What do we know about Dark Shadows: Windcliff?

By WALLACE McBRIDE

Dark Shadows: Bloodline is over. You can read Justin Partridge's review of the final three episodes HERE, and those of you who opted out of the digital weekly releases should be getting your CDs in the mail soon enough. If you're the kind of person with an aversion to spoilers, you might want to stop reading here ... I don't believe there are any major reveals in this post but some folks are more sensitive than others to spoilers. Proceed with caution.

Big Finish kicked off its grand experiement in serials with Dark Shadows: Bloodlust back in 2015, then made us wait four years before returning to the format. By all accounts the production of these long-play audios is intense, but luckily Big Finish will only make us wait one year for the follow-up, Dark Shadows: Windcliff. The 13-part serial is scheduled for release in April 2020.

Written by Penelope Faith, Aaron Lamont, Rob Morris and Paul Phipps-Williams, Windcliff sees as-yet unnamed characters making a night-time visit to Collinsport’s regional sanitarium. We now have a poster and a snazzy logo for the serial.



While the Dark Shadows audio productions are traditionally shrouded in secrecy (I was generously invited to provide the voice of the radio newscaster in both Bloodlust and Bloodline, and only allowed to see my own lines of dialogue) producer Joe Lidster shared a few details about Windcliff back in September, as part of an announcement of what to expect from the Dark Shadows range in 2019.

“All we’ll say for now is that we, again, wanted to do something we haven’t done before so Windcliff is very different to both Bloodlust and Bloodline,” Lidster said. “The writers are working on the scripts now and we’re looking forward to releasing more details in the future.”

In 2021 we'll get another 13-part serial titled ... Thirteen.

But what about Windcliff ? We'll, there's this ...




Which doesn't tell us much. Curiously, Windcliff Sanitarium now has its own dedicated Twitter account, which started leaking documents from the 1980s earlier this morning.

pic.twitter.com/bEq6qKzfkv

— Windcliff Sanitarium (@Windcliff_Maine) May 14, 2019

If you follow the writers and producers of the Dark Shadows range on Twitter, though, you've already seen a bit of back and forth about the development of the next serial ... mostly from blabbermouth Paul Phipps-Williams. Here's a sampling. Draw your own conclusions.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline, Episodes 11-13 (Mega Finale Column)

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

He who controls the SPOILERS AHEAD controls the universe! 

“If you can do anything, why not do good?”

What else can I say but, wow? Big Finish’s massive new serial comes to a thunderous conclusion in it’s final three episodes. Bringing home a whole mass of plot lines, writers Aaron Lamont, Will Howells, Rob Morris and Alan Flanagan absolutely nail the landing. Both by bringing this huge, truly epic story to a great conclusion and by setting things up nicely for the next epic. But enough lead up, we have a lot to get to. So let’s get.

First up we have episode 11 by Aaron Lamont. Our return back to regular episodic format after the wonderfully gimmicky episode 10. That isn’t to say that is the last we see of Tom’s magic recorder. Far from it! But episode 11 does a fantastic job of getting the whole story back on the rails.

Even better, Lamont starts to slowly but surely establish the ever expanding scope of the time-warping. As he reveals that it is starting to affect the whole town, quaking ripples through time itself that are changing Collinsport as we know it

Now Time Travel Stories aren’t exactly groundbreaking for Dark Shadows but episode 11 really delves into the consequences of time travel in a very real and slightly disturbing way as we start to see the changes as audience members. With the added melancholy of the characters themselves not remembering their lost loved ones, but still KNOWING they don’t remember while seeing their town change around them. It is pretty harrowing stuff going into what is essentially a “season finale”. Brutally and wonderfully acted by the cast throughout.

Will Howells and Rob Morris’ episode 12 then doubles down on these time consequences. All centered around dangerous team-ups with Rosier and our principle cast. As all our time tossed cast attempts to survive their respective eras, Amy Jennings hatches a pragmatic plan with Rosier. One that finds her using his whole “heart’s one desire” schtick to her advantage, by turning it toward bringing back everyone they have lost. Their obvious “heart’s one desire.” It is a wickedly clever turn from the script. Not only that, but it is wickedly in character for Amy. And for third, Stephanie Ellyne acts the absolute hell out of it.

There is also the question of the missing Barnabas, last seen breaking his chains and feeding from poor Cody Hill. There are a ton of plates spinning going into this episode. Both in the past and the present. But Howells and Morris keep them all spinning well, giving us a briskly paced episode jolting from character to character as they all move to points of no return. There is a keen edge to the check ins too as our travelers are all placed in precarious situations in time. Situations in which they can change things. For good or for ill. 

Throughout they show a true reverence, both for the established TV canon and their own meticulously crafted Big Finishverse (this is going to catch on even if it kills me). Mainly by revealing that most of the time tossings are situated alongside major events both on TV and in the audios. Supported by even more well mixed uses of clips from the original series.

The thread of Barnabas’ simmering bloodlust also comes to a terrifying head. With the brutal murder of Jamie Forbes and Bonnie Sands, the teenybopper couple that has been skirting around the edges of this story. I hadn’t really talked about them much as they just kind of seemed like Collinsport yokel flavoring, but sakes alive is their end brutal. Doubly so thanks to the staging and acting of the scene, led by a positively feral Andrew Collins.Often we hear about the monster Barnabas Collins is, but rarely ever “see” it. Well, episode 12 shows us it in all it’s gory glory and it is a doozy to listen to.

And it is Barnabas’ monstrosity that brings us to the Alan Flanagan written finale; episode 13.

Amid all the vampirism and time travel stuff, the cliffhanger of episode 12 reveals that the mastermind behind the whole morass was ... DR. JULIA HOFFMAN! Kinda. It was actually a Dark Lord powered new antagonist called Lilith, who has been riding shotgun with Julia ever since her “regeneration”. You see, she engineered the whole body switch in order to infiltrate Collinwood. And torture Barnabas Collins by stealing his family and placing them through time, with the temptation to change their timelines. Thus ruining them for eternity!

Though I can see some listeners being slightly turned off by the culprit not being revealed as someone major. A “name” if you will. I can also see them similarly being perturbed at Rosier’s sudden departure from the story in the episode before. Call it a slight “villain problem.” But Flanagan brings it all home very nicely, cutting to the heart of Lillth’s quest for vengeance and pairing it neatly with the ongoing plot of Barnabas’ “am I man or monster?” C-story.

It also comes with a bit of bittersweetness. After appealing to Lillth’s better nature and rescuing the Collins family, both Julia and Barnabas are “restored” to their original bodies. And then set off into the sunset together after the dust settles around Collinwood. As a listener, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to lose Julia and Barnabas again. Especially after hearing Julie Newmar and Andrew Collins exquisite playing of them. But on some level I get it. This new range is more about the newer generation of Collinses and their makeshift family so I can bear it for now. I am glad, however, that Andrew Collins isn’t going anywhere, having been absconded to the “new and improved” Windcliff, now known as Bramwell Collins. Now doubt we will be seeing him again once that serial spins up.

But to bring this now 900 word screed to a close, Bloodline’s final episode are a resounding success. Ones that redefine this cast and this range. Setting them up for larger, more enriching stories as they live, love, and try to survive the spookiest town in fiction. I also personally want to thank you all for reading along with me and commenting on our facebook or reaching out on twitter about the coverage. It means a lot to me, both as a writer and fan to know that you are just as exciting and obsessed with this show and range as I am. I have to sleep now, as I am an old man and get tired but keep listening, keep reading, and I’ll be seeing you. 

(Editor's note: Episodes 11-13 of Bloodline are available HERE.)

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline, Episodes 9-10

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Careful, Ghost Rider! Spoilers Ahead!

“Where on earth is Marina Lane?”

Welcome back, my ever patient ghouls, to The Collinsport Historical Society’s coverage of Bloodline! The current massive serial from Big Finish that is currently emotionally and physically taxing us around here. We are all just so damn worried about Cody Hill, it’s getting to be a problem around the office. But we are going to get through it together, you and I! By picking apart every aspect of it like the proper nerds we are. Expressing our joy for new Dark Shadows in the only way we know now! Written analysis and criticism! Isn’t life in Collinsport just grand?! Let’s get to it, shall we?

First up, we have episode number 9 of 13! From the consistently great combo of Rob Morris and David Darlington, who also provides this series it’s brand new and gorgeously arranged new theme tune. This is something I don’t really get into often on these, mainly because I worry it might be a bit too “inside baseball”, but if you are a huge dork like me, you have noticed that most of these big arcs are written by a “writer’s room” as such. A collection of writers all working from what I assume would be like a “show bible” in which they have tracked everyone’s arc and broken it down into the episodes. I really, really love this kind of stuff and I really appreciate the way Big Finish has melded that work model onto Dark Shadows. It makes me excited for the incoming serials and proves that they are committed to structure.

Again, this might just be woolgathering on my part, but it reminds me a lot of seeing some of my favorite TV writers names pop up throughout a season. I love a good credit. But where was I? Oh, yeah, everyone is being thrown through time.

Episode 9 has the unfortunate burden of being the series’ first “table setting episode”. Meaning that they have to check in on a very large amount of plots and tweak them juuuuust so but nothing ever really happens. As it has “set the table” for stuff to happen further down the series. We should come up with a Dark Shadows equivalent term. The show was king at this kinda junk. Maybe “Lettuce Washing”? “Snoopin’ Round the Basement”? I dunno, but it is a crap job, for sure, but still not an un-entertaining one! Writer Rob Morris clearly cares about everyone as much as we do so that really helps things matters nicely. As such, he gives us a fairly decent amount of “screen time” for Cody, and Rosier, Julia, and everyone else at Collinwood who has survived the initial time quakes. As well as everyone in the past! Providing hard dates for everyone, cleverly centered around Tom’s tape recorder. Which is now functioning as a sort of weather vein through time for the scattered family.

A lot of these plots never really give up anything substantial (aside from maybe the implication that David could now be Quentin’s father?! Which if I think about too much my nose starts to bleed). But they do provide us a nice terra firma after the chaos of the volume openers. And it gets everyone else around the house pretty active in the story as they continue to search for clues about the missing people, with the reluctant help of Rosier, entirely speaking through Cody, allowing Walles Hamonde room for a creepy twist on Cody’s normal speaking voice.

But therein lies this episode’s cruel trick. While this episode largely sets up stuff, it adds a sharp new set of stakes to the time paradox, by revealing that it is ongoing and the fabled Marina Lane isn’t a place, but a person! A new character who is...erm...was set to take over the Collinsport Star (RIP Kate. we will miss you forever). Called to the mansion by a mysterious phone call, it is her ghost haunting the mansion which means she died in the past! And that is exactly what this episode portents! It is a cruel double-edge sword, time travel. I pray our heroes make out the other side in one piece.

Episode 10 doubles down on the set up of the tape recorder, calling to mind the sonic creepiness of Beyond the Grave. Taking up the story baton is Alan Flanagan, who smartly re-checks in with Lela and Tom, both of whom are stuck the furthest in the past in the 1700’s. As well as Jackie and Marina Lane, who was time-tossed last episode, settled into the 1800’s along with David who is toward the tail end of the century. And now...Harry has joined the lost somehow too. And he won’t let go the tape recorder. Even when faced with one incredibly young Dr. Richard Hill! And that’s just the opening, y’all!

One thing that Flanagan does clear the decks with right away is the implication that David may be responsible for his own birth. Thankfully this opening, while it is checking in with characters, reveals that Anna Collins (play sweetly by Stephanie Ellyne) is already pregnant with Quentin (at least by David’s surmation) by the time he starts pulling the “cousin from England” routine, which is a fantastic highlight of this whole arc. It doesn’t make the odd “awkward romance comedy” between them any better, but I very much appreciate that clarification.

But what of the newly taken? As the entries continue, the voice of Cyrus Longworth-Jennings comes across the tape. Dating his tossing to 1899. Another piece of the board, as Tom guessed. Christopher Pennock had already made his appearance in the past as Anna Collins’ domineering husband, but it was nice to get his affable and laid back Cyrus back into the mix and safe for now. Or is he?!

Sabrina has also been taken! Plunked down in the 1940s at the Blue Whale. But even better, it seems that the people taken start to remember the ones taken before they were! And complicating matters, they are starting to butt up against established Dark Shadows canon! Complete with archival sound clips! A time travel no-no, right?! I had bitten my fingernails down the quik before typing all this up precisely because of this. Mainly because of Vivian Bell trying to worm her way into the affections of Jaminson Collins!

And there is goes until the end, little snapshots of those lost in time trying to live carefully through Collinsport’s history on TV and not step on any butterflies. I can see people having problems with the episode’s disjointed format and the criticism is valid! I don’t exactly love that we don’t get a more substantial episode after the “Lettuce Washing” of 9. But I DO love the continued audacity of this serial, completely breaking format so WILDLY this deep into the run, just to up the stakes and to pep up the season overall. I am very, very into it (though I can see why some people might not be).

Until next time, be seeing you. I will be more prompt this time, I promise.

(Editor's note: Episodes 9 and 10 of Bloodline are available HERE.)

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline, Episodes 7-8

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Reverse the polarity of the SPOILERS AHEAD flow!

“Oh God, Harry...what have we forgotten?”

Welcome back to the Collinsport Historical Society’s coverage of the ongoing Bloodline! Now celebrating the start of it’s second volume with episodes 7 and 8! Though if you’ll indulge me a quick apology before we start for the lateness of this missive. Here recently a few days of severe thunderstorms have wracked what I am now calling The New House, just down the road a bit from The Old House, and kept me from even showing my face around the office.

Which is a shame because I hadn’t gotten to see the wonderful reaction to the newly resurrected Collinsport Historical Society Podcast, of which I was honored to have played a small part in bringing back from the grave. That podcast, by the way, is still available on iTunes and Spotify. Just as available as I am now! Talking the Big Finishverse and the aftershocks of the Time Quake that has just recently rocked through Collinwood! Let’s chat, shall we?

First up, we have episode 7, written with an epic audacity by Aaron Lamont. “Previously on” Bloodline as you’ll recall, the wedding of Amy Jennings and David Collins was interrupted by...David vanishing. Both from the service and the memories of those in attendance. But episode 7 reveals that the situation is far more dire than that. That it wasn’t just David who was taken. But also Tom Cunningham! Who now finds himself facing down “Past” versions of his family and friends in 1767! Returning to the time of Blood & Fire! Which is VERRRRY interesting for us tin-foil hats who like to look into stuff too much.



But my semi-baseless theorizing aside, this is a truly ballsy way to kick off the second volume and a gambit that more than pays off. Not only do we get to see Michael Shon shine a bit more, beyond his comedic sensibilities, but also a whole heap of “1700s” fun with all our Big Finish favorites. In particular Alexandra Donnachie, who gets to do some fantastic accent work as a housemaid of “Anchor House” in this timeline. If you’ll also allow me a bit more foil hat conjecture, Lara Parker returns to the show here, under the name PETERSON! And Lamont plays it coy as to if this is “our” Angelique, last seen sacrificing herself to the void for Collinsport in Bloodlust, or another past version, but the choice to have her referred to as “Peterson” is enough to give me at least a bit of pause. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it due to being cooped up by the rain, but dollars to donuts, this means SOMETHING down the line.

