Is it the end for William Bell ?

Is Leonard Nimoy's "Fringe" experiment coming to an end? Mr. Nimoy tells the L.A. Times that it may be the logical time to say farewell to acting for good. Especially since the Bell role hasn't been a compelling one for him. "I've done three appearances for them. I don't know if I will do a fourth...". His role need to develop a dramatic story for the character, he's waiting for a conversation about that.

It is very true that the first 2 appearances were expository one's. For an actor, to invest on a character they need to do something, to have some emotional stuff to play and not just text to read and be on a set. Mr. Nimoy is 78 now, I'm sure the autors can work something to get the best from this talented actor an give us some great TV time.

For the full article @L.A. Times by Geoff Boucher.

Episode 205 review

Fringe division travel to Seattle after becoming aware of an incident involving a deranged man who attacked his boss because he believed it was an evil creature with ram's horns. Like other mysterious events continue, the team continuously explores the links related to weird dreams. In pursuit of more information, Agent Broyles has a disturbing encounter with the enigmatic director of Massive Dynamic, Nina Sharp, who leads the investigation in an unthinkable direction.

For this last episode before the hiatus, creators of Fringe have definitely the gift of making us want more and more. An ending with Peter who dreams he is kidnapped by his father is a prelude to a revelation that will be so heartbreaking. John Noble and Joshua Jackson were able to show us a relationship between a man and his son who little by little loves him dearly. Their relationship grew over the episodes and we saw Peter trusting gradually Walter. The betrayal will be so huge!

I loved the first scene of the episode it finally reconciled me with the character of Sam Weiss. Before I found this character stereotypical, unoriginal and his methods were theoretical and vague. This week he tried to talk to Olivia to make her laughs and help unravel some problems in her life. I finally found this useful for a change.

The case of the week focuses on dreams and, for the occasion, we travel in Seattle. The investigation soon leads Olivia and Peter to Dr. Nayak (Ravi Kapoor) after a little help from Nina Sharp. The scene where she is present does not seem very natural, which reinforces the impression of shortened screenplay tricks.

Dr. Nayak is working on dreams with patients participating in a highly rewarding experience, but someone seized his equipment and files to divert the project based on a chip implanted in the brain. As usual, Walter will take his experiences and eventually found the key issue leading Olivia to what is necessary to complete the picture. This is those rather interesting ideas that allow the end of the episode to have a nice twist that brings a more well-paced investigation, but not necessarily exciting. Admittedly, the machinations of Walter provide good entertainment, but when we reach the half-story, the investigation stalled a bit.

Olivia's mourning the death of her friend and former partner that she eliminated. Charlie was an important moral support for Olivia and his departure leaves a great void in her life. I was caught in this sense of loss when she deposited a wreath on the grave of Charlie.

References this week are not very numerous and / or I have not seen.

• The medical examiner is named Shayne Wilson. It is also the name of the assistant production coordinator on Fringe, Shayne A. Wilson.


• The assistant of Dr. Nayak, Zach Miller, is named after two new writers for Fringe, Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, who wrote the episode of the previous week and the film adaptation of Marvel’s Thor.


• Dr. Nayak hosting and interacts with the FBI look like Dr. Jekyll, while his alter-ego, the dreams junky look like Mr. Hyde. (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)


• The poster in the bedroom of young Peter is the "Challenger mission 11". In our world, his last mission (# 10) took place on the January first 1986 when it exploded in midair.

The secret word of the week is BETRAY. I am not sure if the word applies for Charlie (to Olivia), Dr. Nayak (to himself) or Walter (to Peter). The Observer is seen walking down the steps of the laboratory of Dr. Nayak while Olivia responds to a call from Sam Weiss.

"Popular Mechanics" talks Fringe science: Season 2, episode 5

Author: Erin McCarthy
Published on: October 16, 2009
Source: Popular Mechanics

In "Dream Logic," patients who have had a high-tech chip implanted in their brains see funny things that make them doubt reality, and ultimately turn them into murderers—seemingly without motive. PM spoke with Dr. David Carley, direct of the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research at the University of Illinois–Chicago to find out if we should be watching our backs for sleepwalking killers.

As mad scientist Walter Bishop and son Peter settle into their new two-bedroom Boston apartment in the opening scenes of "Dream Logic"—Walter would prefer to sleep on the couch rather than in his bedroom because "the kitchen is only 13 steps away!"—3000 miles west, in Seattle, Wash., Greg Leeder is seeing things. More specifically, all of his co-workers appear to be demons—and his boss, with big horns and a freakishly distorted face, is their leader. Greg promptly bludgeons the poor guy to death with his briefcase. In the hospital, Greg explains to FBI Agent Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop that it was like he was in a nightmare. Then he has what appears to be a seizure; his hair turns white, and he dies. The cause? Acute exhaustion, according to Walter Bishop.

