BEAUTY AND THE BEAST COMPANION
By Peter J. Formaini, USA

Special Episode Information (click here for contents)
Extracts from His Major Companion

Episode 25 (Series 2, Episode 3)
Ashes... Ashes

Critical Rating 9.5 Violence Rating 1.0 Original Air Date December 2, 1988

Major Performance Credits

Dimitri Adrian Paul Eric Joshua Rudoy
Peter Alcott Joseph Campanella Zach Zachary Rosencrantz
Mouse David Greenlee Rita Carolyn Finney
Jamie Irina Irvine School Teacher Scott Hunter
Mary Ellen Geer Man in Motorboat Yevgeny Lanskoy
Ellie Kamie Harper    
Major Production Credits Literary / Musical References
DIRECTOR Gus Trikonis Teleplay By Durrel Royce Crays
  • "Ashes..Ashes" is usually claimed to have derived from a chant sung by children in late 19th Century England:

Ring around the rosy...
Pocketful of posy.
Ashes...ashes...
We all fall down.

See trivia section for more information.
EDITOR(s) Howard Kunin Story By Durrell Royce Crays
Roy Dotrice

Milestones

First death of a Tunnel citizen from natural causes
First foreign language spoken by Vincent (HSL and AMSL are not spoken in the strict sense)

Special Notes / Trivia

You may recognize Adrian Paul from the "Boku" Wine Cooler commercial [addendum: better known in Highlander series as Duncan McLeod and also War of the Worlds]
Peter Alcott delivered Catherine at birth
Father notes that Vincent "is immune to the bacteria".  Thus, Vincent must be genetically human
Roy Dotrice (Father) shares the credit for this story line
Zach is the only character in BNTB whose name on the show is the same in real life
References to the children's chant as referring to the time of the Bubonic Plague are inaccurate.  The chant has been traced back directly to 1881 and no farther.  Children did not play and dance during the 1300's, the height of darkness and disease in Europe and Asia.  They were worked incessantly, treated like cattle, tolerated.  They did not spend their time contriving quaint nursery rhymes
Anna was attending night school at Beaumont High.  Again, the name Beaumont rears its head in the series.  See the Introductory essay for an explanation.