But this episode really is a blast, as it establishes jusssst enough of the extent of the time travel shenanigans as well as dangles a major hook as to the “why” behind it, too. But it stops just short of playing it’s whole hand, which is fantastic for us who love a good serial. 

And then, Will Howells goes and doubles the hell down on all this fallout with episode 8! Flashing back slightly for a chilling personification of Barnabas’ hunger, Howells starts to deal with the direct repercussions of David’s disappearance and how the Collins, Jennings, and Longworth-Jennings are dealing with it! Solidifying the remaining cast, Howells starts to pool the efforts and talents of “those left behind” to try and make sense of it all. All while “Uncle Barney” is gasping to chomp some necks. This ongoing problem of Barnabas’ lack of potent potables has been one of this serials best B-plots and episode 8 finds it getting even better, as Howells starts to ratchet up the tension some more; while also putting another “fan favorite” into Barnabas’ teeth range.

But the real goose for this sauce is the investigation into the “time-nappings”. Neatly folding Christopher Pennock’s Cyrus and Lisa Richard’s Sabrina into the main cast, Howells gets everybody snooping around Collinwood trying to find clues to establish records of the missing folk. All while cutting to teasing glimpses through the veil of time to where our missing characters are. It seems the full list of the “missing” also includes Jackie, Lela Quick, AND Willie, tossed into time right alongside David and Tom. We don’t get a solid date for where Willie and Lela are (but Howells’ makes up for it in Lela’s case with a hilarious scene of flim-flam where she escapes a Villerous or Villeous Trask? I couldn’t quite get a handle on the name, but it was a ball to hear Jerry Lacy back in the mix). He does let slip, however, that these flashes we have been getting about Jackie on trial for murder are taking place in 1820! So there is that.

Even without all these little bits of forward movement on major plots, episodes 7 and 8 of Bloodline would still be triumphs. Just due to the pure audacity of the start of this second volume. Dark Shadows rarely ever go to tell “big” stories on TV and if they did it was always in their own special, limited way. But here? Big Finish continues to swing for the goddamn fences with this and episodes 7 and 8 are (for now!) the best examples of their commitment to scope and making this new serial feel like an “event”. Now we just have to figure out where Willie is. I would die if something ELSE happened to him. Until next time, be seeing you.

(Editor's note: Episodes 5 and 6 of Bloodline are available HERE.)

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline, Episodes 5-6

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Klaatu Barata Nic-Spoilers Ahead

“Someone in this town is responsible for the deaths of 13 people and I’m going to make sure that they pay for what they’ve done!”

Welcome back, lovely cultists! I hope everyone’s weekend resurrection rituals and/or sacrifice offerings went great! I, myself hopped a bus to Bangor and holed up in their cinema for the weekend, topping that off with a riotous discussion down the Blue Whale with one Patrick McCray, he of The Dark Shadows Daybook! That boozy chinwag you should be hearing quite soon, BUT enough about my drinking habits, SOMEONE BLEW UP COLLINSPORT HOSPITAL! And we are here to get to the bloody bottom of it, aren’t we?

First up, we have the tense and claustrophobic episode 5 written by Alan Flanagan. When we last left our goth heroes, Collinsport Hospital has just suffered a massive explosion. With many of our central cast inside! What follows is this series’ first “bottle episode” with the action set mainly in the burning hospital as Barnabas, Julia, and Dr. Hill attempt to save the patients already admitted, plus the recently injured Cody and David Collins.

This thing seriously moves like a bullet, and Flanagan is constantly upping the stakes. Either by allowing another mainstay to leap into the fray, like Adam Hall’s Nu Burke, or by putting another “Towering Inferno-esque” obstacle in their way. This leads to some great tension between the two doctors Hill and Hoffman as well as a bit more sauce for the goose that is the “Vivian Bell Problem”. That’s right, in a canny opening gambit, Flanagan shows us the very seconds before the explosion for a certain set of characters and it’s revealed that Viv was ALSO in the hospital moments before the explosion. No doubt hoping to continue to put the squeeze on David, on the heels of a beating from Jamison Selby’s Ed Griffin.

It really is all around great stuff. Literally putting our cast through the fire makes for stellar listening and the sound design of David Darlington really amps of the terror and threat of the looming, rapidly spreading fire. We don’t get much headway toward a resolution (obviously) aside from some lampshading about how it had to have been a planned attack. Nor is this the most substantial episode on the Rosier front (if you’ll remember he was the Daniel Collard played demon who tried to end David and Amy’s relationship before it even started in Tainted Love). BUT it is a real belter of a listen with it’s constantly rising stakes, fantastic performances, and almost relentless pace.

And in the aftermath of this tragedy, the Big Day arrives for Amy and David in the Rob Morris scripted episode 6! Finishing on this first volume on a grand cliffhanger, one which finds the whole town FORGETTING David even existed, Morris, the cast, and the rest of the production staff rise admirably to the big occasion.

While the actual ceremony is the big headline here, this episode is surprisingly plot heavy for a volume “finale”. For one, we get plenty more headway into the Viv and Harry’s contentious relationship, beautifully acted by Georgina Strawson and Scott Haran. We also get some more insight into Barnabas’ lingering bloodlust and lack of viable food options which is driving him deeper into his monstrous side. I have spoken a lot here recently about my growing admiration for Andrew Collins’ portrayal of Barnabas and as this series goes on, I’m increasingly convinced this series might be his finest hour(s) as the character. Finally there is also the newly introduced thread of certain characters feeling a sense of unease rippling through their minds, all leading up to David literally ghosting on the altar. This is the kind of stuff that made us keep watching the next episode and Bloodline seems to be leaning into the more cruel cliffhangers of the show. In. To. It.

From a burning hospital to a disappearing groom, Dark Shadows: Bloodline episodes 5 and 6 have it all, ending this first volume on one hell of a mic drop. This series has been so, so fun so far because it seems that literally ANNNNYthing can happen. With Bloodlust it was just quaint little murders and witchcraft. But this thing? It’s on a whole other level. Until next time, goons, I’ll be seeing you.

(Editor's note: Episodes 5 and 6 of Bloodline are available HERE.)

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline, Episode 4

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Grok it, Reader-Bots! Spoilers Ahead!

“You call him...Barney. Harry called him Uncle Barnabas. 

He wants to be ALL those things! He wants a family! He wants to live here, and see the sunlight again, but he’s CURSED! He’s a VAMPIRE! We must never forget that, Jackie!”

Click the image to get Dark Shadows: Bloodline!

Stag night in Collinsport comes to an explosive conclusion in Bloodline episode 4! Written by Aaron Lamont, he of Beyond the Grave and the recently Scribe Award nominated The Lover’s Refrain, this fourth episode just leans right the hell into some of the best soap opera narrative turns making them sing once again for Dark Shadows. But better than that, this episode really finds the serial as a whole picking up. Really working the resolutions of episode three’s cliffhangers and then doubling down on them in grand fashion with even BIGGER ones! While Bloodlust was more of a slow burn mystery, Bloodline, at least by this episode’s dynamic metric, is really looking to be more of an “event”. And why the hell shouldn’t it? It IS Amy and David’s wedding after all. Let’s get into it.

