THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "STAR WHORES"

With this entry of "The Redjac Chronicles", we'll be taking a look at the murders which have been confirmed - or at least, accepted - as the only murders committed by Jack the Ripper... in the real world, that is. But we'll be looking at them as they occurred in the TV Universe.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a tidy little theory regarding the murders which would have solved the discrepancies of so many actors playing Jack the Ripper. At least in Toobworld, each murder would have been committed by a different man, but each of them would have been possessed by Redjac.

This would have accounted for the Rippers who appeared (or were mentioned) in the following shows:

'Babylon 5'

'Goodnight, Sweetheart'

'Doctor Who'

'Time Cop'

'The Veil'

'The Others'

I was especially sorry to lose the link between the 'Doctor Who' Ripper (identity unknown*) and Ian Pascoe from 'TimeCop'. It really would have worked, almost as if it was destined to fit together.

But then along came "Ripper", an episode of 'The Outer Limits' from the 1990's.

"Ripper" is the only other TV show that supports the 'Star Trek' notion that the Ripper was an alien entity (although never actually referred to as "Redjac".) Its true appearance as an energy being resembled that of the Xeraphin of 'Doctor Who' in its basic form, before that race of aliens adopted a more humanoid semblance.

But instead of possessing a man to be the murderer (or a series of men for the original Toobworld theory), the alien - whom I accept to be Redjac - possessed the victims themselves. And it would kill them brutally as it escaped their bodies.

These women are known collectively as the "Canonical Five", the "official" victims of Jack the Ripper:

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (August 31, 1888)

Annie Chapman (September 8, 1888)

Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride (September 30, 1888)

Catherine Eddowes (September 30, 1888)

Mary Jane Kelly (November 9, 1888)

And although we didn't see the deaths of all these women on screen, we know that each of them were murdered by Redjac as it exited their bodies.

The episode alters the events from the Trueniverse - as far as the scenes of the crimes, the physical appearance of the victims, the signature of the wounds go. And the timeline is in shorthand, so that it all feels as though Jack's reign of terror transpired over the course of no more than a week.

But all in all, it remains faithful enough that we don't have to chuck the whole thing into another TV dimension. And besides, there should be some differences between Toobworld and the Trueniverse, even in historical events. We have to keep in mind that TV Land is NOT our world - that way madness lies.

An added bonus from accepting this depiction of the Ripper murders as being true is that it provides an excellent splainin as to how the Ripper could have killed Liz Stride and then Catherine Eddowes within forty-five minutes of each other, but with a considerable distance between them. As it played out in the episode, Redjac/Liz Stride - after being stabbed in the gut by Dr. John C.V.V. York - stumbled out to the back alley of Madam Li Yu's brothel. There it grabbed Catherine Eddowes and carried her off around the corner, presumably to transfer its essence into Eddowes and killing Stride in the process. Afterwards, Redjac/Eddowes could easily reach the point where her body would be found, unhindered by any interference by the constables in the area.

(Still, I liked my original theory - the man possessed by Redjac for the killing of Stride was interrupted by the arrival of the time traveler Ian Pascoe, a Ripper enthusiastic. Redjac only had time to slit Stride's throat - no stab to the gut, I think - when Pascoe's appearance startled it. It fled that other host and took over Pascoe, unsure of what the man from the future was capable of. And because Redjac didn't have time to do the job on Stride properly, too much DNA evidence of his host was left behind. This wouldn't have been of any use to the primitive methods of Scotland Yard, but the Silurian adventuress Vastra could have easily followed it back to its source. But we at least can still use that clever little plot twist and her punch line later....)

Another addition to the TV legend was Redjac's plot to frame Dr. John York for the murders, creating the phantom of a boogeyman named "Jack" (Dr. York's given nickname) who had surgical expertise to splain away the savagery perpetrated on the bodies of the victims.

We also learned that after only just a year on Toobworld, Redjac was already tired of this new world. It likened its existence on Earth Prime-Time to that of Robinson Crusoe on his island. More than likely it was worried about Earth being such a backward planet with no space travel yet. As it stood at that time during the Victorian age, despite the marvels of steam-punk scientific advancements, there would be no hope for escape for Redjac if someone truly got close to catching it. Of course, there was always the Cavorite left behind by Cavor and Bedford when they traveled to the Moon; Redjac could have made use of that......

I'm not done with certain details from this episode, but as they have nothing to do with the five main figures from this post, I think this is a good place to stop......

BCnU!

* In the 'Doctor Who' novel "The Matrix", the Ripper is identified as one of the Doctor's future selves, known as the Valeyard. But the Toobworld Dynamic has no place for the literary world, only TV, a few movies, and some online content.