Fringe (TV series)

Conception[edit]

Co-created by J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Fringe was produced by Bad Robot in association with Warner Bros. Television, as part of a commitment that Abrams previously made with the studio.^[35] At the time, Abrams was working with Orci and Kurtzman on the Star Trek film, and met at one of the Comic-Cons during Star Trek's production to brainstorm ideas for the show.^[35][36] Abrams later brought Bryan Burk, a producer on several of his films, to help with developing the series.^[36]


Abrams's inspiration for Fringe came from a range of sources, including the writings of Michael Crichton, the film Altered States, films by David Cronenberg, and the television series The X-Files and The Twilight Zone.^[35][37] Orci stated that Fringe is a "new kind of storytelling", combining procedural shows such as Law & Order, and an "extremely serialized and very culty" series like Lost.^[38] The procedural aspect was chosen because, at the time of its premiere, six of the ten top shows were procedural in nature; Orci stated that "you have to be a fool not to go study what it is that they're doing".^[35] Abrams had originally considered naming the series The Lab, as they had envisioned Walter's laboratory to be "the epicenter of the conversation", and where "anything is possible".^[36]


Though the team saw this as a way of presenting "mystery of the week"-type episodes, they wanted to focus more on how these stories were told in unpredictable ways rather than the actual mystery, recognizing that most of their target audience has seen such mysteries before through previous shows and films.^[38] Instead, they wanted their storytelling to be original and unexpected, and, as claimed by Kurtzman, one of the most challenging aspects of developing the individual episodes.^[38] Serialization of the show was important to tell their overall story with larger plot elements, but Abrams recognized the difficulties that his earlier serialized shows, such as Lost and Alias, had in attracting and maintaining viewers that had not seen these shows from the start or who missed episodes sporadically.^[35] For Fringe, Abrams instead sought to create, as stated by David Itzkoff of the New York Times, "a show that suggested complexity but was comprehensible in any given episode".^[35][36] The writers aimed to balance a line between stand-alone episodes, a factor requested by Fox, and a heavily serialized show; they balanced these by moving the serialization aspect to the growth and development of their characters. This gave them the ability to write self-contained episodes that still contained elements related to the overall mythos.^[36] However, as production continued, the creative staff found the show itself took on a more serialized nature and opted towards this approach in later seasons while still balancing self-contained episodes.^[36]


One method was by introducing overarching themes that individual episodes could be tied to, such as "The Pattern" in Season 1, providing information repeatedly about the larger plot over the course of several episodes or seasons.^[35] Abrams also created characters whose alliances to the larger narrative were clear, avoiding a similar problem that had occurred during the first and second seasons of Alias.^[35] A final step taken was to script out all of the major long-running plot elements, including the show's finale, prior to full-time production. Abrams contrasted this to the process used in Lost, where ideas like character flashbacks and the hatch from the second season were introduced haphazardly and made difficulties in defining when they should be presented to the viewers. Instead, with Fringe, they were able to create "clearly defined goalposts" (in Itzkoff's words) that could be altered as necessary with network and seasonal changes but always provided a clear target for the overarching plot.^[35] These approaches also allowed the team to introduce unique plot elements to be introduced in time that would have altered the show's fate if known at the start. Abrams stated that "There are certain details that are hugely important that I believe, if shared, will destroy any chance of actually getting on the air."^[35] Abrams noted that they are able to benefit from "how open Fox as a network has been to a show that is embracing the weirdness and the long-term stories that we want to tell".^[38] During the third season, executive producer Jeff Pinkner noted that "We have six to eight seasons worth of material. We see it as having certain chapters that would enrich the overall story, but aren't necessary to tell the overall story. God willing, the network allows us the time to tell our complete story."^[39]


As part of the larger story, the writers have placed elements in earlier episodes that are referenced in episodes seasons later. For example, in the first-season episode "The Ghost Network", the Fringe team encounters an amber-like substance, which is later shown to be a critical means to combat the breakdown of the parallel universe and eventually for the same in the prime universe with the third-season episode "6B".^[21] Pinkner compared this aspect to "planting seeds", some which they know how they plan to use later in the show's story, while others they can find ways of incorporating into these later episodes.^[21]


He further attributed these elements as part of the "world building" to flesh out the show beyond episodic content.^[21] The producers have stated that when the show's mythology is introduced, it is not simply there to tie episodes together, but "to provide answers that generate consequences".^[40]


Certain elements of the show's mythology were established from the start. The parallel universe was always part of the original concept, though aspects of when and how to introduce it were tackled as the show proceeded.^[41] The idea of Peter being from the parallel universe came early into the show's production, but this came to lead the team to jokingly refer to Peter as their "hatch", one of the early mysteries in Lost, as with the hatch in Lost, they initially had no idea how to introduce this within the show.^[41] FOX's Reilly was also initially concerned about the parallel universe aspect, but as the show progressed into the first season and found its groove, the concept was readily accepted.^[41] The most poignant introduction of the parallel universe was in the conclusion of the first-season finale, "There's More Than One of Everything", where they showed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were still standing in the parallel universe, a concept introduced by writer Andrew Kreisberg as an iconic image to leave viewers with; Jackson stated, "I don't know that we've ever had a better visual or a better cliff-hanger."^[41]


Other mythos elements were devised as the series progressed. The writers had originally envisioned only spending small portions of episodes within the parallel universe, but as they wrote these episodes within Season 3, they brought out the idea of setting entire episodes within the parallel universe.^[41] This necessitated the development of the alternate versions of the main characters, which Pinkner considered "a great playground just for imagination".^[41] The actors themselves found this concept exciting, as it allowed them to play different characters but with the same background and considered it a creative challenge.^[41] Similarly, having Peter erased from the timeline as part of the finale for Season 3 was an idea that grew over the course of that season.^[42] The writers were aware this would be a risky move but felt the idea was very appropriate for Fringe, and opted to write towards this after considering all the consequences.^[42] Pinkner noted that this gave them an opportunity to "reset the character relationships" and determine the key aspects that would remain without Peter, as well as "making the audience uncomfortable at times".^[42] The cast was not initially sold with the idea, but came around as the fourth season progressed.^[42]