Patrick Stewart is being remembered above all for Star Trek and X-Men — Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier are two of the most iconic roles in genre history. But Polygon argues one performance outside those franchises deserves equal billing: his guest appearance on The Simpsons.

The piece calls Stewart the perfect Simpsons guest star, and frames the episode as a showcase for the actor's secret weapon — the comedic range that his gravely serious captain and professor roles rarely let him display. Stewart's classically trained delivery, applied to Springfield absurdity, is exactly the collision of high and low that the show's best guest spots are built on.

It's a reminder that the actor's legacy runs wider than starship bridges and mutant academies. For a generation of fans, a single animated half-hour proved Stewart could be as funny as he was commanding.