The Dark Shadows Daybook: June 5

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1969: Episode 774

Edward and Barnabas team up to destroy the vampire ravaging Collinsport… and this time, it’s not Barnabas! Dirk Wilkins: Roger Davis. (Repeat; 30 min.)

Dirk Wilkins bites Rachel and then maintains conspicuous control over Judith, leading Edward to suspect and interview Barnabas, mistaking him for the attacking vampire. When the two meet, Barnabas explains to Wilkins that his fury will not bring Laura back. Dirk responds by sending Judith to plug Rachel full of lead.

“But like a poor marksman, you keep… missing… the target.”

That doesn’t stop Dirk Wilkins from being astonishingly prodigious for a Dark Shadows villain. In the course of two episodes, he bites at least three key players and puts them under his control. If he were either less or more furious, there’s no telling what he’d accomplish. Probably end the series within a week. Then, we would send our factory owners over to his homeland to learn the Wilkinsian mindset that allows him to achieve such miracles. For Barnabas, it’s the sorcerer’s apprentice in red shoes. At one point, it looks like he’s killed Edward, too.

This is a surprisingly efficient slice of Dark Shadows. It can be easily forgotten -- to the fan’s detriment -- because the agent of vengeance is played by Roger Davis, who excels at light comedy and earnest leading manishness. Davis is an actor who has fun no matter what the circumstances, and the nutty, goth girl eye makeup and Phyllis Dilleresque hairdo makes him look and act a bit like a refugee from a Murnau movie by way of Love, American Style. Between this episode and the ones prior, he plays the series’ most frightening psychotic since Conrad Bain’s chilling turn as Mr. Wells. Is he harmless? Is he joking? No, not really, and that’s what makes him and his maniacal joy ultimately so unsettling. He spends a lot of time hiding by his empty coffin, waiting for people like Rachel or Tim Shaw to look in so he can engage them in conversation about it. He’s practically turned creeping into an olympic sport. Of course, he’s more Buck Owens than Jessie, and his blend of folksiness and angry, vaguely justified evil make him a candidate for the best Joker who never got the green wig. Best of all, he’s not a man of hollow threats. He says he’ll punish Rachel, and he actually follows through with it. Immediately. With an elaborate plan that still seems to work, despite being, you know, elaborate. And has just enough cruelty to really hurt.

Well-played. Are you sure you want to be on Dark Shadows?

The other highlight, foreshadowing what is to come, is Edward’s completely sober, almost nonchalant, interrogation of Barnabas about vampires. He’s both serious and oddly casual about the subject matter, as if he’s asking about bobcats on the property. Edward is a favorite character from 1897, seemingly prissy and ineffectual and becoming prissy and effectual. Keep an eye on him, Barnabas. You gotta sleep sometime. 

This episode hit the airwaves June 12, 1969.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: June 5

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1967: Episode 252

As Carolyn begins her nightly attempt to berate Liz about the impending nuptials, Liz ends the subject by claiming to love Jason. Seeking revenge, Carolyn drunkenly takes up with a biker gang led by a vaguely affected biker named Buzz. As they party at Collinwood, Liz objects, and Carolyn threatens to deepen her relationship with the gang lord.

DARK SHADOWS returns to its prime storyline of Jason McGuire and Liz Stoddard, and thanks to the sharp performance of Nancy Barrett, it doesn’t feel like a letdown after the explosively wacky time we’ve spent at the Old House. Quite a feat on top of vampirism, kidnapping, and ghosts. It just goes to show what you can accomplish with passive aggression and an alto-voiced biker in The Wig that Would Be Szandor’s. Just as Barnabas is quick to start eying Vicki when things with Maggie swipe left, a new love is just the “I’ll show you” that Carolyn is looking for. We are, too.

Buzz. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. You are an inexplicable gem worth explicating.

With Barnabas and the kidnapping/courtship, storytelling on DARK SHADOWS leveled up to a point from which it could never return. He feels like a total alien is the DSU and, strangely, like someone we might have met in the early, Bill Malloy days. (Just imagine the clash of those two!) Michael Hadge somehow manages to merge Russ Tamblyn with Truman Capote, and over four episodes, creates one of the show’s most memorable slices of huggably insolent, beer-swilling class envy. If Buzz had been around during the Leviathan sequence, Bruno would have surrendered and gone to work for Werner Erhard. Which is a fate I wish on no one.

