Fandom beware: Tonight at 11 p.m. EST, the man with the stache returns. And holy effing ess are we excited.

Neil deGrasse Tyson‘s science-comedy talk show, StarTalk is moving to its new home on the National Geographic Channel, taking late-night talk show conversation from Kardashians, to Cardassians. “[Like the podcast before it], StarTalk the TV show is a three-strand braid, between science, humor and pop culture,”  Tyson explained at a series pre-screening. “And that braid is an important recipe for how we are delivering science to the public.”

As if StarTalk-goes-primetime wasn’t exciting enough, the theme of the first episode is Star Trek, centered around an interview with navigator, science communicator, and avid Twitterer George Takei. Tyson might not be the iconic series’ biggest fan, but guest speakers–comedian Leighann Lord, and American Museum of Natural history astrophysicist Charles Liu–are self-proclaimed Trekkies–so we’re expecting some banter.

The crew will cover a wide array of fun Trek-centered topics, from how Takei landed the role of Sulu, to the science behind warp drive, but we have it on good authority that we’ll also dive into a deeper (ahem, Space Nine) conversation about promoting diversity in both science and pop-culture programming–something the Stark Trek franchise excelled at.

The hour-long, weekly series is scheduled to air new episodes every Monday for the next ten weeks (so check your local listings), with reruns airing Fridays at 7 p.m. EST.  Upcoming interview guests include director Christopher Nolan (April 27), and YouTube sensation astronaut Chris Hadfield (June 1).

Follow along with all the dGT goodness using #StarTalkTV

Images: Sweetie187/NdGT