"THE SECRET IDENTITY OF JACK THE RIPPER"

"CSI: GALLIFREY"

Hey, we still need our weekend dose of 'Doctor Who' content, am I right?

AS SEEN ON TV: MAMA CASS

CASS ELLIOT

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "DOCTOR DANGER"

Chloe Sullivan:

"I came here for help,

not to be cut open by some Jack the Ripper wannabe!"

Dr. Curtis Knox:

"I WAS Jack the Ripper....."

'Smallville'

Thanks to "Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution", a book by Steven Knight which was published in 1978, the most popular theory about the Ripper's identity is that the murders were committed by the Royal Physician Dr. Sir William Gull. It was supposedly part of a conspiracy by the Prime Minister and several other leading figures in Her Majesty's government to cover up a scandalous indiscretion in the Royal Family - Queen Victoria's grandson Eddie, the Duke of Clarence, allegedly had an illegitimate child by a prostitute in the East End.

This theory served as the basis for the film "Murder By Decree" (although Gull's name was changed to Spivey), the graphic novel "From Hell" and its cinematic adaptation, and the TV movie "Jack The Ripper". It is only because of that last entry that the Toobworld Dynamic has to address the involvement of Dr. Gull in the murders. (Otherwise, I would have discounted his role as the Ripper - he did far too much good in the real world to ever be involved in such horrific killings.)

Here's what Wikipedia has on the theory:

Since the 1970s, Gull has been linked to the unsolved 1888 Whitechapel murders (Jack the Ripper) case. He was named as the murderer during the evolution of the widely discredited Masonic/royal conspiracy theory outlined in such books as "Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution". Although the conclusions of this theory are now dismissed by most serious scholars its dramatic nature ensures it remains popular among producers of fictional works, including the 1988 TV film "Jack the Ripper" starring Michael Caine as well as the 1996 graphic novel "From Hell" and its subsequent film adaptation.

Sir William Gull features in a number of theories and fictional works in connection with the Whitechapel “Jack the Ripper” murders of 1888. These are usually (though not always) associated with variants of conspiracy theories involving the Royal Family and the Freemasons.

This theory alleges that the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, conspired with HM Queen Victoria and senior Freemasons, including senior police officers, to murder a number of women with knowledge of an illegitimate Catholic heir to the throne sired by Prince Albert Victor. According to this theory, the murders were carried out by Sir William Gull with the assistance of a coachman, John Netley.

Sir William Gull is portrayed by Ray McAnally in 1988 in a TV dramatisation of the murders, starring Michael Caine and Jane Seymour. The plotline reveals Sir William Gull as the murderer, assisted by coachman John Netley, but otherwise excludes the main elements of the Royal conspiracy theory.

For more:

And at this point, let me put in a plug for a well-done wiki on the subject of Jack the Ripper while I'm at it.....

Anyhoo, back to the televersion of Dr. Gull and his relationship to Redjac, the malevolent alien force behind the Ripper killings in Toobworld.....

After narrowly escaping the Elder Ones known as the Vorlons, Redjac took precautions to avoid capture. It decided to find itself a host that would not be used as a vessel for murder, but as a hiding place. In effect, that host would serve as its nest.

I think it likely that the concept of "hiding in plain sight" is universal. And Redjac may have decided to disguise its deathly self as near to the center of attention in its adopted homeland.

And for England, that means the Royal Family.....

Sir William Gull must have seemed the ideal candidate to be this nesting host. As a Royal Physician, Gull had access to the Queen and her family; plus there were all those medical instruments at his disposal - meant for healing, they could also be used for dealing in death.

In the "Ripper" episode of 'The Outer Limits', we didn't see all of Redjac's transferences from one of the "Canonical Five" to the next - only from Mary Ann Nichols to Annie Chapman. However, the transfer between Liz Stride to Catherine Eddowes was strongly implied, as was Redjac's exit from Mary Kelly's corpse into Inspector Langford.

And we know how much time passed between each of those murders. Redjac could have spent that time biding its time in its nesting host before taking over the next victim.

The repeated entries into and exits out of the body of Gull's televersion caused too much strain on the doctor, who already had a stroke in 1897.

From Wikipedia:

Over the next two years, Gull lived in London, Reigate and Brighton, suffering several more strokes. The fatal attack came at his home in 74, Brook Street, London on 27 January 1890. He died two days later [at the age of 73].

