Vesta design, new 24th century meta-story and a whole heap of novely news, oh my!

TrekMovie.com has posted a rather massive report on Pocket Books' plans for the next couple of years, with all sorts of new (and uber-exciting) info. Lets start with... a design for the Vesta class (USS Aventine). The now former-Trek editor Marco Palmieri mentioned a while ago a design was being worked on, and now TrekMovie has released a concept design, by Mark Rademaker, the same artist who designed the smaller slipstream starship, the USS Spirit, in this year's Ships of the Line calendar:

The design will be used in the 2010 Ships of the Line, and more excitingly, on planned future novels featuring the Aventine! Which leads into the really big news I think: Following on from Destiny in 2010 will be a new cross-series meta-story, incorporating the new Aventine book (or books), TNG, Voyager and Titan. The Federation will face a new alien threat, called "The Typhon Pact" which, as editor Margaret Clark, has described "is comprised of non Federation members who "watched the Federation insidiously 'Root Beer' their way across the Galaxy and they realize the Federation is down and it is time to move."

Before that (or starting it?) is TNG: Losing the Peace, which Clark has described as follows: "we see Picard trying to deal with the vast array of civilian casualties and how the Federation deals the want and need…this is something we have never seen in the 24th Century…" We've also got a new cover for that novel:

There's also big news for the Voyager section of this big adventure, the second new Voyager book now has a title "Unworthy", which will see, amongst other Voyager regulars, the return of Seven to Voyager and a cameo from Neelix. Voyager will be on a new mission exploration and accompanied by a number of support ships. And one more big bit of news, Chakotay will no longer be captain after "dealing with having his soul ripped out" due to the "apparent death of Kathryn Janeway" in Before Dishonor.

Away from all the 24th century excitement there is also a new description of Enterprise: The Romulan War: "Because of things that unfolded in "Kobayashi Maru," the Vulcans have to come with a horrifying fact and they realize that there is something they have to do. Vulcan is going trough upheaval after the rediscovery of Surak’s teachings and the society is not as stable as what we see in the 23rd century. T’Pol realizes what their involvement in a war could wrought on Vulcan society and she does something that horrifies her partners in the coalition, but will eventually lead to the foundation of the United Federation of Planets and the Vulcan that we see in the Kirk era."

In less exciting news there are also some delays to the schedule (at least in part due to Marco Palmieri's departure). The third Myriad Universes anthology, now titled Shattered Light, has been delayed until August 2010, it will still include three short novels, including a TNG story by David R. George, and a Sulu story by Scott Pearson. The Seven Deadly Sins anthology has also been pushed back, to March 2010 and the latest Corps of Engineers omnibus, Out of the Cocoon has been pushed back to December 2010. Finally the hardcover omnibus of the Crucible trilogy planned for release along side the new movie, as been cancelled.

Finally some little newsoids:
-The latest run of reference books haven’t done so well it seems, so no more of those for now.
-No return to original ebooks for now.
-A deal is being worked on for new audio books.
-This cover for the next New Frontier book may not be final:

-But these new covers for the next two DS9 books are:

-2010 will see something slight unusual, David Mack's Mirror Universe story The Sorrows of Empire is to be expanded and published as a stand-along novel.

And last but not least here's what the schedule now looks like for the next two years:
-Jan 09: TOS: Errand of Fury: Sacrifices of War, by Kevin Ryan
-Jan 09: Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows
-Feb 09: A Singular Destiny, by Keith R.A. DeCandido
-Mar 09: Titan: Over a Torrent Sea, by Christopher L. Bennett
-Apr 09: Voyager: Full Circle, by Kirsten Beyer
-Apr 09: NF: Treason, by Peter David
-May 09: Vanguard: Open Secrets, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
-Jun 09: TOS: Troublesome Minds, by Dave Galanter
-Jul 09: TNG: Losing the Peace, by William Leisner
-Aug 09: DS9: The Soul Key, by Olivia Woods
-Sep 09: DS9: The Never Ending Sacrifice, by Una McCormack
-Oct 09: Voyager: Unworthy, by Kirsten Beyer
-Oct 09: Enterprise: The Romulan War, by Michael A. Martin
-Nov 09: Titan: Synthesis, by James Swallow
-Dec 09: Vanguard: Precipice, by David Mack
-Feb 10: TOS/Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack
-Mar 10: TOS novel TBA
-Mar 10: Seven Deadly Sins
-Apr 10: TOS era reprint
-May 10: TOS: Unspoken Truth, by Margaret Wander Bonanno
-Aug 10: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light
-Dec 10: CoE: Out of the Cocoon

