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The hidden code in the TV series “Fringe”

Von / 13. August 2017 / 6 Kommentare
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“Fringe”, a successful US TV series, contains a hidden code. It has been solved by fans of the series.

Hiding a code in a movie, TV series or video clip has become a popular means to create publicity. Here are a few examples (does a reader know more?):

  • Earlier this year I blogged about the Fair Game code, which is still unsolved.
  • In the TV series Breaking Bad a character sequence can be seen that might represent a code, too.

Breaking-Bad-Code-Mirrored

Zodiac-Awakening-Screenshot-small

 

 

The Fringe code

Rhys Campbell has now made me aware of another code of this kind. It is hidden in the TV series Fringe.

Fringe-Poster

Fringe is an American science fiction television series, which was produced between 2008 and 2013. The series follows the members of a fictional division of the FBI. This division uses fringe science to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.

Throughout every episode of the series, small symbols (glyphs) are shown.

Fringe-Code-Glyphs

The Fringe producers revealed that the glyphs had a meaning.

 

The solution

The glyph code was cracked by an editor of technology website Ars Technica, who discovered it to be a monoalphabetic substitution cipher (MASC) used to spell out a single thematic word for each episode. The correctness of this solution was later confirmed by the Fringe producers. The following substitution table is taken from Fringepedia.

Fringe-Code-Table

For example, the eight glyphs shown in the pilot series spell out the word OBSERVER. A list of all the words was made available on Fringepedia, too.

Fringe-Code-Words

Here’s a cryptogram that doesn’t appear in the series:

Fringe-Code-Puzzle

Can you solve it?

Further reading:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13501820
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/763282653806483/

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Kommentare (6)

  1. #1 TWO
    13. August 2017

    K L A U S I S K R Y P T O K O L U M N E

  2. #2 TWO
    13. August 2017

    TURN KLAUS LOOK SPY MIKE

  3. #3 merzmensch
    13. August 2017

    Good old Fringe times! It was amazing to solve the code.
    Actually there is an app for it as well: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ltmod.fringe_translator

    JJ Abrams used such codes also in his previous shows. In Alias, for example, this wonderfull spy show, every location name contained a marked letter. In the linear sequence read, these marked letters resulted a word, a hidden meaning of the episode.

  4. #4 Klaus Schmeh
    13. August 2017

    @merzmensch:
    >every location name contained a marked letter
    Thanks for the information. Do you know a website where this code is explained?

  5. #5 merzmensch
    14. August 2017

    @Klaus Schmeh
    Here is the solution. A way different as in my first description, and: more complex.
    https://alias.unfiction.com/s3/
    (Btw, Unfiction was the central place for all Alternate Reality Games, where codes and riddles were usual and sometimes pretty difficult. Unfortunately, the forum is down now for technical issues, and I hope they will fix it soon, since there are 16 years of ARG and transmedial experiences).

  6. #6 merzmensch
    14. August 2017

    And here actually you can see so many puzzles, codes and riddles in all episodes of Alias: https://alias.unfiction.com/

    I have to rewatch it again.