KOOL TV BABE OF THE WEEK: "FRINGE"s ANNA TORV

The lovely Anna Torv, who plays Olivia Dunham in FRINGE. All images: FOX/WARNER BROS.

They say variety is the spice of life and lovely Australian actress Anna Torv has certainly been living up to such words with her ongoing performance as FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham in the hit WARNER BROTHERS hi-tech/sci-fi adventure series FRINGE, whose blockbusting cliffhanger finale to its third year airs in the UK on SKY ONE HD this Wednesday. And we can't wait to see what happens...

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From the shows original opening episodes (which now seem waaay back!), we've seen Olivia mature from her spiky and spunky ex-soldier heroine origins to a more thoughtful and mature, but no less heroic, figure as the mysteries of the alternate universe began to carefully unfold and unleash some terrifying personal revelations about her and her new "family" of friends in the FRINGE Division, resulting in the actress getting to show a wide variety of dramatic range within some very well-written scripts by the likes of OSCAR winner Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman.

FREAKY FRIDAY-FRINGE style! Season Three saw the bold arrival of two Olivia Dunham's.

Its also been a harrowing year for the character-her life earlier in the season shattered when she was kidnapped in the Alternate Universe and subjected to some psychological and torturous experimentation by the evil, revenge fuelled Walternate (played by her fellow Aussie, John Noble), keen to exploit the telekinetic powers previously opened up during her unhappy childhood, whilst her own unique universe existence has been swiftly turned upside down by the arrival of her replacement doppelganger, whose sure-fire easy infiltration of "the other side" would go spectacularly un-noticed by Olivia's friends and work colleagues for the most part, except, probably, by the non speaking Gene the cow, residing happily in his straw lawn corner of Walter Bishop's scientific office! Now, with her eventual return home and the gradual resumption of her life and career, our Olivia has got herself back on track and re-discovered her firm kinship with scientist colleague/lover Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) only to now find she may lose him to a centuries buried weapon that could decide the ultimate fate of the two universes!

ROMEO AND JULIET never had it this bad!

Science Fiction has always been one of the best mediums for actors to stretch their wings, and this season Miss Torv's portrayals have been both far-ranging and no doubt highly enjoyable for the actress to explore, including the chance to be possessed by the personality of an older man with the controversial body snatching return of MASSIVE DYNAMIC Scientist/Founder William Bell (previously played, and still being voiced, by Leonard Nimoy), she's been an animated figure (both as a young girl and as she is now), and continues to play a subtly different but no less heroic version of Olivia in doppelganger form, who, no longer a figure of cunning and ambition from her first appearances early in Season Three, has now become a mother and possible saviour of both the Alternate Universe and our own. Not bad for one season's acting, eh? Many actors wait years for this kind of character development and story-arcing.

What does the future hold for the Olivia's and for Peter in both the season finale and the probably final fourth season starting later in the year...? Who knows? But one thing's for sure: with the FRINGE behind the scenes team never doing anything quite the way we expect, whatever's unleashed is bound to be game-changing, exciting and astonishing to discover, not just for the loyal viewers worldwide but for the shows lead stars as well!

Seasons One and Two of FRINGE are now available on DVD and Blu-ray from WARNER BROTHERS.