Mirror Images #3 is... TNG?

Well here's a little surprise, Joe Corroney has released (on his myspace blog) his cover artwork for the third issue of the Mirror Images series, and it has a distinctly 24th century Stargazer sort of felling to it:

There was meant to be TNG mirror universe stuff coming, as IDW described in their press release for Second Stage: "A second Mirror Images series, spotlighting The Next Generation crew, is slated for the second half of 2008, written by IDW Star Trek editor Andrew Steven Harris and screenwriter George Strayton". This cover would seem to indicate the TOS and TNG series have been smushed together... or something, I’m confused…

...UPDATE: As ever the internet allows a path to the answers, as Scott Tipton (one of the series' writers) describes it on IDW's message boards: "We'll be taking a break from our larger Pike/Kirk struggle to do a flash-forward interlude to a turning point in the life of Mirror Jean-Luc Picard. After issue 3, we'll return to the Enterprise." So there we go, Mirror Images is just about sticking to TOS, just with a side step half way through.

UPDATE 2: Scott Tipton has also confirmed this issue will not be released in August (the month it would have originally been planned for but was not solicited for in the most recent announcements), due to tight schedules they were aware they would not make the deadline so decided not to announce it as an August issue knowing it would be late.

Alternate Realities Fan Collective

TV Shows on DVD.com have reorted Paramount have annouced a new Fan Collective themed DVD collection. Titled Alternate Realities, it will be "a collection featuring bizarre and strange of episodes...see your favorite characters behaving contrary to type, in familiar but odd circumstances". The set, out in mid-September, will be five dics with twenty episodes and some special features, but that's all they know so far.

I had a vague memory of a StarTrek.com poll on the Fan Collective sets suggesting a set like this which contained all the mirror universe episodes and a random assortment of other alternate timelines/reality episodes …and after a trip to google I found that poll - if Paramount stick with that original plan the set will include the eight mirror episodes plus a selection from the following:

The Enterprise episodes: "Shockwave", "Vanishing Point", "Twilight", "Carpenter Street", "E²" and "Storm Front". Just one TOS episode (other than "Mirror Mirror"): "The Alternative Factor". TNG episodes "Time Squared", "Remember Me", "Future Imperfect" and "Parallels". DS9’s "Visionary", "The Visitor", "Things Past", "Children of Time" and "Far Beyond the Stars". And Voyager’s "Non Sequitur", "Deadlock", "Future’s End", "Before and After", "Timeless", "Fury" and "Shattered".

Fits in rather nicely with all the mirror universe and alternate reality stuff coming out of Pocket and IDW lately.

IDW previews Intelligence Gathering #5 and Enterprise Experiment #2

Newsarama have posted five-page previews of IDW’s releases for this week, including two Star Trek titles: the final issue of Intelligence Gathering and the second of The Enterprise Experiment. Here's a page from each:

See the original report for the full preview. A see your comic book shops for the full issues, out now.

Scary Romulan and a pretty starship

On his blog, Chris Ryall has posted some preview art (splash page?) featuring John Byrne's Romulan praetor:

Meanwhile on his own forums Mr Byrne has been posting various bits of pages from the first and second issues of the new Romulans series. Like this:

Assignment: Earth #5 cover + #1 review

On his forums John Byrne has released the first look (an inked version) of his cover for the final issue in his Assignment: Earth miniseries:

See the original post for a little making-off feature.

And as the first issue of this series was out this week, I offer the following mini-review:

A Gary Seven series, sounded like a winner from the start to me. By John Byrne, I was a little less enthusiastic about as I really didn't enjoy his art much in the Romulans Alien Spotlight. The Alien Spotlight did have a cracking story though and this continues with Assignment: Earth, Byrne is really quite a good story teller, and that really makes his comics work. The art I still find a bit dated in places, but it's a little more fitting a style for 1960s Earth, so it works. And it is only the style I find jarring, the art in terms of story telling, variety and dynamism is superb. Overall, the series is off to a strong start with the fun and interesting story in the first issue. Go buy it.

Medical Tricorder

A wee update care of TrekMovie.com. Apparently Diamond Select Toys will be issuing a variant addition of their TOS tricorder prop; in the form of an Entertainment Earth exclusive medical tricorder, with removable scanner.

