“He’s in his coffin. You’re some creature, like him!”
I get it. The X-Men have already made their last stand, and then it’s five years later, and you want another one. You doused the Wicked Witch with water, you blew up the Planet of the Apes, you solved the energy problem in Monstropolis, and you raided the lost ark, but here you are, broke and hitless. So what do you do?
Sure, making a prequel isn’t the most creative option, but once you’ve killed off Darth Vader, Yoda and Jabba the Hutt, then what’s left to look at, porgs? There’s got to be more to life than that.
The current crisis is that six zombie pirates have destroyed Collinwood somehow; they just walked in the front door and started smashing up the foyer, and before you knew it, the whole mansion was in ruins. I’m not sure how pulling a tapestry off the wall makes the roof fall in, but maybe it was going to fall in anyway and the zombies got lucky.
So our heroes bravely turned their tails and fled, followed by a pack of angry howler monkeys who’d just got their hands on a doomsday bomb. Barnabas tried locking the door, but that didn’t hold them, so Julia hitched a ride on a passing staircase which suddenly appeared where the playroom didn’t used to be, sending her tumbling once more through the timeways.
And here we are in the arrivals lounge of the Cross-Time Express, making landfall at 1840, the penultimate stop on our uncertain and frightening journey through Dark Shadows. This time, the person who makes first contact is Julia, alone and gownless, and the first person that she sees is goddamn Carrie Stokes. Isn’t that always the way? You arrive early at the party, and the only other person there is the very one you were hoping to avoid.
This is the show’s third excursion into the past, or the second if you want to be chronologically pedantic about it, and so far they’ve been a sure-fire success. The 1840 storyline is another chance to use the cast as a repertory company, giving everyone new names and relationships and mustaches. It’s an explicitly theatrical device, which relies on the audience’s extra-diegetic awareness of how the show works; the principal pleasure is watching the actors get all excited about their new costumes and accents.
The other great thing about these time-hops is that they create a whole show’s worth of new characters, each with their own backstory. The Collins family that we left in 1970 has had their internal conflicts pretty much explored and resolved; there were two missing family members when the show began, but we’ve met them and disposed of them by now, and it looks like all the skeletons have been shaken out of the closets. What we need now are some new closets.
So here’s something we’ve needed for a little while: a new Collins family member that we don’t like. This is chairbound second-born son Gabriel Collins, as played by Jeb Hawkes, but with a new mustache and at a different altitude. He’s the first new person that Julia sees when she emerges from the time portal, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a villain, because he is relentlessly nasty to every person that he sees.
“You’re a guest in this house, Miss Stokes!” he says, within fifteen seconds of appearing on the show. “You do not give orders to a Collins!” This is exciting, because nobody in the present-day family does terrible rich person things anymore, like shouting at servants, or arguing about whether the corporate tax rate should be miniscule or merely inadequate.
“You’ve been petted and spoiled,” says Gabriel, continuing the endless stream-of-consciousness dressing-down that he aims at whoever happens to be in front of him. “Other people see your prettiness. I only see your impudence!” I think what he meant to say was, “Excuse me.” I like Gabriel.
And then there’s Gabriel’s sister-in-law Samantha Collins, who is a nice lady wearing a dress. She asks Carrie to accompany her into the playroom, for the first time since the death of her son Tad. As Julia hides behind a screen that was specifically placed there for hiding purposes, Samantha walks downstage and delivers a monologue.
“Oh, why did I let Quentin take Tad on that boat?” she says, just barely choking back tears. “Why didn’t I say to him, he’ll die if he goes — because I knew that, somewhere inside me. I didn’t say anything… but here I am. Quentin’s dead. Tad’s dead. And here I am, in a room filled with toys.”
And then in the script it says “Samantha breaks down in sobs”, so that’s what she breaks down in. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m being bitchy toward Samantha, who’s perfectly fine; I think it’s that she enters immediately after Gabriel rolls off screen. I like my Collinses loud and outré, and besides, I don’t even know who this dame is. I was expecting an actor from Dark Shadows.
