THE RIPPER AND THE WHONIVERSE, Part 6

The penultimate entry in my series

examines the second volume of the

Ripper's Curse graphic novel.

PART TWO September 30th 1888,

night of the 'Double Event'. Rory and

and Abbeline arrive at Mitre Square

in Aldgate, and the Inspector has the

Doctor released.

The Time Lord explains that their

serial killer isn't a man at all, but "a

creature [with] taloned fingers, some

kind of leecher (sic) [extracting]

minerals from the deceased, wearing

 a shimmer suit, drenched in Kryon

radiation".

 The culprit could be either of two

races, "the Ju'wes [or] the Re'nar" and the women's missing organs are

merely "a tasty snack" to him, the "alien needs the victim to be scared,

the tastier they become".

The Doctor then meets Warren, adding "You're looking for a shape-
changing alien, a Ju'wes hunter, blades for fingers". The Commissioner 
tells this friend of 'Clouseau' that his imagination is worthy of H G Wells 
[i] before rushing away (Wells' first books were only published in 1895 
however). The Doctor deduces that the Commissioner knows about the 
murderer's true nature, but how?

The travellers are next seen in Abberline's study at New Scotland Yard

[ii]. Amy remembers reading about Jack the Ripper, "Wasn't it someone
 from the Royal family?" Rory recalls "one more [murder, that of] Mary
 [Kelly] we could save her." Naturally, the Doctor disagrees. "Every Ripper
 victim is a static point in time and space [that] can't be altered" (a similar 

argument occurs at the end of Matrix when the Doctor tells Ace that

 "those five women had to die, that's [what] happened").

They are then summoned to nearby Goulsten (sic) Street to view a new 

clue - a chalked message [iii] that implicates the "Ju'wes." Warren now
appears and orders the removal of the seemingly anti semitic graffiti,
but Inspector Smith protests (hereby voicing another theory), "you're
defending your Freemason friends."

The Doctor concludes that the alien Ripper has feasted enough for weeks,
perhaps the reason why no killings occurred the next month, October.

Back in the TARDIS, the trio again discuss the last canonical murder. The
Doctor declares that "Mary has to die, there has to be a fifth victim. All of
London would be changed." Rory follows Amy back outside, but the Doctor

is stung by a paralysing dart. The Re'nar Ripper tells the Time Lord that 

these" most horrific murders will be blamed on the Ju'wes" (mirroring the 

double-meaning of the contentious graffito's key phrase).

Amy finds the Ten Bells pub [iv] where the landlord Bert is evicting two
drunken women, Mary Warner and Mary Kelly. Amy tries to convince Kelly

 that she'll be slain by the Ripper on November 9th. The two prostitutes 

stagger off as Rory catches up with his wife.

At Scotland Yard, the fully recovered Doctor visits Warren - in reality,
the Ju'wes creature (the real Sir Charles is on holiday) who is hunting
the escaped Re'nar, Mac'atyde, here in Earth's past. They arrange to
meet again in five weeks, when the Ripper strikes for the final time.
Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor also tells Abbeline to be ready, at 9
pm on November 8th - he now intends to save Kelly!

Fast forward to Miller's Court, off Dorset Street in Spitalfields - Abbeline
 is supervising the police surveillance, and at midnight the inspector
informs the Doctor that 'Warren' has resigned. Despite waiting all night,
Mary doesn't return home, but at 10 am, another murder is discovered

 upstairs in Kelly's room. The Doctor had told the police that Mary
Warner, not Kelly, was the next victim.

He now realises that Amy's warning has altered time (Kelly's room was 

indeed at No. 13, but on the ground floor, a subtle but vital change),
and the present is fluid again - the Ripper "could kill again, be any-

where." Amy meanwhile, has been captured by the Ripper!

"Next: The Canonical Twelve"

KEY Canonical Murders:

[1] Mary Ann Nicholls - Buck's Row, Friday August 31st 1888

[2] Annie Chapman - Hanbury St. Saturday September 8th

[3] Elizabeth Stride - Berner St. Sunday September 30th

[4] Catherine Eddowes - Mitre Square, also September 30th

[5] Mary Jane Kelly - Miller's Court, Friday November 9th

NOTES

[i] Doctor Who owes much to the stories of Herbert George Wells (1866-1946). The Doctor first met the writer on screen in Timelash, and actually became the inspiration for his subsequent works which he termed "science fiction." Wells again assisted the Doctor in IDW's The Time Machination (2009). In The Ghosts of N-Space, the Doctor claimed to have lent 'Bertie' his ion-focusing coil for his invisibility experiments. When faced with the TARDIS interior in Pyramids of Mars, Laurence Scarman likens it to the "scientific romances of Mr. Wells." The Master read The War of the Worlds (1898) in Frontier in Space, whilst the Doctor and Professor Chronotis both prefer The Time Machine (1895).

In the context of Ripper fiction, the film Time After Time (1979) sees a friend of Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell), Dr. Stevenson (David Warner) unmasked as Jack and he escapes 1893 to the future in the writer's own time machine. ABC's television version starred Freddie Stroma as the writer, and Josh Bowman (see Rosa) as Stevenson.

The hero of the US show Time Cop, Jack Logan, is sent back to 1888 to hunt a time traveller who has killed the real Ripper and taken on his identity. Incredibly, this episode, A Rip in Time (transmitted September 1997) not only includes a huge gaffe (Eddowes is murdered on November 7th), but the police inspector, Wells, happens to be the uncle of H G Wells (William Morgan Sheppard, see The Impossible Astronaut).

[ii] Only in 1890 did the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police move form Whitehall to a a new purpose-built base on the Victoria Embankment. In October 1888, a female torso was discovered at the construction site for New Scotland Yard, but the police ruled out any connection to the concurrent Whitechapel Murders. Between May 1887 and September 1889, the Thames Torso Murders were committed in London. None of the four cases were solved, and only one victim was identified.

[iii] At about 3am, PC Long found a dirty, bloody piece of Eddowes' [4] apron in the stairwell of Model dwellings at Goulston Street. On the wall above was the chalk-written message that is now known as the 'graffito.' Three slightly varied versions were recorded by Long, DC Halse, and Frederick Foster, before Warren demanded it's removal. Here, Smith probably represents (real detective) Daniel Halse, who advocated photographing the message, whilst waiting for his superior, Major Henry Smith (the City of London Commissioner and Warren's counterpart). Many interpretations of the graffito have been advanced ever since.

[iv] The Ten Bells pub still stands on the corner of Commercial and Fournier Streets in Spitalfields. A 'victims board' on the wall opposite the bar even cites Martha Tabram as a Ripper target. It is believed that Annie Chapman [2] and Kelly [5] frequented the pub.