Abrams: 'Fringe' Not Just Another 'The X-Files'

"It wasn't, like, 'OK, let's do The X-Files again," Abrams said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. 'It was, 'What kind of show is something we would tune in to see?' And I thought I would get slammed sort of doing the David Cronenberg, 'Altered States' stuff, because that was always something I was obsessed with when I was growing up."

The pilot for the new Fox series includes a scene in which a main character floats in an isolation tank a la the 1980 sci-fi movie "Altered States." Plus, "Fringe" has one of the people who were a part of that movie, star Blair Brown.

"We sat in a room and just kind of listed off our [favorite] shows," executive producer Roberto Orci said "And, for me, I always wanted to do 'geniuses solve problems.' And [executive producer] Alex [Kurtzman] was a huge fan of 'Twin Peaks.'"

Abrams also listed "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Stalker," as well as "The X-Files," as influences, along with books and films of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook, such as Coma: "that weird place where medicine and science meets real life."

"Fringe" begins when an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. Olivia seeks the help of brilliant-but-institutionalized Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble, "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King").,

The only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson) in to help. Together, the three investigate a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena and abuses of science.

Abrams added that while the series will share some of the mythology-making and season-long story arcs as was done with "Alias" and "Lost," it won't require watching every episode to figure out. 'Lost' has garnered a certain reputation for being a very complicated show and one fans would have to watch every episode, Abrams said. "'Fringe' is, in many ways, an experiment for us, which is, we believe it is possible to do a show that does have an overall story and endgame, but also a show that you don't have to watch episodes 1, 2 and 3 to tune in to Episode 4."

"Fringe" premieres Sept. 9 and will air on Fox, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

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