Star Trek: Discovery beamed into NYCC with a jam-packed panel with many of the series’ regulars to introduce the next leg of season 2.

Yellow shirts, blue shirts, and yes, even a few red shirts filled the audience of the Star Trek: Discovery NYCC panel. While the fans were on the edge of their seats waiting for just a glimpse of the new season, the cast remained tight-lipped on a few of the more pressing questions for the second season.

“We have started the ‘Picard Room,’ and we’re four weeks in. Who wants to know who the bad guys are?” Alex Kurtzman teases the audience about the new Star Trek series starring Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. But, that’s a conversation for another time.

The series will hit CBS All Access on Jan. 17, 2019, following the previously announced four “Short Treks” airing in October, November, December, and January.

Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Shazad Latif (Ash Tyler), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Wilson Cruz (Hugh Culber), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Michelle Yeoh (Philippa Georgiou) and newcomers Ethan Peck (Spock) and Anson Mount (Christopher Pike) joined executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin on stage to introduce a new trailer!

The sizzle reel that kicked off the panel left the crowd cheering not only every time Michelle Yeoh appeared on screen, but when the bridge is packed with everyone from Pike to Saru to Stamets and Tilly. And then, Spock appears. And he has a beard.

Sonequa Martin Green mentions that this is a “deeply emotional season.” There is a lot to unpack emotionally following the events of season 1.

Georgiou is living in a universe she entered “kicking and screaming.” Burnham’s adoptive brother is in danger. L’Rell and Tyler are shifting roles and working with each other to sort through the events of last season. Tilly is working towards becoming a Commanding Officer. And Stamets is coping with the loss of Culber.

There are also new challenges that await the crew. One thing that stood out in the trailer was the Red Angel and the seven signals. Are they a path? Are they a message? And does the time of their life where Spock and Michael saw the Angel hold any significance?

Anson Mount provided some more details as he explained the types of missions Captain Pike would lead the Discovery on this season. “We’re tracing the occurrences of the red signals. The energy to create them is beyond anything we’ve encountered,” explains Mount. This leads the crew to find a downed ship, the U.S.S. Hiawatha, which is where they will meet the lone survivor Chief Engineer Reno, played by Tig Notaro.

“Each time we chase down a signal, it is another step towards truth,” Mount continued. Including the seven signals allows for the serialization to also have a sense of the classic episodic structure of Star Trek this season. “Each episode has its own character, its own question.”

When asked about putting on the gold uniform and sitting in the Captain’s chair, Mount joked, “It was a lot of fittings.” But he went on to commend the show’s costume designer, Gersha Phillips, with doing a fantastic job maintaining the classic style, while updating the uniform for Discovery.

But what is Pike’s style when it comes to leadership? Mount says, “That’s what I like most about the character, actually. The writers did a good job of creating a new Pike while fleshing out what we already know… his greatest asset is his crew and he’s not afraid to admit when he is stumped… he regularly throws the questions out to the group, and it makes for great bridge scenes.”

As for the other newcomer to the series, Ethan Peck recalls reading for the role of Spock without knowing exactly who he would be playing. “It was this character who was struggling with emotions and logic,” Peck said. Naturally, the audience burst into laughter. How could you not know you would be playing a partial Vulcan by that context clue?

Peck went on to say that at the end of the process he was clued into the fact that he would be taking on the mantle of Spock, which made his final audition a bit nerve-wracking. The news of his successful audition came via a text that read, “Welcome aboard, Mr. Spock.” Peck says that he sat down on the sidewalk and cried.

Executive producer Heather Kadin spoke about casting these iconic characters, saying, “It’s harder [to cast] because you owe so much to the characters that people have loved for so many years. We did not cast the roles of Pike or Spock lightly.” And after watching them in the trailer, I have no doubt that they did their due diligence.

Peck added a bit more detail about his character, saying, “We have to start Spock in a place where we see how he becomes the Spock we know standing beside Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise.” He will not be just a flash in the pan for nostalgia’s sake.

Martin Green commented that getting to work with Peck was, “very fast and very easy. We are brother and sister already. I could not ask for a better brother. You guys are going to be wowed by him. You are going to be wowed by everybody.”

But what about our returning favorites? The Discovery crew, and Klingons, responded to coming back to the second season ready to pick up where their characters left off. Well, all save for one. Wilson Cruz could only offer up one line about Dr. Culber’s presence in season 2 — “We find him where we left him.” After a pause he asked the audience, “How did I do?”

So, while we don’t have much in the way of Culber, Anthony Rapp spoke to where we will find Stamets at the start of season 2. “There was no time at the end of season 2 to deal with the loss [of Culber]. What is next? It’s one of the things I’m really grateful the writers have given the time and the space for,” said Rapp.

What’s great about Star Trek: Discovery is that it allows not only for plenty of action and missions, but also for the emotional work that needs to be done in the fallout. Stamets will work through Culber’s death now that there is a time of peace, and in that peace, L’Rell and Ash Tyler will process their trauma together.

Mary Chieffo says that L’Rell is adapting to her new role as Chancellor of the Empire and the struggles that come with that. As she and Tyler sort through their personal relationship, he will also be by her side to help her find her voice as Chancellor.

We’ll also get to see more of L’Rell’s side of the story in season 2, including a deeper look at the sacrifices she made and the truth she still finds in T’Kuvma’s beliefs.

Also, did you catch the Klingon hair in the trailer? As a nod to Next Generation season 6, episode 23, “Rightful Heir,” the creators of Discovery took the story of how Kahless created the first bat’leth from his own hair. Reflecting this in Discovery, it is understood that the Klingons shave their heads in a time of war and grow it out in peace.

Back aboard Discovery, Tilly enters the command training program, which Mary Wiseman says will be interesting to watch as someone like Tilly grapples with becoming a commander. Responding to why fans gravitate to Tilly’s story so much, Wiseman said, “She is a person who is fully and completely herself… and she is loved regardless. This is a universe where everything is possible for her.”

Kurtzman added that there is a line this season that comes from Stamets, “Tilly you’re incandescent because you do everything out of love.” Awww.

And finally, Saru and Burnham continue to explore their relationship with one another. This season we will see Saru call upon Burnham not as a colleague, but as his family. “Season 2 he finds out something about himself about what it means to be a Kelpian that he did not know. That you don’t know. This will be altering and challenging for him, he’s on a path of evolution,” Jones explained. “I need to call on a family member to help me through this moment and I choose my sister on the ship.”

Jones also revealed that we will visit his home planet (Kamanar), meet his sister (played by Hannah Spear) and see him shirtless. “Have you ever seen a Kelpian shirtless? Me neither!” Jones joked.

Alex Kurtzman concluded the panel saying, “This cast is a gift, every single one of them. Getting to watch how they interact with one another, you see the love and respect at the deepest level and you see it in the work. We are all frail and we are all searching, that’s why the show is called Discovery.”

Star Trek: Discovery season 2 premieres on CBS All Access Jan. 17, 2019.