There's discussion of the DID story in both period interviews and the oral history. I think the reveal was always intended to be a part of it from maybe '93 onward. Maybe even earlier when Sloan first arrived writing about Victor Lord, but I don't know. He was supposed to be killed off or written out roughly a year before he actually was, but BTS circumstances (Clint Ritchie's farming accident) changed that. Hilariously Linda Gottlieb in the oral history says she went to Agnes Nixon for her blessing on the story and discussed it at length with her, followed by a quote from Agnes: "What? I never met Linda Gottlieb." Who knows what's true there.
I don't know if they always knew of the Victor allusion with Sloan. I do know the original endgame was Viki and Clint reuniting, but that didn't happen. I thought they handled the similarities between Sloan and her father fairly elegantly in some later scenes in '95 or '96 when Viki was recovering from the situation and went over all of it, without running down Sloan too much. But I haven't seen those scenes in awhile.
The OLTL oral history is very worthwhile. It does somewhat glide over some eras the author by his own admission wasn't an avid viewer for (1998-2007) and there's some well-known dirt on Rauch that doesn't make it in. There's also some fog of war from the actors here and there, some facts and info get fuzzy. The late Thom Christopher repeatedly credits Rauch for putting him and Tonja Walker together as Carlo and Alex, but only Gottlieb and Michael Malone did that. But it's a very good, very candid read.
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Vee ·
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