The Dark Shadows Daybook: January 16

 

Taped on this date in 1971: Episode 1196

By PATRICK McCRAY

“Head Alert!” Judah Zachery brings Valentine’s Day a month ahead of schedule when he robs Angelique of her powers just moments before Quentin’s planned execution. Angelique: Lara Parker. (Repeat; 30 min.)

Angelique’s plan to fight fire with voodoo fails when Judah Zachery removes the powers he gave her, 100 years prior. After persuading Charles Dawson to free her by gently beating him to death with a candlestick, she races to the site where Quentin and Desmond are about to go head-to-head in a laundry basket that will probably never be used as such again. 

Today, I may be on Judah Zachery‘s side. And I didn’t realize that until I sat down to write this. I will have to go back and look at what he did that was so terrible, but the 20th and 21st Centuries have made up their minds on the witchcraft issue. Those who don’t believe in it aren’t exactly going to be holding trials. Those who do believe are more than likely participating in it. 

Structurally, this episode falls in an awkward place. The most exciting part of this sequence of action was yesterday when Barnabas explained to Angelique that she’s just not a member of Club Corporeal, and so they can never really have a substantial love life.  As many times as I have watched that moment in 1195 where Barnabas denies her desires because of her occult nature, I have had a hard time understanding it. I have always operated under the assumption that the endowment of her powers has, by its very nature, robbed her of something crucial. I think it’s something that Barnabas senses more than he can fully intellectualize; his objection is not so much about her being “a witch,“ with the moral baggage that comes with it. Instead, it is about the detachment that comes with that much power. 

A relationship is an endeavor primarily driven by emotion. Emotion isn’t always pretty. The more power someone has to act on them, the more damage they can do. Angelique swings back-and-forth between benevolence and rampant awfulosity. The latter nogoodnikism that trails around her in the DS “timeline” is a bloody testament to my point. It’s all good and well to breathe and count to 10, but what does it mean for someone who can reverse time?

Barnabas reacts from the mindset of an abuse survivor, and as sad as that is, it’s about time he moved proactively on that. Because he does measure his response to her love by her capacity to do damage. And, okay. I fess up. (pause) Yes, it’s very convenient for this universe to then remove her powers shortly after this conversation with Barnabas. But let’s look the army medic in the eye; writing fiction means dusting for the fingerprints of coincidence. Dark Shadows simply doesn’t have the time left to disguise that obvious fact with a finesse we’ve all outgrown.  

Writers of fiction are very quick to have characters reject godhood. A little conveniently so. Frankly, I find the person who rejects power without at least browsing the catalog to be a little suspect. Yes, Uncle Stan told us that, “with great power comes great responsibility,“ and far be it for me to question him. But at the same time, there are a lot of corollaries. 

For one thing, maybe it’s not as much responsibility as it seems. Or maybe the exercise of that responsibility isn’t really that difficult. Ultimately, I think most writers are taking the lazy, easy way out when they have characters make these antitheistic pronouncements. This is pertinent to Angelique because she doesn’t voluntarily give up her powers. Judah Zachery giveth. Judah Zachery taketh away. 

And Angelique is no idiot. She’s going to hold onto these abilities because, as a mortal from the 1690s, she knows exactly how miserable life can be. So, where does that leave Barnabas?

By curing him of his vampirism, she has made a more profound sacrifice than we might initially think. Okay, Barnabas might believe it’s a stretch for a mortal to love a witch, but it’s an even greater leap to expect any immortal, nearly-omnipotent being to love a creature who is going to age and wither astonishingly quickly, all things considered. Although the vampire’s curse was meant as a punishment, perhaps subconsciously, she also realized that it was the only way they could be together. How else was he supposed to accompany her through time, given that the power to make or break a witch seems to be unique to Magus Zachery? By the 1790s, she has been like this for 100 years. And even in that time, who knows how often she has ping-ponged throughout the centuries? For her to stifle her abilities and risk everything to travel to the American wilderness for this man is perhaps more admirable than anything done by her rival. Josette agrees to an arranged marriage to a guy she loves, picks up a free mansion Maine, and calls it a day. That’s about as brave as picking out a value meal at Subway. 

Judah Zachery is doing her a favor. Think of the size of Angelique‘s sacrifice when she turns Barnabas back into a human. She is condemning him to die the death of an ordinary man, and she is serving herself the punishment of having to watch it, anticipating nothing but a nearly-eternal life without him once he passes away.  

It’s a perspective the changes things just a tad. And before you stop me from crying too athletically into my Gibson, that degree of love could explain the degree of wrath that she’s shown so many times. One hundred years of immortality might be enough to detach anyone from the experience of being human, and perhaps that’s why Barabas rejects her. Judah Zachery is not exactly Santa Claus, but by turning her back into a mortal, he has (even if accidentally) given Angelique the gift of human relatability. The gift of her powers helped her find Barnabas. Rescinding them is the one thing that could help her keep him. 