Addressing the absolute biggest cliffhanger first, Jackie is NOT DEAD! Which is great because I would have been gutted if the wonderful Alexandra Donnachie left us this soon. Though she WAS somewhat attacked by Barnabas (which mortified him, Julia’s words, not mine), she merely fainted. And who wouldn’t, being accosted by a hunger starved vampire?! This obviously leads to more sass from Jackie and a tense heart-to-heart with Julia that new Dr. Hoffman, Julie Newmar, digs into with aplomb. That pretty much rounds out Jackie’s involvement in this episode, but I am still really enjoying the continued focus on the “younger” cast members. Plus the extra bonus of the hungry Barnabas and Andrew Collins’ performance of such is a real dark treat of a plot simmering behind everything else.

Because the REAL affair of this episode is the dual bridal shower/bachelor party of Amy and David! Which goes about as wonky as you would assume it would! I spoke in my last review about how Bloodline has been a bit more conveniently “operatic”. Meaning that it’s kind of going back to the well when it comes to certain plots. Plots like Viv coming back to “reconnect” with Harry. Well, everything that happens during these scenes just continues to prove my point as Viv continues to seemingly undermine the incoming marriage of David and Amy, using Harry as a pawn to do it! Pretty tried and true stuff, right? But I really appreciate it here! It is really low-key, emotional stakes. A welcome change of pace after all the murder and mayhem of Bloodlust. I like that this serial so far is just about the hassle of planning a wedding and how awkward it is when your parents come to visit you. I can relate, Bloodline.

We even get a brand new Burke Devlin for our troubles! Voiced by noted voice actor and impressionist Adam Hall, Burke joins the festivities along with Kathryn Leigh Scott’s Maggie, having literally driven her out of ...And Red All Over just “days” before. Scott is always a welcome presence in the Big Finishverse as far as I’m concerned and hearing her instantly lock back into the role of “governess” to a completely drunk Amy Jennings and Rhonda Tate (Lachele Carl REALLY getting to let loose in this episode to great effect) warms my heart. Hall’s Burke is also wonderfully uncanny. Not only does he capture Mitchell Ryan’s swagger and booming cadence, but he also makes for a pretty damn good Burke! One who naturally commands a scene and charms in more intimate one-on-one interactions with other characters. I’m starting to think Big Finish has access to some kind of Time Lord science or has made some pact with the Dark One in regards to how well they can recreate the personas of certain characters.

My glib attempt at dork humor aside, Episode 4 really impressed me and I think you are all going to be further sucked into this tale. This serial continues to be everything you could want from a Dark Shadows “event” series. Even without the episode’s, shall we say, “explosive” cliffhanger. I will say no more, readers, but I WILL be back here to talk to you once the next episode rattles off the wires. Until then, how about you meet me in the CHS Drawing Room over on Facebook and we can talk theories over some healthy portions of the Good Brandy, if ya know what I mean? We can talk Barnabas’ hunger, why Viv Bell is out to ruin everything, and why is Ed Griffin such a friggen jerk?! It will be a fun time for all. Until then, be seeing you.

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline episodes 1-3

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Reader, Beware! Slight Spoilers Ahead!

Big Finish’s latest Dark Shadows epic gets an engagingly charming opening trio of episodes in the start of Bloodline! Full disclosure, the early(ish) start of this serial kind of caught us a bit flat-footed here at the CHS. Mainly because we have been planning something truly special to cover this newest series. Something a bit more specific and theatrical. Something that is still very much in the works for you all! BUT, me being the “audio correspondent” and currently lowest on staff intern (I actually WAS above one last week, but he took lunch down by the docks the other day and then never reported back, so either he got Levianthan’ed or quit), it fell to me to at least get something on record about the opening episodes.

And the record will show, IT IS FRIGGIN’ GREAT! Chock to the gills with some classic Dark Shadows set ups and wonderfully acted by a game cast, filled with returning favorites and new icons, these opening three really bait the trap well for the first “volume” of episodes. Bloodline might have been a long time coming, but if these opening episodes are any indication, this series will have been well worth the wait.


Firmly set after the events of Bloodlust and ...And Red All Over, Bloodline finds Collinwood a’buzz with excitement for the upcoming nuptials of David Collins (Alec Newman) and Amy Jennings (Stephanie Ellyne). But a new stranger has come into town, as strangers are the moth to Collinsport’s flame. One by the name of Vivian Bell, played with aplomb by series newcomer Georgina Strawson.

Click the image to get Dark Shadows: Bloodline!

Bell’s storyline is one of the many, many juicy plot setups these first few Bloodline episodes deliver. Along with beautiful stranger comes a whole other heap of story hooks that writers Alan Flanagan (ep. 1), Rob Morris (ep. 2), and Will Howells (ep. 3) lay out across all three episodes. Lovingly staged by the wonderful sound design and music of David Darlington, we have grounded family drama centered around Bell and her connection to Harry Cunningham (who again, with the rest of the younger cast members, gets some ample time in the spotlight). The writers sweeten the grounded plot pot with some choice romantic triangle action, consisting of the consistently lovely Newman and Ellyne, with the added charge of Strawson’s Viv Bell.

We also get plenty of supernatural aspects weaving in and out of the story. Elements like body switching, an unseen dark force stalking Cody and Harry (who have BROKEN UP, apologies, shippers, I mourn with you), and a voice that sounds awwwwwwfully like The Sixth Doctor’s coming out of the cave at the base of Widows’ Hill! And I hear you asking, “Justin, what about the Vampire Curse?”, well, buster, hang on to your hat! These first three episodes introduce a real meaty subplot centered around Barnabas’ feeding habits that I am very interested to discuss with you blood freaks out there. Let’s just say, it takes a village, and leave it at that.

Julie Newmar records her dialogue for Dark Shadows: Bloodline.

But let’s get to the Catwoman-sized elephant in the room. Julie Newmar is absolutely incredible as The Second Dr. Julia Hoffman. Cleverly “regenerated” not unlike Andrew Collins’ (who also impresses in these opening installments) new Barnabas, Newmar folds into the cast beautifully with an honorable, very specific performance. Newmar’s timbre and line delivery is slightly odd and purists might be a bit off-put by a new actor playing Hoffman, but for my money, she’s perfect. There was only one Grayson Hall and there is only one Julie Newmar. But both of them stand well aside each other at the moment. I mean, it would have to take a true disaster for Newmar to ever disappoint me, but I really think you all will love her. I can’t wait to see what else she does with the good doctor.

I know a lot of this sounds vague, and I will admit a certain reticence to talk about some of the best developments. Here is a quick contextless list of some further selling points of the story so far. The return of the Old House! Jackie’s hilarious dialogue! (she refers to Barnabas’ transforming powers as “The Bat Thing!”) David Selby! The return of a major antagonist! And to know any more, you are just going to have to listen to them for yourself. (And then maybe listen to me and the chief talk about THEM further on down the road).

But rest assured, fellow fans of the macabre, Bloodline Episodes 1-3 are well worth your money and time. Especially if you liked Bloodlust, or have invested the amount of time in the Big Finishverse that dorks like us have. It truly is great stuff. Another wonderful showing from a group of dedicated creatives and their cast, who bring it to life with fun, reverent performances. It is the best possible scenario for a follow up miniseries. Keep a weather eye peels for LOTS more coverage of this series as it continues. Until then, be seeing you.

(Editor's note: Episode 4 of Bloodline is now available HERE.)

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline begins!

Dark Shadows: Bloodline is here! Much earlier than anticipated!

If I learned anything yesterday, it's that I'd rather get caught with my actual pants down than with my figurative pants down. Actual pants are quickly pulled up, allowing us to all go about out lives as if you never saw my whiter-shade-of-pale. Figurative pants are a lot more difficult to hitch up.