Not that such an incapacitating condition as a stroke could have prevented Dr. Gull from serving as the host for Redjac. We saw the alien reanimate the corpse of Mr. Hengist on Argelius IV in the 'Star Trek' episode "Wolf In The Fold". Of course, Inspector Frederick Abberline would never have known about the alien when he arrested Redjac/Gull before he could dispatch another doxie (as seen in "Jack The Ripper".)



The way Dr. Gull struggles against capture by Abberline and Sgt. Godley in the TV movie is reminiscent of the fight put up by Redjac in both Hengist and Jaris in "Wolf In The Fold". But Redjac would have fled the physician's body once Godley tackled him and Gull cracked his head on the cobblestones of the street. Because Gull retained the memories of Redjac's past crimes, he came to see them as his own and so was deemed a madman and responsible for those crimes. However, the government covered up the truth about the Ripper (as they saw it) and Gull died two years later.

There's one last point about Redjac's hosts in Victorian England - the green bile drooling from the mouths of the hosts in that episode of 'The Outer Limits'. It was seen on Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Liz Stride, Mary Jane Kelly, Inspector Lestrade, and the woman in the cream-colored dress. But it wasn't visible when Redjac possessed Hengist or Jaris, nor was it seen on Dr. Gull and Sebastian from 'Babylon 5'. And it won't be seen on the other Ripper suspects whom I believe were hosts for that outer space malevolence.

So why were those Whitechapel prostitutes different in that respect?

It could have been an adverse reaction which Redjac had to venereal disease.

And that would mean Inspector Harold Langford had a dose of the clap as well......

BCnU!



AS SEEN ON TV: RUSH LIMBAUGH

RUSH LIMBAUGH

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "MEET THE WHODUNIT"

Madame Vastra:

"Send a telegram to Inspector Abberline of the Yard.

Jack the Ripper has claimed his last victim."

Jenny:

"How did you find him?"

Madame Vastra:

"Stringy, but tasty all the same.

I shan't be needing dinner."

'Doctor Who'

At the end of the "Ripper" episode from 'The Outer Limits', Dr. John York was secretly locked away in an asylum by a government convinced that he had been the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. But after York was discovered stabbing the body of Mary Jane Kelly in hopes of killing the alien within her (which we consider to be Redjac), the alien fled that body and inhabited one of the Scotland Yard inspectors working under the supervision of Inspector Frederick Abberline, Inspector Harold Langford.

Redjac/Langford visited York at the asylum and revealed itself to the doctor, telling him that it was going to retire from the Yard and accompany York's fiancee to America. Wiping away the tell-tale green drool from its chin, Redjac/Langford promised York that Lady Ellen would hardly feel a thing.....

Sadly, I believe Langford did butcher Lady Ellen, but it was before either of them ever got the chance to go to America. Redjac would not get to America until 1891.

The computer on board the USS Enterprise said that Jack the Ripper was responsible for the deaths of seventeen women in London until 1891. Ten have been accounted for in this list, with seven to go. Lady Ellen would be on the list as Number Twelve.

So who turned it up to Eleven?

That murder happened even before Mary Jane Kelly, but for some reason does not appear in the ledgers from either the real world or Toobworld. But we did see her corpse in 'The Outer Limits'. She was the mysterious woman in the cream-colored dress who must have been possessed by Redjac after the death of Catherine Eddowes. She went to see Lady Ellen to instill doubts in the young lady about Jack York's innocence and sanity, and then confronted Dr. York in a barn. There she was found by the police, and yet they never included her in the tally of the Ripper's victims... even though Inspector Langford believed her to be one. (Perhaps it was because she appeared - at least to the audience - that she had none of the repugnant wounds usually found on the Ripper's victims.)

Future historians, centuries from now, will eventually determine that the woman in the cream-colored dress was indeed a victim of Redjac.

Here in the real world, there are seven murdered women over that next year and a half in the Whitechapel area who could have been the victims of Jack the Ripper aka Redjac. But two of those women were never identified; today they are only known as "The Whitechapel Mystery" and "The Pinchin Street Murder". Both of them were headless torsos (one found in a Whitechapel police station!) and are now basically considered to be the victims of a different serial killer, known by the unimaginative name of "The Torso Killer".

Hey, Redjac can't be responsible for EVERY murder in Whitechapel!

That leaves five women in the real world who may have been Ripper victims, and their addition to the list brings the total to the seventeen mentioned by the shipboard computer.