As appalling (to the family) as Buzz is and will become, I can’t help but sense that history is repeating itself. If Paul Stoddard was the kind of guy to have Jason McGuire as a best friend, I think it’s safe to see him as the Buzz Hackett of the 1930’s. Just imagine what Jamison must have made of THAT! Perhaps we underestimate the old coot. His favorite uncle was sort of the Buzz Hackett of the 1890’s. Fortuna’s Wheel may have STP stickers all over it, after all.

What if Buzz had stayed around? A love triangle with Liz and Julia would have been inevitable, but beyond that, he and Willie would have either become inseparable or great friends. I can see Roger paying the scamp a small fortune to keep Willie (and Jeb and Bruno and Harry) in check as his own preferred weapon. No? Well, I can dream it, anyway. He’s a much needed, surreal vacation from the nihilistic implosion of everyone’s emotional lives at the Old House, and a perfect ambassador to ease us back into the grownup world at Collinwood.

This episode hit the airwaves June 13, 1967.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: June 4

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1968: Episode 508

Within the dream curse, Professor Stokes defies the set pattern at every turn, forcing Angelique to investigate this saucy jack. Nearly overcome by womanly urges, she nonetheless attempts the impossible feat of bending him to her will. He scoffs at her attempts to intimidate him. If she calls him Ben, he shrugs it off. If she marks his hand with the brand of Satan, well, he must have a handkerchief around here somewhere. Stokes awakens and consoles Julia that he is still single and unaffected by the curse. It ends here. He has no reason to tell his guide, Sam Evans, what happened. This is proved when Sam conveniently knocks on the door. Later, when Sam is at home, a noise alerts him to a visitor. It’s Adam. Cut. Bloody. And brandishing a knife. 

Most shows redefine themselves as they find their voice and footing. DARK SHADOWS doesn't redefine itself so much as it expands constantly its own vision, mood, and mission statement. Few episodes do that as dramatically and excitingly as 508. For most shows involving the supernatural, protecting the mysterious indomitability Of magic is the primary duty of the writers. And as long as no one says that the emperor wears no tux, they can use the vast power of the occult to get their characters into and out of any story corner at will. With that ultimate rabbit waiting in the Hat, who would dare expose  anything else? Who would have the chutzpah to cry shenanigans on this supreme form of gatekeeping, and position mere Mortals above gods by looking at the man behind the curtain?

Especially for a show like DARK SHADOWS, an act like this should be storytelling suicide. Instead, it's the core of one of the most memorable episodes in the entire series. Professor Stokes becomes the ultimate surrogate and champion for the rest of us muggles, proving that magic often only works when a victim is gullible enough to allow it. If anything gives us a reason to keep watching, it's this… and if anything makes later, more successful feats of magic that much more terrifying, it's this, as well. But at least on this night, Angelique, and all that she represents, is sent packing -- not by greater sorcery, but by courage, clear thinking, and a refusal to be intimidated by suggestion.

It’s about time. We’ve spent two years seeing our protagonists bullied and victimized. Now, as the program moves further and further away from a traditional soap and into the realm of comic book psychedelia, a victory like this lends respectability to the heroes, puts the villains on red alert, and adds genuine suspense. The occult will no longer be an automatic win, and by knowing that Angelique and Nicholas could fail, we can now find surprising moments to sympathize with them.

Thayer David revels in Stokes’ arrogance, as do we. The Professor now knows the extent of his powers (his words), so grab him a sherry. Wisely, the actor balances this insouciance with genuine fear. At any point in the dream curse, this might not work, Angelique might succeed, and the audience is never allowed to get ahead of the action. Because, as always, getting one step ahead of the action is the job of one man.

You know his name.

Stokes. T. Eliot Stokes.

And Professor T. Eliot Stokes will return.

This episode hit the airwaves June 5, 1968.