A TALE OF TWO WORLDS: THE RETURN OF "FRINGE"

Crossing the dangerous and disturbing borders of science once again: Peter (Joshua Jackson), Olivia (Anna Torv) and Walter (John Nole) in Season Three of FRINGE. Image: FOX.

The persevering and gifted FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) may have escaped the parallel universe from which she had been prior trapped (of which her alter-ego had temporarily stolen her identity in our universe at the same time), but that doesn't mean that the evil Walter-nate's plans for revenge against Humanity are over-far from it- as FRINGE Season Three finally resumes after a long break (so much for SKY's much lauded "showing days after the States" statement- there have been at least four FRINGE episodes previously shown in the US this year before its UK re-commencement on SKY ONE HD tonight). And the alternate Olivia-who left a lot of emotional wreckage for the real Olivia to clear up in her wake (including a relationship with Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson)) certainly hasn't gone away-she will return (and rumours are that she'll be pregnant, too!). As for boy genius Peter, emotionally conflicted and trying to resume his life after discovering that hes not the man he thought he was, is still the vital living component to a biological "Doomsday Weapon" that had been stored in pieces across the globe going back to the age of the Dinosaurs, and the time of a lost race called the "First People", with the alternates slowly but carefully making plans to get him back so as to activate it, whilst his loopy Dad, Walter (the always superb John Noble), is terrified and awed by the worlds around him, living dangerously fractured within each other, and troubled by just how much damage he's inadvertently caused to them when he previously crossed the line of scientific curiosity and, acting in desperation, kidnapped and saved the life of the alternate Peter he continues to love today. With all this going on, its no surprise to me that FRINGE retains such a loyal fan base fascinated with its plots and intriguing, complex characters, and despite FOX's constant time slot changing, of which their good intentions-which it feels is in the best interest of the show- have so far proved to be a disaster. Could there be an evil Walter-nate at FOX planning the show's demise?

Whatever the eventual outcome of this unique and daring series in its behind the scenes making (and it's future really is still up in the air-though the shows writing staff are confident that it'll get renewed, despite its being a very expensive show to make), there's still lots to enjoy this season conceptually and story-wise, including high profiles acting cameos from the likes of BACK TO THE FUTURE's Christopher Lloyd as a hippy musician who comes in to aide Walter and one of those baldy men Observers (once more played by Michael Cerveris, who thinks hes made a time sensitive mistake affecting Earth's present day) and LOST's Jorge Garcia, there's obviously the aformentioned return of multiple parallel universe threads (it looks like we may finally see another version of scientist Nina Sharp (as played by the seemingly under-used Blair Brown), as well as the return of Olivia's cab driver helper, Henry (Andre Royo) from the opening season episodes, and possibly, back from the dead, Sebastian Roche as the evil plotter Thomas Jerome Newton, there's some intriguing new one-off monster types stories, in the best OUTER LIMITS/ TWILIGHT ZONE/ X-FILES tradition, of which the show has excelled at in the past, including a Soul Vampire, and the much welcome return of the late MASSIVE DYNAMIC founder William Bell (but not as we know him-prepare to experience Bell-ivia!), with additional recent TWITTER news that Leonard Nimoy, who turned eighty this year, may be coming out of retirement to play the character one more time.

Even with all this happening, whats the bet that the writers won't hesitate to throw their colourful deck of cards up into the air again and end the series once more on a massive game-changing cliffhanger! My bet is that we'll see a third universe opening up that will add all kinds of chaos to the two we're already experiencing. Could the already seen two Earth's cope with another Walter Bishop? I think we're going to find out soon enough!

UPDATE 25/3/2010. Great news from States-side: despite the low ratings, FOX have renewed the series for a fourth year!