One must admit this is one of the most amazing casts that the Mystery Theater ever assembled. The cast consists of Mercedes McCambridge playing the main character: Mina Harker. Marion Seldes playing Lucy Westenra, Paul Hect playing Dr. Seward, Stefan Schnabel playing Dr. Van Helsing (Dracula\\\'s nemesis), and Michael Wager playing Count Dracula. All play their parts very well, but the main stand outs would have to be Michael Wager and Stefan Schnabel. Wager plays a magnificent yet charming Dracula while Schnabel plays a defiant yet learned Van Helsing. Wager\\\'s Dracula is, in my opinion, the epitomy of performances of Dracula. Not even Bella Lugosi played a better Dracula than Wager. 

The story was adapted from the 1897 novel by George Lowthar. While the adaptation does take seemingly HUGE liberties with Bram Stoker\\\'s orginal, such as: Dr. Seward and Lucy being married, the elimination of key characters such as, Jonathan Harker (Mina\\\'s husband and the main character in the original novel), Renfield, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood. The story is edited tastefully and intelligently. (Let\\\'s face it, we cant have the whole novel on Mystery Theater.) I won\\\'t get into the story too much, (as I\\\'m sure you know the story well enough) but the basic plot is that Mina Harker is driving to the estate of her friend Lucy Westenra and Lucy\\\'s fiance Dr. Seward. While driving she notices a large bat following her car and hears the howls of wolves. What will she discover when she reaches Lucy\\\'s estate? All I can tell you is that it is beyond the powers of Mina and Dr. Seward, who must employ the powers of Seward\\\'s teacher: Dr. Van Helsing of Amsterdam, Holland. The rest is for you to enjoy and discover.

While nearly all of the music in Mystery Theater is taken from the scores for \\\"The Twilight Zone\\\", (Both franchises were owned by CBS who just carried the music over.) the music works very nicely in \\\"Dracula\\\". During the climax, the scores from the TZ episode \\\"The Invaders\\\" works very well with it\\\'s string tremolos and explosive timpani. The rest of the episode features the normal intro and ending music. 

A very good episode worthy of praise and repeated listenings. The good: Excellent Cast, Good music, and good story. The bad: A few continuity errors (but I\\\'m just nitpicking). 

\\\"Until next time, pleasant... dreams?\\\"