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Raise your deflector shields - news broke today that CBS is developing a new Star Trek TV series, scheduled to premiere in January 2017, presumably driven by the momentum of next years' Trek 50th Anniversary and the new Star Trek Beyond film, due to be released July 22nd.

What this new show will look like is anybody's guess, but the Executive Producer will be Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote both the J.J. Abrams Star Trek features. CBS aims to air the series on its digital subscription service, CBS All Access. Will it take place in the same "reimagined" Vulcan-annihilated universe of the Kurtzman movies? It's a bit of a predicament - the prospect of launching a new installment sans Kirk and Spock is a pretty daunting one - but to recast those iconic roles again...? Will today's audiences tune in - excuse me, stream a series that doesn't feature the U.S.S. Enterprise?

For all we know, new elements are in place in the Star Trek Beyond feature to springboard directly into the new series. That's just guesswork, but I wouldn't bee to surprised to see movie Kirk dealing with a brash young Lieutenant who "reminds me of me." The CBS press release does state that the new series, "...is not related to the upcoming feature film Star Trek Beyond," and does make a point of mentioning new characters. So let the speculating begin.

After a dozen years, Trek is returning to TV. Here's hoping they can make it fresh and addictive enough to stay relevant in the modern Game of Thrones/Walking Dead landscape, while staying true to the spirit of what's always made the best Trek tick.