Defining Science

Having a cold isn’t any fun. It started just before Christmas and went away for a while. Then it returned with a vengeance a couple of weeks ago for a rebound. But I was able to take certain pills to help get rid of the nagging cough. I hate colds. They are a misery.

During that time I couldn’t do much when the cold reached its height for me. So I checked out a copy of the Fring series from the Oshkosh Pubic Library. It wasn’t a bad idea.

I’ve never seen the show before. A few people, more of the scientific variety, urged me to see the show for its great use of science. I didn’t bother for a while. But seeing I had a lot of time on my hands during the weekend, I managed to sweep through nearly the entire first season.

I liked the series. I’ll tell you why.

There have been plenty of shows that always misrepresent the use of science. Often the message is “science is bad.” They would tell us that science shouldn’t be trusted. That isn’t the case here.

In fact, science more often than not resolves the situation. Yes, there is some bad science in the Fringe series which gives us a foul reflection of progress. The idea that science is not humane. But yet there is a professor named Walter Bishop who is like the Doctor Who of the Fringe series. He is able to solve many of the problems from the comfort of his own laboratory.

The first season also revolves around another story of a different scientist named William Bell played with diligent care by Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. Throughout the first part of the series, we are told that he is a butcher of science… and he is evil personified. But it turns out that he is a pretty decent scientist as well.

There are plenty of gray areas in the series and a very interesting story arc which tells about an oncoming war from a parallel universe about to invade our worldly domain. Walter Bishop gives an interesting explanation as to why other universes could exist.

I can see why people interested in science would like this show.

It’s a smart series.

Many of the scientific explanations given throughout the series is reasonable and plausible. In fact, the science can become a possibility. The notions of cloning isn’t far from our world now as it is becoming a more common practice. But the Fringe series really does rely on the interior logic of science for the series. Many times it makes proper sense. They have been thinking everything through.

The series has a great ensemble cast. It’s not a big cast. There are three major characters including Anna Torv who plays the FBI agent Dunham slipping into the strange world of Fringe science and becomes a leader of a group of a misfit department investigating supernatural crimes. The father and son of the Bishop family is played by John Noble and Joshua Jackson. They’re very good in it and gives the series a presence needed.

There are several other minor characters such as Lance Reddick who plays the very serious minded Phillip Broyles—a Homeland Security agent who oversees the Fringe Division. The always lovely Jasika Nicole plays Astrid Farnsworth who assists Olivia and Walter in their cases. One can’t forget Blair Brown as Nina Sharp who runs the Massive Dynamic which is a leading company in science development. Even all the minor characters give some very excellent story background for the series itself.

Much of the first and second seasons deal with the idea of the parallel universes and comes back to the partnership of Bell and Bishop who set everything in motion.

There are minor flaws in the series that should not be bothered with. I’m a little annoyed at the often “cue cards” that would tell you the location of the city such as “Boston, Massachusetts” or “Harvard University” which is often placed into the scene in big, bold letters. I can gather from seeing the surroundings or listening to the dialogue where they are. I don’t need the cues to tell me what the setting is.

Again, it’s a minor gaffe.

I found the first season to be very fresh and bold in its massive undertaking in the storyline. There are several Star Trek and X-Files references in which the series takes its influences from.

The first season is a great storyline which leads right up to the first meeting of Nimoy’s character. However, the second season seems to be lagging just a tad except whenever Nimoy appears to give it an added boost to the stories. It might be possible that the season is losing steam right now. I think it works better in shorter seasons rather than stretching it out to the current 24 episodes as in the second season.

But we’ll see.

I haven’t seen the entire second season in its entirety yet. But I’m confident that the stories will pick up again with a more dramatic tension. I hope so. The stories are usually very interesting and they do have a great cast to work with. There are still so much needed to be learned about the Bishops, Boyles and Dunham herself. Each and every one of them has a story to tell.

The third season is being currently aired right now. But it’s probably better to start the show from the very beginning. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know what is going on. There are a lot of complexities in the series and dropping into the middle of it wouldn’t be advised.

I’m not a big fan of J.J. Abrams’s works who helped create this series. But this one is worthy of television viewing.

Science first here. Guns rarely used.

Using the mind to resolve a problem. It's easily the best thing to do in a civilized world.