Yesterday, I was drafting an aggregate post about Justin Partridge's Road to Bloodline series of reviews when I was figuratively de-pantsed. Justin had spent the last few months visiting the Dark Shadows audios that followed the best-selling/award-winning Bloodlust serial in anticipation of the sequel. This feature was/is going to be bookended by Bloodline-related project here at the CHS that isn't ready to be announced just yet ... but before any of that happened, Big Finish sent out an e-mail announcing that the first episode of Bloodline was available for sale.

I was already preoccupied with other non-Dark Shadows related business and couldn't do any more than tweet about the news (though I did work in 30 minutes to listen to the episode during a break.) Given what happens during the final seconds of the episode, it might be worth mentioning that yesterday was the late Humbert Allen Astredo's birthday. Or maybe it's not worth mentioning. I have questions! And confusion! But that's not different from any other day of the week, to be honest.

Bloodline is going to be a bitch to discuss for all the usual reasons. It's going to be serialized over the coming weeks and it's always difficult to discuss an incomplete story. There's also the spoiler factor to consider; not everybody is going to be able to listen to Bloodline at the same pace and I'd love to end our coverage of the series without anyone pissed off at me. (I don't even know if mentioning Astredo's name here is a spoiler or a bad guess.)

We've got plans to deal with all of that, and hopefully we'll be able to say more during the next few days.

In the meantime, Big Finish has included a feature about Dark Shadows: Bloodline in their latest issue of Vortex, which you can download HERE. The producers have been keeping much of the cast of the serial a secret, but reveal in the interview that Burke Devlin (and presumably Mitchell Ryan) will be returning to Collinsport during Bloodline.

You can get the first episode HERE.

Julie Newmar joins Dark Shadows cast as ... Julia Hoffman

Julie fucking Newmar, guys.

I've had a solid week to plan this announcement and I still don't know where to begin. The idea that Julie Newmar is involved in any capacity with Dark Shadows is exciting enough ... but the fact that she's filling Grayson Hall's sizeable shoes in the upcoming Big Finish serial Bloodline has made me blow a fuse. There's always been something transcendent about Newmar, a performer whose ruthless appeal shows no regard for age, race, gender or sexual identity ... if you're reading this and have a pulse, it's likely your heart rate  just quickened.

I could devote an entire website to Newmar's career, so to summarize it for a blog post seems foolhardy. So I'm going to keep this nerdcore: Dark Shadows is just the latest cult television show in Newmar's already well-feathered cap. Among her other genre credits are Batman, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The Monkees, Bewitched and Get Smart. With those kinds of credits it  seems inevitable that she'd arrive at some point in Collinsport. But I don't think anybody would have predicted she'd show up as Julia Hoffman, a character that attracts interesting actresses like a magnet. Newmar follows Grayson Hall, Barbara Steele, Kelly Hu and Helena Bonham Carter ... Big Finish has been famously reticent about replacing the original cast members of Dark Shadows in their audio line and their patience here had paid off.

If you follow the Dark Shadows audio line's Twitter feed, you've already heard a preview of Newmar's performance. Sneaky bastards that they are, a clip of Newmar was anonymously included in a teaser back on March 20.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline written by Alan Flanagan, Will Howells, Aaron Lamont and Rob Morris, features the return of the cursed Collins family - those that survived the events of Bloodlust. As family and friends gather at the Collinwood estate for the wedding of David Collins and Amy Jennings, a new mystery starts to unfold. Bloodline will be serialized bi-weekly beginning in April and is available for pre-order at Big Finish.


Now that I've caught my breath, here's the official statement from Big Finish:

Barnabas Collins (Andrew Collins) is returning to Collinsport - but this time he is not alone, as Big Finish are thrilled to announce that Julie Newmar - the original Catwoman in Batman - is taking on the role of Doctor Julia Hoffman in the forthcoming Dark Shadows series, Bloodline.

Julie Newmar recording her lines for Dark Shadows: Bloodline.

“Saying that the character of Julia Hoffman is an icon is the biggest understatement you could make,” says co-producer Joseph Lidster. “She was brought into the television series as a Van Helsing-type character who was destined to be killed by the vampire, Barnabas Collins, after thirteen weeks. Grayson Hall, who played Julia, had other ideas. She went into that TV show and took it over. Julia’s relationship with Barnabas - changing from mortal enemy to best friend - was what really made Dark Shadows soar. Grayson’s performance was astonishing, and the character is fascinating. She deliberately puts herself in danger because she wants to ‘cure’ Barnabas. Why? Because she’s a scientist and she’s fascinated by him. As their relationship develops there is a hint that she might have stronger feelings for him, and they become best friends travelling through time and parallel universes to save the Collins family. Sadly, Grayson Hall passed away in 1985, so the audio series has only had hints of what Julia has been up to since we last met her. We knew that one day we would want to bring her back, but who could possibly play such an iconic character? Enter iconic actress Julie Newmar…”

“We’d been talking about bringing back Julia for years,” says co-producer David Darlington, “and had come up with dozens of what felt like brilliant ideas as to who could play her - only to go off every one of those ideas, usually the next morning. But having written the scripts for Bloodline, we were kind of committed to casting *somebody*! The license holder Jim Pierson came to us with a few suggestions, and top of his list was Julie Newmar. To be honest, I don’t think we quite believed him at first…”

“Julie agreed to read the scripts,” Lidster continues, “and we think she fell in love with the character. Trying to sum up Julie Newmar is pretty much impossible. She’s an actress/singer/dancer/writer/lingerie inventor/real estate mogul/gay rights campaigner and so much more, so we’re thrilled that she agreed to take on the role.”

Julia Hoffman will return for the wedding of David Collins and Amy Cunningham, but where has she been these last few years? Followers of the Big Finish Dark Shadows Twitter account (@darkshadowsbfp) have been reminded of how - and why - Barnabas left Collinsport to find her…

"She came to this town to solve a mystery..." https://t.co/orIR1KUX1z

— DarkShadowsBFP (@darkshadowsbfp) March 21, 2019

So, Barnabas Collins and Julia Hoffman… welcome back to Collinsport.

Dark Shadows, The Road to Bloodline: Deliver Us From Evil

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

“Don’t live in the dark too long. 
You don’t know what’s waiting in 
there for you.”

It’s Sabrina Jennings vs. the Son of Satan in the blisteringly entertaining Deliver Us from Evil! The latest stop on the Road to Bloodline! Rounding out a quadrilogy of narrative threads that started in Beneath the Veil, then weaved on through The Enemy Within, then most recently tieing through Carriage of the Damned, Deliver Us From Evil brings Sabrina Jennings’ and Cyrus Longworth’s story to a beautiful and terrifying close for now; proving once again this range could support longer serialized narratives, while also just delivering a damn fine single story. Sharply written by Aaron Lamont and given a wide array of impressive effects and transitions by sound designer David Darlington, Deliver Us From Evil is a must own for fans of the Jennings clan, Christopher Pennock people, and discerning audiophiles alike.

Once again, we open with a post-Bloodlust framing device. After having left Collinsport after the revelation that her own sister killed her husband in a lycanthropic rage, Amy Cunningham (the always luminous Stephanie Ellyne) is looking to forget her troubles in Bangor. But the fates have other plans for her as she has a chance meeting with her sister Sabrina (a powerful performance from Lisa Richards) and the two are forced to confront the growing rift between them, leading to Sabrina to tell Amy about the sad, strange fates of Cyrus Longworth and Alfie Chapman (a returning and positively unhinged Simon Kent).

