How I Want Fringe To End

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Time to dust out this old blog to get an idea I have down on paper. Digital paper, that is.

Thanks again to the insistence of my friend Katrina, I am hooked on another SciFi series: Fringe.

I am finally caught up on the whole series. This post is going to tell how I want it to end. Be forewarned – if you have not seen the 10th episode of the fifth season ( the current episode as I type this)… there will be spoilers.

Really.

Still reading? Okay… hope you are caught up.

Here is how I want Fringe to end. I don’t want it to end like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, or even Chuck. I want The Dark Knight Rises – a happy ending with loose ends tied up. I like some of the things about the confusing endings, things you can fill in the blank, etc. But let’s face it – all of that is getting cliche. I want something more concrete and, well… happy.

The preview for the last three episodes has Olivia saying “so we can reset time?” I realize this is out of context – Walter could follow up by saying “well, of course not, but…” But I am going to assume that this is the “big plan” of Walter’s for a minute and go with it. I realize that this would be a big cop-out for most shows. But for a show that has already reset time at least once? It has possibilities. As long as they don’t give us Lost.

What I Don’t Want

So here is what I don’t want. They figure out how to reset time, go through with it, fade to white, and then fade in to the date that the series first started. Olivia is walking along the street, walks past Peter, doesn’t know him. Asks him for directions, he answers, and they part ways. She turns around with a look in her eye, and then the credits.

Ugh.

Does she chase him down and ask him out to coffee, or do they go their separate ways? It is left up to you to fill in the ending you want.

Ugh.

I just want a cool SciFi series to have a cool ending that leaves us KNOWING that everyone lived happily ever after. And not in purgatory or heaven or whatever.

What I Do Want

Here is the ending that I want. The Fringe team figures out that they can reset time. They go through hell to get it done. Everyone ends up dying but Peter and Olivia. They get mortally wounded. With their dying breath, they express their love for each other and then flip the time reset button or whatever. Fade to white.

We fade back in, and the time stamp tells us that it is some year after the Observers invaded. But they show us that the bridge is still there, Central Park is still there, etc. The observer invasion never happened.

We see a news report on a TV in a window about how they are making huge progress to clean up the planet, all spearheaded by Massive Dynamic. A bright future is ahead.

Cut to Fringe division. An old Olivia and an old Peter are celebrating a 30 year anniversary and retirement. Everyone is there and alive – Lincoln, Astrid, Broyles, Nina, Charlie, etc. A really old Walter is half senile in the corner, but still himself. Peter and Olivia’s daughter walks in and congratulates them.

We wonder – what happened differently? Was Peter still stolen by Walter? Did they still ruin the other universe?

Then we cut to the alternate universe. Another retirement party. Old Fauxlivia is there. Really old Waternate is there. But then walks in… the other Peter, with their daughter. We realize that both Peters lived and married Olivia. Everyone there is alive and well. How did this happen?

Then we see really old Water and Waternate sneak out of the room. They sneak into a room looking suspicious  They both turn on their windows to look at the alternate universe, but we see that it is different and allows them to talk to each other. We then realize by their banter that they have a very good and long standing relationship through this communication device.

Turns out that Walternate also tried to make the window at the same time, and they discovered a way to communicate early on. Early enough to figure out a way to cure both Peters. Then they also figured out ways to fight pollution or whatever to make both worlds better.

But Walter never crosses over to break the universes. So why is there even a need for Fringe divisions in both universes?

They start making jokes about the times that William Bell crossed over and almost destroyed both universes. But they caught him in time. We see shots of parts of the other universe that used to be in Amber, but no longer are and never were.

Walter then gets this look in his eye and makes a serious statement about wondering how bad it could have gone if something else would have happened.

Cut to the observers in their Big Bang mobile. September is talking to Windmark. He says “Everything turned out as I predicted it would.”

Windmark says “you were right, I was wrong. The universes are fixed and our timeline never existed.”

September asks “Since balance has been restored we are no longer needed?”

