Fringe (season 3)
Encyclopedia
The third season of the American science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 television series Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...

premiered on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 on September 23, 2010, and concluded on May 6, 2011, consisting of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions
Bad Robot Productions
Bad Robot Productions is an American film and television production company owned by J. J. Abrams. It is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, What About Brian, Fringe, Six Degrees, Undercovers, Person of Interest and the feature length films Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol , ...

 in association with Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...

.

During the first part of the season, odd-numbered episodes mostly take place in the parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 and have a red title sequence, while even-numbered episodes mostly take place in the prime universe and have the original blue title sequence. In episode eight, "Entrada
Entrada (Fringe)
"Entrada" is the eighth episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 51st episode overall. The third season spent much of its time alternating between the prime and parallel universes, and "Entrada" was the first of the season to have time...

", the title sequence is a mixture of blue and red, and since have been either blue or red or both to signify the universal focus of the episode. In the rest of the season, however, the episodes focus on the prime universe with brief shifts to the parallel universe. Episode 15, "Subject 13
Subject 13
"Subject 13" is the 15th episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 58th episode overall. Inspired by fan reaction to the show's previous flashback episode, "Peter", "Subject 13" occurs 25 years before the show's current timeline, in 1985 a...

" features a same retro title sequence from "Peter
Peter (Fringe)
"Peter" is the 16th episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 36th episode overall. Considered a keystone episode of the series, "Peter" is a flashback episode, told as Walter Bishop reveals to Olivia Dunham that his son Peter is really the...

", with Asimov font and an 80s rendition of the theme song, in addition to listing already realized technologies as the fringe sciences of the 80s. The season finale, "The Day We Died
The Day We Died
"The Day We Died" is the third season finale of the Fox science fiction drama television series Fringe. It is the season's 22nd episode and the series' 65th episode overall. The finale follows the aftermath of Peter entering and activating the doomsday device...

", has a grey title sequence to indicate the future setting of the episode.

Episodes

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Production

Crew

Fringe is produced by Bad Robot Productions
Bad Robot Productions
Bad Robot Productions is an American film and television production company owned by J. J. Abrams. It is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, What About Brian, Fringe, Six Degrees, Undercovers, Person of Interest and the feature length films Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol , ...

 in association with Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...

. Co-creator J.J. Abrams continued to work as executive producer along with fellow co-creators Alex Kurtzman
Alex Kurtzman
Alex Kurtzman is an American film and television screenwriter and producer.Kurtzman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where he met his high school friend and long time collaborator Roberto Orci...

 and Roberto Orci
Roberto Orci
Roberto Gaston Orci is a Mexican-American film producer, television producer, and screenwriter.-Biography:Orci was born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and a Cuban mother. His mother had left Cuba for Mexico after Fidel Castro came to power. He is the older brother of screenwriter-producer J....

, who returned as consulting producers. Bryan Burk
Bryan Burk
Bryan Burk is an American film and television producer, as well as an occasional screenwriter.A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Bryan Burk began his career working with producers Brad Weston at Columbia Pictures, Ned Tanen at Sony Pictures and John Davis at FOX...

 and Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle
Joe Chappelle is an American film and television director and producer. Chappelle was a Co-executive producer and regular Director for the HBO crime drama The Wire...

 also returned as executive producers, while Akiva Goldsman
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....

 worked as consulting producer. Executive producers Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...

 and J.H. Wyman continued to work as showrunners for the third season.

Writing and filming

Fringe began its third season by alternating between episodes, with each depicting one universe. The producers saw the season as "two shows"; J.H. Wyman noted, "It's on us to make the mythology over there just as compelling as the mythology here, so we will enjoy both of them. We have our characters going back and forth, there or here, but there's a whole set of nice characters that you'll become very interested in very quickly. It's interesting because it gives you that gearshift."

Cast

Most of the series' main cast returned for the third season. Anna Torv
Anna Torv
Anna Torv is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe.-Early life:...

 portrayed two versions of Olivia Dunham
Olivia Dunham
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series Fringe . Olivia first appeared in the pilot episode on September 9, 2008. She is portrayed by actress Anna Torv....

, each from their own universe, while Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Carter Jackson is a Canadian American actor. He has appeared in primetime television and in over 32 film roles. He is best known for playing Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Pacey Witter in the television series Dawson's Creek and Peter Bishop in the television series...

 returned as her love interest, Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop
Peter Bishop is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson.-Fictional character biography:...

