Quentin Collins
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Quentin Collins is the name of several characters featured in the 1967-1971 ABC soap opera television series Dark Shadows. All variations of the character have been played by actor David Selby.
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[edit] Quentin I
The first Quentin Collins is actually the second one shown in the TV series. This version of Quentin was first introduced in episode #1109 in a storyline commonly referred to as the "1840 flashback".
In the 1840 storyline, Quentin Collins was one of two brothers living at the gothic mansion known as Collinwood in the fictional town of Collinsport, Maine. The favorite son of his mentally troubled father Daniel Collins, Quentin stood to inherit the entire family fortune. This position brought him into frequent conflict with his scheming brother, Gabriel (Christopher Pennock). Quentin was married to a woman named Samantha Drew, with whom he had a son named Tad.
While Tad was still a young boy, his father spent a great deal of time at sea. During this time, Quentin became close friends with a fellow seaman named Gerard Stiles (James Storm). While the two developed a deep friendship, Gerard secretly longed to be with Quentin's wife. At some point in 1839, Quentin had an affair with a woman named Joanna Mills. His wife Samantha eventually discovered the affair and secretly murdered Joanna, making it look as if she had taken her own life.[1]
At one point, Quentin was committed to managing his family's business enterprises, but eventually forsook his professional pursuits in favor of studying the occult. Quentin also fancied himself an amateur inventor and used his knowledge of the occult to develop a device that he called his "Stairway Through Time". He persistently labored to build his staircase in a cellar room at Collinwood. It was Quentin's belief, that ascending the staircase could open a dimensional portal through which individuals could view and even interact with the future. What Quentin never realized however, was that his staircase also created a divergent parallel reality (This functioned as the genesis for several storylines which took place in parallel dimensions). Quentin's devotion towards his work gave Gerard the means by which to manipulate and ultimately betray him.
By 1840 Quentin's marriage with Samantha deteriorated even further, and she began spending more and more time with Gerard. Quentin meanwhile began having an affair with his son's governess, Daphne Harridge (Kate Jackson), the sister of Quentin's former lover, Joanna Mills.
Gerard meanwhile had fallen prey to the spirit of a disembodied warlock named Judah Zachery. Judah wanted revenge against the entire Collins family for sentencing him to death in the late 1600s. Judah's spirit took possession of Gerard Stiles and used him as a secret weapon against the Collins family. [2] Working alongside a disreputable clergyman named Reverend Lamar Trask, Gerard convinced the local authorities that Quentin was a Satanist and that he had used his knowledge of the dark arts to murder a young woman named Lorna Bell, as well as his own brother-in-law, Randall Drew. Quentin was arrested and taken to prison. [3] When his ailing father, Daniel, heard the news concerning Quentin's arrest, he changed his will leaving the entire Collins family fortune to Gerard Stiles.
With the aid of his cousin Desmond and his "distant" cousin Barnabas, Quentin escaped being beheaded and eloped with Daphne Harridge. The two left Collinsport forever to make a new life for themselves.[4]
[edit] Quentin II
The second Quentin Collins was actually the first one featured in the series, and is arguably the more popular of the two versions among fans, owing primarily to the fact that he is a werewolf. This version of Quentin was the great-nephew of the first Quentin Collins and whose lineage includes several supporting characters peppered throughout the series.
Quentin originally appeared as an angry malevolent spirit haunting the playroom in the West Wing of Collinwood (along with the ghost of his lover Beth Chavez). [5] Quentin and Beth's spirits befriended the children David Collins and his friend, Amy Jennings. Eventually, they took possession of both children and used them to serve their own interests.
In an effort to save his family, the former vampire known as Barnabas Collins, used the cosmological principles of the I Ching to send his spirit backwards through time to the year 1897 (Unfortunately for Barnabas, this meant becoming a vampire once again as such was his physical state during that time period). This series of episodes is commonly referred to as the "1897 flashback". [6]
Upon meeting Quentin, Barnabas discovered him to be a selfish and spiteful individual, a womanizing manipulator constantly at odds with his family. Quentin earned himself the reputation of being the black sheep of the family – due largely in part to his marriage and subsequent abuse of a gypsy girl named Jenny Racosi. Along with Beth Chavez, the two conspired to keep Jenny hidden from the rest of the family by imprisoning her inside of the tower room at Collinwood.