But that is actually part of the point of this moment: to screw with Julia’s expectations, and with ours. Coming into this episode, we knew six characters from 1840 — Gerard, Daphne, Quentin, Tad, Carrie and Leticia — and that’s who we figure we’ll see. But Quentin and Tad are already dead, according to Samantha, and later on in the episode, we’ll find out that the children’s governess is named Hortense, not Daphne.
So here’s Julia, taking refuge in the playroom — the most dangerous room in the house, until today — and getting an earful of continuity errors. It’s true what they say: the past is another country, and if they see you, they’ll be horrified by what you’re wearing, and you’ll probably end up involved in a witch trial.
And here’s the episode’s big surprise: Ben Stokes! Barnabas’ faithful servant from 1795, slathered in old age makeup and tucked up in bed.
It’s a lovely treat, because we didn’t have any particular reason to think that we’d see anybody that we knew from a previous storyline, and Ben was one of the best characters in 1795, complicated and strong-willed and warm-hearted and sad. And now he’s getting bossed around by an obnoxious member of the Collins family, which is just the kind of thing he does best.
Gabriel wants Ben to talk to his father for him — and when Ben refers to Gabriel’s father as “Daniel”, we can understand why there’s a special connection. There were only four people left standing at the end of 1795 — Joshua, Millicent, Daniel and Ben — and now there’s just two, the last survivors of a tsunami that wiped out everything they knew. We remember Daniel — innocent, the last time we saw him, and untouched by the violence that claimed the lives of so many. Remembering that kid, and that special period of the show, adds another layer of meaning to what’s going on today. You have to give it to the Dark Shadows writers — this is a thing that they know how to do. They invented it.
Now, to some degree, they’re reaching back for some familiar tropes. The head of the family is dying, broken under the weight of his secrets, and everyone is squabbing about the will. There are missing family members, and someone’s locked in the tower room, and the meanest man in the room has a mustache.
But it’s hard to resist angry exposition, delivered at high velocity.
Gabriel: Ben, it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t do as Father wished. I could have, you know, if it hadn’t been for — the accident. Father shouldn’t have favored Quentin so much. I couldn’t earn my own way!
Ben: Plenty of men worse off than you have.
Gabriel: You are lucky that I can’t stand up, otherwise I would strangle you for that! And I can, you know! I’m strong enough! Now, you’re going into that room, and you’re going to tell Father, and Father will make out a new will, and I will get everything!
And then he threatens to impoverish Ben’s granddaughter after he dies, and Ben walks out. It’s a great scene, full of fire and real feelings.
But the person we really care about is Julia, of course, and the thing we want most is for her to form an alliance with Ben. He was Barnabas’ best friend too, back in the day, and now we get to see the eighteenth century sidekick and the twentieth century sidekick, meeting in the middle.
Julia: I’m a friend of Barnabas Collins.
Ben: Barnabas Collins is dead!
Julia: Yes, but he lives, you know that!
Ben: He’s in his coffin! You’re some creature, like him!
Julia: No, I’ve come from a different time!
Ben: What are you saying?
Julia: I just left Barnabas, a few hours ago! He’s out of his coffin! We live in a different time, in 1970!
Ben: You’re mad!
Julia: No, please, listen to me, you must!
But she is mad, obviously; we all are. That is an utterly ridiculous conversation, uttered by two ridiculous people, and yet it makes me want to cry, it’s so beautiful. Barnabas is dead, and he lives; he’s in a coffin, and he’s out. We live in a different time. And yes, we’re mad. In fact, we’re furious.
Monday: The Healer.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
They appear to be using electric lights in 1840; the first electric lightbulb was patented in 1875.
In 1840, the playroom is apparently in the same place that it was when people visited it in 1995 and 1970 — but that room was supposed to be a linen closet, which grows into a playroom due to some kind of magic spectral architecture. I don’t think it’s ever explained how the room could be bigger, when the closet is opposite an outside wall.
