The Dark Shadows Daybook: NOVEMBER 3

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this day in 1967: Episode 357

The arrival of harassing attorney, Anthony Peterson, gives Julia the opportunity to liberate and relocate the journal -- now in Peterson’s office. Carolyn follows up with a bid to retrieve the manuscript, but Peterson, while intrigued, has the strength to stand up to her. For now.

Although Gordon Russell is credited as the author of this episode, this marks Sam Hall’s debut on the show as writer. Hall, a Yale-trained, seasoned playwright, would go on to become DARK SHADOWS' most prolific scribe. When teamed with the urbane wit, Gordon Russell, he helped to give the show its eventual and most definitive voice. He has a punchy, immediate, high-stakes sense of intensity and literate, dramatic grit that gives the show a sense of lofty purpose mixed with realistic and human urgency. His authorship would run through the last episode, two films, and the 1991 revival. Beyond creating Angelique, he penned a follow-up article for TV Guide after the show had been canceled, detailing what happened to the characters beyond the program’s end. Is it canon? Strong arguments can be made on both sides.

Coincidentally, it’s Jerry Lacy’s first episode as attorney, Anthony Peterson. Peterson takes up where Burke left off… another once-impoverished Collinsporter/self-made man with a desire to see Roger knocked down a peg. Peterson has a greater dash of realism to him, however. He’s less Ayn Rand and more Arthur Miller. We can see him wanting greater things and -- compared with Burke -- just falling short of the ring. There’s a humanity to that with more nuance than was found in the lantern-jawed Olympian played by Mitch Ryan and Anthony George. Burke is DC. Anthony Peterson is Marvel. And that’s the Sam Hall touch. Just as tough, but with a slightly more fragile sense of humanity. That would also be the balance Barnabas would demonstrate on his roads to redemption, rise, fall, and rise.

Hall’s theatrical chops are especially on display in the two hander he has for his wife, Grayson, and Jerry Lacy in Tony’s office. We get exposition that flows naturally, as well as  strength, vulnerability, adjustments, surprises, and astounding emotional range, all within terse, captivating dialogue. And Grayson really goes for that range. Perhaps too much so. It’s a scene worthy of the stage, and her laughter and tears are of a size that may be too grand for the small screen. Nevertheless, she knew this was Sam’s audition, and thus, really went to town.

On this day in 1967, the Battle of Dak To begins, becoming one of the bloodiest of the Vietnam War. 

The Dark Shadows Daybook: NOVEMBER 3

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1970: Episode 1143

Randall Drew arrives to mourn his sister, and Barnabas must immediately moderate Lamar Trask’s insinuations that he is the harbinger of sorcery. Lamar is simply nutty with grief, Barnabas intones. Later, he instructs Julia to drive a stake through Roxanne’s heart before she can prove him wrong. Later, he and Angelique once again confront one another, and she is stunned at his sense of dark resolve, worrying that it suggests a bitterness authored by Julia. After a thorough snooping, she discovers Julia’s future-diary. When confronted, Julia brazenly confesses all, including that she and Barnabas are dear friends (so, there) and that Angelique will still exist in 1970. Angelique begins to scheme when she realizes that a mission failure will consign our heroes to the 1840’s forever. After the funeral for Roxanne (when the evil Gerard is identified), Angelique casts a spell on Julia, causing her to sleep past dusk. She goes to stake Roxanne, anyway, and is ambushed by Miss Drew, fully vampirized and ready to attack.

Yes, we’ve all had the “If I had only said X” fantasies about dealing with verbal bullies. Let’s take it a step further. Rather than the perfect comeback, what if you could attack them by ruining all of their passive aggressive surprises with bored disdain and shrugs and the truth. Not only could they not hurt you, your foes couldn’t even annoy you. Well, that’s the very strange brand of revenge that Barnabas and Julia serve up to Angelique. Of course, they’re from the future. They’ve seen her at her best and worst, and here, she is simply at her most annoyingly juvenile. She is not the 1795 hellspawn, ripe to be stopped for the ultimate, preemptive revenge. Nor is she the ally of 1970 or 1897. Instead, she is just smog enough to make a total ass out of herself as forthrightly as possible. Barnabas serves up world-weary disdain as a response. Julia does him one better by doing the most unusual thing for any character in all the series, she tells the truth! Angelique will find out, anyway. And she has the capacity to be good.

So, you might as well get it over with. Seeing someone say the hell with it and spilled the beans on the show is the most revolutionary act possible for those characters. Julia does it with guts, honesty, and a wonderful little twinkle in her eye. And it's a nice reminder of how much she has earned her friendship with Barnabas, and how much blood there is under that bridge.of course, it's the revolutionary choice to tell the truth that may be one of the catalytic steps that drives Angelique toward embracing the heroine within. Julia really displays the bravery that she has earned over the past few years, and does so with him on matter-of-fact straightforwardness. Yes, Roxanne needs to be staked. Yes, of course she's going to do it. They don't have time to fret. They don't have time to wallow in doubt. They are on a five-year mission to kick ass ... and the five years are almost up.