Mirror preview

Chris Ryall has released some preview art ahead of next month’s start of the latest Tipton/Messina miniseries Mirror Images. On his blog Mr Ryall posted what looks like a wrap around cover, featuring mirror Kirk and Spock:

And two interior pages, that look rather like an introduction to the mirror universe. Here's the awesome one featuring (I think) mirror Pike:

See the other page at the original post, here.

UPDATE: Meanwhile over at David Messina's blog the artist has released an updated version of that wraparound cover:

And then there were two...

Comics News International have posted IDW's solicitations for August. Which are oddly empty in terms of Star Trek releases. Not only is there not a new miniseries (Alien Spotlight II?) to fill the gap left by the completion of the New Frontier miniseries, but there is also a missing issue: August should have issue three of the Mirror Images miniseries, but the issue is not listed in the solicitation. Error or delay? I know not.

The month does include a new omnibus and this posting sees the first look at the cover for the forth issue of the Assignment: Earth miniseries.

Assignment: Earth #4
Mysterious alien technology. Senseless death. And a growing awareness that there may be those beyond our world who don’t want to see Earth survive! Seven and Roberta face their greatest challenge yet… an invasion from the most distant regions of the Galaxy! The penultimate issue in John Byrne’s first-ever Star Trek spin-off!

The Enterprise Experiment #5
In the final chapter of The Enterprise Experiment, a great discovery sends the crew of the Starship: Enterprise on a mission to locate an ancient outpost before the Klingon fleet can seize its power for themselves. The answers Kirk and his crew have sought will finally come into focus, as a long-lived mystery is revealed, and new alliances change the political landscape and cause ramifications long into the future. D.C. Fontana, Derek Chester, and Gordon Purcell conclude their Original Series adventure!

Intelligence Gathering omnibus
One year ago IDW’s Star Trek comics launched with Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between, a series of six stand-alone issues. Now, prepare for the latest voyage of the Enterprise as the creative team that brought you Klingons: Blood Will Tell tackles an all-new TNG mini-series. Collecting all five issues of the Intelligence Gathering series, written by Scott & David Tipton, with art by David Messina, and amazing photorealistic variant covers by Joe Corroney.

The fifth race

Apparently their is an advert for Alien Spotlight II in the recently released omnibus edition of the first series. And Andrew Steven Harris was kind enough to post that advert on the Trek BBS. As you can see below, it tells us the fifth race for the series, the Q! Mr Harris also confirmed there will be a sixth, but is keeping it under wraps for now.

Preview art for Byrne's Romulans (and Klingons)

On his blog Chris Ryall has released some new preview art for John Byrne's Romulans miniseries. Looks to me like the Romulan-Klingon alliance might play a big part in this, woo!:

Meanwhile, if you make your way over to John Byrne's own forums, Mr Byrne has released one or two bits of art from the project in process.

Star Trek Magazine May/June

The latest issue of the Star Trek Magazine finally found it's way to UK shelves this week, and I found it one of the most interesting issues of the magazine in a long time.

The theme of this issue was Star Trek: Enterprise and followed a similar format to the last issue's DS9 special; with a season by season description broken up with various articles on the series and other features. As is the case in many of the issues of the magazine since it's relaunch for publishing on both sides of the Atlantic this edition includes articles by a host Star Trek authors - including features on Enterprise by Chris Dows, Christopher L. Bennett, Kevin Dilmore & Dayton Ward and Keith R.A. DeCandido, plus an article looking at the cowboy and diplomatic characteristics in James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard.

Another much appreciated addition to the magazine over the last year or so is the fiction preview excerpts. This edition's is from William Leisner's A Less perfect Union, a story from the forthcoming Myriad Universes anthology Infinity's Prism.

Since it's relaunch, with a new emphasis on Star Trek prose and comics, I think the magazine has really improved. And the last two issues especially have a feeling of real substance old issues lack - a lot less fluff and much more really interesting thoughts and analysis on whichever subject is being written on. Keep up the good work Titan. My only issue with this issue: The format has changed, again! The last issue was a very nicely presented prestige format binding, this issue keeps the new smaller page size that came with that, but returns to staple bind. Come on Titan, give us some consistency!

In terms of news form this issue, the big stuff - details on IDW's Alien Spotlight II - spread over the web a few weeks ago with the American release. What wasn't mentioned then was IDW's Andrew Steven Harris was also careful to bring up IDW are keen to continue delivering Pike (and April) era stories due to the "enormous" number of requests they are getting for that era - We got two Pike stories in the first Alien Spotlight, here's hoping that continues in number two.