, and John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...

 played Peter's father, Dr. Walter Bishop
Walter Bishop (Fringe)
Walter Bishop, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by John Noble. Noble also plays Walter's counterpart in the show's parallel universe, who is referred to in the show as Walternate.-Arc:...

. Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...

 starred as FBI agent Phillip Broyles, and Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole
Jasika Nicole is an American actress and illustrator from Birmingham, Alabama. She is most famous for portraying the character of Astrid Farnsworth in the TV series Fringe....

 played junior FBI agent/Walter's lab assistant Astrid Farnsworth. Lastly, Blair Brown
Blair Brown
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...

 returned as Massive Dynamic executive Nina Sharp.

Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion...

 depicted September/The Observer in every episode of the season, while Eugene Lipinski played another Observer, December, for two episodes. Seth Gabel
Seth Gabel
Seth Gabel is an American actor. Gabel plays the role of agent Lincoln Lee on Fox's television series Fringe.-Career:...

 and Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series Oz, Joe Toye in Band of Brothers and FBI Agent Charlie Francis in the science-fiction series Fringe....

 returned as parallel universe Fringe agents Lincoln Lee (10 episodes) and Charlie Francis (6 episodes), respectively. The parallel universe also featured Andre Royo
Andre Royo
Andre Royo is an American actor. He is best known for his role as "Bubbles" in The Wire , and has had guest starring appearances in Fringe, Party Down, and How To Make It In America.-Career:...

 as Henry Higgins, Amy Madigan
Amy Madigan
Amy Marie Madigan is an American actress who is known for her role as Annie Kinsella in the 1989 film Field of Dreams and Iris Crowe in the HBO television series Carnivale...

 as Marilyn Dunham, and Philip Winchester
Philip Winchester
Philip C. Winchester is an American actor. He is known for his roles in The Patriot, The Hi-Line, LD 50 Lethal Dose, Thunderbirds, CSI: Miami, King Lear, Flyboys, In My Sleep, The Heart of the Earth, and Shaking Dream Land.- Early life and career :Philip C...

 as Frank Stanton, all for three episodes. Ryan McDonald
Ryan McDonald
Ryan James McDonald is a Canadian actor born 5 August 1984 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. He is sometimes mistakenly credited as Ryan MacDonald.-Filmography:* "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" * "Terry"...

 played two versions of Brandon Fayette for twelve episodes, and Orla Brady
Orla Brady
-Early life and career:The second of four children born to Dublin publican Patrick Brady and his wife Catherine who had appeared in amateur productions at the Gate Theatre, Brady first became interested in an acting career after reading works by Germaine Greer and Simone de Beauvoir.Brady drifted...

 guest starred as Elizabeth Bishop for one episode. Sebastian Roché
Sebastian Roché
- Early life :Roché was born in Paris, France, on August 4, 1964; he is of Scottish and French ancestry. He is also fluent in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian. On General Hospital, he spoke in Russian, Spanish and French, and on the pilot episode of Odyssey 5, he spoke in French...

 returned from the second season to play one of the season's antagonists Thomas Jerome Newton for two episodes, along with Gerard Plunkett as Senator Van Horn. Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...

 depicted Samuel Weiss for three episodes, Karen Holness played Diane Broyles for two, Clark Middleton
Clark Middleton
Clark Middleton is an American actor. He may be best known for his supporting roles in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Sin City, and Fringe.-Career:Middleton began acting at a California junior college when he signed up with an acting class with friends...

 played Edward Markham and J. R. Bourne
J. R. Bourne
David J.R. Bourne is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known in Canada for his appearance in a Molson I Am Canadian television commercial...

 played Agent Edwards, each for one episode.

The season featured single episodes with special guest appearances by Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...

 as Roscoe Joyce, Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...

 as Massive Dynamic security guard Kevin, Paula Malcomson
Paula Malcomson
Paula Malcomson is a Northern Irish actress born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Malcomson is sometimes credited as Paula Williams.She starred as "Trixie" in the HBO series Deadwood and Colleen in ABC's Lost...

 as Dana Gray, Emily Meade
Emily Meade
Emily Meade is an American film and television actress. She has been cast in a potentially recurring role as a future version of the character Ella Blake in the U.S. science fiction series Fringe...

 as "Ella Dunham", Brad Dourif
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...

 as Moreau, and Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....

 as William Bell.

