9-10 PM · Fox · Debuts Sept. 9

As a struggling young actor trying to find work in his hometown of Vancouver in the early ’90s, Joshua Jackson daydreamed of getting a part on the city’s most famous production, The X-Files. ”’Daydreamed’? I lobbied for it!” says the 30-year-old former Dawson’s Creek star and self-proclaimed ”massive X-Files fan.” How massive? ”Remember the episode where those inbred mutants kept their mother under the bed and were using her as a breeding animal? I would have liked to have been one of those guys,” says Jackson, with a (somewhat frightening) laugh.

Now, five years after the Creek ceased trickling, Jackson is finally getting to play freaky with Fox’s Fringe, a blend of X-Files and Bones from Alias and Lost maven J.J. Abrams. Jackson plays Peter Bishop, the gambling-challenged, genius-level son of ethically challenged, beyond-genius scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), who’s locked in a loony bin as the series begins. Apparently, Walter’s ’70s-era secret research into ”fringe” science — mind control, psychic powers, teleportation — fried his grid. Together with a tragedy-touched FBI agent (newcomer Anna Torv), the bickering Bishops are recruited to investigate an outbreak of paranormal intrigue known as the Pattern. Abrams says his newest cult-pop concept is an unabashed fusion of The Twilight Zone, Altered States, and David Cronenberg films. ”But it’s not about ripping something off,” says the producer. ”It’s about doing something that feels like our inspirations, but is special in its own right.”