When Leonard Nimoy returns to sci-fi series Fringe Thursday in the role of genius mogul William Bell, fans can expect to get a baby-step closer to understanding the man behind a global conspiracy that has driven the series' back story from the beginning.
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During a Wednesday conference call, Nimoy promised an intense scene with FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) in the upcoming show, which airs Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.
"We will learn a lot more about their relationship and we will be told what William Bell's intentions are, although we're not sure that everything he says is accurate," said the Star Trek veteran.
Nimoy (pictured) made his debut as Bell in the Season 1 Fringe finale, which hinted at an alternate universe riddled with "soft spots" enabling Agent Dunham and her associate Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) to straddle the time-space continuum.
Nimoy's take? "You'd have to ask Stephen Hawking," he said. "I'm not a scientist and can't tell you if there's a soft spot through which you can slip into an alternate world, but I think Fringe deals with that question in an intriguing way."
On the Star Trek front, Nimoy said he felt his contributions to the original series were "validated" by appearing in last summer's reboot, powered not coincidentally by Fringe co-creators J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
However, the 78-year-old actor does not expect to reprise Spock Prime in future installments. "I frankly doubt that I will be called upon again," he said. "I was useful in this last film to bridge between the original actors and the new cast but I don't see why they would need me in the next film."
As for his Dr. Bell character, Nimoy shoots another episode in two weeks but cautioned that future Fringeappearances have yet to be firmed up. Meanwhile, the actor will be preparing an exhibition of photographs to be staged next year at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
"I think of myself as an ocean liner going full speed for a long distance," Nimoy said. "When the captain pulls the throttle all the way back to stop, the ship doesn't stop immediately, does it? It has its own momentum and keeps on going."
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