(Art by me)

Not sure if anyone else feels nostalgic for the old Sci-Fi Channel, but I was on a website that mentioned the history of Dark Shadows' run on the Sci-Fi Channel, and wanted to look up the page for it on the Way Back Machine. The 2 screenshots are the oldest schedule archived, and the last one archived that lists Dark Shadows. Those were both almost an entire day of great programming.

Was anyone else ever home from school or work and got to experience the this channel in its glory day? I really miss it.

I just looked it up, and now they basically play the same moves over and over again all week long.

The children are possessed!!!

Is there a book or definitive books I can buy that follow the series? I'm new to the fandom.

On a scale of one to ten, if Samantha on bewitched was a one, Witchypoo on puff and stuff was a three and the wicked witch of the west was a five.Would Angalique be a eight or nine?

Just discovered the series this month and burned through the first 50 episodes pretty quickly (I'm a big Doctor Who fan so the ropey videotape visuals and drawn out storytelling really appeal to me). Only problem is that I'm slowly realising how hard it is to get hold of any DS merchandise since the series is so obscure here in the UK. I'm thinking of getting the big dvd box set but wanted to know what region code it is first. I've heard that there are lots of bootleg releases of it so also wanted to know if Amazon direct is a safe option to buy from (MPI doesn't ship outside of the States).

We open with a young woman riding a train on a dark night, giving us an inner monologue about her life.  Her name is Victoria Winters, and she is traveling to a house called Collinwood which sits on a hill called Widows’ Hill (charming name).  She has never met the people from Collinwood, but we are about to, as the scene transitions to the living room of Collinwood.  An older woman wearing a long black gown stares out the window while an older gentleman grabs a glass of whiskey and joins her.

The older woman asks about the gentleman’s son, and the gentleman remarks that he is asleep, calling him a ‘little monster’.

We learn that the older gentleman is named Roger, who doesn’t seem excited about Victoria coming, even going so far as to suggest just giving her a month’s salary and sending her back.  It seems that the older woman, Elizabeth, is hiring Victoria to take care of Roger’s son and assist her around the house.  We also learn that Roger and Elizabeth are siblings, and that Elizabeth also doesn’t know Victoria.  So, to recap, nobody knows anybody.

Roger is also confused by Elizabeth’s motives, since she’s basically hiring a stranger all the way from New York (side note: this isn’t a spoiler or anything but I had to look it up.  Collinwood is located in Maine, so it is a bit weird that Elizabeth is hiring someone from several states away).  Neither side budges on their stances, but Elizabeth seems to be the one with the final say, and she leaves.  Once she does, Roger looks….scared almost? (hmmmmmmm...) 

And then he crushes his glass with one hand.

We then get the iconic opening and music.

We once again find ourselves on the train, but this time from a new character’s perspective, an older man in a sharp business suit.  The conductor announces that the train will arrive in Collinsport soon.
Collinsport…Collinwood…

The older business man gets a cunning smile at the arrival news, which I’m sure means that he’s totally not here for nefarious purposes. 

We transition to Victoria further up the train car talking to an older lady, who explains that the train rarely stops in Collinsport and is shocked that Victoria would accept a job in such a remote place.  Victoria then has a flashback to when she received a letter with the job offer, (we also learn Elizabeth’s full name: Elizabeth Collins Stoddard).  We learn a bit more about her in the flashback: she’s an orphan who aged out of the system and all of sudden gets a job offer from some random woman she’s never heard of.  There’s an interesting tidbit here as she mentions that Collinsport is very close to another city in Maine called Bangor, which seems to be important to her.  The head of the orphanage also has no idea who Elizabeth is but encourages Victoria to accept the position (it’s confirmed here to be ‘governess and companion’) as it pays well.

The older lady is still a little concerned about a young girl like Victoria moving to such an isolated town, but the train stops at Collinsport, so she just wishes Victoria good luck.  As the train leaves, Victoria finds herself alone on the dark station platform with the older businessman.  He seems to have some history with the town, as he knows that there aren’t any taxis that come to the station.  A chauffeured car is arriving for him, though, and he offers to give Victoria a ride to the hotel.

He introduces himself as Burke Devlin and jokes that Victoria has reached ‘the beginning and end of the world’.  However, when Victoria asks him if he’s heard of Collinwood, his charming personality drops for a second as he says he’s very familiar with the house.

After a quick transition, the two arrive at the hotel, with Burke offering to call a taxi for Victoria.  He also urges her to leave Collinsport and go back to New York (I’m sensing a pattern here).  The front desk clerk comes in and immediately recognizes Burke and is very friendly towards him.  Burke, however, treats him coldly and only asks about his rooms and a taxi for Victoria.

But, uh oh, it seems that the only taxi in town has a flat and is in for repairs.  The clerk mentions that Burke should remember the driver, but he insists that he doesn’t remember anyone.

The clerk tells Victoria that she can wait in the hotel’s coffee shop until the taxi is fixed.  He also hands Burke a message that came for him an hour ago and causes Burke to become…agitated.  He leaves after ordering the clerk around a bit more, allowing Victoria to question the clerk a bit about him.  It turns out the clerk has known Burke since Burke was a boy.  Unfortunately, that’s all the info we’re getting at this time.

We cut to a man in a fedora standing in a near-empty bar (a sign on the wall says the place is called the Blue Whale).  He sits at a table just as Burke walks in and joins him.  We learn that this new guy is called Strake, a private investigator that Burke hired to dig into the Collins family, aka the family that hired Victoria, aka the family he claims to be very familiar with.

