Dark Shadows, The Road to Bloodline FINALE: Blood & Fire

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Grok It, Reader-Bots. Spoilers for this and Dark Shadows: Bloodlust Ahead.

“Every time I come to Collins House, I get the strangest feeling. I know I belong yet, somehow, I don’t think I’m ever going to live here. Isn’t that odd?”

And so, we reach the end of the Road to Bloodline with the massive Blood & Fire. Released in 2016 to coincide with the property’s 50th Anniversary, this four episode series is the very picture of a satisfying prequel tale. But at the same time, a tremendous set up for the incoming Bloodline as it weaves a wonderfully serialized tale, stocked with the heavy hitters from the cast, both old and new, that also manages to deliver all the high drama and supernatural hijinks of the franchise. Just like Bloodlust did, and just like Bloodline intends to do. No wonder it won friggen awards. In short, a bloody tremendous success of an audio from where I’m sitting. I couldn’t have asked for a better tale to end this column on. Enough preamble, right? Let’s get to it.

So from the jump, writer Roy Gill lays out a tremendous narrative hook. Saved from her heroic sacrifice for Collinsport at the end of Bloodlust, the witch Angelique Bouchard (Lara Parker once again swinging for the fences)  now faces her master The Dark Lord in Hell’s Waiting Room. Displeased by her latest face turn, The Dark Lord proposes a mission to grant her his good favor. If she can disrupt time and erase the Collins family from reality, she will be once again proven loyal to evil and restored to a favorable position within the darkness.

Then we are transported to the Big Finishverse’s own version of the 1800’s TV storyline, even FURTHER back. Honestly I think this story’s setting is the furthest back in time, in canon Dark Shadows has ever gone. I will check with the head office on that but quote me anyway, I gotta build street cred. The year is 1767 and Angelique must now stamp out the Collins line before it can even begin; by ruining the marriage of one Joshua Collins (Barnabas 2.0 Andrew Collins) and Laura Murdoch Stockbridge (Joana FREAKING Going!). What follows across these epic four episodes is classic Dark Shadows down to the friggen studs, y’all. Angelique charms her way into the in construction Collins House, meeting Joshua’s parents Patience (Kathryn Leigh Scott) and Caleb (Mitchell Ryan) as well as Joshua’s sister Abigail (Daisy Torme). Also visiting for the incoming wedding is Caleb’s brother Theodore (David Selby) and his wife Isobel (Nancy Barett). So we basically have a full cast of favorites all ready, but Blood & Fire just keeps on giving.

As the episodes go on, listeners will start to realize that literally every single speaking part is being played by a Dark Shadows staple. Jerry Lacy shows up as Caleb’s fantatical contractor Malachi Sands. Lisa Richards and Christopher Pennock pop up as the funny and fussy parents of Going’s Laura. John Karlen, of course, plays Alfred Loomis, the Collins’ faithful footman and carriage driver. And it isn’t just old favorites! No, no! Some new additions from the audio-verse also gets some choice stage time. Anchored by the commanding lead performance of Andrew Collins’, other Big Finish newbies like Alexandra Donnachie and Matthew Waterhouse play recurring side characters, providing a nice mixture for the audience of old and new players throughout the ensemble.

Plus there is even an extra layer of canny casting in Joana Going playing what is essentially the second female lead. Fans of the Phoenix storyline will recognize Laura’s name and fans of literally most TV from the 90s until now (plus Phantoms! And the 2001 DS reboot I still haven’t seen!) will recognize Going’s name and she just absolutely kills it. Both just as a romantic lead and as an antagonist of Lara Parker’s Angelique. Both women share the “stage” of this story beautifully and provide a legitimately talented base line for the story in terms of pure acting.