In the real world, these are those five unfortunate women:

Annie Farmer (November 20, 1888)

Rose Mylett (December 20, 1888)

Elizabeth Jackson (June, 1889)

Alice MacKenzie (July 17, 1889)

Frances Coles (February 13, 1881)

Once in possession of Inspector Langford, Redjac switched up his technique, going back to the "preferred" method of possessing the murderer rather than the victims.

The alien inhabited Langford long enough to kill not only Lady Ellen, but also Annie Farmer and Rose Mylett. Since the Vorlons hadn't returned to bother it again, Redjac probably felt safe enough to continue using Langford as its vessel. And it would have continued to do so if it hadn't been for that meddling lizard.....

So intent was Redjac on the possibility of another attack from outer space, it never noticed the one from beneath the surface of the Earth. Vastra was a Silurian adventuress living in Victorian London, assisted by her human companion, maid, and lover, Jenny. Somehow, she knew the Time Lord known as the Doctor and may have owed him a great debt.

Madame Vastra tracked down Redjac/Langford and dispatched the killer. And by feasting on the human remains, there was no body left behind to raise questions - especially since Langford had been a Scotland Yard detective-inspector. (You'll notice that Vastra doesn't mention the name of Jack the Ripper for that telegram. It would have caused quite a stir - not only at the Yard but all the way to Whitehall and the Palace.....)

But like the Vorlons, Vastra never noticed the presence of Redjac and so it escaped once again to find a new host.

This time it took up residence in someone who actively searched for it, not to capture or kill it, but simply to observe.

Ian Pascoe was a time traveler who had come back to 1888 to continue for himself the crimes committed by the Ripper, only to find himself as the next host for Redjac. The alien was so surprised by the temporal vortex opened by Pascoe's arrival, Redjac fled its previous host and took over Pascoe's body instead. Only the arrival of a 'TimeCop' named Jack Logan prevented Pascoe from committing any more murders after the deaths of Elizabeth Jackson and Alice MacKenzie.

(Should some future TV series bring yet another Jack the Ripper portrayal to the fray, we will have to re-adjust these theories to fit them all in. With each new arrival of a Ripper - at least in that era - we would have to subtract from the tally for each of the previous fictional Rippers who had more than one kill ascribed to them. Langford's three [until he only had Lady Ellen left, of course], Ian Pascoe's two, and saving Sebastian's five for last.)

With the last murder by Jack The Ripper in London, albeit unofficial, the host of Redjac will never be known by his real name.  (Does anybody know if actor Nicholas Day ever played a doctor in a Victorian period piece.....?)

James Sadler was a drunken lout who had been living with the victim, Frances Coles. On the night of her savage murder, he had been in a high state of dudgeon - having been the victim of a robbery, and being incredibly intoxicated, Sadler threatened violence to any and all, especially to the one who robbed him and to his woman.

Frances Coles was last seen walking off with a man wearing a cheesecutter hat, but Redjac must have met up with her afterwards, because it had now possessed a man in fancy evening wear with top hat. And when he encountered Gary Sparrow, he was carrying a doctor's black medical bag.......

When a constable found her, still alive despite the ferocious stab wounds and having her throat slit, he heard the sound of footsteps clattering away on the cobblestones. But as Coles was still alive - barely - he couldn't just leave her to give chase.

When he was found, Sadler had blood spatter on him, but that was mostly his own from a few beatings he took over the course of the night. He looked good for the murder of Frances Coles because of strong circumstantial evidence, but his labor union got him some good legal representation and he was finally let go, to the cheers of the crowd.

Redjac, who now needed a new scapegoat since Dr. York was imprisoned, was hoping that Sadler would take the blame. But with Sadler's freedom, Redjac saw that opportunity dashed and so it decided that it was time to flee.

By chance, Redjac encountered another time traveler like Pascoe, this time named Gary Sparrow. Seeing the future of 1999 as a chance to open up a whole new world of slaughter, it followed Gary through the portal "back to the future". There it escaped into the night to continue as a new version of the Ripper - only to be run down by a 32 bus and killed.

'Goodnight, Sweetheart' for him, indeed!

However, only Redjac's human host was killed. Unseen by the humans in the vicinity, Redjac fled back through the portal to Victorian London. Since it was practically immortal, the alien could bide its time and let 1999 arrive at its own pace, giving Redjac plenty of time to adjust to the wonders awaiting at the next century's end.

