (Bruno and Trask seem especially concerned, probably because they killed him...whoever he is) and whether his sister-in-law is actually his dead wife (and, I suppose, what that might mean to his current wife, Maggie, whom he calls and pleads with her sister to get her to come to the phone. But Maggie's making movie magic, Q... you won't here from her for a while yet). So that's complicated.
About Buffie: I like her, and hope she sticks around for a while. She's normal, and this out-there show needs a little of that. And yet I feel like we're at the point of the show where it's pretty much done introducing new main characters, and we'll just get supporting players from now on, never lasting past the current storyline (if that).
Also, when I was listening to an old episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, Rupert Holmes mentioned that the last track of his first album was "Psycho Drama," a radio play parody of The Maltese Falcon (among other things). And the Sidney Greenstreet part (named Mr. Grossman in this production) is played by Thayer David!
Here's the track. It's a goofy treat. (Thayer David appears starting at around 3:50). I'm embedding it, but I'll add the link below in case the embedded video disappears.
https://youtu.be/o9m_zCstjKw?si=B3BXgDaH1UhQ3rB-
MAJOR MILESTONE! I've seen through episode 1,000! I guess I'm in for the long haul, however long it takes me.
In these last two episodes, we've focused mostly on Alexis, though there are some other small intriguing developments. For instance, we get a nice scene where Buffie comes to Cyrus to verify his check, and hits on him a little; Cyrus, an innefectual nebbish, is helpless to respond. He also tells Buffie that Yeager would never hurt her, which I have my doubts about, considering he was throwing her around the bar a couple episodes ago.
Meanwhile, Amy has been staying at the Old House, and mentions Will is writing a new book -- she retrieved a couple pages from his trash can, and we find out he's writing an expose about Barnabas Collins, saying that new information has come to light that makes him realize his first book was a lie. So that keeps Barnabas in play for a little while longer, much like Quentin's phone call to Maggie's sister reminded us of her a few days ago.
But the main story is Quentin and Cyrus going to exhume Angelique to make sure she's still in her tomb. Alexis heard their plans and follows them. All three open the coffin and see Angelique lying there...but not decomposed at all! GASP! There's some discussion of needing to destroy the body, but Alexis is against it. Later, Cyrus convinces her, and she returns to the tomb to set her sister on fire herself. But then dear dead Angelique opens her eyes, and said someone will be destroyed... but it won't be her! CLIFFHANGER!
I like this -- it'll let Lara Parker play Angelique again, but it means Alexis wasn't lying all this time when she said she was her twin sister. That feels better to me than Angelique hiding her identity for so long.
Anyway, a thousand episodes! Will I be able to wrap this up before the end of 2025? We shall see...
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