Windmark replies “no, we now never existed and are therefore no longer needed.”

And they dissolve into a bunch of atoms.

The End.

Why Do I Bother With Television?

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Well, another season of TV has finished up, and once again the few shows that I watch are pretty much all cancelled. Such is the rhythm of life for the fan of Science Fiction on television. I thought I would muse a bit on the shows that I liked and what went wrong.

Stargate Universe. This one hurt the most to lose mainly because they really started hitting on some interesting themes. Stargate has always explored the meaning of life and what happens when people start playing God. But what if they found evidence of God? Or is it just a really intelligent alien species that existed before any others – even the ancients? Guess we’ll never know now. This one was probably a bit too dark for the average Stargate fan. But Stargate fans were dwindling, and so the studio decided to copy a Battlestar Galactica vibe. Which I like the combo of, but I think it was just too hard to mix both sides and make many happy.

The Event. I tried not to watch this one, but kept getting sucked in. The problem with this series was its horrible promotion. The first ads made it seem like there was this secret thing referred to as ‘The Event’, and it was about to be  revealed to people who didn’t need to hear it. Then, as the show went on – no mention of The Event.  Like, ever. It was finally brought up in the very last episode of the season. Really odd.  Also, when they were on their mid-season break, they come out with a new set of ads hinting that these aliens were really here before us and guided ancient civilizations and all that. Then, again, nothing about that until near the end. Most people probably bailed once there was no mention of The Event in any actual episode of a show called The Event – probably just afraid of another confusing mystery like Lost. And who can blame them? I loved Lost, even the ending – but who wants to go through that again?

The Cape. This show started well but got uninteresting fast. Just so many things were so unrealistic in a show that tried to be realistic. Especially the disappearing acts – just not possible. Yeah, I know – it was a circus trick! That still didn’t cut it. There were some interesting characters in it – I just wanted it to either be a bit supernatural or a bit more realistic.

No Ordinary Family. I know it was a bit cheesy at times. But both my wife and I got into this, so it was something to watch together. The final was a bit odd to both of us – it seemed like they cut a 2 hour episode down to one hour. The story was just too choppy – it didn’t evolve naturally at all. This show was probably “too SciFi” for average television watchers, while being too normal for SciFi fans.

V. This one was doomed to fail from the beginning. Just way too SciFi-ish for network prime time TV. Throw in a large bit of nostalgia for the original series, and you have something people probably weren’t going to stay with. They made some radical changes in the last episode that I wish had happened earlier in the series (no one believed that the US or many other governments were that gullible to alien visitors). Or I wish that they had another season to explore. But oh, well. Killer cameo at the very last few minutes of the series.

So what do I still watch that is still going? Chuck, Sanctuary, and Fringe. Weird combo. I also like Glee. Not very cool, I know – but I was a geek in high school and I like a show that pulls for the nerds and geeks of the world. Which, of course, is why I also watch The Big Bang Theory.

Every summer I tell myself that I won’t check out any more new series… because they will all get cancelled. I always ask myself “Why bother with television?” And then I go out and get hooked on a whole bunch of them. When will I ever learn?

The Best Spaceships in the Galaxy

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IGN.com created a list of the top 10 space ships, based on “pop-culture impact and all around cool means of transpo.” It’s a pretty good list, although I have one gripe: no X-Wing? Come on. That is the top fighter craft in SciFi ever. I would kick that video game space ship out of number 7 and put the X-Wing in there. Why would a video game space ship be in here anyway? Give them their own list. Also, if I really thought about it, I would probably find something to replace number 10, even though that is a cool space ship.

Another thing I have to disagree with: “can’t explain what people were thinking when they came up with TNG‘s D” (in reference to the Enterprise-D of Start Trek: The Next Generation). Whatever! That was the coolest Enterprise ever, even though it is a little dated now.

The coolest thing: Serenity makes the list….

Speed Racer is a Trip!

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I have to admit – I never really got into Speed Racer as a kid. I think it only came on some PBS channel that only came in vaguely once a week at 3:00am on Monday morning. So I really didn’t care much about the movie, until I read all of the buzz on the trailer. It’s totally different than anything else I have ever seen. If the buzz for this movie keeps on being good, I may still go see it. Check out the trip here:

http://movies.aol.com/movie/speed-racer-2008/28066/main

Sanctuary For All

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This just caught my eye recently: a web-based SciFi show starring know actors, shooting for “broadcast quality” episodes, called Sanctuary. The first few webisodes are free, but they want you to pay $1.99 for each 15 minute segment. You personally might not like the subject matter (deals with some scary creatures), but you have to at least admit that the concept of releasing broadcast quality material online is a good idea. The Star Wars TV show, which is being produced independently of any TV network, may follow suit.

So far, I like the first two episodes. Every once and a while, I catch a stylistic choice with the CG that I personally wouldn’t have chosen, but that’s really just me. Even with it’s imperfections, I am still more excited about this now than I am about the new Star Wars shows that are being worked on. I know – that’s SciFi blasphemy. But the recent preview of the new Clone Wars CG series was just, well… flat. Could be good – but why do all the characters walk like they are constipated?

I’ve heard some complaints about the price for Sanctuary. The argument being that real TV is free. I guess if you don’t have something called cable that might be a good argument – but not really. No TV is free. Commercials pay for our “free” TV. Those commercials cause the companies to jack up prices to pay for their advertising budget. So, you see, no television is free.

You can view the first four episodes online for free, as they are released, here. Here is the first episode (two are out so far):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-v4MJScz0

Heroes Still Rocks

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Yep – so far I have been watching every episode of the new Heroes TV show. And, yep – they all still rock. I guess I like Sci-Fi, so maybe I was pre-destined to love this show. But my wife likes it also. If you haven’t seen any of Heroes yet (or have missed some), you can watch every episode online here.

So, my question is, which do you think it is?

IF you “save the cheerleader”, THEN you “save the world”

– OR –

FIRST, “save the cheerleader”, NEXT “save the world”

I tend to go for the second one. Or maybe some kind of combination of both. But I also have a theory about that painting of Hiro “fighting” a T-Rex. Most of those paintings have still come true. For example, Jackie and Claire look the same, so how do we know it wasn’t Jackie getting killed in those paintings? And, they don’t always show what we think they show. Remember the painting of Peter dead? Well, he did die, but then he absorbed the healing powers of Claire and came back to life.

So, the painting of Hiro fighting a dinosaur? I think he is just retrieving the sword from a museum when he starts pretending to fight with a statue of a dino. Why do I think this? Because there is no way that NBC can afford the CGI of a dinosaur in a TV show. Unless there is a Heroes movie in the works? Hmmm…..

Heroes is Best New Show in a While

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Heroes logo

My wife and I don’t really get that hooked on TV shows that much. We are still watching the Amazing Race, and I try to catch Lost when I can. I would also love to watch Sci-Fi stuff like Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, and re-runs of Firefly…. but that would require cable. And I’m just too cheap to but cable.

the new show that I am really liking is Heroes. It’s the story about ordinary people that discover they have extraordinary powers. And now they are discovering that they are also destined to save the world. Naturally. Because discovering that you have secret powers is really boring if you just sit on the couch and levitate potato chips into your mouth all day long. Or slices of fruit into your sweetie’s mouth. *cough*Anakin-get-a-life*cough*

Some people think that Heroes is like X-Men meets Lost. Ummm…. well, I guess that would work as a description. They also have a lot of interesting online exclusives that tie into the show, like comic stories that add plot details, a “blog” by one of the main characters, and even MySpace pages for some of teen age characters. Even though statistics show that over half the people that use MySpace are over 30. And, I mean the legal, nice users – not the sicko child stalkers.

So, as I mourn the loss of Alias, I have found a new distraction to get over the pain of never finding out what the heck is the deal with Rambauldi anyway.