In act 4, when Julia comes out of hiding to talk to Ben, you can see past the edge of the set on the left, with the blue of a video monitor showing what’s currently on camera — you can see Julia’s arm as she rests her hand on the end of the bed, and moves towards Ben.
When Gabriel puts the wax seal on his note to Gerard, it clearly takes longer than they expected — he struggles a bit with both the candle and the seal.
Behind the Scenes:
Samantha Collins is played by Virginia Vestoff, who has an interesting backstory of her own. Her father was an actor and a ballet instructor who died when Virginia was seven years old; her mother died two years later. She threw herself into performing, and by age 12, she had a professional gig in the Children’s Chorus of the New York City Opera Company. She went to the New York High School for the Performing Arts, but by the time she was 15, she wanted to move out on her own, so she got a job at a department store and switched schools. She dropped out when she was a junior to join a touring dance company. In 1960, she made her Broadway debut in a revue called From A to Z, and then appeared in Irma La Douce, and a Sherlock Holmes musical called Baker Street. She was in the original cast of 1776 as Abigail Adams, a role she played from 1969 to 1972. During the day, she appeared in daytime soap operas — first The Doctors from 1969 to 1970, and then Dark Shadows, from September 1970 to January 1971.
Christopher Pennock described playing Gabriel in the Dark Shadows Almanac: Millennium Edition: “Gabriel Collins, the fabulous, evil, self-pitying, fake cripple in his wheel chair… Gabriel was such a treat. There was so much fun to be had playing in a wheel chair, a great dramatic device. The writers endowed Gabriel with a very witty, sarcastic tongue, so I could insult literally everyone at Collinwood with impunity. Gabriel even had some tender, vulnerable scenes with Louis Edmonds, who portrayed his father. What more could an actor ask for? Unless the muse returns to strike Dan Curtis with an inspiration as daring as Dark Shadows, I am unlikely to have the joy of such characters to play again. It was the time of my life.”
Charles Rush plays the mystery feet and choking hands of Daniel Collins today. This is the third of Rush’s four episodes on the show — he was previously seen as the mystery feet and wristwatch-displaying hand of Quentin when he walked through Collinwood in December 1969, and Thomas Findley, one of Jeb’s zombies, in March 1970. We’ll see him again as a guard in January.
Also, I might as well mention here that after this episode, we don’t see Carrie again for another six weeks, whoopee! So that’s enough of her.
Monday: The Healer.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
A musical at night and soaps during the day. When did she sleep?
Virginia Vestoff was also in the 1972 film of “1776,” along with David Ford as John Hancock.
Saltpeter, JOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHN!!!!!!!!!!
And Daniel Keyes (Eagle Hill Cemetary Caretaker) as Josiah Bartlett.
Very good! You and Riccardo named 3 of the 4 DS connections. 1776 also has Emory Bass (Mr. Best in 3 eps between 922-932) as Judge James Wilson of Pennsylvania.
While Kathy Cody gets greatly diminished screentime from this point on, so does David Hennesey. To think, someone who started out as as a governess hating automobile sabotaging monster become a passive character bullied around by ghosts. David was a really strong child actor, able to be everything from someone you genuinely wanted to push down the stairs to doing a great possessed. When Petofi is possessing Jamison, you know David is having fun with it. Acting lost a great talent when he retired from it.
This is the best part about time travel storylines, getting to know the new characters. The Parallel Time storylines had a slightly different approach, but that contrived to bring two sets of characters to the same physical location on each side of the veil.
When Angelique shows up, thang gawd, we learn about 1692.
Not to be chronologically pedantic, but for a 250 something,
She is so fine.
Wonder why they never cast Young Angelique.
Which was done, chronologically speaking, in the Burton film, for a second, but the possibilities of backstory before 1692, with a repertory company, would have saved the show, rather than 1841 pt. I loved Catherine Harriage, but the storyline was zip-zero.
Imagine one with Lara as mother to young Angelique.
Of course, Lara is the governess at The Old House, and Josette is a kid in Martinique.
