Fringe, Body Snatchers and The Others

I got a real vibe for the old science fiction classic, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" from the last episode of Fringe, "Novation".  What really did it for me was to see the boyfriend of Malcolm Truss's wife drop next to the bed after being attacked by the Shape-shifter Nadine only to see the lifeless body of the real Mrs. Truss lying beneath it.

In the book and the various movie iterations falling asleep was a death sentence.  It allowed the alien invaders from space to inhabit your body by creating an exact duplicate from one of their pods.  The only thing missing was your personality as a human being.  You would become devoid of emotion and bereft of individuality.

Its not much of a stretch to compare the pod people of the Body Snatchers with the Shape-shifters from Fringe.  In fact the pod people of the 1978 movie version looked a lot like the newly or malformed versions of the early shape-shifters.

They are a bit grisly aren't they?  There is something else that has always stuck with me from that 1978 version.  I think it was a street musician that fell asleep with his dog next to a pod and the busker/bowser version woke up the next morning.

There's an image I'll never be able to forget.  Is it any wonder that the dog of Dr. Malcom Truss skedaddled when he saw Nadine the shape/shifter arrive?  Poor ol' rover either saw the movie or sniffed her out.  Run dog run!

 There was an additional movie that I got a "vibe" for when "Novation" was wrapping up.  When Nadine got out her trusty "Hermes 3000" to communicate with her unseen masters she got a return message telling her to begin preparations in anticipation of "the others".

While that may have reminded many of the TV show Lost and "The Others" it featured, I was reminded of the 2001 film "The Others" with Nicole Kidman.

 The theme of this movie is similar to the themes we see in Fringe with being out of place, disassociated with time and dare I say "bi-location".  I won't spoil how the movie ends but it was a pretty clever twist.  Poor Peter Bishop if he suffers a similar fate!


Let's see if we can pick out any more movie/book homages in tonight's episode of Fringe, "And Those We Left Behind".  Popcorn ready!!!