478

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Number	472
Timeline	1968
Narrator	Alexandra Moltke
Writer	Gordon Russell
Director	Lela Swift
Broadcast	April 24, 1968 (Wednesday)
Recorded	April 18, 1968 (Thursday)
Video	Complete: Disc 51 Collection 7: Disc 3
We have 6 images of Dark Shadows 478

Dr. Lang drugs Jeff and plans to use his face for Barnabas' new body.

Synopsis

Teaser

Victoria Winters has returned to the great house at Collinwood from a strange and haunting adventure in the past, and now the terrible events she lived through are beginning to change not only her life, but the lives of those around her. A mysterious painting and a surprise marriage between two strangers have led to the suspicion that a witch has returned to Collinwood, determined to restore a curse that began almost two hundred years ago.

Maggie Evans arrives at Collinwood to visit Victoria, and Cassandra answers the door. She is stunned by how much Maggie resembles Josette. Because of the resemblance, she decides that Maggie should be the first to have the dream.

Act I

While Victoria and Maggie visit in the drawing room, Maggie reveals to Victoria that Cassandra's reaction was unsettling. Victoria confesses to Maggie that everything about Cassandra is strange: the whirlwind one day romance and marriage that took place between Roger and Cassandra. Victoria also correctly guesses that Maggie reminded Cassandra of someone else. Victoria also asks Maggie if Jeff Clark can rent the spare room that Maggie and her father have. Maggie says she has to clear it with her father, but she'll try to convince him. Maggie asks if Vicki is in love with Jeff, and she answers that she's not sure.

Act II

In Dr. Eric Lang's lab, Jeff and Lang argue bitterly over whether Jeff will continue working for him. Lang surreptitiously prepares a syringe while Jeff calls Victoria, then injects him. Jeff collapses.

Act III

Later, at the drawing room at Collinwood, Cassandra stares out the window and vows that Barnabas's Dream Curse will begin tonight with Maggie Evans. At her home, Maggie begins the dream. She hears three slow knocks at the door and goes to open it. It is Jeff, someone Maggie does not know. She attempts to scream, but nothing comes out. Jeff beckons her to follow him, and she does. Jeff leads her to another door and Maggie enters. Jeff closes gthe door after her. Maggie yells to be let out. Jeff's voice eerily calls, "Through sight and sound, and faceless terror, through endless corridors, by trial and error, a head of blazing light does burn, and one door leads to the point of return...." As she screams in terror for help, she sees she is in a room with many doors. She hears a haunting melody that she barely recalls, then chooses the only unlocked door and finds a grotesque skull. At that point, she bolts awake, back in her bed.

Act IV

Back at the lab, Jeff awakens in restraints and realizes that Dr. Lang plans to use Jeff's face for the "creature."

Dramatis personae

• Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
• Addison Powell as Eric Lang
• Lara Parker as Cassandra Collins
• Roger Davis as Jeff Clark
• Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters

Background information and notes

Production

• This episode was recorded out of broadcast sequence. The previous episode to be recorded was 476.
• Kathryn Leigh Scott returns to the cast after an absence of 47 episodes.
• There is a tape edit when Jeff and Dr. Lang are in the laboratory.
• For the first time, rather than the end credits playing over an image of a set from the episode, the credits instead play over a kaleidoscopic image, as one would see during hypnosis.
• Maggie's room and bed is not the same as when it was last shown.

Story

• Dr. Lang actually intends to cut off Jeff's head with a small scalpel?
• DREAM SEQUENCE: Cassandra starts the dream curse, she chooses Maggie to be the first victim to experience it. Maggie then has the dream. She opens a door revealing a skull. The beckoner is Jeff.
• TIMELINE: Day 198 begins, and will end in 482. Roger and Cassandra married the same day they met. Jeff plans to meet Victoria in an hour. Dr. Lang will be ready to conduct the experiment tomorrow.

Bloopers and continuity errors

• Cassandra enters the drawing room and tells Victoria that she has a phone call. There has always been a phone in the drawing room and on the table right outside the doors in the foyer, yet we never heard the phone ring.
• Addison Powell has trouble filling the syringe. He tries a couple of times, but it doesn't work. The fluid in the bottle that he uses to try to fill the syringe is blue, but when he goes back and picks it up the syringe it is clear. So Jeff was injected with almost 100% air, hard to understand why he immediately falls asleep.