Fringe: A new day in the old Town

The new fall season is finally here and in addition to watching The Office, I got to see the first episode of the new season of Fringe. Fringe was an odd show for me last year because I started out not liking it very much but it got considerably better by the end of the season, yet there were still a few things that never quite fell into place for me.

This season began with the show taking a step away from the last episode of last season. Olivia has finally discovered an answer and now they have her forget it. All I can say about that is that I hope they won’t allow this to go on too much. On the other hand the shape changing soldier was very interesting and the technology they use was very creepy.

The new FBI agent that ended up helping them was an interesting addition. We don’t know all that much about her so far, but the actress seemed to be doing a good job and having someone who hasn’t went through quite so much weirdness could help ground the show some.

I think that I am going to enjoy Fringe this season and I am certainly glad that it came back for a second season.

Futuristic science fiction a thing of the past

I was thinking about the science fiction that is currently on TV last night, and I have been unable to come up with one show that is set in the future. There is some good stuff on, but it seems that it is all set in modern day. Fringe, Lost, Chuck, Eureka, and the new Star gate for example. Dr. Who is of course occasionally set in the future, but it’s also set in the past, and the present and it’s hardly on the air this year.

So why is this? I like these shows and I’m not complaining about any of them, but why? One simple explanation is that TV networks are all basically copying themselves. If there was a futuristic science fiction show on that worked they would copy it. This alone helps you understand why the science fiction genre has so much trouble on TV since the heart of science fiction is uniqueness but I don’t think that’s all of it.

I suspect a second reason is the same reason that Star Trek always time travels to our time period or close to it. The sets are already built. It is cheaper to have a show that is set in our modern world because it already exists.

Third, they aren’t science fiction, most of these are police dramas with science fiction elements. Fringe, Chuck and Eureka are all examples of this and while some have more science fiction than others they are still following the police drama trend.

I don’t suspect that there is a lot that can be done about this. There has to be someone in Hollywood who is making the pitches for epic science fiction and they are being turned down. Perhaps the new Star Trek movie will trigger some ideas at least though I suspect that they will simply dismiss that.

Here is my pitch for a futuristic science fiction drama. Set in 2112 humans have continued to develop technology, but the most major breakthrough in human history has just occurred. A brilliant scientist has discovered a way to bypass the speed of light.

In a rush to begin to explore NASA retrofits one of its shuttles with the technology. This shuttle is roughly 3 times the size of the modern shuttle with far better air recycling and artificial gravity(just because of the cost). This means that there is only room for 7 crew members comfortably. The scientist who developed the technology is the first, the rest are made up of the best on earth.

With every member of the crew important and the ship with little in the way of defenses they begin to explore.

Leonard Nimoy on Fringe

Fringe has improved considerably in the last months a the main actors seem to fall better into their roles. Olivia has become someone who isn’t depressing to watch and Walter, while still plenty odd has become someone you can relate to and if you like me were about to give up on the show a few episodes ago it is nice to see, and now there is something else that makes me truly excited for this show.

Leonard Nimoy is going to be joining the cast as the head of Massive Dynamics. This is an important part on the show, because so far as we have been shown the entire pattern has something to do with massive dynamics as well as strong connections to Walter.

Overall I think this will be a strong addition to the show which will hopefully bring in a few viewers who are the exact type that the show is searching for as well as making a consistent villain something that almost every show can be improved by.