page_title: Bad Dreams (Fringe)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Bad Dreams (Fringe) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: The Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, in New York City. Photo by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, Dec. 2, 2007. Green glass Citicorp Building in background right.
context_page_description: "Bad Dreams" is the 17th episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. It was written and directed by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, his first writing credit for a television show. In the episode, Olivia dreams she is causing people to either kill others or themselves, which leads her to meet Nick Lane, a man from her past that leads Olivia to discover their shared history as test subjects in a series of childhood drug trials.
  The episode first aired on April 21, 2009 in the United States on Fox to more than 9.89 million viewers. It received generally positive reviews, with many critics praising the beginning dream sequence, the climax atop the building, and the final scene with Walter and the old footage of Olivia. Critics also enjoyed the further revelations about Olivia's background; the subject would later have an entire episode devoted to it in the third season.
context_section_description: The episode was written and directed by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman was "attracted" to the series because he believed that at the time, Fringe's "mythology was already really starting to hum". "Bad Dreams" was his first writing credit for a television episode, and he wrote several hours of material before co-executive producer Jeff Pinkner helped him condense it. Every episode since "Bad Dreams", Goldsman has been credited as a consulting producer. It marked the first episode with previous Fringe director Brad Anderson now also credited as a producer.
  The opening scene in the subway was initially going to be on top of a building so that the episode would begin and end the same, but co-creator J.J. Abrams thought it would be better to start it underground and "move up throughout the episode". The episode began the setup of Olivia's backstory by revealing the Cortexiphan drug trials, which would be an ongoing plot point in continuing episodes. All the shots were chosen carefully to put the viewer in Olivia's troubled frame of mind, and consequently the episode had many tight shots that were meant to give a "sense of unease". The producers felt that shooting on the lab set was the "hardest set to shoot at on the planet" because it contained several levels that inhibited the crew's ability to move cameras around. As Goldsman had an aversion to shooting in hospitals, they used a church for the mental hospital scenes. When Olivia, Peter, and Walter are en route to the climax at the building, the shots of them in the SUV were just shots of them driving back and forth on the 59th Street Bridge.
  The climatic scene where Olivia encounters Nick and the group of people at the top of the building was shot at 902 Broadway in Manhattan. Though the actors appeared to be on the edge of a very tall building, there was in fact a hidden roof extending out that they would have fallen on instead. The visual and special effects departments worked in conjunction to simulate the woman jumping off the building. While the actress simply jumped onto a tarp several feet below her, the crew rigged the car with pneumatic rams, air cannons, and cables to implode under the "weight" of her body, and then CGI was used to make the woman appear to fall on the car.
  Actress Anna Torv called the episode's hotel scene her favorite of the show so far, explaining "I loved shooting that because it was the first time that Olivia really inched her way into that dynamic of Peter and Walter. She’s been kind of on the outside, and wrangling them constantly, but this gave me a glimpse into realizing everything is a little bit entwined, and building more of that emotional conflict between them. I really loved shooting that."
  The final scene of the episode ended with a tape of a young Olivia in a fire-damaged room, leading to rumors her character was a fire starter. Torv however discounted this soon after, explaining "I think it's more than that... I think what they got given or what they got taught is much bigger than just starting fire". Jeff Pinkner agreed and elaborated further, "We saw the consequence. We saw that she started a fire at the end of the last episode, but I think it's a mistake to assume that that's her power. I think the truth is, it's probably a consequence of her ability". This particular scene, as well as the episode's reference to experiments Walter performed on children, comprise the main plot of the season three episode "Subject 13".
caption: One scene was shot with Torv, Jackson, and Noble driving back and forth on the 59th Street Bridge to simulate them en route.
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