Quentin's philandering lifestyle changed forever when he ran afoul of an occultist known as Count Petofi. Through Petofi's machinations, Quentin inherited a curse that transformed him into a werewolf whenever the moon was full. Barnabas, sympathetic to Quentin's plight, tried to help him overcome the curse, but to no avail. He did however succeed in altering Quentin’s destiny, preventing the creation of the future timeline where Quentin’s spirit plagued Collinwood.
Not only was Quentin forced to suffer the curse of Lycanthropy, but he was also rendered immortal due to the efforts of his artist friend Charles Delaware Tate (Roger Davis). In a pastiche of Oscar Wilde's, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Tate painted a portrait of Quentin Collins. So long as the portrait remained intact, Quentin would be forced to live the life of a werewolf forever.
Quentin was still alive and wandering the streets of Collinsport by the year 1969. An amnesiac calling himself Grant Douglas, he reunited with Barnabas Collins and soon regained his true memories. He worked closely alongside Barnabas and his trusted companion Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall), and aided them against the likes of the witch Angelique and the Cult of the Leviathans.
During this time, Quentin discovered that his lycanthropy had passed along his family line affecting his descendent Chris Jennings (Chris' twin brother Tom ironically enough became a vampire).
[edit] Parallel Time
Both Quentin I and Quentin II had counterparts that appeared during the various Parallel Time story-arcs. Quentin I appeared in the 1841 Parallel Time arc, which began with episode 1186 and continued until the final episode of the series. Played once again by David Selby, there was very little to distinguish this version of Quentin from his mainstay 1840 counterpart. Quentin's first actual appearance in Parallel Time was in episode 1200. He appeared in a total of 14 Parallel Time episodes.
Quentin II appeared in another Parallel Time reality (of the same continuity), but this time in the year 1970. Here Quentin became the pawn of the witch Angelique, who used him as a means of striking out against his wife, Maggie Collins (Kathryn Leigh Scott). [7]
[edit] Night of Dark Shadows
In 1971, MGM released the movie Night of Dark Shadows, a sequel to the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows. Although both films presumably share continuity with one another, they exist independently of the television series. Once again, David Selby resumed the role of Quentin Collins as well as that of his character’s ancestor, Charles Collins. In Night of Dark Shadows, Quentin Collins is an artist who inherits Collinwood after the passing of the last remaining family member, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.
Along with his wife Daphne (Kate Jackson), Quentin becomes the victim of Angelique – a witch who died over a century ago. Angelique's spirit operates in tandem with that of her 19th century lover, Charles Collins and slowly subverts Quentin's will. Before long, Quentin's soul is consumed by the evil of Charles Collins and he begins stalking his wife and friends.
[edit] Trivia
- Quentin Collins II was a recurring character in the Dark Shadows novels written by Marilyn Ross and published by Paperback Library in the 1960s-70s. He shared the title spotlight (along with Barnabas Collins) in seventeen Ross novels. [8]
- Quentin was also a regularly featured character in the Dark Shadows comic book series published by Gold Key Comics from 1969 until 1976. Quentin frequently worked alongside Barnabas in an effort to find a cure for the disease that turned him into a werewolf.
- Quentin Collins II had a nephew named Jamison. Actor David Selby has a son named Jamison. [9]
- Quentin Collins shares the same first name with another fictional immortal, Quentin MacLeod. MacLeod was a character featured on Highlander: The Animated Series.
[edit] External links
- Quentin Collins article at CollinWiki
- Quentin Collins (1840 version) article at CollinWiki
- Quentin Collins (1897 version) article at CollinWiki
- Quentin Collins image gallery at Hollywood.net
- David Selby biography page at IMDB
[edit] See also
[edit] Episodes
Quentin Collins appeared in the following episodes of Dark Shadows
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