Fringe Gets Acid ‘Toon-Up

Tonight’s episode of Fringe (TV2, 10.30) is the subject of two extras on next month’s Blu-ray release of season three.

Entitled Lysergic Acid Diethylamidet, it revolves around LSD experimentation and includes 16 minutes of stylised, dreamscape animation.

Wikipedia has a great analysis of the episode, from its influences (Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Waltz With Bashir, A Scanner Darkly, Inception) to its reception.

Critics largely gave it the thumbs-up but fans were less enthusiastic, with the ratings being among the series’ lowest (although they did improve when time-shifting viewing was factored in).

The episode is one of only two on the season-three Blu-ray, which comes out on November 9, to be accorded an audio commentary.

It features producer Tanya Swerling, editor Luyen Vu and visual effects supervisor Jay Worth, and, according to Home Theater Forum, “details the strategy, process, and challenges of including extensive animation in an episode without it becoming a gimmick.

“The contributors can be a little observational, but offer some interesting anecdotes from production.”

There’s also an eight-minute short on “why exactly they went the route of animation for this”.

The other crew commentary is on the episode, The Plateau, while included for the first time on a Fringe Blu-ray is a Maximum Episode Mode that’s subtitled, Glimmer to the Other Side.

It combines a picture-in-picture commentary, behind-the-scenes access, and “an interactive journey through the mythology of Fringe” for the episode, Os.

Blu-rayDefinition thought it “really cool” and Blu-ray.com “a blast” and “hands down the best feature in the set”.