On last week's episode of Fringe, viewers were introduced to an Observer named August.

When asked by Sci-Fi Wire from where the idea for these species originated, producer Jeff Pinker gave a detailed, interesting response. He said:

"We were looking for something that was sort of iconic, and at the same time we're fascinated with the idea of all the things that go on under our nose everyday.

"We wanted the Observer to have the quality of being invisible, and we put him in the first three episodes of the show and then finally revealed him in the fourth, and people looked back and went, 'My God, he was right here, right under my nose, and I didn't see it.'"

Pinker added that various characteristics - the bald head, lack of eyebrows, etc. - emanated from there, as he and producer Joel Wyman "imaged how it would be that somebody who wasn't of our world would end up in our world."

That response is all related to the past, of course.

What lies ahead on Fringe? Pinker revealed the following Fringe spoilers:

"In the next handful of episodes coming up we deal with an outbreak type condition. We deal with one of our favorite themes in the show that we constantly come back to... perception, and how what we see with our eyes might not necessarily be the truth.

"In a couple episodes we drop a bombshell for our characters... perhaps it will blow apart our team, and certainly it will change the nature of their relationship. We delve a little bit more directly with the fact of the alternate universe and what's going on over there and how it may affect our world.

"We have a really kind of cool episode coming up that deals with Walter's memory and William Bell specifically."

Fringe returns with new episodes on December 3.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.