Alien Spotlight: Tribbles art

While googling about I found some artwork for the first issue of the second Alien Spotlight series, focusing on tribbles. Found on artist Mike Hawthorne's blog:

The writer, Stuart Moore, has also been blogging about the issue, which he has dubbed "The Trouble with Humanoids" (I hope that title makes it to the issue).

New movie Barbies

TrekMovie.com has provided the first images of the new Star Trek Barbie dolls being released to tie-in with the new film, they look like this (which is like the characters rather than Barbie dressed as the characters, lovely):

See the TrekMovie article for more info on Star Trek-Barbie history.

A Singular Destiny excerpt

Keith R.A. DeCandido has released an excerpt from his forthcoming Destiny follow-up novel, A Singular Destiny.

You can read it, here.

The NX-91001

The Star Trek Online website has been updated with details of a new starship to be featured in the game. The NX-91001is described as follows: "A starship designed to carry Federation influence throughout the Alpha Quadrant and beyond, the NX-91001 is one of the first multi-role starship designs since the Sovereign class was commissioned in the early 2370s. Able to function as a deep-space explorer with extensive sensors and laboratory facilities for scientific research, the NX-91001 also is outfitted as a heavy cruiser armed with some of the latest in Starfleet weapons technology for deployment in hostile areas."

The article goes on to describe the various technologies employed by the vessel, and also gives specifications for dimensions and systems. Read it, here.

New covers and blurbs in the latest Pocket catalogue

Pocket Books has released their latest promotional/solicitations catalogue sort of thing, which includes some new blurbs and covers, some of which are not the finals:

Seven Deadly Sins
Lust. Gluttony. Greed. Sloth. Wrath. Envy. Pride. These are the seven deadly sins of humanity...but humans are not the only creatures in the universe to surrender to their baser instincts. In the world of Star Trek, entire civilizations are driven by avarice, or anger, or insatiable hunger, or one of the other fundamental urges that have come to define these fascinating species.

Now, this edgy collection of original novellas explores these empires from the inside, delving into the qualities that shape their cultures and their worldviews, through characters as compelling as they are provocative. These surprising and engaging tales feature all of Star Trek’s most prominent adversaries, including The Borg, The Klingons, The Romulans, the Cardassians, the Ferengi, the Pakleds, and the Mirror Universe.

Troublesome Minds
While exploring the unmapped frontier, the Starship Enterprise responds to a distress call from an unknown ship. Captain James T. Kirk turns first contact into a threat of interstellar war—by saving the life of a man his own people abandoned. Berlis, colony leader of a telepathic race calling themselves the Isitri, claims not to know why those from his homeworld want him dead. Now Kirk must either find a way to wrench billions from the grip of one man, or be responsible for the destruction of two planets.

Losing the Peace
The Borg invasion has left the Federation reeling. Countless people have been killed or displaced by the wonton destruction, and now seek solace on planets that struggle just to feed their own. The ideals wrought in the paradise that was the United Federation of Planets now seem to be a distant dream. Starfleet is shattered, giving old enemies a chance to gain the upper hand. The question now is, what can one ship, and one captain do to prevent humanity from losing the peace?

