Fringe 2.3 went in for some fine, classic science fiction again last night, with a current twist - people that explode, not because they are wired like suicide bombers, but because their body chemistry has been changed to make the body itself a deadly, explosive weapon. Alfred Bester had something like this in The Stars My Destination - or, at least, explosives activated by telepathy - and I had exploding rodents in The Pixel Eye.Fringe does well with these classic themes, but I'd like to see a bit more of the central story - Olivia's journey and back to another dimension - explored a little more on a weekly basis. The coming attractions promise this for next week.
This week, Fringe felt more like Alias, as Peter and Olivia go on a mission in Iraq. Peter is a far more active, important character this year.
The exploding humans were engineered by someone convinced that the Earth will soon be under attack - by people from the other dimension, by the terrorist ZFT, by Massive Dynamic? Not known, as yet.
But it was good to see The Eternal Bald Observer having something to do with this...
See my All the Odd Fringe Stuff You Need to Remember for details on the above - ZFT, The Eternal Bald Observer - from last year.
6-min podcast review of Fringe
See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People
See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best
1 comment:
Joan D. Vinge had something about explosive body chemistry in her novel "Catspaw", too. It's not the main thrust of the book, but it is a substantial plot point in its development.
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