Meanwhile, Redjac knew it was time to finally move on. As it had told Dr. John York while it possessed Inspector Langford, America was indeed "the land of opportunity"......

We'll be looking at Dr. Sir William Gull, the Queen's Royal Physician next time here at Inner Toob, same Jack time, same Jack channel. Dr. Gull was a leading suspect for being the Ripper. In fact, this was the premise of "From Hell", "Murder By Decree" (albeit under a roman a clef), and the TV movie "Jack The Ripper".

He also served Redjac, but in a different capacity.......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MARVIN LEE ADAY

Happy Thanksgiving!

While almost everybody else is serving turkey today, we're dishing up something else.....

MEAT LOAF

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

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.

AS SEEN ON TV: JERRY GARCIA

JERRY GARCIA

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "SEBASTIAN AGAINST THE WORLD"

In the future, "Jack the Ripper" would be held accountable for 17 murders in London between 1887 and 1891, not just the canonical five. This will be according to the shipboard computer on the USS Enterprise.

Five of those twelve other victims occurred before the murder of Mary Ann Nichols. And one of those poor unfortunates, Martha Tabram (August 7th, 1888), was considered to be one of Jack's victims by one of the Scotland Yard inspectors on the case, Harold Langford (seen below) when he arrested Dr. John York for her murder and those of the first three "official" victims of the Ripper: "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, and Elizabeth Stride.

As I've already established in previous posts, the true murderer was an insane Xeraphin mutant known as Redjac. The alien would take an unwitting and probably unwilling human host to act as its avatar to carry out these murders in a slow, ritualistic fashion so that it might feed upon the fears of the victims, as well as on the fears of the public at large.

Many who have studied those first five women whose murders were never solved don't believe that they were the work of Jack the Ripper. Too many of the details differ from the "Canonical Five". For one thing, none of them were strangled into unconsciousness before their killer began his work in earnest. But that could be attributed to a learning period, in which the budding butcher practiced his craft.

These are the five women some believe are the first victims of Jack the Ripper:

"FAIRY FAY" (December 26, 1897)

ANNIE MILLWOOD (February 25, 1888)

ADA WILSON (March 28, 1888)

EMMA SMITH (April 3, 1888)

MARTHA TABRAM (August 7, 1888)

But the true first victim of Jack the Ripper (in the TV Universe only, of course) was a man named Sebastian. (His last name was never revealed to the audience viewing back home in the Trueniverse.) Redjac possessed him upon arrival and used him as its instrument in the killing of Mary Ann NIchols.

Sebastian may have been a butcher by trade, which could be why he was wearing a leather apron at the scene of the crime as described by witnesses.

But before Redjac could use him again to kill prostitutes, the alien race known as the Vorlons abducted Sebastian.

As all-powerful as those Old Ones were, the Vorlons never noticed the presence of Redjac. So the entity was able to abandon Sebastian and flee to a new host. It would be some time before the authorities were notified by Sebastian's neighbors, family, and friends that he was missing - not until after November 29, the date of the last official murder by Jack the Ripper.

Sebastian would next be seen onscreen in the TV Universe on board the space station 'Babylon 5'. Sebastian served the Vorlons as their inquisitor whenever necessary (and in this case, it was to question Delenn about her belief in her "holy cause". Who would know better? After all, "Jack" supposedly served a holy cause as well.) Afterwards, he would be remanded back to his incarceration in a stasis field. And so that is how he spent the last 400 years.

Sebastian remembered his crimes, even if Redjac was ultimately responsible, and took the blame for all of the murders, probably because he couldn't prevent Redjac's reign of terror. He felt guilty that he so easily surrendered his soul to the creature.

Because of the intervention by the Vorlons, Redjac took precautions with the next series of murders. He found a new way to kill the doxies of Whitechapel.....

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "MY MOMENT OF UN-TRUTH"

Before I go any further, I have a confession to make. This part of the essay was a lot shorter. But I had to scrap my entire thesis because - as is my wont - I didn't do all my homework.

I worked out an incredibly detailed splainin as to who killed each of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper, which had Redjac as the foundation for why Jack looked different every time he appeared in a different TV show.

But today, I finally saw the "Ripper" episode from the rebooted version of 'The Outer Limits'.......

And so it all had to be tossed out.

