The Dark Shadows Daybook: February 24

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this day in 1969: Episode 701

In 1897, unwitting gypsies react to the return of Quentin Collins by unleashing a living death from beyond the grave. Quentin: David Selby. (Repeat; 30 min.)

Quentin arrives back at Collinwood, despite having sewn domestic chaos there with his exit. His dying grandmother welcomes him cautiously, but warns that his brother Edward will inherit the secret of the Collins family. Meanwhile, desperate gypsies raid Barnabas’ casket in search of jewels, but find Barnabas, inhabited by his soul from 1969, more than ready to greet them.

Some transitions feel right.

Julia encountering Ben Stokes in hideous age makeup in 1840? Not right.

Vicki encountering a wide-eyed Barnabas on the Old House lawn in 1795? Right.

1897? Right beyond right. Like a smoking jacket delivered by a Greek god and tailored by St. George W. Trippon, himself.

It’s a transition that’s warm and fond of the actors and its audience and the show that is to come. It lets us know that although David’s life hangs in the balance, that’s 75 years or so in the future, so swing, baby. Unlike the DS of old, which often trickled onto screens with the urgency of frozen sap, this moves so quickly that it unleashes Barnabas by episode’s end. Up to a certain point, Dark Shadows asked anxious audience members, “What’s the rush?”

DS1897 has too much story to tell for that. It’s a soap with a confidence to do more than string us along between Ronco ads. It slides with refreshing effortlessness for one timeline to another. And it helps that we’ve already been introduced to Magda, Quentin, and Beth.

When Barnabas departs 1969, he is flanked by Julia and Stokes: friends. They are the last faces we see from 1969, and Magda and Szandor — Grayson Hall and Thayer David — are the first we find in 1897. Barnabas’ Necropod 1 will land among friends. Instantly, we know them to be on our side. Sleazy. Opportunistic. But warm, affectionate, and canny. Smarter than Willie. Less cruel than Jason McGuire… yet every bit his match. And refreshingly non-anglo. Yes, a mess of vices, but as “ethnic-others,”, they are courageous and aware individuals. They are destined to be wise allies and formidable enemies. This is important in the Curse Slinger department. If remorse doesn’t follow, the audience learns nothing, the show lacks poignance, and storylines end when the villains meet justice or death. We have no way of knowing that Magda will deliver Quentin’s destiny, but it will make nuanced sense when she does.

Quentin’s entrance, sans painting, begins as a nearly shot-for-shot remake of Barnabas’ first trip to Collinwood ‘67. That introduction told us to expect mystery. Now, this introduction tells us to expect our new co-protagonist. He wastes no time in speaking, telling Beth (proto-reunited) that she is still beautiful. It’s a line of swagger, charm, sincerity, and utter bunk. In other words, Quentin. Without his voice, we only knew part of the picture.  He was a ghost doing a dedicated impression of Edward, stern and severe. We know that edge. We know that potential. The brothers share it, even if we don’t know one of them. Now, we see the justifiably-held charm with which it is bound. Has any character been so bold on Dark Shadows? Nathan Forbes? Your ship is casting off.

There is a new scoundrel in town. One we know will have powers vast and true.

And we see exactly why matriarch Edith lets him back; he’s fun — a presence we’ve never seen among the Collins clan. Think back. I mean, Jeremiah, a little. Carolyn, if you’re named Buzz, but that’s it. This immediately sets him apart. If he’s unhappy, we know he’ll deal with it with wit, irony, and edge. He is the modernist answer to the Romantic’s assertion of Barnabas.

We already know that he’ll find no equal at Collinwood, and by introducing that edge, Dark Shadows grows up. Took ‘em going back 75 years, but it’s high time. And to remind us that some things never change in a universe that seems to thrive on instability? Barnabas enters in the traditional way, with a mouth-breathing hayseed looking for his family jewels. Szandor should be as lucky as Willie. But with Thayer David in the role, we see a connection between Willie and Ben, if only in spirit.

Barnabas will soon learn that you have to go places you’d never expect to finally make it home.

