One of the reasons I really like GENERATION so much is because of all the great lines Soren has. His coversation with picard at 10forward, and atop the hillside where the missile is, are great conversations. And oh so quotable.. "...the predator has lost its teeth"... Rob
I believe Stevenson is completely fictional. I don't recall him from the usual lists of historical Ripper candidates.
Since they don't want redundant threads, I'll have to necro this one. Watched it again tonight. There are many more gags and situations used in TVH than the OP thought. But what caught my attention this time were some plot holes. Jack spent the movie trying to get the "non-return key" to stop the machine from going back to its origin. Why didn't he just remove the vaporizing equalizer after he got out? He'd already proven that you can take it out safely as long as you're outside the machine. I doubt the machine can go anywhere without it and even if it could, Herbert obviously wouldn't want to ride in it without the equalizer. Herbert says he's going to dismantle the machine, but he never does since it still existed in 1979 San Francisco. (Actually, I noticed this flaw back when the movie was released.) But did it exist in 1979? He claims the machine only travels through time, but not space. But we saw it disappear in both 1893 and 1979, so it obviously can only exist in one instant at a time. If the 1893 machine disappeared and went forward in time, what happened to the aged machine in the museum in 1979? They can't both exist in the same space. And where was the 86-year-old machine after the one he took forward in time dematerialized back into the past? Was the museum left with an empty space the way his maid saw his basement workshop empty out? This time machine is a major paradox. If I were to write a script for a new movie, I would have Herbert do exactly as he tells Amy to do: stop thinking of time as their enemy. I wouldn't have the non-return key as a McGuffin. The machine wouldn't disappear from a spectator's viewpoint, only the occupant. Go further into the future than Jack did. Learn everything he did in 1979 through historical records. Then come back and take as long as necessary to formulate a plan to capture him. With a time machine, time is of no concern. Of course, there wouldn't be much drama in such a story without time pressure and imminent peril.