Lara’s kid grows up as a servant’s kid, like Sarah Castle to NODS.
Learns witching ways from Mom, then travels with the family to Martinique.
Whole new show.
Chronologically, this could have gone back to the beginning of man, as years passed.
The only soap that never lived in the here and now after 1840.
Proving that you don’t have to have a vampire to have ratings.
Witches are gold, too.
Most of 1795 was carried by Angelique and her witchcraft. Then there was also the witch hunter Reverend Trask. All spelling, all shouting, all hours of the day. Vampires need the night only.
A moment of mourning for what might have been: isn’t it clear that they had intended the Samantha character for Kathryn Leigh Scott? Another Quentin wife, but this one wised-up and empowered in the family, building on the best work she ever did, as Kitty Soames. It’s a loss–I’d have loved to see it.
Vestoff is an interesting presence–not really a standard soap type–and I suspect the writers gradually rethought the character as she inhabited it, which might account for the vague uncertainty of the character of Samantha for a time, or so it feels to me.
Sad, too, that Vestoff would have her career and life so sadly shortened by cancer–only some twelve years left for her from this very point. She, too, might have gone on to do a lot more interesting work.
Earlier I thought the age makeup for Professor Stokes in 1995 was the scariest look ever. But the age makeup for 1840 Ben Stokes wins hands down.
Those ball bearing jowls, all shriveled and bloated.
Like a giant donkey scrotum after it’s been submerged underwater for 24 hours.
Can’t imagine how rough it was for old people back then.
Ben should have passed away by now according to older episodes but they never did pay much attention to those details lol. That’s another reason I think the stairs lead to a PT 1840 not RT 1840. We then see TWO parallel time versions of 1840 instead of one.
Barnabas probably messed up Ben’s old future on one of his subsequent 1795 do-overs. And in the new timeline, Ben fell face-first on a waffle iron or something.
Prison you wrong for that…lol.
Vestoff is amazing as Samantha Collins. It’s hard to imagine anyone else as the character. KLS would have been an odd choice, given Samantha’s relationship with Gerard — who pays no attention to Maggie during 1970. It would also be… uh… weird to have Roxanne snacking on someone who so closely resembled her sister.
Julia the proactive time traveler in 1840 contrasted with Vicki’s plodding actions in 1795 further demonstrates what a progressive and compelling character Julia is. I’d put Julia up against Emma Peel (though without the martial arts).
Strong agreement on all points. I wish Vestoff had been on the show more. Maybe as Rachel Drummond. I think 1897 would have been improved if we’d had to wait until Kitty Soames to see Kathryn Leigh Scott, and Rachel Drummond is a rich enough part that it would have been a fine showcase for a new actress.
“I’m not sure how pulling a tapestry off the wall makes the roof fall in, but maybe it was going to fall in anyway and the zombies got lucky.”
It was a load-bearing curtain? I noticed that the foyer was loaded with a lot of new breakables (vases galore) on the tables when the zombies marched in, and all the usual stuff (like the statue on the foyer table) was missing.
but that room was supposed to be a linen closet, which grows into a playroom due to some kind of magic spectral architecture. I don’t think it’s ever explained how the room could be bigger, when the closet is opposite an outside wall.
I think we’re going to have to just accept the fact that Jeremiah was a really, really bad architect. Rooms that are different sizes on different days, mansions held together with shims and tapestries – he probably studied drafting with M.C. Escher.
Wait, we saw the drawings for the “Staircase Through Time” that Quentin had drafted – I take it that’s not going to even be a part of this storyline? Like the bit where Tad and Carrie were laid out in the drawing room, or the Rose Cottage dollhouse thing, or the…oh, never mind. You’ve all warned me this isn’t going to follow logically. I’ll just be content that Carrie has gone off to some other part of Collinwood for a few weeks, to sulk after her tongue-lashing from Gabriel.(He is AWFULLY crabby, isn’t he?)
“… Rooms that are different sizes on different days, mansions held together with shims and tapestries – he probably studied drafting with M.C. Escher.”