I'll still be able to use most of it in a different context, and now I'll certainly have enough material to run the whole week of Thanksgiving. But as I read back on what I had already done, I nearly sprained my arm patting myself on the back for being such a clever clever.

Oh well, no sense crying over spilled blood.....

On with the show; this is it!

AS SEEN ON TV: MINDY COHN

MINDY COHN

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE"

"There is something here. Something terrible. I feel its presence.

Fear, anger, hatred... anger feeds the flame.

Oh, oh, there is evil here, monstrous, terrible evil! Consuming hunger!

Hatred of all that lives, hatred of women, a hunger that never dies!

It is strong, overpowering, an ancient terror!

It has a name: Beratis, Kesla, Redjac.

Devouring all life, all light! A hunger that will never die!

Redjac! Redjac!"

Sybo

'Star Trek'

In other media (comic books, short stories, novels), the alien entity Redjac (once known as Jack the Ripper during Earth's Victorian age), returns to wreak havoc for several generations of the Enterprise crew. But as far as I can tell, no one has ever questioned the origins of Redjac.....

Redjac was a malevolent being comprised of pure energy, described as a highly cohesive electro-magnetic field . There was at least one other such alien race from 'Star Trek' that resembled Redjac's basic form - "The Lights of Zetar". And it's possible Redjac was an outcast from their society because of its depraved insanity. (As we saw in "The Lights Of Zetar", they weren't exactly saints themselves as a whole, but they were at the time fighting for their survival and driven to desperate measures.)

But since 'Doctor Who' will already be playing a small role in the history of Jack the Ripper, I thought to expand the show's participation in "The Redjac Chronicles" by looking to its history for the source of Redjac's ancestry.

There were several options for alien races which were pure energy in 'Doctor Who'. Among them would be the Helix Intelligence (which includes the Mandragora Helix) from "The Masque Of Mandragora" and from the spin-off series 'The Sara Jane Adventures' there was a species of energy beings who called themselves "The Ancient Lights". But I think the best option is that of the Xeraphin, featured in the Fifth Doctor adventure "Time-Flight".

Here are some excerpts from the description of the Xeraphin to be found in "The TARDIS Files", a 'Doctor Who' wiki:

The Xeraphin were highly psychic beings, able to wield psychokinetic energy, possess people in order to communicate, exert a hypnotic influence over people, and telepathically project components of their gestalt - such as people who have been absorbed into it - into other locations, even the interior of a TARDIS.

The power of the Xeraphin was controlled by two aspects, good and evil, of the same personality.

If Redjac was a member of the Xeraphin, it must have been a mutant - for it only had the one aspect. Redjac was pure evil.

The Xeraphin didn't become a single consciousness until after it was poisoned by radiation as it fled to Earth. I think Redjac had separated itself from the others long before the Vardon-Kosnax War, during which the Xeraphin were believed to have perished.

(Russell T. Davies believes that the Ancient Lights were related to the Mandragora Helix. I wrote about the possible connection of the Ancient Lights to the Lights of Zetar here. It could be that like all humanoids across the galaxy, all energy beings spread across space are basically related.)

Redjac either fled its own species before that war (possibly escaping incarceration for crimes it committed among them before they could execute it), or it was banished by its brethren because it was alien even to them as a mutant. It traveled the galaxy via one host after another, causing the same murderous mayhem which it would commit once it reached Earth.

One of those planets which was mentioned in the 'Star Trek' episode was not in the timeline for Redjac after it left Earth, so it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that Redjac struck there before arriving on the third rock from the Sun. There on Deneb II it was known as "Kesla" and Deneb II could have been the planet it terrorized before leaving for Earth. On another, unnamed, planet, it could be that Redjac so inflamed the emotion of fear among the populace that it may have triggered the rulers to launch their ultimate weapon - "The Doomsday Machine".

By 1887, Redjac found its way to Earth. It couldn't be any earlier in the timeline of Earth Prime-Time because there really isn't any record of serial killer attacks of such magnitude ("Pop! Pop!") before then. And the first suspected killing by Jack, although not considered canonical, was on December 26, 1887. Redjac would have needed to feed by that time had it arrived much earlier.

How did Redjac get to Earth?

Simple. It hitched a ride via a humanoid host.

But who?

Ah ha......