This episode hit the airwaves March 3, 1969.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: February 24

By PATRICK MCCRAY

Barnabas awakens to find his spirit transported back into his body in 1897. He summons Szandor, an unscrupulous but lovable gypsy who, with his fortune-telling wife, Magda, squat on the Old House property and sing for their suppers by entertaining Edith Collins. Edith is the ailing matriarch of the Collins family, and the news of her impending death summons home Quentin Collins. Quentin is a smooth talking, utterly ruthless cad who last escaped Collinwood with his brother’s wife in tow. He left behind Beth, the maid. She bitterly resents him, and yet carries a torch for the scoundrel, nevertheless. It’s clear that Quentin wants to see Jamison, but after being told that the boy is sleeping, he visits his grandmother, instead. She’s charmed by him but knows his wiles too well. He clearly wants to bulk up his inheritance, but is that all? There’s also the family secret. But only his brother, Edward, is to have that imparted to him. Meanwhile, summoned by Barnabas and with visions of the family jewels dancing in his head, Szandor goes to the secret room in the mausoleum. There he finds a familiar trigger. A door opens. A chained coffin lies within the room it reveals. Szandor removes the chains and unleashes a hand that shoots upward to his throat.

The inhuman adventure is just beginning.

1897 is, without a doubt, DARK SHADOWS greatest, pure adventure and liveliest romp. The show and Barnabas now parallel one another. Again, Barnabas thrusts upward in a fashion that, with only a second go, seems like a fond ritual. There’s a new confidence. Yes, he’s a vampire, but only a vacationing one. Now, he can use powers finally familiar to him rather than be used by them. And he knows he has a cured, human body in the 20th century waiting for him at mission’s end. He knows his abilities. He knows the possibilities. He knows far more of what Angelique’s capable of. He’s had two years to mellow out from what she did to him and has enjoyed seeing her upended more than once since then. Barnabas is now an old hand at ghosts, guilt, demons, werewolves, witches, and promethans. Not to mention time travel. Oh, and servants who would as soon stake you as help you. It’s good that he can stay in during the day because there’s little new under the sun for this cat. At the same time, the show introduces him into a world ripe with the supernatural. It’s full of colorful characters and familiar figures pushed to their most extreme. Even the family lawyer is a satanist. Had you told Dan Curtis that THIS is the series he’d be making back when the biggest deal on DARK SHADOWS was Maggie’s coffee, he would have produced gastrointestinal marvels for the age and lo, a new form of brick would have come into the world. No doubt with very prominent teeth.

1897 is a Ron Burgundy-confident retelling of the best of the entire series, mit Phoenix, with everything turned up to 11. You like it when Roger is a stiff-necked snob? Wait until Edward. When Maggie is saucy? Wait until Lady Kitty. When Liz is icy? She’s steam compared with Judith. And Carolyn gets to be even more of a pin and even more of a flirt at the very same time. You thought Willie was comic relief? Carl is just warming up. Trask couldn’t be worse unless we add child abuse, greed, murder, and lust to his range of options. You want Barnabas as a hero? Here he is. And what if that the oddball monster brought on to be a monster could be a breakout sex symbol? Well, let’s just cast a sex-symbol waiting to happen!

Yep, 1897. It’s the ultimate reset, and they hit it so hard and so firmly that pretty much every option the show could have at that time, with that budget, is explored. I think that’s why every story after that involves the undermining or destruction of the family. It was the only direction to go until it bounced back hard in 1840PT to normalcy.

A lot of firsts on DARK SHADOWS today. Say hello to Magda and Szandor and hear Quentin say hello, speaking his first words. If Selby lacked confidence, he had the charm to cover it up. He struts onto that set and owns it. Maybe he’s from the future, and read Kathryn’s books about the show. He acts like he knows this show is now his… and not just his. It’s everyones. I mean that. It is now a show that exists for reasons beyond selling toothpaste and pantyhose. It exists to do more than telling stories within the soap format. It finally exists as DARK SHADOWS, uncompromised, unafraid, and unlike anything else.