Sunday, September 20, 2009

ALTERNATEEVEE: PAPER TRAIL

In the first season finale of 'Fringe', we got to see the cover of the New York Post from the alternate reality in which FBI Agent Olivia Dunham found herself.

As of May 12 of this year:

1] The stock market had been closed for 21 days.

2] Former President John F. Kennedy was still alive, never assassinated. And he was going to address the United Nations - perhaps as part of the celebration of his upcoming 92nd birthday. (He was born May 29, 1917.)

3] Len Bias was the NBA's MVP. (Bias died of a cocaine overdose right after being selected by the Celtics in the 1986 draft.)

4] And in the cover story, the White House had been destroyed at some point in the recent past, but the Obamas were about to move into the new one. (This means that we can't claim this alternate reality to be that from 'The West Wing' or 'Commander-In-Chief' or from the Movie Of The Week dimension.)

All of that was from the front page as seen in the episode "There's More Than One Of Everything". However, TV critics and columnists who attended the "Death March With Cocktails" (as Tim Goodman dubbed it) received a copy of that newspaper and it had plenty more details on the differences between Earth Prime-Time and Earth Prime-Time/alt.Fringe (for want of a better name). Here's a list of some of those differences, supplied by the good folks at CliqueClague TV:

Kennedy is talking to the UN regarding the legal status of ex-deceased citizens.

A possibly silicate-based life form has been discovered on the bottom of the sea.

New Orleans is the “fastest growing city in the South.”

The National Weather Service can take “corrective action” in response to the weather.

Something called Zero Point Energy may be supplanting natural energy sources.

After nine years of construction, the new White House is nearing completion.

The FDA approves facial landscaping, a revolutionary new plastic surgery.

The Beatles are all alive.

Guns ‘N Roses Chinese Democracy came out ten years ago, and the band is still one of the biggest acts in the world.

The Terminator is an opera (and Schwarzenegger is a Senator).

You can order genetically customized pets, including fluorescent skin!

And in a special nod to Leonard Nimoy (William Bell), Star Trek was #1 at the box office this week, earning nearly $50 million more than Wolverine, in second place.

Agent Dunham is back in the "real world" of the main Toobworld now, with no hard recollection of where she had been. But hopefully we'll learn more about that alternate reality "As Time Goes By".....

BCnU!

3 comments:

Brian-El said...

Len Bias MVP NOW??? At age 44-45?

Toby O'B said...

I'm thinking it has something to do with that speech Kennedy was going to give - about the legal status of ex-deceased people.

Kennedy may have shot after all in that world... Only he came back from the dead.....

Andy said...

That's interesting. When I saw the paper during the season finale, I could only read about the new White House. It seemed to imply that the White House was destroyed on 9/11, and the World Trade Center wasn't.