Coming soon from Star Trek Online

Cryptic Studios have released a "state of the game" report for Star Trek Online, mostly covering technical things of MMO terminology that goes right over my head. But the proper Trek bit I care about is hints of things to come, after the first update coming soon (presumably the very Borgy one announced not so long ago) they list the following as plans for the next 6-12 months:

-Who are the Undine and what drives them?
-How can they better exploit the Genesis System to create even more compelling content?
-Where can they boldly go next? Where shall they take exploratory missions, as there's so much potential there?
-Which faction should be playable next? Romulan? Cardassian? Pakled? Dominion? Horta?
-Ship interiors, more bridges, crew quarters, First Officers, and Fleet advancement...

UPDATE: Talking of the first update, massively has a run down fo the first few. Lots of Borg, and a few augments!

New Starfleet Academy and New Frontier

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with some new listings: The next New Frontier book will apparently be Resolutions, in January 2011. And in November this year we can expect two books by Rudy Josephs of a new Starfleet Academy series, described as "A new Starfleet Academy series for teens--filled with romance and adventure!"

The big question for me is; who's Academy? My first thought was that this was a nifty way to cash in on the new movie's young Trekkies, who will be eager to know more of the Academy days of the Kirk and co they know (and saw in the Academy) from said movie. Of course the recent new movie novel cancellations somewhat throws that out, but; the Academy days in the alternate reality are perhaps a safer playground for new material than stories set after the movie itself (and thus could be less likely to clash with the next film)... Another issue with this theory is the series page for these new books describes: "The voyages of the classic Enterprise, featuring Kirk, Spock, McCoy from the first TV series and the first six movies, set in the 23rd century." However that page also lists William Shatner's Academy novel, so could be out of date... Who knows? Not I!

New movie badges!

Qmx have started selling nifty little badge pins based on the new movie insignias, like this one:They have all the other departments too, check them out! According to TrekMovie Qmx also have plans for a model of the Enterprise, a phaser and little statues.

Movie Adaptation #1 preview

io9 has posted a five-page preview of this week's first issue of the Movie Adaptation comic. Here's a page with the Kelvin looking cool:You can see the rest, here, which include a deleted scene, owww! (And can we have a Kelvin series IDW, or book Pocket? Pleeeease)

Latest Aventine

Mark Rademaker has posted a video showing the first stages of his Mark II version of the Vesta class USS Aventine, looks like this:

Destiny, looking as epic as it should (in German)

Defcon Treklit has posted a draft cover for Cross Cult's German edition of Gods of Night, the first book in the Destiny trilogy:

Now that's more like it! I loved Destiny, but found the covers rather underwhelming for the biggest Star Trek novel event ever! Good job with the epicness Cross Cult!

UPDATE: From the Cross Cult Star Trek facebook group, the artist is Martin Frei.

Ghosts #4 preview

TrekMovie have posted a five-page preview of Ghosts issue four, here's one:See the rest, here.

Movie Adaptation #4 cover

David Messina has posted a higher resolution version of his cover for the forth issue of the movie adaptation comic on his blog:
On the original post you can also see two more versions at different stages of development.

K-7 box art

The Round Two blog has been updated with the posting of a new box art for this year's re-release of the AMT K-7 model kit. Looks like this:

Spock's German Relfection

Cross Cult's Star Trek novels facebook page has posted two new covers by David Messina for the German editions (paperback and hardcover) of Spock: Reflections, which they seem to be titling simply "Spock"

IDW May

Comics News i have posted IDW's solicitations for May, which include two Star Trek issues and an omnibus:
Star Trek Movie Adaptation #4

The official comics adaptation of the blockbuster film STAR TREK continues in this mini-series presented by J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman! Witness the final fate of Vulcan as Kirk and Spock battle the evil Romulan, Nero! Brought to you by the creative team behind the best-selling STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN, this series includes scenes not included in the original film!

Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #2

Doctor McCoy hates mysterious ailments. He also hates the transporter. Now he finds himself on a world beset with one, where the only means of getting around is the other. John Byrne’s tale set in the period before Star Trek: The Motion Picture continues here with two covers from Byrne.

Motion Picture Trilogy

Prepare to embark on an epic three-part adventure starring the legendary crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they sacrifice their lives, ship and freedom to save the universe from imminent destruction. Spanning across three motion pictures, the Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy is the ultimate story of heroism, duty and friendship that will thrill old and new fans alike. This collection includes IDW's 3-part adaptation of The Wrath of Khan, as well as digitally re-mastered and re-colored editions of The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

DST at the Toy Fair

Diamond Select Toys unveiled a handful of new Star Trek items at this year's New York Toy Fair: The long hinted at coming Klingon ship has been revealed to be a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, complete with landing gear!:

We also have a new scale of ship to look forward to with a minimate scaled shuttlecraft:

For collectors of larger and more archaic toys, there are four new Mego figures on the way; Captain Pike and Vina, Nurse Chapel, and the salt vampire:

And if you like your collectables at a real world scale, then how about a Klingon disruptor?:

Images from Cool Toy Review and The Mego Museum, and more can also be found at Action Figs.com.

Online's Undine

Massively have posted a feature on Star Trek Online's Undine (aka Species 8472), the article has the usual intelligence reports from Starfleet and Klingon points of view. A bunch of pictures, like this:And a video:

Check out the whole thing, here.

Fool's Gold #3 preview

TrekMovie have posted a five page preview of this week's third issue of Fool's Gold. Is that a triexian? Oh yes, it is! :DSee the full preview, here.

The Tipton Two’s TOS Titillation!

On his blog, Chris Ryall has announced the Tipton brothers are working on two new Star Trek projects for IDW, starting with a TOS series titled Burden of Knowledge, in June. Here's a cover for it by Michael Striblin:
And via TrekWeb, here are two interior pages, by Federica Manfredi:

John Byrne: Star Trek making machine

John Byrne has announced on his forums that he has just had THREE new Star Trek comic series green-lit by IDW! All three are set before TOS-proper. One will be the long awaited Assignment Earth second series, which will preceded by the other two; one of which will conclude at about the time Robert April takes command of the Enterprise.

Byrne has also posted a page from issue three of his soon to start Frontier Doctor series:He also commented on that issue and beyond: "...the third and fourth issues of FRONTIER DOCTOR we will be visiting a pre-refit Constitution class starpship that will show some of the modifications made to those old warhorses prior to their getting chopped and channeled. So the Bridge, for instance, will be familiar, and yet different -- much in the same way Pike's Bridge is like Kirk's, and yet not."

More ringship bits

Mark Rademaker has posted another little peak at his Ships of the Line ringship model:

The latest from Online

Fancy playing as a Federation Ferengi or Klingon? No problem, with just 80 or 240 "Cryptic points" respectively you now can!

Meanwhile TrekMovie have posted another set of intelligence reports, this time looking at the Borg, you can read them, here. They also have some new screencaps, and concept art. Look, Q!:

New book blurbs

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with two new blurbs:

Unspoken Truth
A social experiment was conceived. Its goal was to breed the best, the brightest, the most malleable and most loyal soldiers to ever serve. To this end, the Romulan Empire used its own children, blinded by the belief that anything that would bring glory to the praetor was justified. And when the winds of politics changed, these children were abandoned, left to die on a world so horrifying that it was dubbed—by those who dared to cling to life—Hellguard.

One wild child, Saavik, was rescued by Spock. He took the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan child home to his parents, knowing that if anyone could reach and rescue Saavik, it was them.

Now a Starfleet officer, Saavik has striven to honor her mentor and her Vulcan heritage. But recent events have shaken her. Left behind on Vulcan while the rest of the Enterprise crew goes to face court-martial for stealing and destroying their ship, the young science officer is adrift when two men from her past confront her. Tolek, another Hellguard survivor, tells Saavik that the survivors are being killed one-by-one and only they can discover who and why. The other, a Romulan who claims to be her father, swears it is the Vulcans who are eliminating the Hellguard survivors because they are an embarrassment to all of Vulcan, but that she has the power to stop it, by bringing down the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek.

Not knowing where to turn, not knowing whom to trust, Saavik must find her own answers, and discover who she truly is.

The Needs of the Many
Prior to the terror-filled times of the Long War—the seemingly endless struggle against the Undine, a paranoid, shape-shifting race once known only as Species 8472—enemy sleeper agents quietly penetrated every echelon of Federation society, as well as other starfaring civilizations throughout the Alpha and Beta quadrants. The ensuing conflict shook humanity to its very core, often placing its highest ideals against a pure survival instinct. All too frequently, the Undine War demanded the harshest of sacrifices and exacted the steepest of personal costs from the countless millions whose lives the great interdimensional clash forever altered.

Drawn from his exhaustive research and interviews, The Needs of the Many delivers a glimpse of Betar Prize–winning author Jake Sisko’s comprehensive "living history" of this tumultuous era. With collaborator Michael A. Martin, Sisko illuminates an often-poorly-understood time, an age marked indelibly by both fear and courage—not to mention the willingness of multitudes of unsung heroes who became the living embodiment of the ancient Vulcan philosopher Surak’s famous axiom, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Discovered by DarkHorizon on the TrekBBS.

Latest Star Trek Magazine

Is out now in the US, and soon in the UK. As Paul Simpson described on the TrekBBS it is duel focused on the Klingons and Star Trek Online. The Klingon sides has articles by a plethora of Trek novelists, and the Online side is by Marco Palmieri, with an illustrated version of The Path to 2409, and an excerpt from the Star Trek Online novel, The Needs of the Many.

TrekMovie has some preview of a couple of articles up, here.

And then Ships of the Line went and got even better

The Ships of the Line calendar is already one of my favourite Star Trek products, and I swear the images in it get better every year. So I might think how could it get any better? Well, this is how: On his blog Doug Drexler has revealed next year's calendar will feature a centerfold technical briefing sort of thing, with profiles of the calendar's new NX-class refit, and the old Enterprise ringship, as modelled by Mark Rademaker. Text on the page will be supplied by Mike Okuda. Here's the layout for the page at its current state of development:Now, just expand this into a book please...