The Soul Key
Captain Kira’s lookalike, Iliana Ghemor, dreams of fulfilling a prophecy that will mark her as the one true Emissary of the mirror universe—a messianic figure who will lead her followers into a war that could trigger the cleansing of countless alternate Kiras in countless parallel realities. But the stakes are higher than anyone imagines, for the pull of destiny tugs at other souls who are swept into the vortex of the Prophets, remote and timeless beings who have set these events in motion. Yet the outcome of this struggle for the fate of one universe will ripple across many others, giving shape to a future that will prove to be greatest trial yet for the heroes of station Deep Space 9.

The Never-Ending Sacrifice
Rugal is an orphaned Cardassian who has been raised by the people his race once conquered, the Bajorans. Reluctantly repatriated to Cardassia as a teenager, Rugal becomes the living witness to the downfall of the proud people to whom he was born, first by the invading Klingons, then during the Cardassians’ unholy pact with the Dominion—a partnership that culminated in a near-genocide. Through it all, Rugal’s singular perspective illuminates the choices that brought the Cardassians to their ruin...even as he learns that the Cardassian soul is not as easy to understand as he imagined.

Star Trek Online: 2383

Cyrptic Studios have updated the Star Trek Online website with the next year of their timeline leading up to the setting of the game.

2383 see the state of Romulan space continue to crumble as the Star Empire and Imperial State persist in fighting among themselves. Next door relations between the Federation and Klingon Empire also suffer as both sides react badly to the consequences of the Klingons tacking control of Khitomer.

Meanwhile in the Cardassian Union the unearthing of new Hebitian findings spurs the Oralians into more public displays of their faith. Back in the Federation, members of the Soong Foundation begin work on producing new mobile holographic emitters while the Federation's lawyers continue to debate the rights of The Doctor to retain the use of his own.

Read the full history, here.

Full Circle with Kirsten Beyer

German site Trekzone.de has recently conducted an interview with Kirsten Beyer, and were good enough to post an english translation at the TrekBBS.

As a general summary for her relaunch of the Voyager relaunch she described Full Circle thusly: "Full Circle is by far the most ambitious tie-in project I've tackled to date. Bear in mind that after the Spirit Walk duology ended in mid 2378, Voyager characters made appearances in several other novels – TNG, Titan, Articles of the Federation, and we had a Janeway cameo in Nemesis. Then came Destiny which is set in the first two months of 2381. So I was looking at a gap of almost three years that needed filling and that still had to line up with what had already been published and what David Mack was working on in Destiny. There were a number of unresolved story threads left by Christie Golden, but most important of all, we needed to figure out how to most effectively weave Voyager into the wider Trek universe. They needed to have their own special purpose, a creative direction that makes their stories unique, and that would set the stage for the future in a really compelling way."

Talking about some of the dark times the Voyager crew will face in the later time period of the novel, with the death of Janeway and fallout of Destiny she talked about Trek's history of relating to contemporary challenges: "But it's the right setting, not just for Voyager but for all of Trek in that I think it resonates with some of our larger challenges as a planet right now. As long as I've been alive, it feels like we've been careening from one disaster to another, constantly on the brink of our own annihilation. Yes, I know that the decades right before I was born, the 50's and 60's had their challenges, but I look at some of the accomplishments of those decades, the prosperity and sense of optimism, the civil rights movement, and landing a man on the moon, and I wonder if our more recent accomplishments, like the technological advances we've seen in my lifetime, have done as much for our morale as a people and actually improved our quality of life as decisively as they were meant to.

Star Trek has always had allegorical undertones. It's not that we just shift our current problems a few hundred years in the future and watch them play out, but at its best, Trek has a way of shedding light on our struggles, though in a vastly different context. The darkness of the Borg invasion, the despair, the devastation, and ultimately the power of hope in the face of fear is something I think is worth meditating upon, particularly right now.

