687 — darkshadows

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Number	678
Timeline	1969
Narrator	Nancy Barrett
Writer	Gordon Russell
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	February 11, 1969 (Tuesday)
Recorded	February 4, 1969 (Tuesday)
Video	Complete: Disc 72 Collection 12: Disc 4

We have 33 images of Dark Shadows 687

Chris feels as if he is going to transform into the werewolf and has Barnabas lock him in the secret room of the Collins mausoleum. Ned Stuart arrives at Collinwood.

Synopsis

The night is stormy and terrifying, blemished by the evil touch of one long dead. Somewhere in the shadows that engulf the great house at Collinwood, there exists a spirit of a man whose wickedness stains the pages of Collins family history, a man who has returned from the grave bent upon destruction.

Chris and Carolyn continue their romance, however Carolyn senses a secret that he keeps from her. She summons up her courage and asks if he is married. Chris laughs and assures her that he is single, but fully intends to be married someday.

Later on, Chris feels the transformation coming upon him and phones Barnabas to lock him in the mausoleum for protection; both Barnabas and Julia are baffled by this, as there isn't a full moon tonight.

A man named Ned Stuart - looking virtually identical to the missing Jeff Clark - shows up at Collinwood looking for Chris. Ned finds Barnabas and Julia at Chris's cottage, and tells them that Chris was engaged to his sister; he implies that she is dead.

Memorable quotes

Carolyn: You've been too busy enjoying yourself to worry about your deep, dark secret.

Carolyn: Yes, my mother is a Collins.

Ned: (when Julia asks if his sister is dead) Now that would be the logical conclusion, wouldn't it?

Ned: Suspicion of strangers, an old New England custom.

Carolyn: Yes--one that's more often justified than not.

Dramatis personae

Background information and notes

Production

Roger Davis returns to the cast after an absence of twenty-one episodes. First appearance of character Ned Stuart. Since Jeff Clark is actually Peter Bradford, Ned is the second character played by actor Davis in the original series.

Story

If the transformation into a werewolf begins at moonrise, why is Chris going through it in the middle of the night? [Addendum: This is also a night without a full moon, so clearly something different is happening. That could explain why he didn't transform at sunset as well.]
Barnabas borrows Julia Hoffman's car to drive Chris Jennings to the cemetery so that he can be put in the mausoleum before he transforms into a werewolf, but when did Barnabas learn to drive? Previously in 605, Professor Stokes suggested that Barnabas was capable of driving by telling him where his car would be parked and that the keys would be inside. [Addendum: There have been and will be a number of instances of Barnabas driving. He obviously could have learned to drive at any time, and there would be no reason to show his learning to drive on the show itself.]
TIMELINE: Day 272 begins, and will end in 691. It was the "other evening" when Barnabas and Julia saw Beth. There's no full moon tonight; despite this, Chris feels the transformation pain. 1:10am: Barnabas takes Chris to the Collins mausoleum. It was thirty minutes ago when Barnabas left with Chris.

Bloopers and continuity errors

Grayson Hall flubs a line in Act 1. Julia tells Barnabas, “Someone wanted me to leave this room!” The ghost actually locked her *in* the room.
Jonathan Frid flubs: "Julia, are you absolutely convinced the woman we... we saw in the photograph is the woman we saw the other evening?" Barnabas never saw the photograph as it had been removed just before he came in.
The clock looks like it says 11:10, but it is really 1:10am. It was 11pm at the start of the previous episode, and this apparently is still the same night. [Addendum: I don't see a clock that says 11:10. The clock in Chris's cottage says 1:10 from when we first see it. Then when we see the grandfather clock in the Collinwood foyer, it also says 1:10. What's really a problem is that Chris's clock says 1:10 when he gets home to the cottage and starts transforming. When Barnabas and Julia arrive at the cottage after Chris calls them, Chris's clock still says 1:10. Following that, Barnabas takes Chris to the mausoleum and sees him transform, and Barnabas returns to the cottage. When Ned Stuart arrives at Collinwood, the clock says 1:10, and Ned would then be at the cottage within a few minutes, but Barnabas has already returned from the mausoleum when Ned arrives. According to the clocks, no time has passed during all of this.]
In the first act, when Julia is banging on the locked storage room door calling for help, we hear Barnabas say he's coming, and he sounds quite close. However, there is a fairly long gap before he opens the door (10-15 seconds).