For fan boys and fan girls Fringe is a guilty pleasure. It’s pure fun for followers of the multidimensional fantasy to question what’s really going on. What world are we in tonight and who is really whom and in some cases what? The more questions that are answered only reveal more questions. The big question now is will Fringe return for a fifth season. Joshua Jackson, also known as Peter Bishop in this dimension, sat down with several journalists at Wonder Con to answer… yes, more questions.
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POPCULTUREZOO: What’s going on with the Fringe comic book you’re working on?
JOSHUA JACKSON: My portion of it is done. In the first season they did a preseason one anthology of Walter and William Bell’s life, some of their stories together. I don’t think we did one in the second season and in the third season the anthology idea was what was happening outside of our team. But this year they offered me the chance to write one of them and I pitched them this idea, which was the bridging moment, what happened at the end of last season, ‘Where did Peter go?’ And since it was such a big story they allowed me to do not one, but three of the six. It was awesome. It was great.
PCZ: Were there anything in the comics that you wish you could have done for the show?
JACKSON: (Laughing.) I went big. It was like the 300 million dollar version of Fringe in the comic book.
PCZ: What were some of your favorite comics growing up?
JACKSON: That depends on what phase of my life. I was a sort of a teenage Green Lantern fan. And then I started to get into the Frank Miller comics as I got a little bit older…the Sandman series. Actually, I shouldn’t admit this, I’ll never live this down, but it was my little sister who turned me on to the Sandman series. Embarrassing. That’s not the way that’s supposed to go.
PCZ: What type of TV did you like to watch then?
JACKSON: The X-Files was my show growing up. Law & Order for some reason. I watched a lot of Law & Order. And weirdly, the O.J. Simpson trial. O. J. Simpson and John Stewart got me kicked out of high school. Because I would stay up late to watch the old John Stewart Show, which was syndicated and only on at 1:30 (AM). And I’d be so tired when I woke up I’d blow off my first couple of classes and watch the O.J. trial. (Laughing.) O.J. Simpson ruined by education.
PCZ: What is the feeling on the set that this might be the last season for Fringe?
JACKSON: The feeling on set doesn’t change very much. The uncertainty…you don’t work any less hard. The hours don’t become shorter or longer. We have known for such a very long time that we are on the bubble. We were on the bubble last year; we’re on the bubble again this year. Maybe we’ve just gotten used to it. Has it affected the moral of the crew? Not really. I don’t know what the last story is; we haven’t gotten that script yet. It just feels that the guys have set themselves up to be able to either finish the whole story or finish the season story with this last episode that’s coming up. I’ll just speak for myself, but so long as the story ends, whenever it ends, I think everybody will be satisfied with that.
PCZ: John Nobel [Dr. Walter Bishop] said that he thought that Fringe was so close to becoming the best science fiction show ever. How do you fell about that?
JACKSON: I’m happy to aim for best ever. I will always have a soft spot for The X-Files. Even within the genre is it really apples to apples? What’s our story about? I think now, it’s about a woman trying to come to understand herself. This has been Olivia’s journey. In an odd way it’s kind of like a metaphor for puberty. She open’s Pandora’s Box in the first episode. She literally says, “I’ve opened Pandora’s Box”, which is not exactly a subtle Freudian reference. And then we’ve gone for 4 years of her, and with her past life with Fauxlivia [alternative earth’s Olivia], getting to know herself over the course of these 4 years. Well, that’s not The X-Files story at all. I will forever love The X-Files story but that’s a story of lost love and a torn family and a man reconciling himself to loss. Can one possibly be better when they’re not the same thing? I’m happy he thinks we’re almost there, but I’d have a hard time nominating us just yet.
Fringe is on FOX – Friday nights at 9 PM.
