What films/novels/etc would DS have borrowed from next?

Back when I had an obsession with trying to come up with more stories that could have run on the OS, I was pretty sure if they'd gotten around to it they might have assimilated The Invisible Man and The Legend of Sleep Hollow.

I made up a very rough outline of a story where the secret of invisibility is stolen from Petofi who might have already had time to perfect it and may already be at work on creating invisible armies. It's tested by that very clever lad Quentin Collins I who designs Stairways into Time. Unfortunately Quentin's assistant isn't very reliable because Petofi keeps possessing him, and not only does Quentin accidentally become invisible during their first skirmish, but after Quentin has been throughly blackmailed by a Trask who keeps losing the orphanage's money at the poker table, Quentin has the further misfortune of having his laboratory set up in the same place that Laura sets ablaze in the course of taking David Radcliffe with her into the glorious Egyptian afterlife, also claiming the lives of Quentin, Daphne, and their two children Colleen Collins and Franklin Edison Collins after Petofi has locked them all in.

It's an incident so tragic and so thoroughly purged from Collins history that it's easier for Barnabas to go back in time to find out about it than get a word of it out of Quentin. (The incident takes place at the previous Seaview, which Caleb has had faithfully reconstructed after the fateful fire, and aspires to explain why a waiting period of 100 years appears in a stipulation in Caleb's will - because he's trying to make sure Laura doesn't do it a second time).

I forget what happens in the story to be based on Irving - Judah Zachary's body comes back with a pumpkin for a head or some such, at the risk of type-casting James Storm as the headless guy :-) - but I figured these might well be along the lines of what Dan Curtis might have done if Dark Shadows has continued, given what came before. (I really would like to know whatever happened to Quentin I and Daphne!)

We really are missing a mummy, aren't we, as classic monsters go? Vampires - check. Werewolves - check. Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein - check. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - check. A mummy just seems so screamingly obvious that it's strange they never got round to it. Though i suppose Laura's Egyptian hoodoo stuff is a bit 'Jewel of the Seven Stars' / 'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb' at a pinch.

I know one of the Marilyn Ross novels has a mummy, and i think it's one of the ones my gran used to have when i was a kid, but i remember nothing about it sadly.

Oh, and for maximum Universal Horror homage, a henchman somewhere in the show really should have had a hunchback. Maybe Lazlo.

I love where Big Finish has taken the show, from bringing in plotlines that would not have been imagined or possible in the early 70s, using the audio medium in ways a show could not (even bringing in old audio clips to seemingly resurrect characters for the show), and a healthy mix of authors from various backgrounds to both fill in the blanks of the original show and add on a whole new mix of adventures.

One that I would like would be something about the source of the Collins curse. Is it a series of unfortunate events from people meddling in paranormal stuff? Is it Angelique's, Brutus', or Judah's curse? Is Collinport on some sort of power nexus or hellmouth (like Charmed or Buffy)? Is it more about the Leviathan's first landing point that somehow leaves power behind for other supernatural happenings?

Part of wondered when they brought in Cody and Dr. Hill, establishing that Cody was part Native American if they were setting something up eventually. I guess time will tell.

Yeah, why the Collinses and Collinsport are cursed is very much part of the Crimson Pearl and Harvest of Souls storylines.