Reviews

Film aggregate review site Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 gave the third season 77/100 based on six critical reviews, indicating the critical reception was "generally favorable". Critic Josh Wigler, writing for Comic Book Resources
Comic Book Resources
Comic Book Resources, also known as CBR is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book-related news and discussion.-History:Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1996 as a development of the Kingdom Come Message Board, a message forum that Weiland had created to discuss DC...

, lauded the season's first two episodes, explaining "For the third season of the critically acclaimed Fox series, executive producers and co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman have responded to their audience's demands by creating a new kind of episode: the mythalone, designed to propel the story and characters forward while still keeping the show accessible to new viewers on a weekly basis... it's nothing short of amazing that the new mythalone approach to Fringe works wonders, if only in the first two episodes of the new season."

After watching the first three episodes, Aaron Riccio of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

also praised the new season, writing "The plots have generally been the "fringe" of Fringe; the meat has been in the characters' developing feelings for one another. Now the two are not only on equal footing, but they're both firing on full cylinders... Afraid, perhaps, to toy with viewers the way that Lost did, Fringe keeps the action moving, rapidly unspooling its mysteries, and that decision proves to be a wise one. Rather than waiting for a future payoff, Fringe is cashing in with every episode, showing us the escalating war between worlds—and with likeable characters and compelling cases to boot. Ironically, it's by branching out in two different directions that the show has become, more than ever, the centerpiece of a hypercompetitive Thursday night lineup."

In December 2010, the New York Times wrote Fringe "has kept its plates spinning entertainingly well into its third season" and called it "the best major-network show that no one is watching". Because of its "ultra-daring" and "bold" storylines, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 gave Fringe their award for "Best Sci-Fi Series" in 2010, in particular highlighting "Peter
Peter (Fringe)
"Peter" is the 16th episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the 36th episode overall. Considered a keystone episode of the series, "Peter" is a flashback episode, told as Walter Bishop reveals to Olivia Dunham that his son Peter is really the...

" and "Over There
Over There (Fringe)
"Over There" is the two-part second-season finale of the Fox science fiction drama series Fringe. They are the 22nd and 23rd episodes of the season, and the 42nd and 43rd episodes of the series overall. Both parts were written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, together with...

".

Awards and nominations

For the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards
1st Critics' Choice Television Awards
The 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards, presented by the Broadcast Television Journalists Association , the best in primetime television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, and took place on June 20, 2011 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, California...

, it was nominated for Best Drama Series and Anna Torv
Anna Torv
Anna Torv is an Australian actress known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the Fox television series Fringe.-Early life:...

 was nominated for Best Actress in Drama Series. John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...

 won for Best Supporting Actor in Drama Series. At Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

s annual viewer-voted EWwy awards, Fringe won for Best Drama, while Torv won for Best Actress in a Drama. Fringe won accolades at the 37th Saturn Awards
37th Saturn Awards
The 37th Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2010 were held on June 23, 2011.-Best Science Fiction Film:*Inception*Hereafter*Iron Man 2*Never Let Me Go*Splice...

 for Best Network Television Series
Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Network Television Series:-Multiple Winners:*Lost - 5 awards*Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 3 awards*The X-Files - 3 awards*Star Trek: The Next Generation - 2 awards...

, Best Actress in Television for Torv, and Best Supporting Actor in Television for Noble.

Home video releases

The third season of Fringe was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on September 6, 2011, and will be released in region 2 on September 26, 2011 and in region 4 on October 26, 2011. The sets includes all 22 episodes of season three on a 4-disc Blu-ray set set and a 6-disc DVD presented in anamorphic widescreen. Special features include two commentary tracks—"The Plateau" with Monica Owusu-Breen, Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner
Jeff Pinkner is an American television writer and producer. He graduated from Pikesville High School in Baltimore Maryland in 1983. He is known for his work on Alias where he served as executive producer. In 2006 and 2007, he worked as an executive producer and writer for the mystery series Lost...

and Timothy Good, and "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide" with Jay Worth, Luyen Vu, and Tanya Swerling. Behind-the-scenes featurettes include "Duality of Worlds", a four-part featurette, exploring The Other You, Visualizing an Alternate World, A Machine of Destiny and The Psychology of Duality. Other featurettes include "Animating the 'Lysergic Acid Diethylamide' Episode", "Constructing an Extrasensory Soundscape" and "Experience 'Os' (Episode 316) in Selectable Maximum Episode Mode with Pop-Up Experience-Enhancing Commentaries and Featurettes. Also included are a gag reel and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a featurette titled "Glimmer to the Other Side".
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