Hayden Panettiere stars in 'Heroes', Monday night, at 9, on NBC (left) and James Kyson Lee stars in 'Heroes' (right).

On December 4, the Earth vibrated from the number of jaws that dropped belonging to fans of NBC's runaway hit Heroes.

The air rang with "What do you mean Peter blows up the city?!" "How does saving the cheerleader save the world?" "Give Ando some powers, for God's sake!" And loudest of all: "They're going on hiatus? Nooooo!"

Not to worry. Heroes returns Monday, January 22, with new episodes. But if you haven't watched the hour-long drama series, now is a good time to catch up before all the characters start evolving and interacting more with one another.

Created by Tim Kring, Heroes tells the tales of several average people who suddenly, owing to some funky DNA, develop superpowers. And someone wants them dead.

The tag line of the series is: "Save the cheerleader. Save the world."

Hayden Panettiere plays teenage cheerleader Claire Bennet who discovers her body is indestructible. What isn't clear is how her destiny is entwined with that of the world.

Superhero

"I love how she's a normal girl. I think she's sassy, and I think she's a spitfire and she's really smart," Panettiere says. "And I think that's one of the reasons they sort of made her a cheerleader - to give her that very human look. Usually cheerleaders, you don't exactly think a superhero. So she sort of brings the kick-ass to it; she brings the brains to it. I think that sort of view of her just brings her really down to earth for people."

And while Claire may have problems with having a power, James Kyson Lee - who plays Ando, time traveller Hiro's (Masi Oka) logic-oriented companion - would be happy just having one.

"It's always fun to have a superpower," Lee says, "but I think right now, they really liked the relationship - that sort of Ando being a mortal as compared to Hiro sort of having supernatural abilities and the yin and yang, the way they complement each other. Yeah, it would be great to develop some kind of powers at some point."

And he doesn't care what power. "You know, it's funny," Lee says, "we were talking, and we thought it would be hilarious if Ando were to have some unique power that was kind of random - like making cheese out of thin air. Like, 'mozzarella!' Or I concentrate really hard and 'spaghetti sauce!' Just really weird, but useless at times."

Fortunately, Kring and his circle of writers are open to suggestions from the actors and are having a blast penning 'Heroes'.

"The writers room is a very lively room in that respect," Kring says of the at-times contentious atmosphere. "People have very strong opinions, very attached. But at some point, the sheer deadline of it all just ... then you make a decision and you row, and it's like, we sort of have a sense at some point everybody has to learn how to row in the same direction. Like I said, it's a very lively writers room - but a very cohesive writers room."

"The show had brilliant writing and it just seemed like a winner," Panettiere says of her impressions after reading the first script. "The only thing I was honestly concerned about in the beginning was, 'Well, how are they going to continue this story line? Where is it going to go? How does this story line take place and keep going for, potentially, six seasons?' It didn't seem likely but, you know, reading the scripts every week and seeing how different they are and how much they change just wipes away all that. The scripts have been brilliant, and they have done nothing but get better and better every time you read them."

"It's really hard to predict always what's going to happen in the future," Lee says. "But when I read the pilot script, it was a page turner - I couldn't put it down. It's probably one of the best scripts I've read for years. ... There was something special in there, even right off the page. I was very curious to see how they were going to shoot it. It was a show I was interested in watching, regardless if I was a part of it or not. But what the writers have done so far has just been incredible. We have a brilliant staff, from top to bottom, and the best crew. It's probably the best-run show that I've been a part of so far."

Second season

So what's ahead? "Well, we have not set up a premise that has an ending in sight," Kring says. "Unlike other serialised shows, we don't start with a premise of - the premise that we did start with, we proselytised an apocalyptic event would happen. Our plan is to deal with that in the first season and then have that replaced by something in the second season."

"They've wrtten some really cool stuff for Ando, especially in some upcoming episodes," Lee says. "And we'll slowly begin to see Ando's character be developed more and more. It's hard for me to kind of tell you without giving stuff away, but Hiro and Ando are on a journey to - on a quest to sort of find this magical sword. And where we end up in our quest is going to be a series of events that's going to keep you on your toes."

And fans will definitely be on their toes, reaching for the shining star that is a quality drama with no signs of burning out.

- Sharla Etkin-Ives, Zap2it