This episode was broadcast Jan. 25, 1971.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: JANUARY 25

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1971: Episode 1200

When the mysterious Woman in White appears on the grounds, Justin Collins knows that he must prepare the lottery… if only he can find his pants. Gabriel Collins: Christopher Pennock. (Repeat. 30 min.)

The Woman in White heralds Justin’s death and the oncoming lottery, the strange and mandatory ritual where each generation of Collinses must choose a member to stay in a room haunted by the humiliated torture of Brutus Collins, the cuckolded patriarch from 1692. Gabriel contemplates escape only to be chastised by his brother, Quentin.

1841PT roars to the screen in an episode packed with interesting variants on familiar characters and new avenues of mythos. Departing from the slow-burn romantic handwringing that will eventually merge with the lottery story, we careen into the latter with slam-bang inciting incidents. Morgan on the rocks, declaring that Collinwood is a house of death (true) and then Justin flailing about in Melanie’s arms like a ghastly Falstaff in his death throes, all thanks to the Woman in White. Eventually, the dynamic of brothers is demonstrated as we see their sense of character and family evidenced by the threat of the lottery, and the show has brought us up to speed with a curiously effortless mix of immediate intensity and subtlety.  Not to mention ghosts, coffins, and death in the clutches of existential dread and cool lighting.

So far, the focus of the PT glimpses has been on Bramwell, Morgan, and Catherine. Logical choices, since these are somewhat relatable (or related to relatable) figures, and the Bramwell/Catherine conflict informed Barnabas’ choice to pursue Angelique. Now that we’re no longer tied to the main series, Dan Curtis and company can expand the vista. By locking in to a set of characters and causality, Dark Shadows became more and more limited by obligations to past choices. Whereas the first PT jaunt was an odd non-sequitur & excuse to shoot a movie, this feels very different. And it has to be. By default, the main timeline has more red lights than green. It’s a world in which Roger has reconciled with David, Carolyn is heartbroken into romantic paralysis, Liz is free from the fears of presumed murder, Barnabas exists sans Josette and Angelique, Maggie is off the show, and Quentin drinks more coffee than brandy. The trajectories of four years of storytelling have reached their targets. Armed with the knowledge that he no longer has to put Gothic melodrama in Mad Men drag to comfort audiences, Curtis can simply present the raw feed of the period, making it our first time jump that exists as its own context, without an ambassador from (or at least through) the present. 

He’s moving closer to soap storytelling as well, with an emphasis on torn loyalties, questions of paternity, alcoholism, and the challenges of inhumane obligations to family. Given the medium, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for the show to explore those avenues. It was inevitable, and what’s interesting is how Dark Shadows deals with the arguably more mature and challenging emotional landscapes… especially without the crutches and/or restraints supplied by the original ensemble of characters. As it turns out, it does it quite well. With a ghostly and teasingly unseen Woman in White heralding family curses, it’s very much Dark Shadows -- just concentrated. Maybe we don’t need multiple Widows again. One might do. Maybe a single, haunted room is a more focused threat than an entire house, particularly if you have to spend the night in it to save everyone.

The concept of romantic betrayal will continue, but now the emphasis is on Brutus’ masculine wrath rather than the fallout of feminine umbrage, as we get with Josette, Jenny and Beth. With the entire family having to pay, generation after generation, that wrath is an intimidating contrast. And it’s a secret only to an outsider like Catherine. Unlike the reaction to past supernatural incidents at Collinwood, this is not Gilligan trying to convince the other Castaways that the west wing is haunted. No need. We’ve reached a point with the show and its audience that we can simply jump in with both feet and the whole ensemble knowing the truth. The program has shown us how they deal with secrets. Now, how do they deal with truths? The show presents a gallery of reactions to the lottery and to each others’ coping mechanisms. Brutus is a sad and furious fountainhead of this legacy, whose 1690’s roots have a strangely ancient quality compared to almost everything else we’ve seen. Dead or alive, he still dominates the family and reduces theoretical patriarchs like Justin to bobbing around Collinwood in an emasculating frock, supported by an impossibly svelte Melanie and needing a decent shave. A strange and sad ending, and we’re thrust right in. And yet, it doesn’t feel forced nor overloaded, a danger of the 1840 sequence. 

Mirrors grow subtler, here, too. And bolder, depending on the case. Quentin I is not the opposite of Quentin II… but 1841PT Quentin might be the most upstanding man of the three. It’s jarring to hear him castigate anyone for cowardice and drinking. But this Gabriel is implosive, rather than explosive, and Chris Pennock gets to explore his most straightforward and realistic character, yet. When used properly, the PT sequences are not reflections as much as kaleidoscopes, and here, it’s twisted to create what the show might need most at this point -- a new pilot for a new continuity, replete with the ghoulish and the guilty. Old lessons echo and new possibilities are ripe for exploration. The cast is heavy on familiar men put into roles arguably sadder and more contemplative than we’ve seen before, with the high volumes left for the shrill newcomer, Morgan. He’s a figure from melodrama in a Chekhovian world, and his efforts open up the space for David Selby, Pennock, and Jonathan Frid to play subtler notes. It’s not your father’s Dark Shadows or even your Dark Shadows. It’s a program for a generation that never got to inherit it. But it feels as if the cast sees this as a new opportunity for reconsidered choices, and they make the most of it. When the show should be flagging, it feels strangely fresh and ideally timed, allowing the pain of Angelique and Barnabas to resonate as an unbroken note while continuing the themes and fun of the program.

This episode was broadcast Jan. 29, 1971.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: JANUARY 25

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1991: Episode 5

Julia’s cure continues to transform Barnabas, who can now operate during the day. His confidence grows as his romance with Victoria deepens. An openly jealous Julia begins tampering with the formula, causing Barnabas to revert to a savage form of his vampiric condition. Barnabas demands that she administer a dose strong enough to cure him forever. Instead, she uses an altered version that causes him to age hideously. Carolyn stumbles upon him, and he attacks her. The result? He returns to his former youth, has Carolyn as a blood doll, and swears enmity to Julia Hoffman.

It’s a shame that the original series movie “franchise” and the 1991 revival didn’t go beyond Barnabas’ earliest days. Dan Curtis clearly had certain plot points that he cherished as part of the ritual. We’ve seen Barnabas age three times now, and although the vampire gets old, the moment never does. Thanks in part to the resulting “old vampire” Halloween mask, it may be one of DARK SHADOWS’ two main contributions to Original Horror Moments. I still prefer the first go, from the tv series. The character is old, but not repellent. But maybe that misses the point. It is part of the fabric of our collective horror unconscious,

With the exception of an endless date between Joe and Carolyn, this is an ideal episode to use as a series introduction. You can pick up 99% of the backstory from context, and it thrusts you into the action with one engaging scene after another. Writer Matthew Hall delivers vampiric peril, arch jealousy, and fairy-tale-if-fated romance. While those elements are in ample supply, what really keeps the installment going is its humor. Barnabas employs gentle wit in his occasionally playful seduction of Victoria, and Hall uses it with kindness and sympathy when exploring Jim Fyfe’s tragicomically affectionate take on Willie Loomis. It’s writing that can only come from growing up so closely to the series that you know each beat and why they matter. Once you see those intimately and intuitively, an appropriately ironic voice emerges.

Speaking of Jim Fyfe, I congratulate him again. Along with the writing staff, the choices they make with Willie set up the rest of the characters beautifully. Barnabas is the ultimate “cool kid,” and it’s clear why the awkward and drunken misfit, Willie, is drawn to him. In turn, we see a kindness in Barnabas that is alternately sincere and guardedly manipulative. Finally, it allows us to like this universe a little more when Julia turns on Barnabas and Willie is caught in the middle. If both Willie and Julia are out to get him, we are stuck in a world that’s a tad too cold and which lacks the interpersonal dedication of the original… once it found its most sustained voice.

This episode had an estimated thirteen million viewers with over one out of every ten TV sets in the nation tuned in to watch. It was only eleven days since the series premiered, and the Gulf War was kind to this episode with no recorded preemptions. It was about a month away from the cease fire. 

The Dark Shadows Daybook: January 25

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1971: Episode 1200

Family patriarch, Justin, hovers near death, and both he and Morgan keep a careful eye for the spectral ‘woman in white,’ a figure who portends death for the Collins family. In 1680, ancestor, Brutus Collins, articulated the curse which continues to hang over the clan. Once a generation, when an elder dies, a lottery is held to determine which Collins is destined to spend the night in a haunted, locked room. None have survived. Those who have attempted to flee have found only death. Morgan Collins faces the prospect of the lottery with a strange determination. Gabriel Collins shows reasonable fear (mixed with alcoholism) and contemplates escaping. Bramwell Collins, a cousin and the son of Barnabas Collins, arrives after years away. He was determined to seek an autonomous fortune and is still on the quest. Although mocked, Bramwell remains quietly dignified, if somewhat edgy, in his sense of purpose. Justin, wrought with anxiety over the woman in white, makes his way to the forbidden room and dies. The lottery, then, is inevitable.

1841PT, for the first time in five years, presents us with an entirely new set of characters and situations. With no chain of associations to the original core characters, it can be a tough storyline to embrace. But with class issues, frustrated romance, and the haunting sins of the past ever present, it’s DARK SHADOWS in every sense. As it goes on, we’ll see it metaphorically wrap up the series, taking the characters exactly where they need to go. I am especially fond of Keith Prentice as Morgan Collins. A tall, dark-haired, intense gentleman, he’s in the classic, Dan Curtis mold. Yet there is a strange delicacy to him. Instead of weakening him, we see Morgan compensate with sheer determination.

The costumes are of similar note. Prior to this storyline, they were rented. Now, they were custom built and constructed in interchangeable modules allowing sharp fits, visual flair, and variety. It is a lively and refreshing look for the show.


Today is the birthday of Paula Laurence (b. 1916), who played Hannah Stokes, the aunt to Angelique and Alexis in 1970 Parallel Time. She had a distinguished Broadway career, dating back to the Mercury Theater, where she was a frequent collaborator with the great Orson Welles.