Comments on: Fringe – Episode 8: “The Equation”

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:16:48 +0000

Peter actually played for ten bars. The piece didn’t repeat.

A quick flash of the music showed that it was in 3/4 time. He played for 9 bars, and the last bar was a single dotted minim. It wouldn’t have made sense to play for only 9 bars, as it wouldn’t have fitted the musical phrase.

By: mike.

mike. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:48:11 +0000

I actually thought this episode was a step backwards from the heart-parasite one, if only because it fell back into the whole this-reminds-me-of-a-very-specific-thing-that-once-happened-to-me-30-years-ago plot device that this show really needs to get away from.

But you gotta admit that Randall Duk Kim is da man!

By: Sage

Sage — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:22:54 +0000

@evaxebra Yeah, you’re spot on. I’m not quite a mathematician (computer scientist with heavy theory background), but the math just made me wince. I think vague statements of ‘math and music are the same’ is becoming one of my pet peaves. Yes, there are many similarities, I’m particularly fond of the structural similarities between proofs and music. No, this does not mean there’s a 1-to-1 correlation between music and math, or even a many-to-1 mapping. It was definitely one of the better episodes so far, but the idea of converting a proof to music (or vice versa) in some kind of definite deterministic way is more then a little crazy. Sure, there’s some arbitrary mapping (or more then one), but not some absolute connection.

By: evaxebra

evaxebra — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:06:50 +0000

Thanks for these great reviews! I always read your intro before I watch the episode so I was excited to see a good one. My husband, the mathematician, then deduced “he probably liked it because there’s no medicine to screw up, but I bet there will be a ton of math they’re going to mess with.”
And he was right. He complained the entire last half of the episode.

By: SpotWeld

SpotWeld — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:31:18 +0000

When I saw the episode was starting out in Middletown, CT; I initially though it would have something to do with the local Connecticut General Hospital for the Insane.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:17:07 +0000

lol, my bad, I can’t navigate this site at all.

By: Sean Duggan

Sean Duggan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:09:35 +0000

@Brian Actually he did.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:55:07 +0000

You should review Eleventh Hour. It’s kind of a cross between Fringe and House.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:10:02 +0000

I asked one of my partners, a physician and retired Air Force colonel , and he states that people with red/green color blindness CAN be in the military, they just can't be in a rated position (i.e. pilot, air traffic controller).

By: Sean Duggan

Sean Duggan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:08:12 +0000

@MrBuddWing – I don’t really know about federal agents, but I know that during the Great Wars, they hired entirely color-blind people as spotters because they were better at pattern-matching and therefore could pick out the camouflaged tanks. And I know that some police forces have no problems with color-blindness because a friend of mine from KY has a father who’s entirely color-blind (his wife actually has to bundle his outfits in the closet to be sure he doesn’t wear clashing colors) and he’s on the local SWAT team for the county police force.