Comic-Con 2011 Fringe Panel

I rushed and got in line for the Fringe Panel and got in to the previous Vampire Diaries Panel and then was able to make it up closer when that panel ended.

The Fringe Panel was awesome, I got into the Q & A line at the beginning and they started like always with a clip real that highlighted all of the main characters. Then all of them came out, the two main showrunners Jeff Pinkner & JH Wyman, along with Anna Torv (Olivia), John Noble(Walter), Lance Reddick (Broyles), Blair Brown (Nina), Jasika Nicole (Astrid) and Seth Gabel (Lincoln Lee) (who is becoming a full time cast member.)

John Noble said: “You guys are the best fans that ever existed, thank you from all of us very sincerely”. Pinkner & Wyman said “We’ve got to address the elephant in the room. Somebody’s not here — Gene booked milk commercial.” They spoke about how they decided to let go of Joshua Jackson them because of how expensive he was so they had auditions for a new actor to play Peter and they showed a clip of auditions Fringe Audition Tape: Rebecca Mader, Damon Lindelof, Michael Emerson, Greg Grunberg, Jeff Probst, Jorge Garcia and many others in [Peter Bishop] audition video.


J.H. Wyman said “There is no Peter. He doesn’t exist.” Joshua Jackson enters panel. Wearing Observer suit and fedora. Anna Torv asked If Peter doesn’t exist, is there a child? Pinkner said “I’m not sure we’ve seen all of Olivia’s powers yet. What’s going to happen is really hard to answer because we think it would spoil letting the show unfold.” Lance Reddick was asked to impersonate William Bell which was very funny. Joshua teases Lance about the impersonation and Lance replies “You don’t exist anymore so stop talking”John Noble has a soft spot for Walternate, he could understand why he would do what he did and the justifications. Josh Jackson later jokes with John Noble: “You shot my wife in the head!

Seth Gabel says he’s more like Over Here Lincoln. Joshua asked about whether he wishes that he had an alternate. Jackson enjoyed free time not having to play an alt-Peter, however S4 will take him to a different arena. “I don’t think Peter will ever have an alternate, but however he gets folded back into the story, it will be a very different version than what we’ve seen before. He’s in a different place now.” Jasika Nicole was asked something that she didn’t want to answer and started singing “Astrid has a gun”.

Pinkner/Wyman said “What’s been great about flashback episodes is that it’s deepened the emotions of these characters” / “We’ve loved them as well and it’s our intent to keep doing that. We’ll always go back and forward if it suits the story and the things we are trying to get across.” John Noble: “Walter and Nina have an affair in Season 5.” Joshua Jackson screams, “Mommmy!” (I got about 4 people away from the microphone when they cut the line off.)

The Cast then turn to ask the audience trivia questions for "Save Peter" T-Shirt prizes. Jasika asks: What type of sandwich did Walter make for Astrid when she was trying to crack the code in season three? Cucumber, avocado, cheese and tortilla chips. Anna Torv asks what color was Walter’s suit that he got married in. Purple. John Noble asks: Roscoe (Christofer Lloyd) was keyboard player in a band. What other instrument did he play on record cover? Drums. Blair Brown: “What did Peter promise Nina in equestrian ring in S1?” He would owe her a favor. The Panel swag was a luggage tag with a changeing picture on the front with the two Olivia’s on one side and the two Walters on the other with a disappearing and reappearing Peter in the middle. It said on the back “If found in this Universe or the other side, please contact:" with lines to fill out your address.

Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep? Episode Review by Paul Burrows

This episode was great because it demonstrated two opposing types of people, those that lie in order to obtain something and those who for different reasons allow themselves to be fooled in order to get what they want. Also it was great to see some of the Shapeshifters learn to develop true human emotions which were seemingly against their programing.

Bolivia has been pretending to be our Olivia since they returned from the alternate universe very effectively, but the lie is starting to unravel. Peter is starting to notice differences in Bolivia and has started to connect some dots, but Peter in convincing himself that nothing is wrong with her because he really wants a relationship with Olivia. He summed it up well when he talked about the old guy dating the hot young girl because of transactional needs and drawing a line in the sand, he even goes as far as to mention that there were differences in Olivia later in the episode, thus demonstrating that Peter is lying to himself because of the relationship that he wants with Olivia.

Newton speaks with Olivia about drawing lines in the sand and about how doing so will be the end of her lie. Olivia is starting to show feelings for Peter, she’s starting to care for Peter primarily and even a little for Walter. At the same time she’s trying to use love/lust to use Peter, but it’s starting to backfire on her. But besides Olivia starting to have feelings there’s also another glimmer of hope for our Fringe team, it’s interesting how Walter under the LSD trip was the one who was able to actually see the truth behind her lie, if you look closely when Olivia, Broyles and Walter were in an office and Walter made the comment about Olivia’s hair you can tell a few minutes later that he notices something different about her. I’m guessing that he sees a glow around her like the real Olivia saw around Peter and like how the college students that he and Bell had use LSD to get them to see the alternate world awhile back. So it’s only a matter of time before they put things together and see the truth. And in this episode two Shapeshifters even became truthful to their programing.

Newton told the Policeman Shapeshifter that his family life was just a weigh station; he told him that having feelings was against his programing. But seeing how William Bell was the creator of the Shapeshifters and I would guess that he secretly added emotions to the Shapeshifters, its Walternate that commanded them to do infiltration and other bad things. So I feel that when the Senator and the Policeman showed love towards their families that they were demonstrating a hidden programing that Bell had designed in order to undermine Walternate’s agenda.

A few final thoughts, I loved how Walter was giving a lecture to some of the Massive Dynamic scientists while under the influence of LSD and how he later told Astrid to not eat his pudding. Also it was great how he finally got her name right. As for Observer sightings there’s one at the 19 minute mark when Bolivia, Peter & Broyles meet with Walter in the Massive Dynamic lobby.

Official Fringe Season 3 FOX Character Promo Images

Its interesting how both Olivia and Nina are in the same pose, I wonder if thats a hint?

Fringe Character Design Sketches

Roughs of Broyles, Nina & Astrid