They killed Hengist!
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
Seems to me that the most sexist part is Spock (of all characters!) declaring that Redjac targets women because they ". . . are more easily and more deeply terrified, generating more sheer horror than the male of the species."
And I don't recall any strippers. Just a belly dancer. Nor did I catch any implication or insinuation that sex was on the menu.
You meant to say " ...And what of Hengist? What of Hengist?" didn't you?
That's the most obviously sexist part, but I wouldn't call it more sexist than the other things I mentioned.
Why else do you think Scotty and Kara went off together after her dance? To review technical manuals? As Henoch said, we were told up front that this was a planet of hedonists. Obviously a 1960s TV series couldn't come out and say they were there to get laid, but any adult viewer of the day would have taken it as a given that when sailors take leave in a friendly port, they're only looking for one thing from the local women.
You do realize that I was a prudish 5th-grader when I first saw the episode in strip syndication, right? I wouldn't develop into a dirty old man until a few years later.
Are you saying you never saw the episode between then and now? I mean, the whole point of TV censorship was so that any kids watching wouldn't catch these implications, but I caught them once I grew up.
Not exactly a favorite episode. And first impressions tend to last a long time.
No, but given Scotty's history with failing engines, they might have decided to simply drink up for the night.
If I were asked to film this episode today pretty much as is I would change next to nothing except a couple of small things.
1. Initially I would say little about Scotty’s accident. I would establish they were simply on leave after a diplomatic port of call. I would comment Scotty seemed to be doing better after his accident which threw him against a bulkhead, but make no mention of who caused the accident.
2. After the first murder I would have Kirk ask McCoy if he think’s Scotty’s amnesia could be related to his accident. McCoy could answer, “I don’t know. Maybe. There’s still a lot we don’t understand about the human brain.” Again you needn’t make any mention of a woman causing Scotty’s accident.
3. When Kirk asks why women are the only ones being targeted Spock need only reply, “They are the only victims that we know of. But many still believe women are generally frightened more easily men and that they experience terror more intensely. Illogical, but it is a common (or prevalent) perception.”
1. Initially I would say little about Scotty’s accident. I would establish they were simply on leave after a diplomatic port of call. I would comment Scotty seemed to be doing better after his accident which threw him against a bulkhead, but make no mention of who caused the accident.
2. After the first murder I would have Kirk ask McCoy if he think’s Scotty’s amnesia could be related to his accident. McCoy could answer, “I don’t know. Maybe. There’s still a lot we don’t understand about the human brain.” Again you needn’t make any mention of a woman causing Scotty’s accident.
3. When Kirk asks why women are the only ones being targeted Spock need only reply, “They are the only victims that we know of. But many still believe women are generally frightened more easily men and that they experience terror more intensely. Illogical, but it is a common (or prevalent) perception.”
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"Killers have a logic all their own, Captain. Who can know the twisted machinations of its mind?"
(aside from melding with it, that is; who can guess why it does what it does by pure speculation?)
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Here's a thought: What if Redjac was actually a benign incorporeal entity to start with, and then it somehow possessed Jack the Ripper, who was already a serial killer of women in his own right? Maybe instead of Redjac turning its human host into the Ripper, it was the Ripper that poisoned Redjac's mind with his homicidal misogyny, and then Redjac carried it forward to its subsequent hosts after Jack died. That would be a more plausible explanation for why an incorporeal entity would care about the physiological sex of its humanoid victims.
One thing I've sometimes wondered: The computer claimed in the episode that "Redjac" was in the linguistic banks as a 19th-century nickname for Jack the Ripper, which is how they identified the connection. But are there any actual, real-world instances of the Ripper being called "Redjac" or "Red Jack"? I've never heard of that being the case, though it's a plausible-sounding nickname for a knife murderer.
One thing I've sometimes wondered: The computer claimed in the episode that "Redjac" was in the linguistic banks as a 19th-century nickname for Jack the Ripper, which is how they identified the connection. But are there any actual, real-world instances of the Ripper being called "Redjac" or "Red Jack"? I've never heard of that being the case, though it's a plausible-sounding nickname for a knife murderer.
If he left a jack of diamonds or hearts at the crime scenes.
