I love Wesley Crusher because so many geeks hate him. I hope he appears in the sequel, travelling back through time to rescue Spock and creating a device to recreate Vulcan. #startrek
"I made this device that can fix everything! I found it in my closet, turns out I made it for a science fair project when I was fifteen. Want me to play my Captain Picard voice synthesizer?"
@ManchuCandidate: Wheaton does seem like a pretty cool, genuinely geeky, fun guy. Until recently when I discovered his blog/he started appearing on The Guild I'd always assumed he was a total dweeb a la Wesley Crusher. Turns out I shouldn't have judged him based on the annoying, whiny character he used to play. #startrek
I really hope Mission Impossible can return to the TV Show's roots; a caper film where the perfect crime/rescue/dictator overthrow is planed and executed. The Mission Impossible movies are more like Americanized James Bond films. IM was about tricking bad guys with head games, not car chases and out running fireballs. JJ Abrams needs to hire some of the "Leverage" writers.
and no bell and peter are not teh same people. the earth 1 peter died so walter found a way to steal earth 2's. william used a bell as a trigger because he knew walter had the same one on earth 1, who used it was not relavant.
also i guess LSD experiments help older women stay hot because that woman was seriously gorgeous for someone who would have to be near 50.
@darthsidious_7:
That, I believe, is our good friend from Odyssey 5, Sebastian Roche. My eyes lit up when I saw his name in the credits, along with Theresa Russell, and at the end I realized I hadn't seen him, so I went back to that scene and decided it was a bald CGIed Sebastian.
I like this review's format; the catchy italicized paragraph-openers appeal.
I'll be sad if I don't see Kirk Acevedo again. (There's the mirror universe one with a scar.) Like a few other scifi characters who died ignominious deaths that were stretched out, his double-fate was hard to watch.
Would've been more interesting if, as a shapeshifter, Olivia convinced him to rebel. But parallels on that front of the alien rebels in X-Files, perhaps.
I wonder if the mercury (actual mercury, not mercury-looking "polymimetic alloy") was a nod to T-1000.
How could the FBI have missed the bad guys at the cryo facility by 15 minutes? Surely, since they knew that these places were being hit and heads stolen they would have been watching the remaining facilities?
How many places can there be that freeze heads!?
@therewasadoor: The answer is simple: this is TV-FBI, not the real deal. They're dumb when the plot demands it. Not that the real deal can't be dumb sometimes too, but certainly not on demand of the whims of TV writers, that's for sure.
I understand the source of the worm theory. Though the "experiment" was never repeated successfully, the idea is that memories are stored in your very flesh, somewhere. But if Olivia were to get memories from eating faltworms, they would be very wormy memories and have very little to do with her memories.
So, I assume Walter shocked the worms and rung the bell at the same time. After the worms would cringe expecting a shock from just the bell, he blended them and fed them to Olivia. So the bell would tell Olivia that she was going to be shocked, which magically triggered the memories. If this is correct, they could have just shocked Olivia and skipped all those steps.
But I guess it wouldn't be Fringe if the solutions were reasonable.
@MISS MERCY STREET: It was another part of the graffiti, along with "to sleep, perchance to dream". I couldn't quite work out a solid meaning to it, other than the impressionism/seen through a glass darkly/dream overtones.
@DrMathochist: I wish I had that program where they see a video of a hair of a guy and then they enhance it and see his full face in HD, so I could read what that wall says
"I'm probably jumping the gun here, but is it possible that Peter and William Bell are the same person? After all, they're both geniuses, both have worked with Walter, and both have real affinity for Olivia. Could Peter have traveled back in time, assumed the name William Bell, and worked to prevent the "final storm.""
Very intriguing idea but, if true, then Peter/Bell never finds/found out that he's not actually from this universe, since Bell told Olivia that he's from ours. Unless he was lying to her.
"But, why everyone doesn't immediately suspect Charlie, who supposedly shot and killed the nurse, of being the shapeshifter is beyond me. "
True, also because he's been acting a little weird lately and, presumably, also around his co-workers and wife, at least a bit.
Very intriguing idea but, if true, then Peter/Bell never finds/found out that he's not actually from this universe, since Bell told Olivia that he's from ours. Unless he was lying to her.
I was born in Minneapolis. When I was 6, my parents moved us to central Maryland. I've been moving all around the country chasing a futile academic career, and I tell people I'm from Maryland. "From" isn't just where you were born.
"After all, two objects cannot occupy the same space."
I was truly enjoying the episode up until Nina mentioned the Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) and claimed that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time because of it.
Sorry, Nina, but you fail elementary quantum mechanics.
The PEP says that *identical* *fermions* [particles of half-integer spin (1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc)] cannot occupy the same *quantum state*. Identical bosons [particles of integer spin (0, 1, 2, etc)] *can* - and they like to - occupy the same quantum state.
