Scott Bakula explains why his Looking character is reluctant to open his heart to a new relationship.

Bakula plays Lynn on the HBO gay drama, now in its second season.

A relationship between Lynn and Dom (played by Murray Bartlett) is slowly advancing on the show.

“[Lynn] is a survivor,” Bakula told xfinity.com. “He was there when the AIDS crisis began. He lost his friends. He lost the love of his life, basically. He became, I think, relatively pragmatic about life and kind of matter-of-fact about it. And I think he gave and gave and gave a lot of his soul energy away.”

“I think he saw something … in Dom that reminded him of the past, of his real, true love and at the same time, there's a part of him that can only go so far anymore, if that makes sense.”

“It's not that he's dead inside. He's still got a lot of passion and a lot of life, but he's mature, and he's seen a lot, and a lot of what he's seen wasn't good. And yet, that community that went through that and survived that time and stood proud and strong and tall and held people as they died and all of those things, they're amazing, amazing people. I think of him in that light. And it was an honor to get to play someone like him,” he added.

The 60-year-old Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) can also be seen on CBS's NCIS: New Orleans.

(Related: Looking's Murray Bartlett lauds Scott Bakula: He's like magic on camera.)