Glad you mentioned Escher. Just looked up some of his dizzying lithographs, and I’d wager that Edgar Allan Poe might feel right at home in a House of Escher …
I’m afraid M.C. Escher is just a name to me, but it makes me think of the “Winchester Mystery House,” a really bizarre-looking mansion built by a classic “wealthy eccentric.”
That’s a BIG house. Be fun to visit the Winchester Mystery House sometime. Looks tantalizing … Was built by the family known for Winchester firearms.
At Hogwarts.
But I gotta give Jeremiah credit: not every archictect/builder can construct another, entire house around, on top of, and under the main one, so a hundred plus years from now a space octopus can chase a governess around for an episode or so.
We have to accept Doctor Who rules here. If you’ve got the ability to build a device that travels through time, then you can also build a room that’s bigger on the inside.
I’m a few episodes ahead, and there’s some fun stuff in 1840. But as an 1897 wannabe it falls flat. In 1897 we had people we cared about, core family, playing the core family. The sparring between Judith, Edward, Quentin and Carl was brilliant because we knew these actors, they had been around forever (except Quentin but he had such charisma). Now we’ve got Jeb Hawkes and some woman we’ve never seen before, and annoying Carrie, and Flora is a throwaway character. I’m just not feeling it. Yes, it’s good to see the 1795 overlap, and Louis Edmonds and Thayer David are terrific as always. But Things feel contrived and rushed and not really though through, unlike 1897, where the plot unraveled slowly and tantalizingly and, within the realm of Dark Shadows, logically.
I probably disagree with you about 1840 overall but I would just say that it’s not really an 1897 “wannabe” but more a direct sequel to 1795. It doesn’t even try to function as a “prequel’ to 1897 while dealing directly with loose ends from 1795.
Barnabas and Julia were also somewhat tangential to the overall storyline of 1897, which was really Quentin’s story with Barnabas as a strong second lead. But Barnabas and Julia are arguably at their best as a “super couple” in 1840.
And Gabriel is like a silent movie villain. No shading, just Snidely Whiplash. Quentin in 1897 started out as a villain, but you liked him. He made you smile. Gabriel is just a caricature.
Pennock hams it up some but I find it enjoyable. Also, I think the “rejected” son motif is effective. We never really know why Quentin is such a SOB when 1897 begins — other than perhaps just being a spoiled brat. But Gabriel’s pain seems real to me.
He was a womaniser then, having knocked Jenny up then going to Egypt with his brother’s wife. Betrayal, scandal, irresponsible and budding satanist. Quentin was directly responsible for Jenny’s fate. The werewolf curse and resultant immortality force him to grow up, and become a better person or live forever with regret.
Yeah, it’s interesting. Gabriel, Quentin ’97, and Roger all have the same function in the family, at least in the beginning of their storylines. Younger brother with nothing to do but gang around the drawing room with a cocktail, tossing witty, bitter insults into whatever conversation other people are trying to have. Each of them has a bit of a different style, though.
(There’s more of a physical resemblance between Gabriel and Roger, but Quentin and Roger seem more alike in personality; a bit more on the sophisticated side.)
Yeah, I think it’s significant that Quentin in 1897 was the youngest son–nothing expected of him, so he simply seized hedonism with both hands and French kissed the hell out of it. Any pain he felt was far outweighed by the pain he gleefully, continually caused.
I can’t help agreeing with that.I think the hamminess works pretty well.
I’ve said this twice before, but Chris Pennock’s characters always remind me characters out of “Bronze Age” D.C. horror comics. (I can almost never gets comics ARTISTS straight, so I can’t name the one I really mean.)
It’s his stance! You can tell by the way he walks and holds his arms that he was an athlete in school–football and wrestling, most likely. He reminds me of how those artists would draw a menacing figure hulking in a doorway or looming down a street.
I think it was a great move to lead off 1840 with Gabriel, Samantha and Ben. A delightful surprise in many ways.
