How bad or skew-whiff was it going to be? Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes (BBC Two) has apologised for this second season of the hit show about a group of people who discover, for good and bad, that they possess special powers. Kring says the imminent romantic storylines are not “a natural fit”, and that the pacing of this 11-episode season is amiss.

His mea culpa, the TV equivalent of doing a Ratner, is an acknowledgment of how winning the first season of Heroes became — especially to those who would normally balk at a science fiction show. The light and shade of the characters intersected with a plot cleverly constructed to be as simple or devilish as your brain could cope with.

Season one ended with brothers Nathan and Peter Petrell exploding in space and viewer favourite Hiro, the guy obsessed by the notion of heroes and able to do freaky things with time, landing face down in the grass of seventeenth century Japan surrounded by fractious warriors.

Phew, Hiro managed to freeze time to escape the warriors, and hooked up with Takezo Kensei, who had long been a hero of his — but who turned out to be a profiteering scoundrel. And he was English. Hiro’s new quest is to actually make a hero out of a crooked coward. “You must save the swordsmith and make the swordsmith’s daughter fall in love with you,” he told Kensei — only to receive a punch in the face.

The Petrelli brothers are alive: Nathan, the ruthless politico, has grown a beard, is consumed by grief over his brother’s presumed death and seems to have inherited Niki the stripper’s penchant for seeing doppelgangers in mirrors. Peter, naked and at the mercy of some criminals, was unearthed in a crate in Cork. Their mother, crackling with malevolence, is facing the threat of death. Just after warning her to disappear, Hiro’s father himself was rushed off the roof by a mysterious figure (a roof characters regularly fall off and pick themselves up from, it should be noted).

Claire the cheerleader, with her amazing self-repairing body, is trying to make herself nondescript in a new town. But her latest beau seems to be able to fly; and, after a nasty fall, she clicked everything back into place. Mohinder, the lecturer who knows how to wear linen, is about to infiltrate “the Company”, and Molly, the girl who was saved by Matt, the policeman who can hear thoughts, is being targeted by the evil Sylar.

The storytelling was taut, including the introduction of a brother and sister (the latter seemingly kills people without wanting to). The zest of season one is intact. “How long can they dwell in the shadows?” Mohinder asks at the beginning. Not long: the “heroes” had to save New York the first time round from a fiery apocalypse, and now have to contain a virus. Whatever Kring in his sackcloth says, fans will sign up to whatever the next 11 episodes bring.

Repeated tonight on BBC3 at 10.35pm and Sunday on BBC2 at 11.35pm.

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