Dark Shadows: Resurrection: Afterword 3

Well, thanks for reading through Storyline Number 3! This was the one I wasn't as sure about, since it practically featured all brand new and unfamiliar characters.

It only seemed natural to attempt some sort of bridge between the two parallel time storylines of the actual series. After all, how could the family of 1841PT develop into what we saw in parallel time 1970? Perhaps I could explain a few things while leaving some others open, since we never get answers to everything on Dark Shadows, now do we? (Though now we FINALLY know why Daniel claimed to have found a sword behind Barnabas' portrait in 1970PT!)

Assuming something like this would have actually been done on the show is not such a long stretch. Jonathan Frid's insistence on playing other characters brought us the 1841PT story, so we can assume that the same well would be drawn from later. And if we also assume that Alexandra Moltke would have returned to the show if she had been allowed to play a villain (as she had asked Dan Curtis to do), it would be natural to give her a villainess role in some other incarnation. As much as Quentin seems the central focus of my 1897PT story, the character of Benjamin goes through a few changes - from overly cautious to evil slave to reborn assertive. It might have been a nice change of pace for Frid from Barnabas and Bramwell.

And in this universe, characters played by Keith Prentice and Lara Parker actually DO get to be together. As much as Lara Parker has remarked that playing the innocent Catherine Harridge was her least favorite character to play, I suppose it's only fair for her to play the sweetie here since this time "Vicky" gets to be the evil one. She might be a helpless victim for Trask here (since Trask must be evil no matter what timeband we're in), but remember, that means that part of the deal would be that Angelique might get to have more fun when we get back to 1972... (snicker)

Other choices I made seemed obvious ones. Chris Pennock playing a schizo/psycho is always fun, and believe it or not, I based this part of the story on an actual case from 19th century France. A police inspector named Robert Le Dru was investigating a murder when the cast he made of a footprint proved to him that HE had committed the crime while walking in his sleep. For the rest of his life, he lived normally during the day and had himself locked up in jail at night. The Peter Bradford serial killer aspect I added to develop the plot and also provide ample opportunity for poor drunken Carl to find his true love, keeping in line with the John Karlen/Nancy Barrett pairings of 1840 & 1841PT.

This storyline moved along fast by DS standards to be sure, especially the last few "weeks" which contained easily twice the action you'd normally find on the show. I did this to keep things moving, but also as a bow to those of you who emailed me wondering when we'd get back to the more familiar faces of modern day Collinwood. If such letters had come into the real show during such a storyline, I'm sure the response to "cut to the chase" would have been the same. Thanks for indulging me & my invented characters.

And since someone asked, here's my version of how the 1897PT family connects with what we saw in 1841PT. Let's say this: Bramwell & Catherine have a son, Thomas (for Catherine's father) who gets married in 1861 before running off to fight with Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's Maine troops. He gets wounded and rushes home when he finds out his wife is preggers with his new son Edward, born in 1862. He fights a few more battles, the North wins and Thomas Collins returns home a hero to his younger brother and sister. He has two more children - Benjamin in 1866 and Quentin in 1870. Meanwhile, sister Daphne Collins (named for Daphne Harridge Collins) marries Oscar Stokes, whose brother Roderick saved Thomas Collins in the war. They have a daughter Valerie, as well as two sons, one of whom is the ancestor of the evil Elliot Stokes of 1970. Edward Collins marries Rachel Drummond against his father's wishes but with Catherine's approval in 1881, and Jamison is born a year later.

Meanwhile, PT1841 Quentin marries and reconciles his branch of the family with Bramwell's. Eventually, his children - Carl, Alice & Judith - live in the old house.

So there!

The final storyline begins Monday.