But all the cast members in the world couldn’t make this special work if the script and direction of it failed, but I am happy to report, this thing absolutely sings throughout. Roy Gill’s script delivers all the gory, ghoulish fun and heavy soapy drama of the property in spades. And along with expansive, immersive sound design and direction by David Darlington, this whole series feels properly big and epic. Just like a 50th Anniversary special too. I was also kind of struck at how “user friendly” it was. I complained last column about how ...And Red All Over was kind of insular, but I think Blood & Fire could be one of those fabled audios you could hand to someone unfamiliar with the property and say, “This is Dark Shadows” and they would get it. I mean, aside from the bit of Bloodlust and Bloodline window dressing, but that’s like a 2 minute conversation. 1, if you text it. 

So, yeah, I am absolutely head over heels for Blood & Fire and I think you all will be too (if you haven’t already heard it like a billion times by now because I am coming into these things late). Massive in scope, production values, and talent, this anniversary special delivers everything great about the franchise’s past, present, and future, wrapped in a macabre package and sealed with chillingly entertaining performances. I have said a few of these audios are “must listen” but I think Blood & Fire might be the first “must own” of my time at the CHS. I think it is that important to the overall output of Dark Shadows.

Until next time, be seeing you.   

Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire named best audio of the year

UPDATE: The DARK SHADOWS audio "Blood & Fire" is now on sale at Big Finish for 50% off. You can find the sale at https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/dark-shadows---blood-and-fire-scribe-award-winner.

Original story follows:

The 50th anniversary DARK SHADOWS audio "Blood & Fire" was named "Best Audio" of 2016 by the SCRIBE Awards.

The Scribe Awards are presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers to recognize licensed works that "tie in" with other media such as television, movies, gaming or comic books. This year's winners were announced last weekend at San Diego Comic-Con.

Released last summer in time for the DARK SHADOWS 50th anniversary celebration in Tarrytown, New York, "Blood & Fire" reveals how Laura Murdoch Stockbridge first came to plague the Collins family, and how a battle between her and the witch Angelique almost derailed the entire line. The double-length installment features an impressive cross section of actors representing much of the DARK SHADOWS legacy, including a return by one-time "Victoria Winters" Joanna Going.

"Blood & Fire" was written by Roy Gill, who previously penned the DARK SHADOWS audio "Panic." You can read my thoughts on "Blood & Fire" HERE. (TL;DR - I thought it was excellent.)

Gill faced stiff competition in this year's SCRIBE awards, as well. "Blood & Fire" was competing against a DOCTOR WHO audio, "Mouthless," and two TORCHWOOD tales, "Uncanny Valley" and "Broken," the latter of which was written by our own Joseph Lidster.

You can get "Blood & Fire" on CD or MP3 directly from Big Finish HERE, or on CD from Amazon HERE.

Podcast: Behind the scenes of BLOOD & FIRE, ECHOES OF THE PAST

Robert Dick goes behind the scenes of the DARK SHADOWS 50th anniversary releases - BLOOD & FIRE and ECHOES OF THE PAST - and meets writer Roy Gill and some of the British cast.

(Warning: the podcast contains spoilers for the end of BLOOD & FIRE.)

"Blood & Fire" is Dark Shadows in microcosm

By WALLACE McBRIDE

There's a careful reverence to DARK SHADOWS: BLOOD & FIRE that falls somewhere on the spectrum between alchemy and magic. Designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original series, BLOOD & FIRE isn't the result of rushing a product to the marketplace in order to hit some arbitrary date on a calendar. There's genuine love and affection on display here, plus a superstitious attention to detail that is almost frightening. There are so many layers to BLOOD & FIRE that we might be discussing this story for years to come.

It's so packed with substance that, a few paragraphs into writing this, I've surrendered any pretense to trying to discuss them all. BLOOD & FIRE is a thematic pageantry of all things DARK SHADOWS, and you'll find just about everything that's ever been associated with the series buried within its text. There are references to "Collins House," the pre-production name for Collinwood that managed to slip into Marilyn Ross tie-in novels; the presence of one of the leads from the 1991 DARK SHADOWS "revival" series; and an appearance by a member of the ne'er-do-well Cunningham family from the more recent Big Finish audios. The decision to incorporate elements tangential to the original series reminded me of this Old English rhyme:

"Something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue,
and a silver sixpence in her shoe."

