Top image: Still, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (1987 – 1994)

Having played the enigmatic Jean-Luc Picard for a total of 178 episodes, from 1987 to 1994 including four subsequent feature films, Sir Patrick Stewart is set to reman the controls of USS Enterprise. During a surprise appearance at a Trek Convention in Las Vegas this weekend, sending Trekkies into delirium.

The new CBS All Access series follows the launch of last year’s fifteen-episode Star Trek: Discovery series, created by Byran Fuller and Adam Kurtzman and set roughly a decade before the original series. The new show, which has yet to be named, is set to pick up after the original Star Trek: The Next Generation story and follow the life of Picard.

“I will always be very proud to have been a part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002, I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course,” said Stewart of the role. “It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions with him.”

The franchise, which turned fifty in 2016, could be set for a separate, unprecedented turn when it was speculated earlier this year that British film director S.J. Clarkson could become the first female to direct a Star Trek film. The projects in question are two new Star Trek films that were announced by Paramount at CinemaCon in April this year. Although no official announcement has been made, it’s clear that now is as good a time as ever to be a Trekkie.