July 25, 2008 7:34

TIME at Comic-Con: Fringe

TIME's Rebecca Winters Keegan e-mails this dispatch from J.J. Abrams' screening of the full pilot of Fringe (see my writeup of an earlier critics' screening) at Comic-Con:

The J.J. Abrams love is ardent at Comic-Con this year, where back-to-back screenings of his new fall show for FOX, Fringe, kicked off preview night in the San Diego Convention Center’s cavernous Ballroom 20. By tape, JJA welcomed Con-goers to “the first non-illegal, unleaked, unevil Internet screening,” of the X-Filesy show he created with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, his writers on Alias, Mission: Impossible III and the upcoming Star Trek movie.

In the 81-minute, 30-sec pilot, a plane lands at Logan Airport and all the passengers and crew have died of some flesh-hungry virus. FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is put on the case and enlists Dr. Walter Bishop, an unorthodox or “Fringe” scientist played by John Noble. Joshua Jackson from Dawson’s Creek is Noble’s son and the Scully (skeptic) of the show; Torv is the Mulder (believer). And a nefarious-sounding phenomenon called The Pattern sounds likely to keep the trio busy with cases for episodes to come.

The enthusiastic Comic-Con audience was especially warm to Noble, whose character doesn’t appear until a third of the way through the episode, when he’s sprung from a mental hospital. “The crazy doctor guy was pretty interesting, pretty cool,” said Quintin Marcelino. Con-goers like Niko Cortes cited the humor of the pilot as a welcome surprise. Debi Moore, who’s attending the Con for DreadCentral.com, was impressed by the supporting cast, like Kirk Acevedo from HBO’s Oz and Mark Valley from Boston Legal, who play other agents.

Fans’ only complaint was that Fringe is a little too derivative of X-Files and other police shows, that it's a mish-mash of other successful programs rather than a wholly new creation. “It’s basically another cop procedural with a sci fi edge,” said Marcelino.