What's wonderful about Trek is that it has always presented us with one vision of what is possible. It's not a perfect future. Humans are still human and a lot of the alien races they encounter share our collective baggage, but there is hope. There is a willingness to stretch ourselves beyond parochial and outdated views and to embrace the universe's mysteries. There is a desire, always, to try and do the right thing, and to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones. I believe we all share those desires right now but that we are faced with such daunting challenges that it may be hard to imagine how we're going to get from here to where we really want to be. I'm not saying that Trek is any kind of blueprint for our future, but by placing our heroes in really difficult and dark situations from time to time, and by watching their struggles, we can more easily relate to them, and hopefully, find inspiration in their solutions."

The interview also discussed Beyer's larger career and life, and talked more about Full Circle. Read it, here.

Countdown to Data

On his blog, David Messina has released the cover for the second issue of Countdown, featuring Data:

The blog also has a pre-coloured, and non-monochromatic version, the latter of the two curiously features Data in a command-red uniform, rather than his usual operations gold. Hmm...

Dukat in a two-pack

Toy News International has announced a new action figure two-pack from DST (and for once it doesn’t have a Kirk in it!). This set features young Commander Sisko and Gul Dukat:

See the original release for a little blurb describing the pair.

First TOS Marvel series comics omnibus on the way

On his blog Chris Ryall has announced IDW will be publishing an omnibus of the entire first series of Marvel Star Trek comics, minus the first three issues which were an adaptation of The Motion Picture which are being saved for an adaptations omnibus along side IDW's new Wrath of Khan adaptation. Zach Howard will be producing the cover for this book, which looks like this (see the pencilled version in the original post):

Howard will also be making the cover for the Early Voyages omnibus which Ryall confirmed in his posting.

Ryall also revealed in the comments of this posting, that the Wrath of Khan adaptation will be released biweekly, in June and July. With the omnibus due in the winter.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaan

A recent TrekMovie article has alerted me to my not paying enough attention to my inbox; The latest DST email newsletter thingy revealed their first Toys'r'us exclusive figure. Yet another Kirk variant, but a good one: the Wrath of Kahn "Khaaan!" version, tee hee.

IDW to do Wrath of Khan adaptation

In an interview with Comics Bulletin the new IDW Star Trek editor has revealed IDW will be producing a three-issue adaptation of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the only TOS movie not to have been adapted to the comics medium. The series will be adapted by Schmidt himself, with Chris Ryall taking on editorial duties, and will be illustrated by an artist named Chee.

On other Trek projects Schmidt described Mission's End thusly "THE STATUS QUO CHANGES. That's right, you'll see friendships suffer and crumble as well as really great action. This book is going to lead up to some really big changes for the Original Series franchise."

He also gave the vaguest of hints of a new TNG project in the works "After all that [the WoK adaptation], we then get into the Next Generation stuff, but oh my, lord, if I told you want we have planned, it would blow your mind. But I'll say this—no one is safe. Seriously."

The interview also discussed Schmidt's career, Countdown, and Crew. Go forth and check it out. Thanks to Allyn Gibson on the TrekBBS for pointing this out.

New Manga covers

Looksie what I found on Amazon, best Trek-manga cover so far?:

Looks like Tokyopop's first TNG Manga book will be titled, Boukenshin. UPDATE: Missed it first time, there's a little blurb too:
Helps to discover how Wesley learns to have compassion for others, how the Enterprise deals with a mysterious disease that wipes out half an archeological expedition, and if Picard will survive an internal coup.

Also to be found on Tokyopop's site, it the cover for the TOS Manga omnibus book.

Which seems to have dropped its title Kanzenban. Tokyopop describe thusly:
Embark on the Ultimate Adventure with the original crew of the Starship Enterprise... Selected by the fans themselves, this collection features only the very best stories from the first three volumes of the Star Trek manga anthology series. Among them, tales written by such Star Trek luminaries as David Gerrold, writer of the classic episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and Wil Wheaton, (aka Wesley Crusher) from the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. Plus, a 28 page sneak preview of the story "Sensation" from the upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation manga! Also included in this volume--16 previously black-and-white pages now in brilliant full color, as well as a pull-out poster featuring the amazing cover art of Michael Kelleher!