I have gone long on record about these framing devices, but this time, I didn’t feel like it was very obtrusive to my enjoyment or the overall story. Once the sisters are basically trapped together, in a situation straight out of sitcom, it is pretty much all flashback as Darlington deftly transitions us from the “present” to the “past" allowing Lamont’s script to really take off. And don’t let the apparent density of this being a “payoff” episode throw you! Though this whole thing is steeped in Big Finishverse lore, the script takes the steps to get the audience up to speed on what is actually being paid off that way no one is lost.

But long-time listeners or beginners (like me) I think will get an extra little thrill out of seeing all these threads pay off along with all the returning characters. I mean, this single story is cool for people coming in cold, but y’all know how much I love serialization. Sabrina is one again the star of the show and Richards more than rises to the occasion. Pennock also really impresses here, playing up the wounded terror of Cyrus as well as leaning heavily into moustache twirling villainy once the Son of the Dark Lord fully takes over his corporal form. The triple threat of baddies here James Unsworth’s John, Simon Kent’s Alfie, and Brigid Lohrey’s Danielle Roget also add plenty of dark delights for this story as the representatives of the “dark side”. This thing is even graced with an extra bit of star power from our own WALLACE MCBRIDE! Playing all the hits as his returning DJ character, Edgar McBride, which will always delight me to no end.

But I really loved this one, guys! It had a lot of great things for long time listeners on top of just a goddamn entertaining story starring some Dark Shadows mainstays! Kind of a win-win for all us nerds, right? Though I will say, I think listening to the whole cycle would give you that much more enjoyment out of this one, BUUUT there is still a lot to love about Deliver Us From Evil even without all the backstory.

NEXT TIME! Tainted Love! The return of the Kwisatz Haderach of my Heart, Alec Newman as David Collins! And another co-starring role for the mysterious Hallie Stokes! Until then, be seeing you.

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Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at [email protected] Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Here's your first look at Dark Shadows: Bloodline

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

I don't get a lot of news crossing my desk here at the CHS. Mainly because my "office" (AKA: converted second floor broom closet) doesn't have a mail in box. But all that changed yesterday when a runner from the Bangor division of Big Finish wandered up the stairs yesterday, cordially inviting me and providing more details on the upcoming wedding of Amy Jennings and David Collins.

That's right, fellow audio creeps! Big Finish yesterday revealed a brand new trailer for the upcoming serial as well as the cover to Volume 1, new cast announcements, and synopsis of the story! Not too shabby for my paltry little beat, huh?

I will post the trailer below, because it is well worth the listen, but what follows is the synopsis, which you'll see we have a lot to unpack with.

In the Great House of Collinwood Amy Jennings and David Collins are finally putting years of tragedy and loss behind them and committing to a life together. And, as the ceremony approaches, friends old and new are drawn to the town at the edge of the sea. Once again, the tortured vampire, Barnabas Collins, is amongst them. But this time he is not alone. After so many years away, Doctor Julia Hoffman has returned with him, finally convinced she has the means to cure his affliction. But joy and happiness never last long in Collinsport, for malevolent forces are never far away. Among those gathered for the celebration are some who would conspire to tear the family apart. In this town some wounds refuse to heal, some secrets demand to be heard, and some sins cry out to be punished 

Welcome back to Collinsport.

Until death do you part.

JULIA IS BACK! No word yet on who is playing her, but that alone is cause for celebration. The release also lets slip that Jerry Lacy is returning as new character Matthew Young and Kathryn Leigh Scott is rejoining the cast as Maggie Haskell. Alongside Scott and Lacy are the new ensemble of Nico Diodoro, Sarah Pitard, Kelly Burke and Tom Michael Blyth (which should excite fans of the Tony & Cassandra Mysteries), all playing new locals filling out the cast around the regulars.

So if you weren't excited before now, I'm not sure what to tell you. I am very glad Lacy is back, doubly so for Julia, and maybe even triply for Scott's return! We are almost there, guys, as the serial aims for a bi-weekly release in April. You better believe we are going to cover it.

Until then, enjoy the trailer, and I'll be seeing you.

Dark Shadows: Bloodlust - The Post Mortem Interview

BY JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Our coverage of the epic re-release of Dark Shadows: Bloodlust might have wrapped up, but I still had a few lingering questions about the sprawling tale. Luckily, I was able to sit down with the impossibly nice and wildly talented Joe Lidster and get him to answer some of them! I figured with him being one of the company’s most prolific writers and directors he would at least have SOMETHING to say. Thankfully I was right! We talked about all sorts of great stuff, including the production of Bloodlust, the wonderful cast and characters of the franchise, and what we can expect from the upcoming sequel series Dark Shadows: Bloodline.

The Collinsport Historical Society: Just to start, how did Bloodlust come about? Was there a want on the production side to do more larger scale stories?

Joseph Lidster: It was a combination of things really. Stuart Manning decided to step down from producing the full cast series so we knew we wanted to do something to follow on from Kingdom of the Dead. David Darlington, my co-producer (the one who makes it all happen, basically) was very keen to do something that would re-capture the serial aspect of the television series and I was very keen to do something that didn’t just follow on from the cliffhanger at the end of Kingdom. There was a five-year gap between the two series and we’d spent a lot of time on the Dramatic Readings range trying to find ways to make the series more newbie-friendly so we didn’t just want the opening scene to be Carolyn and David in Collinwood possessed by Petofi. I also wanted to give the series lots of “wow” moments. If you know Dark Shadows then you know who the characters are but if you don’t then I wanted each of the supernatural characters to have a big entrance and so on. The House of Despair through to Kingdom of the Dead had lots of brilliant stuff in them but they kind of assumed you knew who everyone was and why the stuff that happened was important. I wanted to strip it right back - in a similar way to when Russell T. Davies brought back Doctor Who- so it was both a relaunch as well as a continuation. David’s idea of doing this as a 13-episode serial fitted with that perfectly so that’s what we pitched to Big Finish.

CHS: How did you go about choosing the characters that would be included?

J.L.: We knew we had to have the characters who were still there at the end of Kingdom of the Dead. So we had to have Isaiah Trask, David, Carolyn, Maggie Evans, Ed Griffin and his mother, Jessica. Although Quentin, Barnabas and Angelique had all been sent away at the end of Kingdom there was no way we wouldn’t be bringing them back. The main character we did bring back was Amy Jennings. We’d re-introduced her into the Dramatic Readings’ range and we’d fallen in love with Stephanie Ellyne who played her. We also wanted to create a “next generation” of the Collins family so we worked out that Amy was the character we could do this with. The 2003 audio Return to Collinwood had made it pretty clear that neither David or Carolyn had had children so we worked out how Amy could bring us some teenage characters. Soap operas rely on there being more than one generation but Dark Shadows - through a combination of the last couple of years of the television series being more about Barnabas and Julia travelling through time etc and Return to Collinwood being a reunion special rather than setting up new storylines - had stagnated with regards to continuing the present-day Collins’ family. We worked out that Amy was just old enough to have a baby and that if she was married then she could have a step-son. We quickly worked out that we wanted the husband to be killed off so she wasn’t tied to a man and that we could find some supernatural way to age up her baby so we’d have a nice family unit.