Greg, it turns out, had been a sleepwalker. So he enrolled in a study (always a mistake on Fringe), run by Dr. Laxmeesh Nayak, that tested the effectiveness of brain computer interface (BCI) chips implanted in the brain's thalamus. The chip, connected to a remote computer, monitored brain waves and stimulated the thalamus to induce a deeper sleep. Nayak claims that his chip has cured all REM sleep disorders. Through a wacky experiment involving an EEG net, a neurostimulator and a drugged FBI agent sent to babysit him while Dunham and Peter remain in Seattle to investigate, Walter ascertains that the BCI is transmitting all the sensory information that runs through a patient's thalamus, including color, sound and picture—and that the chip can actually turn on a dream-like state while the patient is awake. The endgame isn't mind control, as Peter theorizes, but rather stealing dreams for "the rush. The man who came in contact with this drug—in my estimation, that man would become enslaved," Walter says.

Though they might seem like something out of science fiction, BCIs do exist, and have been used on human subjects, says Dr. David Carley. "For example, deep-brain-stimulating electrodes have been used in an attempt to treat intractable epilepsy," Carley says. "However, BCIs have not been used in an attempt to control sleep cycles, and the regulation of sleep cycles involves mechanisms that go far beyond the thalamus."

Furthermore, Carley says, stimulating the thalamus doesn't necessarily lead to deeper sleep. "It has recently been shown that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the brain cortex can indeed produce EEG signs of deep sleep," Carley says. "And TMS is a kind of BCI that doesn't even require implanted electrodes." Scientists believe BCIs could be used to control seizure activity that does not respond to drugs, to control prosthetic limbs or other devices (Breakthrough Award winner John Donoghue is working on such a chip), and to direct stimulation of sensory cortex to help the blind see using artificial sensors.

While BCIs do send (or stimulate) and receive (or record) information, the idea that they could be used to facilitate direct transfer of understandable information from one person's brain to another is "not currently possible," Carley says. "It is not feasible to use a BCI to directly 'read' another person's thoughts or dreams, whether recording in the thalamus or anywhere else. Also, activity in the thalamus is only a very small part of the ideational activity associated with dreaming sleep. Certainly a thalamic implant would not detect every bit of salient activity during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep."

The idea that someone could steal dreams is pure bunk—as is Walter's idea that because this transfer is happening, the brain can never recharge, leading to death by exhaustion. "Even if the thalamus were effectively disconnected from the cortex during dreaming sleep, this would not prevent the brain from recharging," Carley says. "Many long-term experiments have been conducted in which human or animal subjects have been selectively deprived of REM sleep for weeks at a time without gross untoward consequences, and certainly not death. In fact, many common antidepressants are very effective in suppressing REM sleep, and patients certainly don't die from this loss of REM."

On Fringe the chips have the ability to "turn on a dreaming state while they're awake," giving the patients who have the chips hallucinations, feelings of paranoia and an inability to determine what's real. That's "not even remotely possible," Carley says. But "there is a phenomenon known as lucid dreaming, in which the subject is in a REM state, but becomes aware that they are dreaming and attempts to try to 'control' the course of their dreams through conscious effort. The existence of lucid dreams is not fully accepted in the field of sleep science."

The bottom line is that we won't have to watch our backs for sleepwalking killers, whether they've had BCIs implanted or not. As Peter (correctly) says, sleepwalkers typically aren't violent. Nor do they remember their experiences. "This behavior is most common in children, and they often outgrow their sleepwalking naturally," Carley says. "REM sleep behavior disorder may be more problematic. Normally, REM sleep is a time of active dreaming, in which the brain is very active, but the body is paralyzed. This keeps the body from acting out on the dream scenarios. In REM sleep behavior disorder, the paralysis does not occur, and the body responds to movement signals from the brain. Again, the individual is not consciously aware of their physical behavior during this state, but violent actions have on occasion been attributed to this disorder."

Source: Popular Mechanics

Joshua Jackson feels pretty comfortable on the 'Fringe,' Fox's sci-fi action thriller

Author: David Martindale
Published on: October 14, 2009
Source: Star-Telegram

When it comes to radical, beyond-the-norm sci-fi ideas, Joshua Jackson of Fringe is partial to concepts that get, in a word, "fringy."

"What defies my imagination," Jackson says, "is that there would be nothing out there that would defy my imagination."

That makes him an ideal fit for Fox’s creepy action thriller, in which the FBI’s Fringe Division investigates cases involving weird, experimental science run amok.

"If we don’t have a new crazy thing [happening in every episode]," Jackson says, "something’s gone horribly wrong."

Peter Bishop, Jackson’s character, isn’t just a key member of the Fringe team. He’s also a future case file: It so happens that Peter was stolen as a child from a parallel universe after the Peter from this universe died.

Fans were blown away when that bombshell dropped at the end of Season 1. But the plot development didn’t faze Jackson.

"Maybe it’s my West Coast, liberal upbringing, but the idea of parallel universes doesn’t strike me as being too far out there," he says. "After the ’60s and all the psychedelia and The Doors of Perception and what-have-you, I don’t think it’s really all that far out.

"The only justifiable position a human can have in 2009 is humility in the face of the universe. It’s like that Carl Sagan saying about the candle in the dark: Every time the candle gets a little bit brighter, it only serves to illuminate how much we still don’t know."

Or maybe it’s just a lifelong love of sci-fi that opened Jackson’s mind.

"It’s a ton of fun for a guy who loves science fiction to be working on a science-fiction show," the former Dawson’s Creek teen idol says. "None of the concepts raised on this show is entirely foreign to me, but I’ve never worked on a show before where we get to actually explore those ideas."

The show is an X-Files for this generation, but with one key difference.

"The X-Files, by design, dealt with things that were supposed to be part of the paranormal," Jackson says. "What Fringe is trying to say is that these things that we would normally classify as fantastical are actually part of the normal. They all have legitimate explanations in the scientific world."

Fringe, for example, has given us an alternate universe in which New York’s World Trade Center is still standing.

"I love our show for that," Jackson says. "It should keep on pushing boundaries like that."

Meanwhile, fans are still eagerly awaiting the fallout that will come when Peter finds out what Walter, his mad-scientist dad (played by John Noble), did to keep the family together.

"What I love so much about that, beyond the ain’t-it-cool factor, is now the audience knows something about Peter, something crucial, that he doesn’t know about himself," Jackson says. "We come to find out that this is a large part of the guilt that Walter carries around, that he baby-snatched Peter as a young boy. Inevitably that information had to come out.

"So while I don’t know the particulars much further than the episode I’m shooting right now, I do think that has to come to a head, and it will lead to a conflict between the two. Eventually he’s going to find out that this horrible thing happened to him as a child, and that’s going to blow up his relationship with Walter."

Sci-fi action plots and the dynamic of a family drama. No wonder Jackson loves his work on Fringe so much. For an actor, it’s the best of both worlds.

It’s almost enough, in fact, for Jackson not to envy co-star Anna Torv, who plays agent Olivia Dunham.

Dunham’s adventures in the alternate universe have meant doing scenes opposite iconic Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s original Mr. Spock.

"I’ve been shafted so far," Jackson jokes.

"In fact, I’m going to lodge a formal complaint. While I did get to meet him, and that’s cool, I have yet to be able to do a scene with him, and I think that’s uncool."

Episode 204 review

Recuperating from the traumatic and alarming meeting with Massive Dynamic founder William Bell (guest star Leonard Nimoy), Agent Dunham consumes a powerful black worm concoction that Dr. Bishop prescribes to stimulate her memory. Meanwhile, the Fringe Division investigates a series of robbery cases that are tied to shape-shifting. As clues are tracked and memories are jogged, another woman experimented on by Dr. Bishop is introduced and a flashback reveals more about Olivia's visit to the alternate reality. --FOX

This is where the path to war began.

A night robbery, but not like anyone, one of cryogenically frozen heads. Of course this is fringe so the robbers are no ordinary men, they sustain gun shot (except for ones in the head) and they bleed with silvery substance! We learn later that it was their 3rd successful attempts on the east coast this week (Medford, Chicago, New York). Walter and Peter are collecting evidence and the young one came back to a tottering Olivia that the silver in the robber's blood is mercury. During this time, a "no more sweating but pale" Fake Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) is watching Walter collecting more evidence, like a working shape-shifter device. Walter suggests to Fake Charlie a little cannabis before going to bed.

Next, Fake Charlie and the surviving robber (Roger R. Cross) are arguing about method to find the head that they are searching because it wasn't in the stolen truck. Fake Charlie thinks that Olivia (who still thinks that he is Charlie) knows where the special head is because William Bell must have extracted her to tell her. So, he must find a way to know what Olivia must remember.

While conducting the autopsy, Walter deducted that the shape-shifter is a mechano-organic-hybrid that use mercury to obtain the desired form. Additionally, He realise that the body of the old shape-shifter from the season opener didn't have the same characteristics. So the enemy is among us! He also thinks that the hippie girl, Rebecca Kibner, we saw in the old video in that same episode can detect them and suggest they meet with her.

Olivia goes see Nina Sharp at Massive Dynamic to ask her if they can repair the broken shape-shifter device. The MD researchers think they can extract information's from the device and learn who the mole is. The MD technician told them it could be done in about 3 hours. He could also create a computer link between MD and Olivia's phone so she can see the reconstructed face.

Walter and Peter go meet Rebecca Kibner (Theresa Russell) to convince her to help them identify the shifters. She explain to them that she sees some kind of glow on people that "don't belong here" as an after-effect of the experiment made on her but the effect have diminished over the years. Then Walter suggests that they repeat the experiment so they could reactivate her gift and she accepts to do the trip again.

Everyone is at the lab for the experiment and Olivia asks Astrid link her computer to the rendering program at Massive Dynamic then to her cell phone so she can see the face of the spy. They began the "homemade psycho-tropic drugs" induce experiment with Miss Kibner and ring a big bell then Olivia "leave Kansas to see the Wizard". I will get in more detail of the meeting later.

After the return of the FBI woman from the twin towers, she asks to meet with Nina Sharp immediately. Olivia show a symbol to Miss Sharp given by William Bell that mark the leader of the shape-shifter group called "The first wave" and incidentally the head that the robbers are looking for. Their meeting is cut off by the clear noncooperation of the head of Massive Dynamic and a message sent to Olivia saying that Nina is the shape-shifter and she must leave at once.

It was a diversion by Fake Charlie to lure Olivia out so he can extract what she remembered from her voyage to the other side. Olivia received the rendering image of the mole just after she told Charlie where the precious head is. A fight ensues and Olivia kill for good Charlie but not fast enough because he had time to transmit the location to his partner. The partner was fast enough to retrieve the head. We are left with a final image of a body reconnecting with the marked head, the new villain is born.

It is my favourite episode of the season; we finally get to know what happened in that room in the alternate universe. It was a good balance between, character development, mythology and monster of the week, awesome!

My favourite scene was without a doubt the anticipated meeting between Olivia Dunham and William Bell. I loved the way Bell treats Olivia in this scene. He tries to be warm and welcoming ("Call me Willem" he said) and acts as if this is some great reunion. But Olivia isn't having any of it, and she shouldn't! This man inexorably changed the life of Olivia and she's more than a little pissed about it. Remember that she had just learned that Walter and William experimented on her as a child at that time.

Anna Torv and the writers really deserve kudos for making Olivia forceful and strong without making her come off as someone who curses her lot in life. After all, we wouldn't have a show if mister Bell hadn't done what he did. Bell explained to her that a war is coming and the shape-shifters, also known as "The First Wave," are looking for someone who could open a door between their two universes (someone who has a particular symbol on him). He has confidence Olivia can be the one to stop the nefarious plot because she was always the strongest and she's "just coming into her abilities."

My observations of this episode led me to some cultural references that are stated as follow:

• Elias, the name of the robbed company, sound a lot like ‘Alias', a J.J. Abrams show.
• The actor, Roger R. Cross, who plays a member of the shape-shifter group call "The first wave", played a major role in a television series of the same name.
• The twitching of Fake Charlie in this episode made me think of Edgar in the movie "Men in black".
• The symbol drawn by William Bell looks like the Greek letter omega. It is the last letter in this alphabet and it symbolizes the end, the destruction.
• This mark should be on the one who will destroy our world. A strong reference to "the mark of the beast" in the Bible.
• In this segment of the Bell-Dunham meeting the lightning had a lot of secondary colors (orange, green, violet) marking that we are in the 2nd dimension.
• Peter and Olivia discussed about a 1978 movie called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Leonard Nimoy, who plays William Bell, is playing Dr. David Kibner in that movie. It is also the name of the hippie girl, Jessica Kibner.
• The glyphs (Butterfly, Leaf, Apple, Daisie, Frog and Seahorse) were seen on the wall when Olivia and Fake Charlie were fighting. (see image before)
• Previous episodes were marked with "Wizard of Oz" reference. In episode 202 it was the Scarecrow. In 203, it was operation "Tin man". This week I think it was Dorothy because Olivia made a spin on herself before falling in the lab at the sound of the bell. The house of Dorothy was spinning when she was transferred to Oz.

The secret glyph word of the week was MEMORY which is appropriate since Olivia had hers back. The Observer was seen watching Fake Charlie and Olivia talking at the entrance of the Massive Dynamic building near the end of the episode.

As always, please leave any comments you feel necessary to express, they are heartily welcome.