Countdown #1 cover

On his blog, David Messina has released the cover-art for the first issue in the Countdown miniseries, which features the younger and hairier Nero.

The post also shows off a pre-coloured version of the colour, and a coloured version without the monochrome effect. Check it out.

More info on Borg figures

Toy News International has released some more details, and higher quality images, of DST's new wave of Borg figures. apparently, while each figure in this wave will come with parts to make the electronic alcove, the whole thing will not be completed until additional parts come out with the future second wave. The report also gives a little blurb for each of the figures:

Borg Drone: The Borg Drone is a bulky zombie-like figure with an ominously vacuous expression. His chassis is more elaborate than the other two, scalloped armor plating overlaps columns of intermingling circuitry; the Borg Drone’s right arm is weaponized; the drone’s face is partially obscured by a mechanical scope, and the back of his skull is festooned with thick black hoses.
Seven of Nine (Borg Form): Seven of Nine’s grimly pallid countenance is moderately contradicted by the voluptuousness with which she occupies her form-fitting sculptured chassis. Her face is partially obscured by a mechanical scope, the back of her skull festooned with thick black hoses.
Assimilated Starfleet Officer: From Star Trek: First Contact.


Seven of Nine (Brown Voyager Uniform): is a Previews exclusive sclupted by Jerry Macaluso. It will also includes a piece of the electronic "Borg Alcove" to build your own figure-sized display!

Enterprise Experiment, a review

So, months after the completion of the series I finally got a hold of the final issue of Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment this week. And so finally can offer up my thoughts on the whole thing.

Having just read through the whole saga my thoughts are mixed, it was much better than I remembered it being on the first read, but there was still something just a little off about it.

The story managed to do quite a lot, it was big, yet it was delivered in a way that didn’t make it too over the top. The political side of the tale I found most engaging, the balance between the three big TOS powers and the effects on it by the Organians and cloaking technology were explored with some depth and with great success.

That said it feels unfortunately repetitive, I’m sure the end of the Organian peace treaty has been done a couple of times before (as has the origin of the galactic barrier). That is forgivable as happening in older publications by other producers, what I find quite bizarre is that implication in this series that it was the events shown here that prompted the Klingons and Romulans to ally (the previous Romulan D7’s apparently being the consequence of one-off purchases between the empires) which rather flies in the face of how the alliance was formed as shown by IDW in John Byrne’s Romulan Alien Spotlight released before this series, and his follow-up two-parter Romulans: The Hollow Crown which was released just a month after the final issue of this series.

The final issue of the series in-particular leaves some massive dangling threads, showing Starfleet making use of cloaking technology and leaving a big unanswered question about what exactly it is the Edosians (not using the lit-verse name of Triexians to my disappointment) have ahead of them. I really hope both of these are answered in the not too distant future, they seem way too big to just be forgotten about.

One element of the series I very strongly disliked was the use of flashbacks and internal monologues/log entries for Kirk, Spock and McCoy to try and introduce a sort B-story of how the three rely on Starfleet for family and generally have made a mess of their actual families. This again seems a little too familiar, and in the context of the series it’s little more than a somewhat irritating distraction. Flashbacks used in the series also had a slight problem of sometimes occurring unannounced; the second issue opens with a flashback and then jumps back to the “present” without any visual signature change or notation of events happening at different times, which was rather confusing at first! Though on the whole most flashbacks are marked with rounded corner panels.

On the art in general: I don’t place Gordon Purcell anywhere near the top of my favourite artists list, and this series has done nothing to change that. His art is perfectly functional; it services the story, and as he so often praised for his likenesses are consistently spot-on. However there is rarely any flare to the art, it doesn’t have an especially eye-catching style, nor does it ever really play with layout or do much exciting. It works to tell the story but it’s not especially interesting.