We then looked at exploring Collinsport some more. We wanted it to feel like a proper serial drama - with different family units in different locations in the community. As research, we watched how a lot of first episodes of soap operas did this, as well as watching the first episode of Twin Peaks - which was obviously a big influence on Bloodlust. We decided that we wanted to focus on the community and build up the supernatural elements so they felt big, so we created the Blue Whale group - Jess and her son Ed. We moved Trask into being a drunk who was often at the Blue Whale and brought back Ed’s wife Susan, as a ghost. We knew we wanted to look at how a murder affects a community so we knew we wanted to bring in a regular Sheriff, a doctor at the hospital, the editor of the Collinsport Star and so on. We wanted there to be a new everyman character - the new Joe Haskell - so created Frankie who also served as giving the editor of the newspaper a boyfriend. We also used Frankie to give Ed a friend as I’d always found his character to be a bit one-dimensional and non-sympathetic. We looked at the characters we could give children to and decided on the Sheriff and the Doctor. By doing all this, we could create a community of different generations living in different locations who would gradually start to interact with each other. It was actually quite a scientific process. One of the things I’m proudest of with Bloodlust is that I think it feels natural rather than extensively plotted but every character was designed to fulfil a specific purpose. There were a lot of Excel spreadsheets working out their interactions and what purpose they served.

One character I personally had to fight for was Kate Ripperton. I adore working with Asta Parry and felt she’d given an amazing performance in Beyond The Grave. Kate was pretty much the one character in that story who didn’t really get any kind of closure. The rest of the writing team were - quite rightly - worried about bringing back a character with so much baggage but I fought for her and I do think the character really works. Frankie was a hard character to get right, though, because when we were writing him, he was just coming across as nice and dull. I then remembered Roger Carvalho and realised he’d be perfect for the role so I sent his showreel to the other writers and said “This is Frankie” and we went through his dialogue and made it much more in Roger’s voice. Roger also meant we increased the number of people of colour in the series which I felt was very important. I also wanted there to be some out gay characters because I think representation is so important.

The original idea we had was that we would tell some kind of murder mystery and that it would all be a smoke-screen for what David and Carolyn were doing. We also knew that we wanted the series to open with a new character arriving in town and we would discover the characters and locations through them - as they did in Episode One of the television series. We decided that we’d open with Amy and her family arriving in town as she would have been away for ten years. We then started to work out who the murder victim would be and we kept coming back to Amy. The character you think is going to be the main character is the one who gets killed off at the end of episode one. But… we loved Amy. We loved Stephanie. We didn’t want to kill her off. Hence, the creation of Melody Devereux - who is so blatantly a Victoria Winters-type character. Melody arrives in town and then she becomes the victim. Then, episode two could open with Amy arriving in town.

With regards to making the characters more “wow” we then moved Angelique into a whispering cave because, again, I didn’t just want to cut to her in a house muttering about wanting revenge. It was all about building interesting soundscapes, making the supernatural characters seem big and exciting again, and creating a community that the listener would become invested in.

CHS:  Where there any characters that you wanted to include that you couldn't fit in?

J.L.:  I can’t think of any in particular. We didn’t want to bring back Cyrus and Sabrina at that point as they wouldn’t really have fulfilled a role in the series and we knew every character had to have a reason to be there. In fact, that’s why we killed off Isaiah Trask. We knew that Melody, Andrew and Deputy Eric would die (Melody would be our Laura Palmer, Andrew would be a baddie and his death would make the character of Amy stronger, and Eric was… cannon fodder). We pretty quickly decided that Kate and Frankie wouldn’t be long for this world as they were perfect “everyman” characters to kill off. Isaiah’s death wasn’t planned at all. We hadn’t fully worked out where he would go - in fact, I think the Excel spreadsheets for the later episodes pretty much had “Isaiah helps Angelique or something”. I was writing the episode and just found myself thinking “He’s served his purpose to the plot… he could just get shot now?” and I just wrote the scene and sent it to the others and they loved it. So sudden and shocking. I had also found the character slightly woolly - was he a Trask? Was he born there? Who were his family? Obviously, Jerry Lacy is an amazing actor so I knew we would bring him back in some way but that particular character just felt like he no longer had a function, now that we knew who the woman in the whispering cave was and so on. His death also served to highlight the madness that was engulfing the town.

CHS:  What was the discussion of how this particular story fit into the Big Finish mythos, or as I like to call it the Big Finishverse, like?

J.L.:  There wasn’t that much discussion really. We knew it would follow on from our Dramatic Readings and from Kingdom of the Dead and we knew that it was set roughly twenty years before Return to Collinwood. I’ve now got a huge a timeline of “things that need to be done.” So, the two “things that needed to be done” in this were to write out Angelique and to wipe Maggie’s memory of the supernatural. In the Dramatic Reading Path of Fate, Angelique is said to have lived in a cottage in the woods for ten years (c1993) and Maggie, in Return To Collinwood, has no knowledge of the supernatural at all. I also wanted to write out Angelique because I felt, in the previous full cast audios, she had become an easy way to end stories - she’s so powerful that basically she could just do a spell and that’s the problem resolved. Also, with Maggie, in Return to Collinwood it’s stated that Joe died ten years before after being happily married to Maggie - so we knew we wanted to get her out of town so she the marriage could take place and they could have a few years happy together. So, yeah, lots of continuity stuff that hopefully doesn’t feel too plotted.

CHS:  What was the hardest part to write for you? Was there as particular scene or episode that proved a tough nut to crack?

J.L.:  The hardest scenes to write usually involved the deaths of characters. We fell in love with Kate and Frankie and it would have been so easy for us to change our minds and let them live. Also, Andrew’s death was incredibly difficult because we couldn’t have too much time pass before the next episode and the plot had to keep going but we also had a teenage boy losing his father - so we really had to keep that in mind with Harry’s scenes. He couldn’t just forget his father had died but, at the same time, we couldn’t really spend too much time exploring the grief process. Anything involving the Petofi storyline was also difficult because we knew that - for new listeners - the character and his backstory would be new information, so we had to find ways to make him relevant to our characters rather than just “here’s an old villain from the TV series” - so the book about him came from Michael’s university days with Amy and Carolyn and so on.

Technically, possibly the hardest thing to do was to ensure that Barnabas was there as a character. He’s a vampire so can only be up and about at night, so we had to find ways to move time on so that episodes would quickly be set after dark - but it’s tricky to resolve an exciting cliffhanger by the next episode cutting to the following evening and having characters talk about what happened. One of the later episodes has David and Amy talking and he’s doing a spell so she doesn’t realise how much time has passed just so that we can quickly get to night and have Barnabas join in!

CHS:  I see that you are also directing some of these stories. Tell me about the transition from writer to director.

J.L.:  I’ve been directing for a while, really. It came about just because it was convenient really. So, with the Dramatic Readings, I would come in and just guide the actors while David (Darlington) does all of the technical stuff. It then became much more important with Bloodlust because it was so complicated and so few of the actors recorded at the same time, so my main job was just make sure everything fitted together performance-wise. And I think it does so I’m happy with that! Frankly, with actors as good as what we have there’s very little direction needed.

CHS- Were you pleased with the reaction to the story?

J.L.: We were so so thrilled. The way the story was released - two episodes a week - meant that people really got into trying to work out who the killer was. Everyone was talking on forums about the various clues and so on. It was really exciting to watch that unfold over the weeks it was released. And yeah, it seems to have really clicked with the audience. To this day, we still have people telling us how exciting it was and how well the series works. Which is nice!

CHS: Were you a fan of the show before getting the job?

J.L.: I became a fan through working on it, really. Stuart Manning introduced me to the show and I started to fall in love with it. I then wrote an audio for him and fell in love with it a bit more. Then I started producing the series and began to really realise just how glorious Dark Shadows is. It’s genuinely something so different to anything else there’s ever been on television and it’s genuinely a huge honour to be involved in keeping the series going. To actually have some control over the fates of these amazing characters is just really weird and brilliant.

CHS: Team Barnabas or Team Quentin? Or other?

J.L.: Oh, well I started with the 1897 storyline so it was all about tall, evil, silent, sexy Quentin so he’s always going to be my first love but they’re both just brilliant. But, genuinely, I’ve fallen in love with all the characters. It’s an over-used word these days but I think 90% of the characters in Dark Shadows are iconic - often because of the actors playing them.