This is the sentiment that drives BLOOD & FIRE, and one that becomes all the more relevant when you consider that the story, like the rhyme, is about a wedding.

As with Big Finish's BLOODLUST serial, BLOOD & FIRE takes the storyline back to its soapy roots. It's broken into four episodes which spend in inordinate amount of time dwelling on backroom skulduggery. On the main stage is the pending wedding of Joshua Collins (Andrew Collins, doing a swell impression of Louis Edmonds) and Laura Murdoch Stockbridge (Joanna Going.) On the way to Collinsport, Laura's carriage picks up a stranded traveler, Cassandra Peterson (Lara Parker), who offers a backstory to explain her predicament that makes little sense and puts a few people on guard.

That's because Cassandra is Angelique Bouchard, dropped into the distant past by a demon with plans to destroy the Collins family TERMINATOR-like before they can gain a toehold on history. In that regard, BLOOD & FIRE makes about as much sense as any story involving time travel ... which isn't much. Seeing as how DARK SHADOWS has a long, proud history of bullshit time travel paradoxes, though, these logical inconsistencies feel right at home.

Once at Anchor House (the home of the Collins family in 1767) the writer's time zone begins to shine through. American soaps are notoriously trashy. Even when DARK SHADOWS debuted in 1966, the story lines could be a bit coarse. Soaps were created for an audience that was marginalized by mainstream culture (in this case, women) and they made every effort to pander to them. Soaps dabbled in everything from legitimate women's issues (abortion, equality) to romantic escapism (infidelity, kidnapping, blackmail, etc.) By the 1980s, American soaps really went off the rails. The less said about Luke and Laura on GENERAL HOSPITAL, the better.

The soapy elements of BLOOD & FIRE, though, play less like American pulp melodrama, and more like the kind of polite shenanigans you'd find in an episode DOWNTON ABBEY. Which is perfectly OK, because U.K. writer Roy Gill has tarted things up with all manner of supernatural elements. Some of the best moments in the story showcase petty confrontations that take a turn for the sinister. Example: Early in the story, the head housekeeper (played by Marie Wallace) makes Angelique aware that she finds her presence in the house both inappropriate and unnecessary. It's a good scene, but one made better as Wallace's dialogue shifts from that of a testy, territorial servant to that of a woman possessed by a demon.

Joanna Going in the studio.

It's interesting to see Angelique essentially in the same predicament as Victoria Winters in the 1795 story arc, and this role is made more fascinating by having Joanna Going playing opposite her. For those of you coming in late, Going played both Victoria Winters and Josette DuPres in the 1991 revival, and she kinda steals the show in BLOOD & FIRE. (Which is no small feat given the staggering level of talent on display.) It's a gentle, mysterious performance, and I spent most of the first half of BLOOD & FIRE trying to figure out Laura's game. It seems unlikely that any DARK SHADOWS character could be as kind and sincere as Laura is here, and it makes her fall from grace that much more tragic and compelling.

The conflict between Laura and Angelique mirrors both the characters' relationships in the 1897 story line, as well as the relationship between Angelique and Josette. What this amounts to is a character that is an Angelique-as-Victoria hybrid playing against Josette-as-Laura, and all which that implies. I told you this was complex.

The story's climax is all the more thrilling because it shows that the writers understand Angelique in ways that few others ever have. Since the 1991 "revival" series, iterations of Angelique have been unending riffs on FATAL ATTRACTION, but the character was never that easy. BLOOD & FIRE reinstates her role as a chaos figure, a woman constantly at odds with authority both real or symbolic. She's more a force of nature than anything else, but not an unreasonable one.

BLOOD & FIRE also offers a few do-overs for some of the principle cast members from the original series. I've always loved James Storm, but Dan Curtis' writing staff took a confident, magnetic actor and shackled him to a story that never delivered. BLOOD & FIRE allows Storm to redeem that experience, to a degree. Here, he plays Abraham Harkaway, a pirate in love with a young Abigail Collins and trying to make the transition from criminal to legitimate businessman. A zombie might make an appearance in their courtship.

