And Even Yet Another New Slideshow

[DarkLady]

Thanks, Gothick! That clip!!!! *thud*

[dom]

Yes, I like both videos.

I often think that this is the one version I would have really gone for. I'll never forget the first clips shown at a fest (I always think it's Vegas and think I am always wrong) - Blair Brown strutting her stuff as Liz Stoddard across the screen to greet Victoria. It was very exciting. My heart sank but it was from OSSS, lol. I really don't remember anything else from it. I was very eager to see BB as Liz but I was already happy with MM as Angelique and hopeful for AN as Barn - he had the right stuff.

I never saw the completed version.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If I'm remembering correctly, that article was published online. But at any rate, it wasn't part of the Fangoria #239 issue, which seems to be, probably unintentionally, implied by the way CHS is presenting it. The quite lengthy article in issue #239 was written by Darren Gross and is one of the best articles ever written about the '04 pilot - plus it features many more photos.

But be all that as it may, it's still nice to see an article about the '04 pilot getting showcased again. And thanks, Gothick, for sharing the link! 

[Gothick]

That's a luscious shot of Barnabas and Vicki today.

I'm sure DarkLady will post her approval when she reawakens from the deep blissful swoon into which she undoubtedly fell at the sight of Alec Newman's intense eyes and cheekbones and his gorgeous hair.

G.

[DarkLady]

Indeed, Gothick! I woke briefly, only to swoon all over again! 

[Gothick]

and who can blame you?

Alec Newman's Barnabas was deeply, romantically, irresistibly SEXY.

G.

[KMR]

I don't know, but Alec Newman's Barnabas always struck me as wrong (I only have the stills to go by, though). And with today's screen capture, I think it finally hit me why:  he looks a little too much like Keith Partridge.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

     Though Newman has 100 times the acting talent that David Cassidy could ever dream of having!

[DarkLady]

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Better late than never, I suppose, but it never dawned on me until today that today's quote -

Page 33 - Elizabeth: 'My daughter, Carolyn. She was... injured. Bitten by some sort of animal.'

- would certainly seem to indicate that Roger never told Liz that Dr. Hoffman had discovered human saliva in Carolyn's wound.

I also love how Liz waves her hands in anger and frustration when she brings up that Carolyn was bitten by some sort of animal -

- but it's really Barnabas' reaction to that description of the attacker that's most interesting because at first he seems almost insulted -

- but then he seems embarrassed -

[Gothick]

Wonderful captures, MB!  What a gorgeous man he is!

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And today is another iconic DS moment:  Liz just said, "Roger, PLEASE!"

That can never be repeated enough. Some people have criticized Liz in the pilot, but it's moments like today's quote where I definitely see the classic Liz...

[Gothick]

When I watched the new edit when it was briefly on the Tube a couple of months ago, I liked Blair's performance more than I had done the first time around.  Even the welcoming scene seemed to make more sense, somehow.  It might just have been my frame of mind.

Best, G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Yesterday/today's exchange between Vicki and Barnabas is one of my absolute favorite moments in the pilot:

"Have we met?" 514X360

"I would have remembered." 514X360

From the moment I'd first seen it I've always been fascinated that in this version of things it's Vicki and not Barnabas who first acknowledges their connection...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thankfully the YouTube version of the pilot didn't mess with what is one of my favorite sequences. But before we get into it, let's go back to two posts I made in the pilot's slideshow topic:

As for the new sequence, the script explains it all as:

INT. VICTORIA'S BEDROOM - COLLINWOOD - NIGHT

Blue moonlight filters through the window as Victoria slips on her nightgown. She's just pulling back the bed-covers when she stops, as if SENSING SOMETHING. Curious, she goes to the balcony doors...

EXT. VICTORIA'S BALCONY - COLLINWOOD -. NIGHT

She steps out and looks across the dark grounds. CUT TO:

BARNABAS' NIGHT-VISION POV.

Watching Victoria from a distance. Eerie, deep blue.

But nothing like that plays out in the pilot. What does happen in the pilot is actually far more interesting. However, before I get into what does actually happen, I need to track down an extra I want to include in my post to better illustrate it. But I will throw in two bits of trivia now:

1) The sequence was the first that Alec Newman shot after being cast as Barnabas.

2) It's the only sequence in the pilot in which Barnabas is seen with fashionable stubble. And that's because TPTB didn't like the look after they saw it on film. But time ran out and they were never able to reshoot the sequence.

So, what does actually happen in the pilot? Well, later in the night after Vicki has already gone to bed Barnabas actually shows up at Vicki's bedside, and it's at that point that today's quote -

Page 36 - Barnabas: 'Josette. You've come back to me.'

- is delivered by Barnabas (though it is scripted in other circumstances that I'll wait until tomorrow to get into). However, as Barnabas prepares to bite Vicki, as in similar scenes in both the original series and the '91 DS, he can't bring himself to go through with it. In the pilot Barnabas cries out mournfully, startling Vicki awake - but he flees from the room before she sees him. But the really interesting bit comes after Vicki has awakened and looks to see if anyone is in her room and what the audience sees is Barnabas hanging upside down and clinging to the exterior wall of Collinwood above Vicki's bedroom window and out of her sight (very much in the style of Louis Jourdan's Dracula in PBS' 1977 Count Dracula). And out there Barnabas laments "Josette" before the scene comes to its end.

And to help people who haven't seen the pilot to better picture Barnabas in this scene, here are two shots of Alec Newman from when he played a vampire on NBC's Dracula this past November:

Sure, Newman is almost ten years older, has a different hairstyle, and is wearing different clothes - but the shots are a good way to approximate Barnabas' look in the scene, right down to his fashionable stubble. 

Observant members who've seen the pilot at the Fests or on YouTube may have already noticed that this sequence makes up more than half of this month's background for the pilot. That's how much I love it. And here are some selected captures from it - some that I used for the background, but presented here in their natural state (meaning not colored blue) - and some that I didn't use for the background because they wouldn't have worked well for it:

514X360	514X360
514X360	514X360
514X360	514X360
514X360	514X360

Considering the way things play in the pilot are not the same as what appears in the script, it would be very interesting to know who conceived things as they appear in the pilot... But I suppose we may never know...