The magazine also had a short article by Michael Jan Friedman looking at his own prequel story, Starfleet: Year One. He explains the story, first serialised as a back-up feature over a year's worth of novels, was planned to be the first of a seven book series, but was scraped when Enterprise came along and nabbed the prequel spot in the Trekverse. At the close of the article he poses the question: Now Enterprise is all tied up, might it be the time for him to revisit this prequel series?

Starship Spotter: The Next Generation

On his blog, Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz has reflected on his and Robert Bonchune's 2001 book the Star Trek: Starship Spotter.

Mojo highlights his disappointment with the final print quality of the book and that ever frustrating page break that splits every one of the shinny CGI renders of the starships in the book in two. He "wished we could have personally provided new & better renders for everyone who bought the book", and now has gone some way to doing that; Recently while looking through his archives Mojo re-discovered some new renders he had produced which took the wireframes from the book but used more complex colour lighting to give them a whole new look. Mojo and Bonchune had hoped to get these renewed wireframes into the book but had come up with the idea too late after their deadline so they never made it. But here is one:

And if you look at Mojo's original post you'll find another of the Enterprise-E along with a type-10 shuttlecraft, the Delta Flyer, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, a Hirogen ship and Defiant, Nova, Constitution, Prometheus, Miranda and D7 class starships.

Retro Gorn

Diamond Select Toys have put out a new release for their seventh pair of retro cloth figures. As previously announced the pair will consist of a new Sulu figure and a revamped Gorn. Here's how the Gorn will look:

See the full release, here.

Aliens at IDW

A couple of tiny bits of new info on IDW projects:

In a post at the TrekBBS IDW's Trek editor Andrew Steven Harris has announced which of the Alien Spotlight II issues he will be writing: The Ferengi. He also announced the artist on Keith R.A. DeCandido's Klingon issue will be J.K. Woodward who is painting the artwork for the issue.

Meanwhile on his own forums, John Byrne has release some preview art for, and announced the title of his forthcoming Romulan miniseries sequel to his Romulan issue in the first Alien Spotlight series. The series is "Romulans: The Hollow Crown" and starts in September.

Also on the IDW front, Joe Corroney has released a new version of his previously seen cover for the second issue in the Mirror Images series, now featuring dramatic flame effects. See it, here.

Dawn of the Eagles excerpt

Jeff Ayers, via TrekWeb.com, has released an excerpt from next month's, and the final, instalment in the Terok Nor trilogy; Dawn of the Eagles, by S.D. Perry and Britta Dennison.

Go forth and read it, here.

Myriad Universes covers

TrekMovie.com have released the covers for the forthcoming (July and August) Myriad Universes anthologies. According To Keith R.A. DeCandido at the TrekBBS they are both by the artist John Picacio:

Check TrekMovie's article for a rundown of Pocket Books' summer releases.

Turnaround #5 cover

TrekWeb.com have released the cover for the final issue of the five-part New Frontier comics miniseries Turnaround, ta-da:

New Greater Than the Sum blurb

SimonSays.com have (as JD on the TrekBBS pointed out) posted a new blurb for the forthcoming TNG novel Greater than the Sum:

The Starship Rhea has discovered a cluster of carbon planets that seems to be the source of the quantum energies rippling through a section of space. A landing party finds unusual life-forms inhabiting one of the planets. One officer, Lieutenant T'Ryssa Chen -- a half-Vulcan -- makes a tenuous connection with them. But before any progress can be made, the Rhea comes under attack from the Einstein -- a Starfleet vessel now controlled by the Borg. The landing party can only listen in horror as their comrades are assimilated. The Borg descend to the planet, and just as Chen accepts that she will be assimilated, the lieutenant is whisked two thousand light-years away.

A quantum slipstream -- instantaneous transportation -- is controlled by these beings in the cluster, and in the heart of the cluster there is now a Borg ship. Cut off from the rest of the Borg collective, the Einstein cannot be allowed to rejoin it. For the sake of humanity, the Borg cannot gain access to quantum slipstream technology.

Starfleet Command gives Captain Picard carte blanche: do whatever he must to help the beings in the cluster, and stop the Einstein no matter the cost.