CHS: Finally, is there anything you can tell us about Bloodline? And if not, is there a dollar amount you will take in order TO tell us something about Bloodline?

J.L.: Ha! Well, we’ve announced that it’s about the wedding of Amy and David and that whereas Bloodlust was a story about a mystery, this is a mystery about a story. What else can I tell you? I let slip at a Big Finish convention yesterday that Jessica Griffin and Sheriff Rhonda are back. This time next week we’ll have completed the UK recording - our final session is with two new actors playing the new characters of Bonnie and Jamie. Chris Pennock has revealed that he is back - which I’m SO happy with so… new fact - a character will be born who will have a huge influence on the town.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline releases in April of 2019, but is available for pre-order now, while Bloodlust, and all the other deliciously evil stories mentioned here, are available now in both digital and physical formats at BigFinish.com. 

Big Finish announces the future of Dark Shadows

I've got big news and a busy day ahead, so let's cut right to the point: Big Finish has just announced a massive roster of DARK SHADOWS aidio releases that will take us unto 2020. We've got details on the Bloodlust sequel Bloodline, two new collections of The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries, and the a new serial with the simple-yet--mysterious title of Dark Shadows: Windcliff. Here's the official anouncement straight from BF:

Dark Shadows - The Future of Collinsport is unveiled! 

A second and third series of the magical The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries is coming out soon. Plus Bloodline, the follow-up to the DARK SHADOWS release, Bloodlust, has been confirmed today where we’ll see the future history of the world of Collinsport…

Big Finish is delighted to announce a whole host of treats from the world of Dark Shadows, and they promise to be scarier than ever…

This November sees the return of the private detective, Tony Peterson, and the witch, Cassandra Collins in Series 2 of The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries.

Co-producer Joseph Lidster says: “People seemed to like the first series, so we spoke to Big Finish about producing more adventures for the detective duo. We didn’t want to do just more of the same, though, so Series 2 delves into their relationship a lot more. They get a new secretary, Alice Wilkes, who they previously encountered on the doomed Flight 493, and Cassandra is starting to try and settle down to life in the 1970s. She’s even rented an apartment!

“The second series features cartoon characters coming to life, a spooky sanitarium, a two-hander told in real-time and a mysterious lonely-hearts hotel where Tony and Cassandra have to go undercover because obviously they most definitely, absolutely, don’t have any romantic feelings for each other at all. Doing more of The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries has also allowed us to bring some new writers into the world of Dark Shadows - with Grace Knight, Joshua J Price and Tanja Milojevic joining returning writers Alan Flanagan and Philip Meeks.”

She’s a witch. He’s a private detective. And when they get together, it’s magic…

The private detective and the witch are back investigating four new exciting mysteries:

Could cartoon characters really be coming to life at Stone Heart Studios? What is happening to the children at West Vale Sanitarium? What terrifying entity is haunting Cassandra’s new apartment? And what is really happening to those seeking love at the Soulmates Hotel?

The series stars Jerry Lacy and Lara Parker with Sydney Aldridge returning as pregnant, Molotov-cocktail-maker, secretary Alice Wilkes. “We’ve also managed to bring together a fantastic set of actors to play the supporting cast including Tom Blyth, Abi Harris, Doireann May White and Jake Wardle,” continues Joseph Lidster. “I was especially thrilled that Jake agreed to record for us as he recently starred in TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN which was just the most amazing television experience I think I’ve ever seen. It was hard to stay professional in studio and not bombard him with questions about David Lynch!”

Co-producer David Darlington told us about reuniting these two iconic characters for their own series: “When I attended the Dark Shadows 50th anniversary festival in mid-2016 the feedback we started receiving - and then kept on receiving - was that more and more people wanted more and more of Tony and Cassandra. Jerry Lacy sat next to the Big Finish contingent for one of his many autograph sessions and clearly enjoyed getting to point over at me and say, ‘Hey, ask this guy’ every time someone brought the subject up!”

“What’s brilliant about Tony & Cassandra,” continues Joe, “is that I genuinely didn’t expect their stories to be so popular with the fans. They’re not set at Collinwood and they’re a bit funnier and more adventure-y than the usual Dark Shadows stories. I was so happy to be proved wrong - I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to bring them back.”
You can pre-order Series 2 and 3 of The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries at £30 on CD or £25 on download. Or they are available together in a bundle at £56 on CD and £48 on download.

And speaking of things returning… what about that far-too-long-awaited return to Collinsport itself? Dark Shadows - Bloodline now has an official release date of April 2019!

Bloodline, written by Alan Flanagan, Will Howells, Aaron Lamont and Rob Morris, features the return of the cursed Collins family - those that survived the events of Bloodlust.

As family and friends gather at the Collinwood estate for the wedding of David Collins and Amy Jennings, a new mystery starts to unfold…

“Bloodline is finally happening!” says co-producer David Darlington. “Joseph and the writers wanted the scripts to be in the best possible shape before we went in to studio so there have been rewrites going back and forth for about two years now.” More details about Bloodline will be announced soon but the 13-part serial will be released in April 2019. As well as many of the regular residents of Collinsport, the series will also introduce the mysterious Vivian Bell, played by Georgina Strawson.

“Georgina is one of the stars of a children’s television series, HETTY FEATHER, that I’m lucky to write for,” says Joe. “When I first saw some rushes of her playing Lady Rosamund Calendar, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It’s a stunning performance, and I knew, as soon as I saw it, that we needed to get her into Dark Shadows. So, welcome to Collinsport, Vivian Bell…”

Bloodline is available in individual episodes on download at £2.99, released throughout April 2019. You can listen to the 25 minute episodes throughout the month, or you can pre-order them in individual releases on CD at £20 or download at £15 - or pre-order both together on £40 on CD or £30 on download.

The third and final series of The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries will be released in October 2019. Although not the end for these two iconic characters, this series wraps up their solo adventures.

“We always knew we wanted the series to be finite,” explains David. “We didn’t want to start repeating ideas, and we knew that the series had to eventually lead into The Phantom Bride.” Joe continues: “It’s been really great, working with Alan Flanagan, plotting out the character arcs across the two series and knowing that this has an actual ending. But it might not be the last we see of their characters, of course…!”

“Again, we’ve managed to assemble a fantastic guest cast,” continues David. “With Adam Hall, Sarah Pitard and DOCTOR WHO regular Dan Starkey joining the team. Plus Zehra Jane Naqvi co-stars as gypsy nightclub singer Mari, and Eva Pope - who Joe worked with on HETTY FEATHER- plays the mysterious Briar Stevenson.”

And that’s not all from Collinsport! April 2020 will see the release of a further 13-part-serial - Dark Shadows: Windcliff.

Written by Penelope Faith, Aaron Lamont, Rob Morris and Paul Phipps-Williams, Windcliff sees many of our regular characters making a night-time visit to Collinsport’s local sanitarium.

“All we’ll say for now is that we, again, wanted to do something we haven’t done before so Windcliff is very different to both Bloodlust and Bloodline,” explains Joe. “The writers are working on the scripts now and we’re looking forward to releasing more details in the future.”

More stories are scheduled for September 2020 and April 2021. “September 2020’s story is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” continues Joe. “And the following April will see the release of a further 13-part-serial provisionally titled Thirteen. What will happen? Who knows...”

Make sure you keep an eye out for more information on these upcoming Dark Shadows titles, plus Dark Shadows special offers in the spookiest month of year, October.

Via: www.bigfinish.com