Ripperologist JON REES continues his commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders with a look at futuristic adaptations of Jack the Ripper!
Gas lamps, fog, top hats and Victorian London – not images that immediately go in hand with spaceships and futuristic technology. But Jack the Ripper has frequently been used as a plot in science fiction. So let’s go take a look at “Jack to the Future!”
Star Trek – Wolf in the Fold
Scotty is accused of murdering a woman in a Jack the Ripper style fashion and is put on trial. Captain Kirk and Co discover that an immortal alien entity named Redjac committed the crimes and many others over several centuries across the galaxy, including those by Jack the Ripper on Earth in 1888.
Babylon 5 – Comes the Inquisitor
An alien race brings an Inquisitor aboard the station to test the worthiness of Delenn to lead “the army of light”. Surprisingly, the Inquisitor is a human from Earth’s past – abducted and kept in stasis for 400 years until when he is needed. It turns out that the Inquisitor is in fact Jack the Ripper and he was taken the day after the final murder.
Sanctuary
The sci fi series that originally started as internet webisodes features a main character named John Druitt, who has the power to teleport at will. When possessed by an alien entity he commits the Jack the Ripper murders in London 1888.
Time After Time
Jack the Ripper evades the police by stealing H G Wells Time Machine and travels to San Fransisco in the late 1970’s – finding the violence and sleaziness to his taste. The time machine returns to Wells who follows the killer to the future to pursue and catch him.
Voyagers
Drama series about a time traveling police force who travel to the past to put history “right”. In the final episode they discover a renegade Voyager who travelled to the past to corrupt history, who committed the Jack the Ripper murders.
The Outer Limits – Ripper
Jack the Ripper is actually an alien energy parasite that lives in the bodies of women. After a time it leaves them by bursting out of their chest to find another host, leaving the abdominal mutilations that characterise the Ripper crimes.
Doctor Who – A Good Man Goes to War
The Silurian Madame Vastra who lives in Victorian London, reveals she has solved the Ripper murders and instructs Inspector Abberline to be informed. Apparently he was “stringy, but tasty all the same”.
