In addition to the big 90-minute panel at New York Comic Con, this past Saturday was a big day for Star Trek, as franchise head Alex Kurtzman announced during the panel that the first of this fall’s Short Treks, “Q & A,” was about to beam down to CBS All Access for subscribers to return to the 23rd Century.

And what a start! By the time it finished, “Q&A”  — written by Star Trek: Picard showrunner Michael Chabon — was far and away my favorite Short Trek to date. In a quick 14 minutes, set mostly in just a halted turbolift aboard the Enterprise, we got some of the heaviest and most concentrated character work in Star Trek: Discovery production to date.

Directed by Mark Pellington, the episode is a double act between Ensign Spock (Ethan Peck) and Lieutenant Commander Una (Rebecca Romijn) — just call her Number One — following Spock’s arrival for the first time aboard the Enterprise. The episode features small cameos from Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Lieutenant Amin (Samora Smallwood), but this is a Spock-Number One double act in the true sense of the word.

I wasn’t sure that after 53 years there was more to learn about Spock, especially after the story told in Discovery this past season. And yet, Chabon has surprised me again by peeling back the onion on a small throwaway moment from “The Cage” that could easily have been dismissed as just a relic of a Star Trek that hadn’t quite figured out its own rules.

This is the youngest adult Spock we’ve ever seen, and it shows. Ethan Peck’s performance, once again, is masterful — channeling a 1964-era Leonard Nimoy, but also making the role his own. Peck balances Spock’s typical insightfulness, asking a great question about his new commanding officer, with an additional youthful uncertainty one would expect from an ensign boarding the Enterprise for the first time.

But the real standout in “Q & A” is Number One. This episode provides more development for the character than any of her three previous appearances on Star Trek: Discovery. Rebecca Romjin turns in another great performance, infusing Number One’s steely demeanor with wit and grace… and it turns out she’s a great singer, too!

This episode also gives us additional confirmation – in addition to the ADR’d throwaway line in “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part II” which both closed captioning (and many viewers) missed– that in canon, Number One’s name is Una, the name that originated from the Star Trek novels. Congratulations to authors Greg Cox, David Mack, Dayton Ward, and Kevin Dilmore for originating a new settled part of the Star Trek canon.

At its core, “Q & A” explores the inherent similarities between these two characters. When Majel Barrett’s Number One was eliminated from the cast before the Shatner era began in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” some of her character traits were shifted to Spock. But with both characters now interacting in canon, there are many similarities between the two. This episode demonstrates that they are kindred spirits, while also being fully unique and realized individuals at the same time.

And despite having absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek: Picard, this episode is a very encouraging sign for the next Star Trek show, which is set to premiere in a little over three months. In addition to being a Pulitzer Prize winning author, Chabon has one Star Trek writing credit under his belt already, last November’s far-future Short Trek “Calypso.”

Where “Q & A” differs from “Calypso,” however, is that his first episode did not include any established Star Trek characters. “Q & A” shows us how Chabon writes established characters, in this case Spock and Number One. But considering how well he does it, telling us something new about both characters while keeping both well within the bounds we already know and understand, it can only be an encouraging sign for taking on the task of writing Jean-Luc Picard.

“Q & A” is a fun and insightful. If the next few Short Treks are as good as this one, we’re in for a treat as we count down the months to the Picard premiere in January.