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| ← 437 → | |
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| Number |
431 |
| Timeline | |
| Narrator | |
| Writer | |
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| Broadcast |
February 27, 1968 |
| Recorded |
February 21, 1968 |
| Video | |
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| We have 7 images of Dark Shadows 437 | |
Victoria is convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to hang.
Synopsis[]
Teaser
- A séance has been held in the great house at Collinwood, a séance which has suspended time and space, and sent one girl on an uncertain and frightening journey into the past, back to the year 1795. Fear of the unknown has turned others against her and placed her very existence in peril. And the forces of evil, which have surrounded her fate, now threaten a deadly end to her journey.
Peter Bradford has retrieved the Collins Family History Book and brings it to the jail where he tries to talk Victoria Winters into telling the truth at her trial. She doesn't think the judges will believe her, but Peter says that it is the only chance they have left. She'll be convicted and hanged unless the judges change their minds.
Act I
Reverend Trask and Nathan Forbes meet in the courtroom before the trial begins. Trask wants Nathan to testify again, this time claiming that Victoria had him under a spell. Nathan is appalled at the suggestion and refuses. Trask threatens to harm his military career and lets Nathan reconsider his decision. Victoria tells Peter how, as a child, she often had nightmares but would always be able to wake herself up. She becomes hysterical, convinced that this is all a dream although she is unable to wake herself now. Peter slaps her, then holds her until the jailer comes to take her to the courtroom.
Act II
Nathan is called to testify again. When Trask asks if it's true that he helped Victoria earlier because of his friendship with Barnabas Collins, Nathan changes his story. He tells the court that it is possible that he had been bewitched. Peter cross-examines Nathan about the first time he met Victoria and how Nathan tried to kiss her. Peter suggests that Nathan helped Victoria because he was attracted to her, not because he was under a spell. Nathan is dismissed and Peter calls Victoria to the stand. She begins her testimony by stating that she was born in 1946.
Act III
Victoria describes how she was raised in a foundling home in New York. She left in 1966 to be governess to a boy named David Collins in Collinsport. She tells them she was in the drawing room at Collinwood and was knocked unconscious. When she awoke, she was at the Old House, 150 years in the past. She tells them that everyone, even Nathan Forbes, has a counterpart there. She also tells about the Collins Family History Book that she brought with her from the future while Peter presents the book as evidence. Peter finishes his examination of Victoria by asking if she is a witch. She denies the charge. Trask cross-examines Victoria about the events leading up to her unconsciousness. She is forced to tell Trask that she participated in a séance just before she was transported to 1795. Trask calls her a bride of the devil and declares that she must die.
Act IV
The judges deliberate and after an hour they still have not reached a decision. While comforting Victoria, Peter declares his love for her. She says their situation is hopeless but Peter is not deterred. Nathan accuses Trask of blackmail but he claims he was showing him the error of his ways. Nathan has the urge to confess everything to the judges. The judges return; Nathan hopes Victoria is freed. The judges find her guilty of witchcraft and sentence her to be hanged until dead. Victoria collapses.
Memorable quotes[]
- Peter: Vicki, I wish I could tell you that the law was simply a matter of evidence, facts, proof... but it isn't. Emotions count.
- Victoria: I'm beginning to learn that.
- Peter: This is a frightened little village, so we have to show them that they have nothing to fear from you.
Dramatis personae[]
- Roger Davis as Peter Bradford
- Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters
- Jerry Lacy as Reverend Trask
- Joel Crothers as Nathan Forbes
- Leslie Barrett as Judge
- Hal White as 2nd Judge (uncredited)
- Tom Gorman as 3rd Judge (uncredited)
- ← Anthony Goodstone → as Bailiff (uncredited)
- Peter Murphy as Gaoler (uncredited)
Background information and notes[]
Production[]
- Although the original color videotape of this episode has been lost, a black and white kinescope version exists and is the one generally shown.
- Hal White replaces Hansford Rowe in the role of "2nd Judge".
- The clock in the courtroom is an Aaron Willard clock. Aaron Willard was a Boston clockmaker known for making relatively inexpensive clocks, at least as compared with other clockmakers of the time, and so his clocks were more affordable for ordinary people. He manufactured clocks from 1785 to 1823.
Story[]
- Victoria gives her year of birth as 1946. She had nightmares all the time when she was a child. She got so used to them, she became curious about them, and when she realized she was having a dream, she'd keep on dreaming rather than waking up until the final split second when the dream would climax.
- TIMELINE: Day 176 takes place. Peter got the Collins family history book last night. The judges are going to deliver their verdict today. 2pm: Victoria in her jail cell. It was the "other day" when Nathan testified (occurred in 433). 5pm: An hour since the trial ended. 5:30pm: Verdict revealed.
Bloopers and continuity errors[]
- When Peter Bradford is cross-examining Nathan Forbes in Act II, Roger Davis seems to forget his lines, stumbles in what he says, and looks off-stage, seemingly to the teleprompter. “At that time, you told him that, uh, you had, uh, something that…something [checks teleprompter]...a weakness. Yes, a weakness. That’s what you said.”
- The lack of conformity to actual law and court proceedings in Victoria's trial have often been noted, but another egregious instance happens in this episode: There is little rhyme nor reason why the court would allow Rev. Trask to recall one of his witnesses to the stand after he as prosecutor has rested his case.
- Victoria says she went to work as a governess at Collinwood in 1966. This is the first time that a year of 1966 has been mentioned in reference to the episodes aired in 1966, 1 to 135. There is no way to reconcile this as the on-screen passage of time indicates that that run of episodes takes place over no more than a month and as such can be presumed to be part of 1967, as it's the only way for the year to plausibly change from 1967 to 1968 after Victoria's return to the present, considering no time passes in the present while she is in the past. [Addendum: Based on your own argument--that no time passes in the present while Victoria is in the past--then we would have to assume the seance itself took place in 1968, not 1967.]
- Peter Bradford is not very good at math. Victoria has just said that she came to Collinwood in 1966; then Peter says she was transported 150 years back in time. That would make the present year 1816, not 1795. Or if you consider that the séance took place in 1967, then it's 1817. In any case, the writers seem to be rather haphazard with the numbers they throw out. [More likely, Peter was just using an approximation, a very common thing to do, especially when exact numbers are not necessary.]
External Links []
Dark Shadows - Episode 437 on the IMDb
Dark Shadows Every Day - Episode 437 - There's Just Us
The Dark Shadows Daybook - Episode 437