Fringe isn't exactly the most original show on TV. Critics and audiences have been comparing it to The X-Files since it premiered last season. Like The X-Files, Fringe offers up creepy cases of the week and an overarching sci-fi conspiracy/mystery plot that helps build the show's rich mythology. In The X-Files, the conspiracy thread had something to do with shady government officials working with aliens and black tar – or something like that. In Fringe, it's called "The Pattern," a series of unexplainable events all seemingly connected to one William Bell and his company, Massive Dynamic.Show creators Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams have acknowledged the influence of The X-Files on their show, but do Fringe and The X-Files actually take place in the same fictional universe?
During last week's premiere, there was a reference to the "X designation" during Broyles' meeting with the senators about the future of the Fringe division. It seemed like the senator was comparing how "the old X designation" and the Fringe division were both draining federal funds by investigating the unknown and unexplained. Was the senator talking about Mulder and Scully's X-Files?
It's likely that Abrams and crew were only paying tribute to one of their influences, like the scene in the apartment with the guy actually watching The X-Files on TV. Still, it's fun to think that Peter, Olivia and Walter could actually be carrying on Mulder and Scully's work at the FBI. I wouldn't be surprised if the Smoking Man showed up in season three.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-21-2009 @ 8:54AM
michael said...
I swear i saw Mulder and Scully on a tv set for a second or 2 in the first 5 minutes.
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9-22-2009 @ 8:50PM
colin said...
yes, i thought i saw x-files on the tv set too.
9-21-2009 @ 9:04AM
C C said...
The six-fingered handprint in Fringe's opening credits is an obvious allusion to The X-Files. If you go back and look at The X-Files' opening credits, there's a handprint (a normal one).
Do Fringe and The X-Files share the same fictional universe? Look up H.P. Lovecraft's Chtuhu Mythos. There's something similar going on here.
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9-21-2009 @ 9:13AM
C C said...
Misspelled it. Its Cthulhu.
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9-21-2009 @ 9:57AM
Jeremy Lacey said...
Yeah I'd have to agree that it does not. Most likely it was a nice bit of fan service with the "X designation" seeing as how Mulder could be seen on the television in the home of one of the shape shifter's victims.
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9-21-2009 @ 10:15AM
Impsy said...
Someone on one of my other forums figured out that the X-Files episode on the tv in the background of this episode was "Dreamland part 1" from season 5, which also deals with shapeshifting. Love it.
And I sure hope that Smoking Man doesn't make an appearance. As awesome as he is, if he can come back from what happened to him in "The Truth," I would be really scared, haha.
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9-22-2009 @ 8:38PM
Carolina said...
The Dreamland episode does not deal with shapeshifting it deals with a time warp caused by a supersonic military aircraft that causes two bodies to ocupied the same space at the same time or two people just change bodies (Mulder and Fletcher at the case).
9-21-2009 @ 10:59AM
Paula said...
Since a senator actually mentioned the old "X" division in the Fringe season opener, I'd have to say yes, Fringe and X-Files exist in the same universe.
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9-21-2009 @ 11:31AM
Jon said...
If X-Files and Fringe are in the same fictional universe, that would also mean that the entire series takes place in Tommy Westphall's mind (crossovers from St. Elsewhere -> Homicide -> Law & Order -> Lone Gunmen -> X-Files -> Fringe). See http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html.
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9-21-2009 @ 12:06PM
Mike Moody said...
Now that's frightening.
9-21-2009 @ 7:19PM
Bubbameister33 said...
Is his sister dreaming all the reality garbage?
9-21-2009 @ 12:21PM
Ted said...
I think it's pretty obvious that they don't share the same universe. If they did, would they be watching a show of the x-files in the episode. Probably not.
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9-21-2009 @ 12:31PM
scott said...
exactly. however, they could have thrown us all for a loop if the guy had been watching the COPS episode of X-Files...
9-21-2009 @ 12:26PM
Gordon Werner said...
it was just a nod to fans of the show ...
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9-21-2009 @ 7:02PM
patrick said...
x-files was a quality show, with great writing.
Fringe, based on the one episode I watched, is craptacularly cliched with eye-rolling dialogue. I'm sure others have said it before, Cringe might be a more fitting name for the show.
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9-22-2009 @ 8:39PM
Carolina said...
I agree with you...the episodes are nothing but bad colages of x files episodes and Anna Torv just have no expressivity and there isn't any chemistry between her and Joshua Jackson.
9-21-2009 @ 1:32PM
Midnight13 said...
Its on secret that Abrams is heavily influnced by "The X-Files" when it comes to "Fringe". This is either a good thing for "The X-Files" fans like myself, or a bad thing. For instance the very same episode we are discussing dealt with a man who was nearly invincible, or a super soilder. A character that played a big role in "The X-Files" back since season 1 and throughout the series. However since "Finge" may or may not be dealing with parellel universes is it so hard to imagine that in one of these universes "The X-Files" while merely a telelvision show in our world, is a reality in another?
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9-21-2009 @ 1:34PM
The Deej said...
They at the very least now share the same filming universe as Fringe moved production to Vancouver this summer.
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9-21-2009 @ 2:12PM
aaaah Peetza! said...
Wow...fringe in Vancouver? They're really taking this X-files thing over the top aren't they?
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9-21-2009 @ 2:11PM
Mike said...
Midnight13 had the answer.
How can you even ask this question? Fringe exists within a series of parallel universes. Asking if it exists in the same universe as anything, x, y, or z, misunderstands the fundamental nature of the show.
Even if the answer was, yes, it would also be no... because while one universe might be the X-Files universe, that isn't where Fringe exists... at most, it's where part of Fringe takes place.
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