Speaking of the future Aunt Abigail: Daisy Tormé makes me like the character for the first time ever. That's not a swipe at Clarice Blackburn, who played Abigail on the original series. Blackburn's job was to make you root for her impending death, but Gill and Tormé manage to give you a deeper look into what makes the character tick with such an erratic rhythm. You might feel slightly more sorry for her the next time watch the series.

And it goes without saying that it's great to have Mitch Ryan back in the fold, but I'm going to say it anyway. Ryan missed out on the DARK SHADOWS' wacky costume drama/time travelling moments when he left the show in 1967, so he's a welcome face at the party. And besides, nobody does "authority figure" quite like Ryan, who has made a career out of bossing around movie stars on screen for more than 40 years. More, please.

Christopher Pennock, Andrew Collins, Ursula Burton, Jerry Lacy, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, Lisa Richards, Mitchell Ryan, James Storm and Natalie Britton.

BLOOD & FIRE should have been a disaster. I can't readily think of anything similar that didn't play like a glorified clips show, but somehow the producers managed to keep most of the story's many, many plates spinning throughout the course of the tale. One or two still manage to fall here and there ... and I have a quibbles:

The book-ending pieces, which involve Parker speaking to a demonic Lisa Richards hiding under layers of voice modulation, feels unnecessary. At this stage, we already know that Angelique's presence anywhere is cause for alarm, and her mission is underlined several times throughout the story. It feels like a wasted opportunity to explain the mission so handily (and maybe patronizingly?) in a "James Bond banters with M" kind of way. Her sudden appearance near the crumbling Widow's Hill/Widow's Walk was all the introduction the character really needs.

And while I'd never turn away David Selby and Nancy Barrett, their arrival halfway through the story feels a little wonky. Playing the Collins relatives from New York, the pair arrive shortly after a huge, supernaturally powered storm has devastated the coastline. They appear out of nowhere, dropped into an already large cast, with their only purpose to firmly address the origins of Millicent and Daniel in the 1795 story. I'd like to have seen the two actors given more to do.

And then there's the Barnabas Problem. How do you celebrate the 50th anniversary of DARK SHADOWS without either Jonathan Frid or Barnabas Collins? At last weekend's festival, someone made the dour decision to screen the show's final episode for fans, which seemed like a poor way to celebrate the show's inception. In BLOOD & FIRE (which was made available to customers earlier this week on the 50th anniversary of the show's debut on ABC) the producers decided to include the birth of Barnabas Collins as part of its story-ending vignettes. I've got mixed feelings about the execution of these vignettes, but won't argue with their sentiments. Especially when Angelique's demonic master woefully declares "With the birth of Barnabas, the future of the Collins is assured." This is true on so many levels.

BLOOD & FIRE is as fine a way to mark the gold anniversary of DARK SHADOWS as any I can imagine. While the time traveling nature of the story forces us to look momentarily backward, its eyes are always on the future. There might have a bit of a pall over last weekend's festival (which occasionally had an air of finality to it), but Big Finish is demanding a better future for DARK SHADOWS with the release of BLOOD & FIRE.

You can order DARK SHADOWS: BLOOD & FIRE from Big Finish HERE.

Full cast, cover for Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire

Big Finish has released the cover art and full cast for this summer's DARK SHADOWS: BLOOD AND FIRE. Reading the list provoked a roller coaster of emotions, not the least of which is the realization that I've taken David Selby's presence in these things for granted. After the announcement that Joanna Going was joining the party, my greedy imagination kicked into overdrive, concocting a bizarre scenario that might allow for the return of Alexandra Moltke, David Henesy and Kate Jackson. While we're at it, why not raise Jonathan Frid from the dead? Or maybe harness the withering power of Twitter into shaming Johnny Depp into making an apologetic cameo? (Both are about as likely.)