As we get further along, I’m sure we’ll talk about it more, but I’m a big Samantha/Virginia Vestoff fan. She was a new kind of woman at Collinwood.
I liked all the Drew siblings. I think we didn’t get to enjoy at their full potential, but they made a nice counterpart to the Collins family, with enough wealth and prestige of their own not to be too awed of the Collinses.
Ultimately, I think 1795 and 1897 were better and more successful, but 1840 has a lot going for it, especially in backstory and characterization.
The time-travel storyline transitions always start off so promising and 1840 didn’t let me down. Although in a few more episodes absurd sub-plots set in (head of Judah Zachary, i.e.), but for the most part I’m enjoying the character development. For example, the first time Julia met Ben; since she knew the unique history between him and Barnabas. That was an emotional moment for me.
As a costume history geek I always enjoy seeing what Dark Shadows comes up with for its jaunts through time, and 1840 doesn’t disappoint. In fact I’ll give it an A+ accuracy!
I love the bronze dress Ben gives Julia.
Stunning, isn’t it? A wee bit layery for me, I love layers but she’s nearly swimming in it as she sits. The color is really gorgeous too.
I think these are some of the best costumes they ever do. It’s a good period for male attire, too. They’re even trying a period hairstyle with Samantha.
I’m liking Miz Vestoff right off the bat. And I was beginning to like Carrie, as she was not at the fever pitch she was in 1970. I think she’s easier to take when she’s not with David/Tad.
Absolutely. Her scene with Gabriel, where she tries to stand up to him but knows she’s in a losing position, was really well done. And her compassion for Samantha in the playroom.
I think it’s a combination of playing Live Carrie Who Is Not Being Manipulated By Ghosts Who Can’t Make Up Their Minds, and not being asked to play an emotional eight year old. This young woman is in a precarious social position and knows it, but won’t wilt.
Gabriel Collins-Invents the stress ball-1840
Honestly, Samantha starts out like a great heroine does.
I still don’t know why so many hate Hallie/Carrie so much. I find her a vast improvement over Amy/Nora.
sigh Chris Pennock again? And he’s not starting off well again.
Yay! Louis Edmonds immediately after the time jump! Or is this the next episode already?
Julia is so much better at this in the first moments than Barnabas ever was.
When Julia peeks out into the corridor and sees a young girl she says, “It’s scary!”. Then I realized she said, “It’s Carrie”. Guess it works either way…
Jesus, this is actually…interesting. What an unusual feeling.
Gabriel’s using yellow stationery in 1840. The Collins family is nothing if not consistent in their love of yellow stationery!
How did Gabriel get in the hallway outside the playroom so quickly in his wheelchair? Is there an early elevator at Collinwood?
I think Gabriel is Pennock’s best role.
Clearly Daniel (or maybe it was Joshua!) Bought a job lot of yellow stationery at a going out of business sale, and the family has been trying to use it all up ever since!
Yay for the return of Ben Stokes! His old age makeup is very good!
I agree with what was said before, that Carrie is better on her own. She’s less frantic and annoying.
It really was a surprise to be introduced to a new character. I wonder if Samantha’s name was inspired by Bewitched as it wasn’t a very common name until Elizabeth Montgomery came along?
Chris Pennock – I think this might be a character I can tolerate him in.
Ah yes, Schrödinger’s vampire again! I love it… I’m actually in suspense right now because I don’t remember when or even if Barnabas enters the picture. Julia on a time travel adventure all by herself is fun and interesting, but she’s gotta be reunited with her other half at some point, right? Fingers crossed.
Also, in other news, I have become double the time traveler I was before. I’ve actually started watching Dark Shadows from the very beginning! This will be the first time I’ve ever tried to watch all of the pre-Barnabas episodes. I’ve committed to watching 2 of those eps a day, followed by 2 from this current timeline. I figure that way I’ll probably reach episode 210 at around the same time as 1245 (I’m guestimating that will be sometime this April).
A new start…a somewhat fresh approach…I’m all in.