When Fringe returns from a long hiatus on April 1, viewers will be treated to a flashback-heavy episode that focuses on a younger version of Walter Bishop. What was he like 25 years ago?

"He's actually quite a likable man," portrayer John Noble told reporters recently. "He's married to a lovely woman, and he seems to enjoy his work. He's driven. He's a driven man. He's very smart, and he's very driven to succeed...

"But he does make choices, and he makes that one error. It's like we do in tragedies, where one error will cause this tumbling effect... What he was trying to do was to play God, really. He was saying, 'Well I can fix this boy,' and he was playing God. In fact, he said, 'There's only one God in this lab, and it's not yours.' That quite an interesting theme to Walter that I find to this season so far."

On the episode "Peter," we'll also get our first look at the "Walternate," the alternate-universe version of Dr. Bishop. Expect to learn a lot more about this character.

"You certainly will see more of him," Noble said. "In the finale you'll see an awful lot of him. It's the same man, but with different choices made in life. And we often talk about that on Fringe, don't we? The parallel universe is like, the choices you make will help impact the rest of your life. So Walternate is in a different profession than Walter and a far different person, and he's physically different.

"He's a very powerful man, Walternate. I can't really say more than that, but he is different."

After Fringe returns, it airs all new episodes up through this much-anticipated second season finale. Hallelujah!

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