The new season of NCIS is expected to focus on individual story lines and plenty of character material for each of the team members.

Showrunner Gary Glasberg insists show executives were pleasantly surprised to see just how enthused each cast member was to be returning for the show's 13th season and how that has translated into a renewed level of life and energy for the long running series.

"Every year that I come back after hiatus, I'm curious if this is the year when the writers are starting to feel the issues of being a 13-season show," he told TV Guide. "Instead, everybody came back full of ideas and energy and ready to go."

Glasberg later added fans should be ready for a "very, very active season," one that gets off to the highest of octaves right from the start when Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' (Mark Harmon) fate is finally officially learned.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, he survives the shooting he suffered at the end of last season, but clearly not without scars.

The changes in store for Gibbs are as psychological as they are physical in nature and in time they could come to alter the very way he even views his existence. By the second episode, Gibbs is slated to become involved in a case that an "old friend brings to him that sheds a bunch of light on ... things that we still don't know about."

It's also expected to be a season of change for Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), who is largely expected to fill the power vacuum left by Gibbs' diminished role.

"There's absolutely some conflict," Glasberg said of the way the two men will come to relate to one another this season. "There's issues that have to get worked out between team members."

Seemingly caught right in the middle of it all will be Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), whom fans should also expect to "see a different side of" this season as he seeks to navigate all the changing terrain.

"We end up relying more on McGee and letting McGee kind of step up and be the strong agent that we know he can be," said Glasberg.

"NCIS" premieres Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS.