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Comes the Inquisitor

I was just watching the episode on VHS and I realized that at the end, when Sheridan confronts Sebastion, I think he says that Sebastion dissappeared on 11/11/1888, the morning after a string of murders in the west end. That's not true. The last of the string of murders was on the night of 11/9/1888 so the day after would be the 10th. Also the murders were in the east end. What's that about? Did they just make a mistake?

Thanks in advance.

Later,
HockeyPlayer47
 
Yeah, JMS managed to get the date wrong, and typed "West End" when he meant "East" in the script. Both are odd mistakes, since he has a long-standing interest in the Ripper killings. Due to air dates it was too late to do anything about the U.K. broadcast, but he did manage to get Bruce loop the line to "East End" before the show aired for the second time in the U.S. (Although it is very clear that his lip movements don't match the words.) Evidently the U.K. tapes are based on the uncorrected PAL broadcast masters, and therefore still contain the "West End" slip. (The DVDs will have the correct line, since they're derived from the new hi-def widescreen masters originating in the U.S.)

Wonder if there's time before the S2 set is released to fix the date, too? /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Incredibly enough this is the first time that I'm aware of that anyone pointed out the date error. Even "The Lurker's Guide" says, "Sheridan stated the West End, but got the date correct" (talking about the original broadcast, before the line was fixed.) I've read a couple of books on the Ripper murders, but never paid that much attention to the dates, and certainly never noticed this error. But Mary Jane Kelly was indeed killed sometime between 11 PM on Friday November eighth and the early morning hours of November ninth. I suspect JMS's intention was to have Sebastian's disappearance happen on the morning of the murder, that is, shortly after the body was discovered around 10:45 AM. Maybe it was just another short-circuit between brain and fingers. Intending to type one odd-numbered date in early November, JMS typed a more famous one - November 11th, Armistice Day in the U.K. and Europe, Veterans' Day in the U.S.

Regards,

Joe
 
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