Origins of Redjac
- Thread starter Hando
- Start date
As is know to humans/Federation, but given that there were surly murders missing from the list (perhaps assigned to a copy-cat or a scape-goat), we have to conclude that there is more going on.
Also Redjac is an "energy being", do I have to take it that Jack the Riper killed 17 women and as such completed a ritual and became immortal?
Just what is its origin, an being that visited Earth and took over some random guy, did they some how merge (Red+jac).
Was he killing before and escaped to Earth to hide?
Given Trek is SF, I don't think the ritual route applies. So energy being trapped on Earth is the better way.
What I've always wanted to know is, what is Hengist's role in all of this. Was Hengist an innocent victim who was simply possessed by Redjac, like Scotty was?
I've always wondered about that too. Hengist could have been just some poor dope that was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had his body stolen by Redjac. Maybe an attempt to somehow get Redjac out of the tranquilized Hengist first instead of spreading his atoms in deep space would have made for a better ending. After all, he briefly takes over Jarvis too, but Jarvis goes back to being Jarvis once Redjac leaves him.
And yes, I realize that Hengist is technically dead for a few minutes before Redjac goes back into his body, but he certainly seemed to be alive and still human enough for McCoy's tranquilizer to work on him.
If Redjac can leave host bodies "on hold" like that, it becomes all the more possible and likely that he borrowed Scotty's body for most of the murders, and possibly McCoy's for the magic circle stabbing (his was the nearest hand, and indeed the only one truly capable of the act, barring total outsiders). OTOH, if host bodies visited and dumped by Redjac are technically dead like Hengist, then that in turn rules out Scotty and McCoy as knife-wielders. But the Jarvis case trumps that...
In the end, then, it really looks as if Redjac made Hengist a special case. Sure, it may have killed the man only at that very moment... Or then long-term abuse killed the host, a fate that would have befallen Scotty a bit later on had the matter not been solved.
Timo Saloniemi
In the end, then, it really looks as if Redjac made Hengist a special case. Sure, it may have killed the man only at that very moment... Or then long-term abuse killed the host, a fate that would have befallen Scotty a bit later on had the matter not been solved.
Timo Saloniemi
Piglet, er, Heingst is kind of a mild guy, I think he may have just died and Kesla just took over, got himself a job in government on Argelius and away it went.
Really, I think Heingst was dead before the episode began, being used by the energy being as and encounter suit, but not preventing said being from temporarily possessing another body.
Really, I think Heingst was dead before the episode began, being used by the energy being as and encounter suit, but not preventing said being from temporarily possessing another body.
Basically, then, those looking for Jack the Ripper today should look for a meek, solitary guy or gal who died of apparent (but baffling) natural reasons soon after the last murder - probably without any sort of training in surgery or butchery, or any motivation for the murders...
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
The entity could have been similar to the one seen in Day of The Dove or it might have been a creature native to the earth just not one humanity ever knew about! It could be the thing that fuels our hate and need for aggression, like a puppeteer or it only feeds on violence and mental pain!
JB
JB
The episode wanted to have it both ways. There was an energy being that possessed people, and there was Hengist as the tangible villain to personify it and be destroyed at the end.
It's like we weren't meant to think about who Hengist was before Redjac, because Kirk has to defeat something tangible for a satisfactory ending.
It's like we weren't meant to think about who Hengist was before Redjac, because Kirk has to defeat something tangible for a satisfactory ending.
...And then beat the hell out of Dodge before the Argelians decide what this "ghost possessed them and made them do it" solution means for the actual knife-wielders, legally speaking. It's pretty unlikely Hengist would have held the knife in all of the killings! The writers tried to dance around that issue as well.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
I doubt they gave it a second thought. Such fretting to more likely for fans who need their Is dotted and Ts crossed.
I admit I didn't think of that possibility (Hengist having been dead the whole time). It does make more sense now that I think about it.
No. When Kirk suggested that if Redjak destroyed the ship it would destroy itself, it replied, "I am without ending. I have existed from the dawn of time, and I shall live beyond its end."
It could have been lying, of course, by why would it do so in that situation? It thought it had the upper hand.
I suspect that the Ripper murders were the first well-known murders it committed - perhaps an attempt to feed better by creating a city's worth of terror that maybe backfired: too many people were looking for its host. Which it presumably marched into the Thames, or somewhere else lethal, before finding another.
All the later scenes of crime after Earth may well be starfaring cultures - there's mention of colonies, say. Earth at the time of Jack the Ripper was not starfaring, so the implication might be that Redjac was indigenous to Earth and then moved on as starflight developed on that world.
However, Earth certainly had its share of visitors from the stars before Jack the Ripper, in the Trek universe. So all bets are really off. Humans might not be aware of previous crime sprees of this sort.
How did the computer narrow down the search parameters? Only three serial murders of women in Earth history qualified, out of no doubt hundreds in the Trek universe (why would it differ from ours in that respect?). Was the defining factor the use of a knife? Doesn't sound sufficiently limiting. Use of a knife in a certain way? But the victims on Argelius were not cut exactly like the victims of Jack the Ripper, unless Jack worked differently in the Trek version of London. (Heck, if we did see the Trek London, it would have to follow 1960s TV sensibilities, too, so perhaps there's something to it?)
In any case... Knife, female victims, unsolved - certainly there would have to be some fourth parameter, to create such a small set of results.
Timo Saloniemi
However, Earth certainly had its share of visitors from the stars before Jack the Ripper, in the Trek universe. So all bets are really off. Humans might not be aware of previous crime sprees of this sort.
How did the computer narrow down the search parameters? Only three serial murders of women in Earth history qualified, out of no doubt hundreds in the Trek universe (why would it differ from ours in that respect?). Was the defining factor the use of a knife? Doesn't sound sufficiently limiting. Use of a knife in a certain way? But the victims on Argelius were not cut exactly like the victims of Jack the Ripper, unless Jack worked differently in the Trek version of London. (Heck, if we did see the Trek London, it would have to follow 1960s TV sensibilities, too, so perhaps there's something to it?)
In any case... Knife, female victims, unsolved - certainly there would have to be some fourth parameter, to create such a small set of results.
Timo Saloniemi
Like Nyarlathotep?
Growing up, I thought for the longest time that Hengist committed all the murders and that Scotty was just in the wrong place...or stunned by Redjac or sumthun.
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