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!
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