As of now, there is no recorded presence of the Doctor on Earth Prime-Time between 1885 (when he encountered H. G. Wells in "Timelash") and late 1888, when he arrived in London after the official Ripper murders ended. (Thanks to Vastra in "A Good Man Goes To War".)

But if some future incarnation of the Time Lord should arrive on Toobworld (perhaps from Deneb II) during that temporal window, it doesn't necessarily mean that it possessed the Doctor. (Although I could see it forcing the Valeyard to do its bidding as its host! And apparently, that's close to the premise of the tie-in novel "Matrix".) It wouldn't even have to be one of the Doctor's Companions. As Redjac demonstrated on board the Enterprise, it could have infected the ship computer on board the TARDIS.

(The Doctor - his seventh incarnation, principally - did battle with Jack the Ripper on several occasions actually. But that would be the Doctor to be found in novels, comic books, and audio-plays; and thus having nothing to do with the TV Universe. But if you're interested in that topic, perhaps as an ardent overall crossoverist, then I'd like to recommend a blog for you - "Who Etc.", in which a Whovian named Thomas tackled that topic in a seven part essay over a three month period, beginning in June. He's also got one of the best blog headers I've ever seen!)

Once on Earth, there's a way by which Redjac could have arrived in London by December 26, 1887, ready to feed. Via a host that is humanoid, but not altogether human.....

With Santa Claus, on the night before Christmas.....

Look out, Miss! That ain't Father Christmas! It's the Ripper!

Ho Ho Ho, ho's!

AS SEEN ON TV: BENITO MUSSOLINI

BENITO MUSSOLINI

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!

THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "WOLF IN THE FOLD"

DC Paula McIntyre:

"If you show violence on TV, it promotes violence."

Dr. Tony Hill:

"Oh yeah? What shows did Jack the Ripper watch?"

'Wire In The Blood'

I'm taking the week of Thanksgiving off, but I do have a multi-part essay set up to run through the week. Hey, I can't deprive my loyal followers in Team Toobworld of their minimum daily requirements for televisiological sustenance!

And because it's Thanksgiving, what better topic than a study of Jack the Ripper's televersion? After all, both have a little something to do with carving.....

Jack the Ripper has been portrayed several times on TV and as such, his physical appearance has changed with each different portrayal. With other crossover universes, such as the rightfully exalted Wold Newton Universe, this would not be quite so problematic. Win Scott Eckert, carrying on the project started by Philip Jose Farmer, focuses mainly on literary sources and so the WNU is more a realm of the mind - the way you see a character in your mind is the most important and so various interpretations by different authors can be blended together.

Not so in Toobworld, however. It's a visual medium and ideally it should all look the same, no matter the source material. But luckily, 'Star Trek' and 'Sliders' are Toobworld "Essentials" because of their use of alternate dimensions - we always have places to store away the things that just won't fit in the main Toobworld.

With each depiction of Jack the Ripper in a cartoon series - 'Time Squad', 'Futurama', and 'Family Guy' - all of those can be lumped together into the Tooniverse, no matter the differences in animation styles. Jack's portrayal in the mini-series "Jack The Ripper" isn't the "real" serial killer, but how he was imagined by the two crossover stalwarts investigating the case - DI Barlowe and DI Watt. And since 'Smallville' and 'Sanctuary' take place in alternate TV dimensions, we don't have to give their Rippers any consideration.

Our main problem is with the Ripper's appearance on several different TV series which should all be sharing the same TV dimension... and yet Jack the Ripper is a different man in each one. And even worse, each of those shows had a different theory as to what happened to the killer (usually thanks to the hero of the show or TV movie.)

But along came the 'Star Trek' episode "Wolf In The Fold", which was about the original Whitechapel murderer - still plying his trade in space, the final frontier. It was penned by Robert Bloch, who has had a long fascination with Jack the Ripper in his writings. (And one of those other stories will figure prominently in the coming days.)

"Wolf In The Fold" is the perfect example of why 'Star Trek' is one of the Toobworld "Essentials". It's because of the events in that episode we can keep all of those variations on Jack The Ripper in the same TV dimension without any fear of Zonks to be splained away.

So for this first day of our look at Jack the Ripper in the TV Universe, click here for "Wolf In The Fold". (The hosting web site is still working on their embedding process.) This 'Star Trek' episode was written by Robert Bloch, directed by Joseph Pevney, and guest-starred John Fielder....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ANDREW GIULIANI

ANDREW GIULIANI

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Chris Farley

BCnU!