I looked it up. There seems to be an allusion to Red Jack being an alternate nickname for Jack the Ripper, but I couldn’t find any serious mention to verify it. In all the things I’ve read and seen over the years regarding Jack the Ripper I never came across the alternate name Red Jack. It isn’t impossible, but I couldn’t verify it.
It’s possible they just thought it up for “Wolf In The Fold” because it suited the story. And if we accept TOS’ history merely parallels ours, but isn’t actually ours, then in their reality Red Jack was an alternate nickname for Jack the Ripper and Sibo merely interpreted it as Redjac.
That's what I've assumed, but it feels like cheating to me. As both a person with a BA in history and a research-junkie writer who likes to base my fiction on as much fact as possible, I feel that if you're going to tell a story based on something real from history, then you should base it on the real history -- or at least, in a fantasy context, on an established legend about the history (e.g. "The Magicks of Megas-tu," Agatha All Along, and other stories postulating that the victims in the Salem Witch Trials actually had magical powers rather than just being victims of misogynistic persecution). If you have to make up a "historical" detail out of whole cloth to make the story work, that just feels sloppy.
I mean, did "Redjac" have to be presented as a contemporary nickname for Jack the Ripper? Couldn't the computer have said it was a name for the Ripper-like murderer in 1974 Kiev, or the one on the Martian Colony in 2105? I could easily see the British tabloids dubbing a serial killer in the Soviet Union "Red Jack" as a double entendre (assuming the case got international coverage, though I expect the USSR would probably have tried to keep it quiet). A similar logic applies to a murderer on the Red Planet.
The name Jack the Ripper first appeared in a letter sent to the press and passed onto the police purportedly written by the killer himself and signed “Jack the Ripper.” When that letter was printed in the newspapers, in hope someone might recognize the handwriting, thats when the name became known to the public and passed onto into history. There were other names given the killer, but Red Jack isn’t one of them or at least not mentioned in the sources I’ve come across.
That said it’s entirely possible inhabitants of Whitechapel and London or even England as whole could have taken to referring to Jack the Ripper as Red Jack as a sort of mental shorthand, but I haven’t found any mention of it.
Now we have to remember Sibo wasn’t reading from a historical computer file. She was remarking on what she was picking up empathically or telepathically or whatever. She picked up on the name Redjac.
So the question is how did the computer manage to find a cross reference between Redjac and Jack the Ripper when we can’t find any solid reference the Ripper was ever referred to as Red Jack? It would have to be something rather obscure rather than common established knowledge.
That said it’s entirely possible inhabitants of Whitechapel and London or even England as whole could have taken to referring to Jack the Ripper as Red Jack as a sort of mental shorthand, but I haven’t found any mention of it.
Now we have to remember Sibo wasn’t reading from a historical computer file. She was remarking on what she was picking up empathically or telepathically or whatever. She picked up on the name Redjac.
So the question is how did the computer manage to find a cross reference between Redjac and Jack the Ripper when we can’t find any solid reference the Ripper was ever referred to as Red Jack? It would have to be something rather obscure rather than common established knowledge.
The episode ends with some fairly strong sexual implication, IMO, as Kirk is presumably inviting Scotty and McCoy to a House of Ill Repute:
KIRK: Bones, how long will it take for this tranquillizer to wear off?
MCCOY: I don't know. Five or six hours. I gave them a pretty big shot, Jim.
KIRK: Yes, I can see that. Well Mister Spock, for the next five or six hours, we're going to have the happiest crew in space. Of course, we won't get much work done.
SPOCK: Captain, since you came to Argelius to rest, I suggest you take advantage of the opportunity.
KIRK: That's a splendid idea, Mister Spock. I know a cafe where the women are so...
MCCOY: I know the place, Jim.
SCOTT: Let's go see!
KIRK: You, gentlemen? In your condition? Don't be ridiculous. Mister Spock, this cafe has women that are so... (met with a Look) No, I guess not. Alone?
(Kirk goes to the door and gestures for everyone to leave.)
KIRK: Gentlemen.
No. That would just be repeating what Warped9 said, and wouldn't be a joke.
The Enterprise computer was obviously including the Spinal Tap song "Saucy Jack" in its search parameters.
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