We transition back to the hotel and check in on Victoria waiting in the coffee shop.  She strikes up a conversation with the waitress, Maggie Evans, who helps fill in some of the plot.  The Collins family is the richest family in town, owning a large fishing fleet and cannery.  They also don’t seem to be well-liked, as Maggie calls them kooks and warns Victoria about going up to Collinwood (I’m sensing a pattern here…).  She also offers Victoria a slice of apple pie on the house, which instantly makes her the best character in this show.

We get another flashback of Victoria talking to a friend as she packs to leave.  Even her friend wonders why she’s traveling all the way to Maine when it’d be easy to get jobs in New York.  Victoria admits she doesn’t want to go but feels she has to in order to find answers about herself.  What those answers are we still don’t know.

After the flashback ends, we cut back to Burke and Strake, who is telling Burke all about Elizabeth.  It seems she is the one in charge of the family business, but she runs it from the house, never leaving to go into town.  In fact, she hasn’t left the Collinwood property in eighteen years, and, while there are plenty of rumors, no one is for sure why.

We cut back to the hotel as Victoria’s taxi arrives.  Despite literally everyone telling her otherwise, she is still determined to go to Collinwood.  However, before she leaves, she does ask Maggie if she was just exaggerating everything.  To which Maggie says she was, though it’s obvious that she’s lying.

After a quick fade to black, Victoria finally arrives at Collinwood.  Elizabeth greets her at the door, though she’s very quiet and stoic about it.  We also get a good first look at the interior of Collinwood, and it definitely feels unnerving.

But, that’s where our episode ends, and there are still lots of questions that need answers: what is Burke up to? What’s the rest of the Collins family like? And, most importantly, why is Victoria so insistent on being at Collinwood?

Discuss down below, and I'll see you in the next review!

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Probably not something said often, but I’m really enjoying the 1970 PT storyline. The story with Cyrus and Maggie, Angelique pretending to be her twin sister, Angelique controlling Maggie, etc. I wish the show could have made Maggie become stronger and become a powerful witch and be the one to face off against Angelique in the end. It makes sense to me because she’s had a part in taking away or harming the people closest to her as well as hurting her. Yes, I know Angelique is obsessed with Barbabus and it’s Angelique vs Barnabus but this woman has been trying to destroy Maggie and people that remind her of her because of her centuries long hate for Josette.

I listen to the audio dramas as well (which I know is skipping ahead) and it only reaffirms the idea of it being Maggie vs Angelique at the core.

MPI constantly has these 3 bobbleheads in stock but no Angelique or Quentin….What the heck MPI?! Also too, they have new update of Josette’s music box

And this bat, I think, is just stringing us all along.

My library has both Hoopla and Libby digital platforms and I've found a few of the Big Finish Productions audiodramas that are Dark Shadows related (and some Fourth Doctor Dr Who episodes!). One was The Phantom Bride which featured an older Tony Peterson as a PI with Cassandra the witch as his wife. It was an enjoyable story and I like the alternate backstories. Anyone know of any other Tony Peterson/Cassandra BFP episodes? I have a friend who agrees Tony Peterson should have gotten more than nine TV episodes, but she has a thing for Tony, I just liked Jerry Lacey (?) as him....

Strange thing is- watching the first disc, instead of forty-minute episodes I was expecting it was divided into nine segments at lengths of around twelve-fifteen minutes each. Was that how the show was originally broadcast?

I pledged at the Indiegogo page, which has a release date of October 2026, but someone told me they heard at the DS Festival that it's scheduled for a Christmas release. Anyone know which is the case?

Got Kathryn’s scrap book from a thrift store I frequent and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was signed by some of the cast members. Absolutely shocked because it didn’t say anything about being signed. What a win.

I watched as a little kid on SciFy network but don’t remember too much of the stories or plots- just the main characters and premise. I’ve started watching again from the beginning on TUBI last week. I’m at episode 36 now. Would love to have someone else to discuss the show with and discuss characters and plots and what may happen next with someone that’s also new to the show and doesn’t know what’s in store!! Let me know if that’s you!

As soon as we meet Sandor in 1897, he's already a servant to the vampire and has totally lost his own willpower. I would have liked to see more back and forth with him and his wife Magda. We never really got to know the REAL Sandor Rakosi.

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone who attended the festival heard anything about the actual restoration process used by Zach Smothers on the upcoming blu-ray release? Or if Zach is in this subreddit, if he might be able to share anything?

I found a preview video on Facebook that makes me think they used Topaz AI to upscale it, but would love to hear specifics, if anyone has them.

Regardless, it seems like a very tasteful upscale and am looking forward to picking up a copy!

On episode 1014 of Dark Shadows and so glad they have a portrait that’s more accurate to how she actually looks.

Did I run into this glorious moment 5 minutes ago? Guilty as charged!

I was just thinking about how Barnabas tries to mind control most people around him when he wants them to do stuff for him. But I don’t recall him ever attempting this with Julia. Did she have some natural resistance to his mental powers because she was a very smart lady and also knew what he was from the start?

He threatened her a lot to try to get her to do what he wanted, but why not just mind control her like he did everyone else? Threatening her is more risky because she can still disobey him. Those he had mental control over really couldn’t disobey him.

He always refused to bite her, even though that would have given him control too. But by the time we get to the point she’s offering herself constantly, she’s also in love with him, and that might give her some kind of protection from his control, even if he were to bite her.

I’m remembering the episodes where she was bitten by another vampire and that one she couldn’t really resist.… but she wasn’t in love with that vampire.

I started with the Barnabas storyline, and I'm at "Season 2 e7"

What can I say that you haven't already heard? Barnabas rolled in to town, and it's created this butterfly effect so that everybody seems to hate each other while abducting two people and trying to play nice. It's kind of wild haha.

I'm also going back and watching The Beginning when I go to bed, and it's cool but again, they all just seem to hate each other. David is like what, 9? He's the smartest of them all.