All in all this series was, ok, not top of the IDW pile, but not quite at the bottom either. If you’re a big TOS fan I imagine you would enjoy it. If you like the character Arex it’s a must get, as he is used extensively and to good effect. If a decent sequel comes along to pull together the dangling threads left by the series it might gain it a bit more value as a lead into that. At the moment though, I think it can be summed up with: *shrug*.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Star Trek comics are alive!

After a slight lull in output from IDW, next March seems to be jumping back into Trek, as the solicitations for the month released by ComicNewsi reveal. The month sees the start of three new series! The long awaited second Alien Spotlight series, John Byrne's Crew, and a previously unannounced series called Mission's End! Plus the latest issue of Countdown, the final issue of The Last Generation (with an awesome cover!) and a new omnibus!

The Last Generation #5
Writer: Andrew Steven Harris, artist: Gordon Purcell, covers: J.K. Woodward and Nick Runge
The time-shattering conclusion! In an alternate history in which the Klingons have conquered Earth, Jean-Luc Picard and his Resistance travel back to the past in a daring, final gambit to restore the timeline and liberate Earth. But what awaits the rebellion may not be what it expected at all, and the fate of the Federation itself hangs in the balance.

Countdown#3
Writer: Tim Jones & Mike Johnson, art and cover: David Messina
From J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman comes the exclusive comic
prequel to STAR TREK, the motion picture event of 2009! The Romulan villain Nero continues his vengeful crusade against the Federation. Don't miss any of the action as the clock ticks down to the premiere of STAR TREK this summer!

Alien Spotlight: Tribbles
Writer: Stuart Moore, art and cover: Mike Hawthorne (and a photo-cover)
An offbeat one-shot featuring STAR TREK's most unlikely alien race! Welcome to Serjilla IV, an abandoned world completely overrun by Tribbles: friendly, trilling balls of fur that eat constantly and, in the words of Dr. Leonard McCoy, "reproduce at will." When a human freighter, boarded by hostile Klingons, crash-lands on Serjilla, the Tribbles' quiet but lonely existence is shattered. It's a simple situation, really—three desperate humans, a squadron of angry Klingons, and a billion hungry Tribbles. What could possibly go wrong?

Crew #1
Writer, artist and cover: John Byrne
Eight years before "The Cage,” the young woman who would become the Starship Enterprise's "most experienced officer" was a lowly cadet assigned to the shakedown cruise of an uncommissioned starship. But that supposedly pedestrian mission may prove the most dangerous of her life. John Byrne begins an all-new, six-part miniseries torn from the Federation’s beginnings!

Mission's End #1
Writer: Ty Templeton, artist: Steve Molnar, cover: Kevin Maguire
The most important "lost" tale of the Star Trek saga can now be told: The final mission of the original Starship Enterprise and her crew. What prompts Mr. Spock and Doctor McCoy to retire from Starfleet? What earns Kirk his promotion to Admiral? And what is the mystery of Archenar-IV that threatens to tear the Federation itself apart? All will be revealed in this five-issue miniseries, with appearances by fan-favorite characters, Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Dr. Piper in this special opening chapter. Fan-favorite artist Kevin Maguire provides this issue’s cover!

Archives #4: Best of DS9
Relive events and missions from the first four seasons of television’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in this collection of five full-length comics stories! Join up with the crew of DS9 as a mysterious toxic mold runs rampart on the station. Where did it come from? And that’s not all! Star Trek Archives, Vol. 4: DS9, Vol. 1 also includes the special 8-page preview “ashcan” story, “Hostage Situation.”

Before and after, the new movie

Various articles recently have provided new details on the new movie, and the prequel comic series Countdown. Firstly (though actually most recently) an interview with Robert Orci at TrekMovie.com reveals how the new movie will take place in an alternate timeline which diverges from the point Nero travels back in time, so the USS Kelvin is part of the original/main Trek timeline, while the new Enterprise and Kirk's different career path exist in the newly diverged timeline.

