Weird Bytes: 17 April 2009
• Where's Baldo? That's the cry going up from fans of the scifi drama Fringe, referring to the mysterious Obsever from the show who has not only appeared in every episode (but only prominently in a few) but is now showing up on live US TV events made by FoxTV - in the audience of American Idol, on the sidelines at an NFL divisional playoff game, a Yankees game and at a NASCAR race. Variety describes it as "a mysterious viral marketing campaign meant to equal the character's shadowy ways."
Fringe, which screens on Sky1 in the UK, is of course no starnge to mind games - as noted, the Observer (played by Michael Cerveris) has been seen in every episode but producers Bad Robot have also feratured several puzzles into the show, just as they've done in the past with Lost. Ars Technica has detailed many of them, including the "rectangular pattern" game. Scattered throughout every episode are patterns of, well, rectangles, always laid out in grids -- most often on buildings but sometimes on walls or on tables. The patterns are obviously intentional as some light intensities vary between adjacent windows, but hwat do they mean?
Fringe fans have started posting the Observer's appearances on YouTube and Fox has not-so-mysteriously looked the other way as the viral campaign continues, with the mystery character expected to show up at various televised events in the coming weeks. None of this will, of course, expalin who or what he is, although Fringe Fanatic has several theories...
• The BBC's iPlayer is to start offering high definition (HD) streams and downloads of some programmes. The BBC says the upgarde will mean improved picture quality on streams to web browsers and, for many users, it will be their first chance to view HD television, with Doctor Who, Kerwhizz, and Dragons' Den all slated for HD release. The iPlayer has been a runaway sucess for the BBC, with more than 387 million requests to stream or download since it launched on Christmas Day 2007.
• Yes, we know the effects aren't a patch on Jurassic Park but British TV effects budgets have always been poor. Despite this, ITV1's Primeval continues to excel in terms of sheer creativity, with this weekend's episode pitting the team and new arrival Danny Quinn (interviewed here) against nothing less than a Gigantosaurus. Despite his reputation, it seems T-rex was not the biggest dinosaur predator: Giganotosaurus (meaning 'giant southern lizard') was larger -- and he didn’t have tiny forearms. Only discovered recently in South America Giganotosaurus lived about 93 to 89 million years ago and was distantly related to the Jurassic allosaurs. More info on this weekend's Primeval here on WeirdandBeard
• The Cartoon Network is working on a live-action movie featuring the retelling of the King Arthur legend, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It's part of a live-action push from the channel, which is working with Lionsgate president of motion picture production Alli Shearmur on the production. Tentatively called "Reborn" the fiolm will apparently be set in the present, which should help it avoid any comparison with the BBC's Merlin drama, due to return to TV screens later this year.
In the opening episode, when a man is found dead in a Soho strip club, it looks like a sex game gone wrong. But, when it turns out the deceased is PC Sean Irvine, Gene and Alex are ordered to keep the case under wraps and get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible by force legend, Detective Superintendent "Supermac" Mackintosh. Read our Ashes to Ashes feature...