It's that train of thought that lead me to read this cast list, see Selby's name and just shrug. Which is absurd, because Selby is a national treasure and the closest thing to a Frank Capra character that this world will ever see. Taking David Selby for granted is like not thanking Superman for rescuing you from a burning building: Just because he's supposed to do it doesn't mean he has to.

The same goes for the rest of the OG cast members, who are essentially doing these audio dramas as favors to the fans. There's certainly no crass motivation for Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, Nancy Barrett or anyone else to do these things, and lord knows they've had to put up with a lot of weirdness from fans over the years. Fifty of them, in fact.

And crikey*, this cast list is impressive. Back in 1991, I doubt any of us would have predicted a DARK SHADOWS program that included John Karlen, Joanna Going and Mitch Ryan ... yet here it is. And with Matthew Waterhouse, to boot.

CAST 

Lara Parker (Angélique Bouchard)
Kathryn Leigh Scott (Patience Collins)
Mitchell Ryan (Caleb Collins)
Joanna Going (Laura Murdoch Stockbridge)
Andrew Collins (Joshua Collins)
Daisy Tormé (Abigail Collins)
James Storm (Abraham Harkaway)
Lisa Richards (Euphemia Spencer Stockbridge)
Christopher Pennock (Uriah Spencer Stockbridge)
Marie Wallace (Dorothea Summers)
Nancy Barrett (Isobel Collins)
David Selby (Theodore Collins)
Matthew Waterhouse (Reverend Samuel Cunningham)
Jerry Lacy (Malachi Sands)
John Karlen (Alfred Loomis)
Ursula Burton (Peggy Griffin)
Alexandra Donnachie (Sarah Filmore)
Scott Haran (Lamech Gifford)
Walles Hamonde (Roderick Haskell)
Daniel Collard (Robert Hanley)
Natalie Britton (Storm Elemental)

Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire is scheduled for release in June and is now available online for pre-order.

(Editor's Note: That "crikey" was intended for a reader who sent me a terse e-mail complaining about the use of profanity of this website. I believe the word that troubled him was "asshole.")

Listen to the trailer for Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire

We found out earlier this week that "Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire" has a terrific cast. Now it has a trailer! The two-hour anniversary special is due in June and is already sporting the most impressive cast since "The Crimson Pearl." I have it on good authority that additional cast announcements will be made in coming months, so hang onto your collective butts.

You can hear the trailer for "Blood & Fire" below. And visit the Soundcloud page devoted to Big Finish audios HERE.

Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire has my full attention

Holy hell, check out the cast list for "Dark Shadows: Blood & Fire":

Lara Parker
Kathryn Leigh Scott
Mitchell Ryan
Andrew Collins
Daisy Tormé
James Storm
Jerry Lacy
John Karlen
Lisa Richards
Christopher Pennock

Those are the names attached to the upcoming anniversary audio drama, per today's press release from Big Finish. The story takes a present-day Angelique and sends her back in time a generation prior to the landmark 1795 storyline. Those names are enough to grab the attention of any DARK SHADOWS fan, and it's cool to see Mitch Ryan getting a do-over ... he left the show before things got weird and never had the chance to take part in the later time-travelling shenanigans.

Here's the official summary for the two-hour episode, which will hopefully be available prior to this year's Dark Shadows Festival in June:

The year is 1767. Young widow Laura Murdoch Stockbridge is to marry Joshua Collins, heir to the Collins fortune. Meanwhile, Joshua’s sister Abigail is in love with disreputable sailor Abraham Harkaway. But the course of true love never did run smooth… especially when the witch Angélique Bouchard is around. For Angélique has been sent back in time. And she has one mission… To destroy the Collins family forever.

You can see the full cast list (and pre-order the episode) HERE. Also, take note that Laura Murdoch Stockbridge is mentioned explicitly by name in the summary, but has no actor attached to the role. I have no idea what that means but it's certainly interesting.

Via: Big Finish