Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown, Michael Cerveris, Kirk Acevedo, Seth Gabel, Leonard Nimoy, Ryan McDonald, Marl Valley, Michael Kopsa, Lily Pilblad, Ari Graynor, Eugene Lipinski, Jared Harris, Sebastian Roche, Shaun Smyth, Kevin Corrigan, Georgina Haig, Meghan Markle.

Cult Science-Fiction television is arguably, in its own way, far more satisfying a pastime in which to get the brain moving and stirring the what-if of imagination than by being sucked into the daily routine of gameshows, celebrity gossip and the intrigue of the soap opera digest.

From the original run of Star Trek and its various spin-offs, through serials such as Doctor Who, Blakes Seven, V, Highlander, Jericho, The X-Files, Lost, Threshold and Invasion, science fiction has held its nerve in the face of ridicule, outlandish praise and the often determined middle of the road shrug which suggests indifference against a wealth of talented writers to whom without humanity’s greatest weapon, the imagination, the world would be immersed in wall to wall sport and the machinations of the soap opera plot lines.

Perhaps though one of the most ingenious of them all was Fringe which ran for five series from 2008 to 2013 and which took viewers on a path of discovery which The X-Files almost succeeded in achieving, but which ultimately fell short by replacing the two main leads and which led to a mismanaged dynamic that the viewer could not get to grips with.

Fringe though suffered no such ignominy, and as a result the core of the cast kept the show’s fans intrigued and fascinated for the entire run; it also showed that by expanding the theme of the series, from solving a mystery from episode to episode, that by having a running current theme and the ability to stretch it to the point of what some might have considered as incredulity, the programme was able to finish on its own terms and not at the behest of the studio who would have otherwise decided to cut it off in its prime. In this dedication to the end result, Fringe avoided the fate of sister programmes such as Jericho, Threshold and Invasion, and can be considered an equal in its valour of persistence to that of Lost.

The show not only tackled the serious nature of perverting science, but also had the astonishing knack of displaying incredible humour, and it was  to the inspired pairing of Jasika Nicole and John Noble as Astrid Farnsworth and Walter Bishop that episodes such as the superb Brown Betty became firm fan favourites.

The other huge boon to the show was the appreciation shown to the alternate universe. In the same way that Star Trek episodes that deal with alternative timelines are hugely regarded, so the unveiling of the world of the other side, a place of initial confrontation and suspicion, of the oncoming war, was one in which the viewer found to expand their consciousness of how one action taken can cause a different Earth to form. It is in these episodes that the acting prowess of Anna Torv, John Noble, lance Reddick, Kirk Acevedo, Seth Gabel and certainly Jasika Nicole become endearingly apparent.

Fringe will surely go down in history as one of the great science fiction stories of television, one that might have suffered under the weight of its own immense vision, but which didn’t pander to normal television demands of being dumbed down for the masses; it expected, and received, the understanding that it needed to have intelligent writing and superb acting to make the premise work, and that the audience, the true critics of the age, would work with them to make it a success.

A sublime series, Fringe maintains its absolute and undeniable hold on the science fiction genre.

Ian D. Hall