I think Christopher L. Bennett's summary of this news at the TrekBBS describes it best: "So basically this is a Myriad Universes movie, so to speak. It's a tale about an alternate Trek universe that exists alongside the "classic" one. And yet, like some of the MyrU tales, it provides some insights that can be presumed valid where the main timeline is concerned."

See the original TrekMovie article for much more in depth discussion about all the quantum theory and such that makes this idea work. I'm quite curious to see if this will actually be explained within the film.

Meanwhile, back in the original timeline Countdown will be showing us the lead-up to the film in the 24th century, and the creators have been talking about that. In an article at Comic Book Resources the writers, Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, have described the series as "a very poignant character piece tracing the steps of Nero, who descends from a proud Romulan patriot to a murderous arch villain". Another TrekMovie interview with Robert Orci confirmed the series takes place after Nemesis (still no details on Data's role) and IDW's new Trek editor Andy Schmidt also commented on the series in an interview at Newsarama "You'll get a lot of firsts in this series - you'll see a lot of stuff that's in the movie for the first time here and get to know the characters so that when you walk into the film, you're already going to care about them. They're really tremendous characters with a lot of dramatic conflict and flair."

In that same article Schmidt teased at new things in the works from IDW, commenting that Trek comics will take a "bold direction change, but I will say it is not entirely because of what the film ‘does’ to the series. But things are only beginning to heat up!"

Crew number two

On his forums John Byrne has released his cover artwork for the second issue of the forthcoming Crew miniseries. Following his cover design motif for the series, the cover features a scene contained in the silhouette of the main ship (the USS Fortune) in the issue.

Final issue of the Enterprise Experiment finally out in the UK!

A mere three and a half months late, and after the release of the omnibus book, the final issue of Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment has finally made to the UK! I've no idea why it took so long, and I rather irritated my comic book guy in contacting Chris Ryall to try and find out. I also don't know the extent of this issue, I know my local shop didn't have it, and I was contacted by someone in Wales who was also wondering what was taking so long. Did it effect the whole country, or even further afield, I'd be interested to know readers if you had trouble getting this issue.

Star Trek Online: 2382

The Star Trek Online website has been updated with the next year in it's timeline building up to the setting of the game. The information continues to be a jumble of rearranged ideas from trek-lit and new original elements.

This year's events seem to center largely on the Romulans with tensions continuing to rise between the Star Empire and Imperial State. Tal'aura reluctantly accepts Federation after Donatra's control over key agricultural worlds stretches' the Star Empire's resources. Meanwhile Tal'aura reforms the Romulan political system to give her direct control over the make-up of the senate, irritating traditional Romulan noble families who loose some of their previous status.

The Romulan situation also spurs Spock and the unificationists to take the opportunity to assert their power and push for representation in the new senate and recognition and support of the movement by the Federation. While at the edges of Romulan space the Klingons take advantage of the weakened state and reclaim a number of disputed worlds, including Khitomer.

In the Federation Admiral Owen Paris of Starfleet R&D orders the doctor's mobile emitter be taken for study, a decision which is contested by the doctor.

And in the vicinity of Bajor tensions rise when several hundred Cardassians Bajor hoped to pursue for war crimes vanish, prompting Bajor to accuse Cardassian of putting them into hiding.

Finally, Ro Laren completes her time in Federation custody and returns to Bajor where she assumes the role of chief of security on DS9.

See the orignal report for the full entry.

DST update

Diamond Select Toys have announced a new deal with Toys'R'Us to have their products stocked in the big toy shop with a giraffe for mascot. That stock will include DST's model of the TOS Enterprise and coming soon two exclusive new action figures (with more to come in the future).

Meanwhile on the Art Asylum blog the latest Ask DST Q&A session gives some details on the direction of the DST Star Trek line.

On action figures, they suggest the next wave will likely be TOS figures (and they are thinking about reissuing some of the previously released TOS figures), and that the DS9 figure sales have not been that great, but they would like to find a way to fill out the crew, and offer Kira in a Bajoran uniform (as well as the current Starfleet offering) eventually, if possible.

