There are a  spoilers ahead if you haven't seen all of season two of Fringe yet.

If you didn't catch my reviews, I really enjoyed the second season of this by J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman-created and X-Files-inspired show. It matured well, and wasn't afraid to kill the odd main character or stand previously held notions on their respective heads.

Shooting of season 3 is well underway, so a number of leaks regarding the show have started to surface, most noticeably that Olivia's mother in the alternate universe is a major character. Amy Madigan (Field Of Dreams and Carnivale) has been cast as Mrs Dunham, and she'll be appearing in at least four episodes, I'm told.

Onto that we can layer an interview that John Noble gave recently wherein he talked about "dual stories" in forthcoming episodes following the story from two parallel and intersecting viewpoints. His particular interest is that the each side is viewed without prejudice, so we get to appreciate the Walternate's view, along with the one we've got of our own dimension.

How this will play out, with Olivia potentially now trapped in the other dimension and her alternate in ours, is tantalising.

In an interview Anna Torv gave to Entertainment Weekly she referred to the alternative version of her character as Altlivia, which, for clarity, I'm going to use in my reviews going forward.

Another issue, although possibly not a problem, is Joshua Jackson's involvement in the U.F.O. remake, currently in preproduction. This is scheduled for full production in 2011, which might impinge on Jackson's involvement in the latter part of Fringe season 3. As the relationship between Peter and Walter is so crucial to the success of the show, I just hope it doesn't.

The challenges the creative forces have set themselves for season 3 look daunting, but given where they've taken the show so far, I must salute their endeavour to rise above what else is being offered as dramatic science fiction-based TV.

No news yet on any more musical interludes, but Joshua Jackson is on record as saying he's not comfortable with the "singing and dancing".

The US return of Fringe is on September 23rd at 9PM ET, and the first story is entitled simply Olivia.

You can take it as read that I'll be tuned in for Den Of Geek then.