Note the three important aspects of the PEP:
1. It applies only to *fermions*. Protons, neutrons, and electrons are fermions. Photons, pions and other particles are not (they're bosons). So there are plenty of quantum-level things that *can* occupy the same quantum state at the same time. Lasers, superfluidity, and superconductivity are nothing but applications in which identical bosons lump together in the same quantum state, with macroscopic effects.
2. It applies only to *identical* fermions. A proton and an electron, though both fermions, don't have any trouble occupying the same quantum state at the same time. Only protons among themselves and electrons among themselves cannot.
3. It applies to *quantum states*, not to position in space. A quantum state is described by more than just position in space. Thus, even two identical fermions (say, two electrons) *can* occupy the same position in space at the same time (as far as quantum mechanics will allow you to make that statement) provided that their quantum states differ in some other aspect.
I know that expecting Fringe to abide to real science is too much, but mentioning the PEP by name only to butcher it is too much of an insult.
@Roklimber: What you describe may be how a physicist would explain it to another physicist, but it's unreasonable to expect that would be how the highest corporate officer of a shadowy research lab would explain it to an FBI agent. While more correct, your corrections would not actually be useful in the explanation. You have mistaken precision for accuracy.
Dumbing down an explanation that does not apply to the situation at hand does not change the fact that the explanation does not apply to the situation at hand, no matter how anyone slices it.
The PEP is NOT the explanation for the supposed "collision of alternate universes", no matter how (in)accurately one explains the PEP. The universe is NOT a fermion and, even if it were, two alternate universes wouldn't be identical. So, even if one stretches one's imagination to think of alternate universes as fermions, the PEP would still not apply to them.
Moreover, I seriously doubt that any of the writers thought that they needed to dumb things down for the benefit of Olivia or the audience, or to make Nina more believable as a corporate officer. More likely, they really think that the PEP means that two things can't occupy the same space at the same time.
I'd have been fine with Nina claiming that two universes can't exist simultaneously in the same space, if she had not mentioned the PEP by name.
The fact that she did tells me that the writers wanted to give some semblance of scientific legitimacy to that idea. In reality, it only made them look stupider and helped to perpetuate an idea that is provably wrong (that no two "things" can occupy the same space at the same time).
This was bugging me too, especially (as you later mention) I would have no problem with it if they hadn't used the term "pauli exclusion principle"
I have no problem suspending my disbelief over fake science, but it kinda bugs me when they use the real stuff incorrectly.
Also, mercury is much denser than blood, so shouldn't all the FirstWavers be a bit on the hefty side?
A quite bit of (admittedly hasty) math sez that assuming Charlie was originally about 200 lbs, Mercurial Charlie would weigh in at about 275.
Maybe not really noticeable, but then again maybe that could explain why he could kick Livvy's arse--he would effectively always have a roll of quarters in his fist.
I think you managed to put in just a few words what has been annoying me for the longest time in many TV shows. It's not the fake science, but using real science incorrectly, that upsets me.
Excellent point about the mercury being denser than blood.
@What_we_Need_More_of_is_Science: somebody shot the other mercurial guy at the start, he took the bullets without falling to the back, and I thought the title referred to him transferring momentum somewhere.
Him being very dense would be a better explaination (more like a horse and less like a zebra)
11/05/09
11/05/09
"I made this device that can fix everything! I found it in my closet, turns out I made it for a science fair project when I was fifteen. Want me to play my Captain Picard voice synthesizer?"
11/05/09
11/05/09
You have a great plot device right there. I would pay to see that.
Although not the Uhura part. Save that for the extras on the next DVD. #startrek
11/05/09
On another note, horay for Will Wheaton! #startrek
11/05/09
I hated the character Weasely Crusher but I like Wil the actor and he seems like a pretty likable guy. #startrek
11/05/09
The truth of the matter is, he's mean to be a real nice guy and also a huge sci-fi and computer geek - he needs more love! #startrek
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
10/11/09
10/10/09
10/10/09
and no bell and peter are not teh same people. the earth 1 peter died so walter found a way to steal earth 2's. william used a bell as a trigger because he knew walter had the same one on earth 1, who used it was not relavant.
also i guess LSD experiments help older women stay hot because that woman was seriously gorgeous for someone who would have to be near 50.
10/09/09
10/10/09
That, I believe, is our good friend from Odyssey 5, Sebastian Roche. My eyes lit up when I saw his name in the credits, along with Theresa Russell, and at the end I realized I hadn't seen him, so I went back to that scene and decided it was a bald CGIed Sebastian.
10/10/09
10/09/09
I'll be sad if I don't see Kirk Acevedo again. (There's the mirror universe one with a scar.) Like a few other scifi characters who died ignominious deaths that were stretched out, his double-fate was hard to watch.
Would've been more interesting if, as a shapeshifter, Olivia convinced him to rebel. But parallels on that front of the alien rebels in X-Files, perhaps.
I wonder if the mercury (actual mercury, not mercury-looking "polymimetic alloy") was a nod to T-1000.
10/09/09
How many places can there be that freeze heads!?
10/09/09
10/09/09
So, I assume Walter shocked the worms and rung the bell at the same time. After the worms would cringe expecting a shock from just the bell, he blended them and fed them to Olivia. So the bell would tell Olivia that she was going to be shocked, which magically triggered the memories. If this is correct, they could have just shocked Olivia and skipped all those steps.
But I guess it wouldn't be Fringe if the solutions were reasonable.
10/12/09
10/09/09
10/09/09
You're right about Van Gogh's Self Portrait, though.
10/09/09
10/12/09
10/09/09
Very intriguing idea but, if true, then Peter/Bell never finds/found out that he's not actually from this universe, since Bell told Olivia that he's from ours. Unless he was lying to her.
"But, why everyone doesn't immediately suspect Charlie, who supposedly shot and killed the nurse, of being the shapeshifter is beyond me. "
True, also because he's been acting a little weird lately and, presumably, also around his co-workers and wife, at least a bit.
10/09/09
Very intriguing idea but, if true, then Peter/Bell never finds/found out that he's not actually from this universe, since Bell told Olivia that he's from ours. Unless he was lying to her.
I was born in Minneapolis. When I was 6, my parents moved us to central Maryland. I've been moving all around the country chasing a futile academic career, and I tell people I'm from Maryland. "From" isn't just where you were born.
10/09/09
I was truly enjoying the episode up until Nina mentioned the Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) and claimed that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time because of it.
Sorry, Nina, but you fail elementary quantum mechanics.
The PEP says that *identical* *fermions* [particles of half-integer spin (1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc)] cannot occupy the same *quantum state*. Identical bosons [particles of integer spin (0, 1, 2, etc)] *can* - and they like to - occupy the same quantum state.
Note the three important aspects of the PEP:
1. It applies only to *fermions*. Protons, neutrons, and electrons are fermions. Photons, pions and other particles are not (they're bosons). So there are plenty of quantum-level things that *can* occupy the same quantum state at the same time. Lasers, superfluidity, and superconductivity are nothing but applications in which identical bosons lump together in the same quantum state, with macroscopic effects.
2. It applies only to *identical* fermions. A proton and an electron, though both fermions, don't have any trouble occupying the same quantum state at the same time. Only protons among themselves and electrons among themselves cannot.
3. It applies to *quantum states*, not to position in space. A quantum state is described by more than just position in space. Thus, even two identical fermions (say, two electrons) *can* occupy the same position in space at the same time (as far as quantum mechanics will allow you to make that statement) provided that their quantum states differ in some other aspect.
I know that expecting Fringe to abide to real science is too much, but mentioning the PEP by name only to butcher it is too much of an insult.
Bad Fringe writers.
10/10/09
10/10/09
Dumbing down an explanation that does not apply to the situation at hand does not change the fact that the explanation does not apply to the situation at hand, no matter how anyone slices it.
The PEP is NOT the explanation for the supposed "collision of alternate universes", no matter how (in)accurately one explains the PEP. The universe is NOT a fermion and, even if it were, two alternate universes wouldn't be identical. So, even if one stretches one's imagination to think of alternate universes as fermions, the PEP would still not apply to them.
Moreover, I seriously doubt that any of the writers thought that they needed to dumb things down for the benefit of Olivia or the audience, or to make Nina more believable as a corporate officer. More likely, they really think that the PEP means that two things can't occupy the same space at the same time.
I'd have been fine with Nina claiming that two universes can't exist simultaneously in the same space, if she had not mentioned the PEP by name.
The fact that she did tells me that the writers wanted to give some semblance of scientific legitimacy to that idea. In reality, it only made them look stupider and helped to perpetuate an idea that is provably wrong (that no two "things" can occupy the same space at the same time).
10/10/09
Word.
This was bugging me too, especially (as you later mention) I would have no problem with it if they hadn't used the term "pauli exclusion principle"
I have no problem suspending my disbelief over fake science, but it kinda bugs me when they use the real stuff incorrectly.
Also, mercury is much denser than blood, so shouldn't all the FirstWavers be a bit on the hefty side?
A quite bit of (admittedly hasty) math sez that assuming Charlie was originally about 200 lbs, Mercurial Charlie would weigh in at about 275.
Maybe not really noticeable, but then again maybe that could explain why he could kick Livvy's arse--he would effectively always have a roll of quarters in his fist.
10/10/09
I think you managed to put in just a few words what has been annoying me for the longest time in many TV shows. It's not the fake science, but using real science incorrectly, that upsets me.
Excellent point about the mercury being denser than blood.
10/12/09
10/12/09
Him being very dense would be a better explaination (more like a horse and less like a zebra)
10/09/09
10/09/09
10/09/09