On ships, they have two in development, and neither is an Enterprise, they're also still keen to do a "bad guy ship" at some point. Meanwhile the variant edition of the next ship, the All Good Things... Enterprise-D has yet to find a buyer, but they are continuing to develop it in the hope one will appear.

See the original report for the full questions and answers.

Finally Toy News International has given us the first look at the final make-up of the Borg action figures wave. The final four figures are Seven of Nine as a drone and in her brown cat-suit, a standard Human(oid) drone, and a partially assimilated Starfleet officer (based on someone from First Contact apparently). Each of the set will come with a section of a regeneration alcove, so if you get the whole set you get a whole alcove.

See the original report for more photos.

Weird figures are coming

As reported by TrekMovie.com a company called Funko have obtained a new Star Trek license (for old Trek and the new movie) to make novelty action figure sort of things. They presently have two lines planned, with concept art for both. These are:

A series of "Wacky Wobblers" bobble-head figurines, featuring Kirk, Spock, a Gorn, and an Andorian:

And a series of caricature-like figurines called "Urban Vinyl", which will feature Kirk, Spock and an Orion slave girl.

See the original report, with more details on Funko and these sort of products, here.

"Credit crunch " hits Trek lit

Discussion at the TrekBBS has brought to my attention some really horrible news: Simon and Schuster/Pocket Books have laid off thirty-five staff in cost cutting measures, and according to an article at Comic Mix, that number includes Marco Palmieri, the editing god responsible for the likes of the DS9 relaunch, Titan and Vanguard. Which hugely sucks for him, and hugely sucks for us. *annoyed*

Early Voyages omnibus!

I was just having a wonder around Amazon (UK) and stumbled on some very exciting news. It appears that next May IDW will be publishing an omnibus book of Early Voyages comics, the entire series in one 436 page piece of amazingness. WOW!

Even though I already own the entire series, and the DVD comic collection with them on, I think I'll still be tempted to get this, Early Voyages is Star Trek comics gold.

Amazon page: link.

Details on the Kelvin, via Intel...

Intel's tie-in website with the new movie has been updated with an interactive spinning model sort-of-thing of the USS Kelvin, which has various little details you can look at to get technical specs.

The text descriptions seem nice and loyal to Trek-tech lore, though reveal some curious details about the arrangement of the ship. The top section, with the deflector at the front, appears to be mainly a huge shuttle bay, while the lower section is the warp nacelle, though from the description might be the entire warp engine: "The Kelvin has a single warp nacelle housing the ship's warp drive engine. Two rows of massive semi-circular warp-field coils produce a powerful subspace field that bends space around the ship, allowing for faster than light travel." So some sort of engineering section-warp nacelle hybrid?

The pop-up menu's also give as a look at crew, in their pre-TOS uniforms, which like the new main-TOS era uniforms seem to have remained reasonably loyal to the original Pike-era uniforms but with a contemporary twist.

Check out the Kelvin section of the site to explore the rest of the details of the ship.

New Star Trek Online images

The Star Trek Online website has been updated with some new pictures, like these:

A third one can be found, here.

Star Trek will be huge, IMAXly huge!

Firstshowing.net have reported the new movie will get simultaneous release in IMAX cinemas. They don't know if it will get any special IMAX stuff other than being HUGE, but it's exciting none the less!

Countdown covers and tidbits

Chris Ryall has unveiled the cover art for Countdown, in the form of promotional artwork which combines the four covers into a single image, in the style of the earlier teaser posters:

No new details per-say, but the covers give us some things: Nero appears to not have his tattoo yet, top right looks like Data to me, which is interesting (might some part of this take place pre-Nemesis?), and we've also got Spock and Picard there. Excitings.

Pilot Sulu...

The Art Asylum blog has, in as little detail as possible, announced a variant figure of Sulu, as he appeared in Where No man Has Gone Before, is in the works. No details on when or if it's part of anything else, but there is a picture: