Day 18 - Best use of SFX on the small screen

CGI special effects on the small screen are still a bit dodgy, and very hard, and expensive, to get right. There are other effects that are very impressive. It's still hard for me to believe that the Weeping Angels in Blink were actually actors in silver paint. Classic Doctor Who. But I am trying hard to look beyond the British Invaders universe.

Let's go back to a classic. I love picking holes in Fringe but it is no X-Files. And if we're talking classic X-Files we have to be talking about the scary episode Squeeze. Eugene Tombs was a splendidly creepy bad guy and the scenes when he distorts his body to climb through a narrow chimney is really impressive. The special effects guys did a great job and, along with some thoroughly nasty sounds, it makes for a terrific episode.

Fringe Binge

Fringe season three has arrived on DVD and it's time for me to drift away from British televison for a short while and get back to the world of parallel universes, bad medicine and a cheerful mad scientist in this X-Files clone.

Spoiler alert. If you haven't watched the end of season two and you plan to then probably best if you don't read the rest of this because I'm going to give the game away.You have been warned.

So here's the problem for the Fringe writers. At the end of season two they have established that the two parallel universes are at war and they've swapped the two Olivias. Getting from there back to the freak-of-the-week episodes is difficult but so far they have got round this by having the evil Olivia, or Faux-livia, masquerading as her blonde goodie version so that the original team can continue their investigations. Meanwhile over in the other world they have given our Olivia memory implants so that she thinks and acts like Faux-livia. The rest of her Fringe team don't know about the switch so they carry on doing their thing and we get alternating episodes of Fringe cases from each universe. Clever!

Actually it's all very neat and we get to watch more X-Files type mysteries while at the same time noting the differences between the two universes. The parallel world has much better technology, although strangely they still use Penny Farthing bicycles. And their Fringe team seem much better at their jobs than our eccentric versions of Walter and Astrid. Plus the Red universe team includes a character who is dead over here in our (blue) universe.

Quite how long they can keep this up remains to be seen, especially as Olivia seems to be rejecting her memory grafts and starting to remember who she really is. But at least they have got us back to monster of the week shows. Watch this space for more from beyond the Fringe.

Surrey with the Fringe on top

So we finished season two of Fringe and we continued to enjoy it although it scored fairly highly on the scoff -ometer. The season finale had the team crossing over to the parallel universe and meeting their opposite numbers. It was fun and lively stuff. The differences between the two Earths were interesting.

For a comics geek it was entertaining to see the subtly different versions of certain classic comic book covers. You can see the parallel universe versions at the bottom of Polite Scott's review page here but note that the text contains spoilers so don't read what's above. Just look at the pretty images and see what Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns became in the other world.

Although it is not the most striking of the images one of the most interesting is the cover for the other version of Crisis on Infinite Earths 7. This was a series all about parallel worlds in the DC comics "Multiverse" so it was an obvious choice for the Fringe creators to include in the framed comic books on the wall of Peter's other apartment.

And now we have to wait for Fringe 3 which is released in September. I've already flogged season 1 and 2 on Amazon marketplace. It is an enjoyable show but it is the X-Files. I may have mentioned that already as well.

Fringe benefits

I've being watching the US TV series Fringe (I know, I should be watching British Invaders stuff). It's a pretty good series but it's basically the X-Files.

A special FBI unit referred to as the Fringe division investigate a wide variety of paranormal events. Sounds like the X-Files right? There are stand-alone monster of the week episodes and then there are others which link to a wider conspiracy type invasion plot. Does that sound familiar at all? There are super soldier experiments, shape-shifters, killer mutants and mind control experiments. Did I mention that it's the X-Files?

To be fair the show creators are fairly open about their debt to Mulder and Scully. If you listen to the full length version of the theme tune the recognisable X-Files music can be heard noodling away in the middle eight. There's even one episode where the unit's boss (he happens to be a stern bald guy - who's a bit like another stern, bald guy) has to appear in front of a congressional committee who refer to previous cases with an "X designation". They also share the trope of having the politicians closing down the unit in the last episode of the series only to re-open the files at the start of a new season.

Anyway, it's a fun series. There's a great mad scientist with a dodgy past and a bit of a swiss cheese memory. And like the Lone Gunmen he's an expert in absolutely everything. There's lots of dodgy medicine which is expertly dissected in this blog.

It rates fairly highly on the scoff-o-meter but I like it.

ps. it's the X-Files