Jurassic Mysteries Ep 009 The Curious Case Of Elliot Wu

Jurassic Minutes Podcast

Hello and welcome to Jurassic Mysteries,

Where we take a look and discuss myths, misconceptions and maybe even unknown facts from the Jurassic Franchise.

Introductions:

Brad

David

On this episode we will be heading all the way back to 1994 and the first draft of Michael Chricton’s The Lost World.

What is the issue here?

Novels are written and rewritten all the time, and for the last 26ish years we only had what was put to print in Michael Chricton’s The Lost World. But David as we’ve been finding out over the last year there’s a lot more to this franchise fans haven’t seen or heard about yet. And thanks to Adventure Collectables on Twitter we have an insight to an entirely new character mostly written out of that original novel.

Even now there’s a lot of little differences coming out of the Adventure Collectibles twitter account showing Jack Thorne and Kelly’s age wa changed, Ian and Sarah talk more about the baby rex when they X-ray it and

Dr Elliot Wu, brother and supporter of the late Henry Wu is revealed to be the caretaker of Isla Sorna. As he explained to the team stuck on the island in a removed chapter of the novel titled “The Caretaker” Elliot Wu reveals Henry was the real genius, Elliot merely helped. Elliot couldn’t let Henry’s wonderful work die. And then there was the challenge, which Malcolm rephrases “contamination.”

So what's the facts?

(Image 1) Our first hint to Elliot in the novel is something that remained in the finished publication. When Malcolm, Jack Thorne and the kids go through Richard Levine’s office to determine where he went they find a large cork board covering an entire office wall. On it Richard had pinned maps, charts, newspaper clippings Landsat images and aerial photographs. At the top of the board was a large sigh that read Site B.

Along side that was a blurred, curled snapshot of a bespectacled Chinese man in a white lab coat standing in the jungle beside a wooden sign that read Site B. The lab coat is open but covering the lettering on his t shirt, but in a blown up image we can see InGen Site B Research Facility.

Originally I’d thought this was Henry wu, a photo taken back in 89 (novel timeline) when we was on Sorna. But this is out first clue for Elliot.

There’s a email here retrieved by Arby as well with E Wu in the cc box but it was all changed to H Wu in the novel.

(Image 2) page 100 Next we head to the Chapter Exploitation and page 100 where Lewis Dodgson is talking to the head of biosyn about getting funding to pillage InGens Site B. We get a mention of paying Nedry $750 thousand with nothing to show for it. And then something cut from the final publication. (Refer Image 2)

On Page 117 in the Chapter “Site B” as the team discover the worker village they see workers cottages covered by vines and half taken over by jungle. In the earlier manuscript they also soo a two story tall managers residence that didn’t look as over grown as the other buildings. We later find out this is where Elliot Wu is living.

(Image 3-4) Next we jump to Ian, Jack and Eddie exploring the abandoned Lab building on page 126 in the chapter “Interior”. In the final novel the fifth door opened leads into a large conference room with a map on the wall (I wish we seen this map!!)

But in the early manuscript it’s another office, but this ones clean! The rear window was completely clean, yet we don’t get any more description of what’s beyond the window except for the earlier suggestion of light trying to shine through a grimy window.

We also get Ian looking closely at a map on the wall. It seems like his about to say something really important about it when Eddie suggests the door hasn’t been opened in a long time and that’s why it’s soo clean inside. Something on that map got Ian’s attention, and when they leave, he carefully closes the door behind them.

There’s a couple of emails found in the lab with E Wu on the sender line also. Nothing really important to add there.

(Image 5) next we travel to near the end of the novel to the chapter “Village” and page 317-318. Jack Thorne is out in the worker village searching for gas for the Jeep wrangle they’d just used to narrowly escape the raptors.

After checking the pumps at the gas station he moves along a wet path to a small shed covered in vines. There he sees a dozen steel drums standing on thier ends.

He then notices a bare space where three drums had been. (I thought this was in the novel but it’s not.) 5horne can see where they were rolled on thier sides and foot prints in the wet dirt.

Later in the chapter we get a monologue from throne questioning who else was on the island. It couldn’t be the Dodgson team, they were too far away from thier boat and it would of run on diesel.

(Image 6) in the chapter “Escape” on page 350 the survivors enter the tunnel network under the worker village to escape the raptors in the gas station. (Side note something I would of loved to see in the film).

In this chapter they move down a short tunnel and emerge through a trapdoor in a small utility shed. But the manuscript tells a far different story.

The sounds of the raptors can be heard behind them as they too enter the tunnels. But just as kelly is about to head to the laboratory a voice calls out “no this way”.

(Image 7) we now have a new chapter removed from the novel called “Caretaker”

-We meet a man Ian and Arby know, Elliot Wu. Arby says on the computer files in Levine’s apartment Elliot Wu was the head of site b. His dressed in a white robe or a gown.

-a lot of the dialogue from wu here is spoken between Sarah, Levine and Malcolm in the boat after leaving the island. Pirons and the diseased animals.

-it also pretty much confirms Levine has now got this piron disease and this might of been the lead into a Michael Chrictons Jp3

-since he was on the island was he on ingens books but how since they were long since bankrupt.

-where was he living? Eating? What was he doing there he didn’t stop the disease from spreading, and he didn’t seem to make any new animals. And he didn’t seem to be able to stop dead animals from leaving the island.

-got a real lost vibe from it all, others of long forgotten Darma crew still on island.

(Continues to image 8) there’s a lot of discussion on the meat extract used to feed the carnivores. How Elliot devoted his life to try and reverse the disease but couldn’t. Interested at one point they turned most of the lab away from production and worked on protein extraction just so they could research what they were dealing with.

But for the most part Elliot succeeded. The animals were healthy and flourishing for a time. Then three years ago the compys changed thier behaviour and started eating feces of larger animals. There was still a effected animal somewhere and the disease spread once again.

There’s also a discussion here that the military will find out about the island soon and it will be bombed just like Nublar.

Also Elliot helped Arby’s log onto the radio network but there isn’t really any sign on that in the novel.

(Image 9 into 10) as we go from Image 9-10 Eliot’s has a coughing fit, he tells them they need to beat the tide if they want to get out through the caves. Eliot tells them to go, and remains behind.

We then cut to the survivors driving the explorer to the boat house. Sarah and kelly have thier discussion about the computer graphics leading to the discovery of the tunnels yet no one talks about the encounter they just had.

And finally Image 11-12 and the chapter “Departure” is cut well down since most of the discussion is had with Elliot. Instead we get Malcolm saying the island should be bombed, and Thorne talking to kelly about humans needing theories and fantasy’s to live.

So what do we think happened?

In the end the character didn’t really add anything to the novel. It’s hard to believe on this dinosaur infested island a old man was able to study the animals, get blood samples etc without any real danger. It takes away the danger the group face throughout the novel.