In the first episode, Bogg and Jeff meet the silent movie star "Mary Murphy", who Jeff tells Bogg is so famous.
Who the heck is Mary Murphy ? There was no such star with that name in 1917 !
However, in the paperback novelization of the episode, her name is Mary Pickford, not Murphy, which makes alot of sense. She was one of the biggest stars of that era
So why on the TV show did they change Pickford to Murphy ?
I just watched the episode.
Either it was too much creativity taken with a real person and her estate objected, or it was just felt to be too much tampering with her likeness so they just went with a made-up person.
Have no idea about the novelization, unless it just decided no harm done making it the real Mary Pickford.
Also, if she resurfaced in an altered history alongside the Wright bros (I didn't watch all the episode, but caught this bit) then there was no way they could change Mary Pickford's history like that.
Besides, she would have only been 11 alongside the Wright bros when they flew.
In all likelihood, they started out using Mary Pickford's likeness, then when they decided to take the adventure in a different route, they just changed her last name, but much of the other dialogue didn't change, such as Jeffrey declaring who she was.
Interesting was she referred to Douglas Fairbanks, whom Pickford married. More than likely before they opted for a fictitious character, she probably said she hoped to marry Fairbanks someday.
One Thing I Never Understood
You're doing very well if there is really only one thing which you never understood in a series about time travel.
A lot of the time it comes down to $$$ having to pay too much to use a persons name.
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