BBC’s Dracula: Every Difference Between the Novel and Episode 1 – CBR – Comic Book Resources

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for BBC's Dracula.

BBC/Netflix's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula is a modern interpretation of the most famous vampire in media. The first episode is the one that sticks closest to Bram Stoker's book, following Jonathan Harker's misadventures in Transylvania at the end of 19th century. Yet, while the scene where he arrives at the castle is ripped from the pages of the novel, it's the little changes that soon start to pop up that demonstrate to the audience that they are watching a very different tale with a very different message -- as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

The new series makes key changes to several characters from Stoker's novel, including Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray and Abraham Van Helsing. In the novel, Jonathan Harker is a young solicitor who almost dies after Dracula leaves him trapped in his castle after his usefulness is over. He barely escapes by jumping into a river and making his way to a monastery, where he hides until he recovers, and then marries Mina, his fianc. His detailed correspondence about his stay at Dracula's castle and business dealings is fundamental to finding and defeating the Count in London, and although he's scarred for life, he goes on to have children with Mina.

In the series, Jonathan Harker is doomed from the start. He looks like a walking corpse, is unable to feel a fly walking on his eye and is incapable of remembering his own fianc. His transformation into a vampire almost causes him to kill Mina, and he eventually gives into Dracula's insistence that he "let him in" to the convent where he's taken refuge, just to die.

Mina Murray (Morfydd Clark) is almost completely erased from the series and what remains is very different from the novel's version. Stoker characterized Mina as an incredibly modern and compelling heroine for her time. She had a logical, steadfast mind, impeccable work ethic, courage and empathy. The series' Mina is a damsel in distress who cries and screams until she exits stage left. The interest Dracula showed her in the novel is also non-existent.

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Finally, in the book, Sister Agatha was one of the nuns who took care of Harker when he washed up at their door. In the series, however, she's the only person who seems to have any real knowledge of the nature and limitations of Dracula, and becomes a formidable opponent to the Count. She's just as funny and cutting as he is and has a silver tongue and quick brain that more than make up for her apparent frailty. The reason behind these characteristics is soon revealed: Sister Agatha is a gender-swapped version of the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, who despite being a nun, is struggling with her faith. This is one of the most refreshing changes to the story in the series.

However, the show's biggest change is that, while in the novel, these three characters are part of a team of protagonists who relate their encounter with the vampire through letters, diary entries and other writings, the series tells its story from Dracula's point of view.

Dracula's castle in the novel was a lonely building, but the Count maintained a minimal day staff and providers of *coughs* fine foods, which Harker described as Gypsies loyal to him. In the series, the only servant that's seen is the ghoulish driver who drops Harker in the courtyard. This leaves a minor plot hole: who is taking care of the castle, preparing Dracula's food, loading up his coffins with soil and generally taking care of his affairs before Harker arrives?

Another big difference is the kind of people that actually "live" in the castle. In the series, Harker comes across a room full of boxes filled with Dracula's previous victims and experiments, undead and desperate to feed and be released. In contrast, in the novel, Harker doesn't come across any zombies or ghouls, but he observes a group of workers filling boxes with soil in the basement in preparation for Dracula's travels to England.

In the book, an increasingly apprehensive Harker explores the castle and comes across a room where three beautiful women try to seduce him and drink his blood. Dracula stops the trio from draining the hapless man by physically separating them and offering the brides a bag that wiggles just like a baby.

In the series, Harker encounters just one vampire bride who emerges from a box and playfully asks him not to tell the Count that she has figured how to escape whenever she wants. She confesses to being constantly thirsty despite Dracula's "tiny little things," like the baby in the bag the Count delivered to her, before attacking him.

When Harker wakes up an indeterminate amount of time later, he has lost most of his hair and Dracula has staked the bride through the heart. The Count explains to him that he always keeps three wives at a time, a term that he applies to both men and women. Now that he has an opening, he offers Harker the opportunity to become his newest wife.

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Another big difference between the book and the series is the destiny of the baby. In the book, the baby is only heard within the bag and isn't seen after it's offered to the vampire brides However, in the series, the baby becomes a tiny vampire. Dracula is surprised and delighted by this development; he mentions that his victims rarely wake up and that this is the first time a baby has managed to come back to life.

In Stoker's novel, Dracula can function during the day, although his abilities are greatly reduced. In the first episode of the series, Dracula can walk and talk at dawn but avoids looking at the sun or standing directly beneath it because he's convinced that he will burst into flames. On the other hand, after his transformation, Harker is not affected by the sun at all. The same goes for the crucifix; Dracula is repelled by it, but his bride simply acknowledges it as "pretty."

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In the book, Dracula acquires languages and skills by studying them, and Harker remarks that the Count possesses a quick intelligence. In the BBC/Netflix version, Dracula downloads the knowledge that he needs by drinking the blood of those that hold it; that's how he learns English so remarkably fast.

His appearance is also related to when he last fed. When Harker first arrives at Castle Dracula, his host looks like the mummified version of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, thanks to several rounds of Johnny's blood, he soon becomes youthful and charming.

Another ability lifted and tweaked from the book is Dracula's shape-shifting. While in the novel he can transform into mist, bats or wolves at will, the series makes it looks as if he has taken over the body of the animals (and later people) he transforms into. This leads him to burst out of them like a gigantic parasite; the scene where he is "born" from a massive black wolf is as gory and graphic as they get. While the ability is definitely eye-catching, how it works is never explained.

The series' first episode has two major plot divergences from the novel. The first one is that Dracula has a major villainous crush, or at least a possessive interest, in Jonathan Harker. While novel Dracula couldn't give two syringes of blood about him once he completes his solicitor work, series Dracula delays his journey and goes out of his way to track Harker down. Also, unlike the novel, the vampire has so little interest in Mina that he doesn't even bother killing her, shrugging off her escape. Unlike his novel counterpart, Harker is dead by the end of the episode and never marries Mina.

This leads to the second change: Dracula's plan to get Jonathan back is thwarted by Sister Agatha's knowledge of vampire lore and the nuns she has trained, which causes him to spend the second half of the episode trying to get into the convent by any means necessary. In the book, Dracula never went to the convent and never met the nuns. Instead he went to London and didn't cross paths with Van Helsing until much later in the story.

Executive produced by Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and Ben Irving, Dracula stars John Heffernan, Dolly Wells, Joanna Scanlan, Sacha Dhawan, Jonathan Aris, Morfydd Clark, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Claes Bang as Count Dracula. The miniseries ,debuted on BBC One Jan. 1 and can now be streamed on Netflix.

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Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero