Another Cross Cult New Frontier character image

Those busy people at Cross Cult have released yet another New Frontier character illustration. This time Burgoyne 172:

More Infinite Space

GameForge has launched a website for its forthcoming browser game Star Trek: Infinite Space. There's not much there yet, but the information section reveals the game will feature two factions, either Federation and Klingon; and the game's story will be written by Lee Sheldon, a game designer, author and producer, who's credits including producing several TNG episodes and writing the episode Remember Me.

You can also sign up to test the game, starting this year, prior to release next summer.

The site also has a couple of new concept art images:

 

Haynes Manual preview, and something new in the works?

StarTrek.com have posted an interview with the Haynes Enterprise Manual's author Ben Robinson. The interview highlights how Robinson hopes the book will be a little more accessible than previous similar books which have been a bit, intense. It also discusses how he worked with co-author Marcus Riley, and Michael Okuda; Robinson wrote most of the chapters, with Riley taking on the Enterprise-D, and then both authors working on revisions after Okuda's consultation.

The NX-01 sections sound very promising:

I have to say that the single most satisfying chapter was the NX-01, and a lot of the credit for that should go to Doug Drexler, who designed it. Doug was amazingly generous with his time and pulled out sketches and diagrams from his files that revealed all sorts of things he'd put into the ship that never made it on to screen. That ship's incredibly well thought-out and there's masses of fantastic detail that we were able to include in the book.

My highlight of the interview though is this tease at something else on the way:

I still have a full-time job working for the company who produced the Fact Files. We do a lot of 007 and Doctor Who publishing and we've got some top-secret Trek stuff in the pipeline that I think will make a lot of people very happy.

There's also a new preview page:

The book is out just about now. (Amazon.co.uk tells me mine is "Dispatching Soon", can't wait!)

Infinite Space trailer

GameForge has released a trailer for their DS9 based game, coming next year:

German New Frontier cover

Cross Cult has released their first proper New Frontier cover art on their facebook page; for the second of their New Frontier books (which I believe will in fact contain the third and fourth books as published in English). The sword on the left will apparently be a recurring feature on Cross Cults New Frontier covers, somewhat like the vertically orientated TITAN, on Titan books.

They have also released a couple more of their individual characters art works:

UPDATE: One more:

Khan #2 preview

Fabio Mantovani has posted three pages of his artwork for the forthcoming second issue of Khan: Ruling in Hell. Here's one page:

You can see the rest, here in colour, or here before colouring.

IDW January

Comics Continuum have posted IDW's solicitations for January next year. This month sees the final issue of Khan: Ruling in Hell, and the first issue of the Infestation crossover. Outside the Trekverse this month also marks the launch of IDW's second Jurassic Park series, by John Byrne!

Khan: Ruling in Hell #4

It's all-out war on Ceti Alpha V! Reeling from last issue's devastating loss, Khan Noonien Singh rallies his troops for the ultimate battle for control of their world! The final missing piece of Khan's life between "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is at last revealed!

Infestation #1

It begins here! The first-ever IDW event, which affects the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, and Star Trek universes! This dimensions-spanning storyline begins with a specially priced 40-page story. Something goes horribly awry in the Zombies vs Robots universe, threatening to tear many of IDW's biggest realities asunder!

Latest STO ships

The Star Trek Online Cryptic Store has been updated with two new ships. The classic Federation Nebula class, and a new Vor'cha variant, the Tor'Kaht class.

 

Journey to Babel poster

Mondo prints are releasing their latest Star Trek poster any moment. This one is based on Journey to Babel, and there will be 260 copies available. Good luck catching one before they sell out!

Mondo have also posted a short commentary by the artist, Tom Whalen.

Another Zero Sum Game excerpt!

Tor.com has released another extract from Zero Sum Game the first Typhon Pact novel, which is appearing about now. With other excerpts you can read the first three chapters, even if you don't have the book yet!:

Chapter 1: Simon and Schuster
Chapter 2: Tor.com
Chapter 3: Star Trek Magazine

Zero Sum Game excerpt

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with an extract from the soon-to-be-released first novel in the Typhon Pact series, Zero Sum Game. You can read it, here.

New statues on the way

Hollywood Collectables Group have obtained a new license to produce Star Trek statues. Their license spans all the way from the original series to the new movie, with their first offering being a TOS Captain Kirk in command chair. The statue is available in two editions, a standard edition, limited to 600 units. And an exclusive edition of 150 from Hollywood Collectables Group which includes a captain's log book and set of data cards.

 

The Kirk statues will be shipping early next year, with a TOS Spock to follow. Source: TrekMovie.

New Hot Wheels ships

Costco have got themselves an exclusive collection of Star Trek toys on sale, the Star Trek Ultimate Fan Pack includes a copy of the Star Trek SceneIt and six Hot Wheels models ships, all new molds or paint jobs:


Enterprise NX-01, first release of the mold:

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) tv era, first release of the mold:

HMS Bounty, repaint of previously released generic Bird of Prey:

USS Saratoga, repaint of mold previously released as the Reliant (both clean and battle damaged):

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), Undiscovered Country battle damage. Repaint of mold previously release as a the Enterprise (both clean and battle damaged), first time as the A:

The Narada, first release of the mold:

Source: StarTrek.com

Shattered Light blurb

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated again, this time with the first blurb for the next Myriad Universes anthology, Shattered Light. It goes like this:

It’s been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible out­comes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a shattered prism—broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been . . . is what actually occurred.

THE EMBRACE OF COLD ARCHITECTS. “Mister Worf—fire.” With thosewords, William T. Riker defeated the Borg—and destroyed Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Now, a heartsore Captain Riker must carry on the legacy of thecommanding officer and friend whose death he ordered. But crises face himat every turn, from Cardassian aggression to the return of Data’s creator,Noonien Soong. But it is Data’s creation of a daughter, Lal, that may prove to beeveryone’s undoing. . . .

THE TEARS OF ERIDANUS. Commander Hikaru Sulu of the Kumari—finest ship of the Interstellar Guard, the military arm of the Interstellar Union that includes Andor, Earth, and Tellar—is sent to rescue an observation team on a primitive desert planet. The world has many names—40 Eridani A-II, Minshara, T’Khasi, Vulcan—and its savage natives have taken the team hostage, including Sulu’s daughter, Demora. Even as Captain Sulu negotiates with the fierce T’Pau, Demora meets the elderly S’oval, and with him the only hope for the planet’s future. . . .

HONOR IN THE NIGHT. Former Federation president Nilz Baris has died. After losing Sherman’s Planet to the Klingons thanks to poisoned quadrotriticale, the agriculture undersecretary parlayed that defeat into years of political battles with the Klingon Empire, and eventually the Federation’s highest office. Now, the Federation News Service wants the story of his life, a quest that digs up many secrets—including the mystery of why his final words were “Arne Darvin.”

Infestation details!

IDW have announced the details of the Infestation crossover event running early next year. Starting weekly from the late January until the beginning of April the series will consist of a two-part framing story and then a series of two-issue blocks for each of the licensed properties involved.

-Infestation #1, January 19.
-Transformers: Infestation #1 & #2, February 2 & 16.
-Star Trek: Infestation #1 & #2, February 9 & 23
-G.I. Joe: Infestation #1 & #2, March 2 & 16
-Ghostbusters: Infestation #1 & #2, March 9 & 23.
-Infestation #2, April 6.

The Infestation itself will be zombies, the sort seen in IDW's Zombie vs Robots series, IDW's Covert Vampire Operations series will also play a role. As reported by CBR IDW's editors describe the series as follows: "...we start in the IDW universe with a zombie outbreak of epic proportions. The threat is contained (or is it?), but not before it infests other realities - the realities of our licensed books. The individual series will show just how our intrepid heroes - folks like Optimus Prime, Dr. Peter Venkman, Mr. Spock, Baroness, and so many others - face down this new and obviously shocking threat, and their desperate efforts to stop it before it can completely consume - both literally and figuratively - their realities."

The crossover element will be from the IDW universe into each licensed universe, but not between those other universes. Although "there is a surprise licensed-based crossover into the IDW universe in 'Infestation' #2".

According to the CBR article the Star Trek element will be set in the TOS movie era (though both covers showcased - see below - show distinctly TV era styling).

The framing story will be written by Dan Abnett (of Early Voyages distinction) and Andy Lanning with art by David Messina. The Star Trek issues will be by Scott and David Tipton with art by Casey Maloney (TNG: The Space Between).

The series will be available in the usual array of covers, issues will also come with incentive embroidered patches featuring the logo from each participating series, and there will be 16-page sketchbook featuring zombified versions of characters from each of the involved series.

Here are the Trek related covers so far released:

You can see more of the other series covers and details on those issues on IDW's press release and the CBR article.

STO, now in cute

The latest edition to the Star Trek Online Cryptic Store is a Sehlat cub, isn't it cute:

Haynes Manual incites

StarTrek.com has posted an interview with the editor of the Haynes Enterprise Manual. The interview talks about the development of the book, and also clarifies its contents; it includes every prime timeline ship from the NX-01 to the Enterprise-E, and does have a section for alternate timeline Enterprises, which amongst others will touch upon the new movie version, but not go into great detail.

We take each ship in turn, so starting with NX-01 and ending with NCC-1701-E, and we have a full-ship cutaway of each one, gorgeous elevation renders, plus renders of key internal locations such as the bridge, transporter room, sickbay and so on. Each ship has a comprehensive systems overview and we discuss key developments that feature in its design compared with its predecessors and successors. We cover defensive systems, deflectors, shuttles, computer systems, crew facilities – pretty much every onboard system. Sadly though, we had to draw the line somewhere, and so we don’t cover things that aren’t nailed down. So no tricorders and no personal weapons, unfortunately.

The Abrams Enterprise, as we all know, is very obviously different externally and much less is known about it internally. There are perfectly valid reasons why the creators would not want anyone to invent or extrapolate based on what has been seen in just one movie. We had to respect that. But also, it’s a different timeline and this meant we had to think very carefully about how we handled it in a book that is firmly rooted in the prime timeline. However, we have a section in the book dedicated to Parallel Universes, in which we discuss alternate realities of which this is one.

The article also included this new preview image:

Shattered Light cover

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with the cover for the next Myriad Universes anthology, Shattered Light, out at the end of this year. It looks like this:

Film4's Star Trek weekend

In the UK the film channel FILM4 are going to have Star Trek weekend, starting on the 16th of October. To advertise it they have created a rather amusing trailer, which you can see, here. Check it out.

Star Trek stuff from Cafepress

Cafepress have launched a new Star Trek section of their custom print-on-nearly-anything-you-can-imagine website. The products are all fan designed (so get your thinking caps on Trek artists!); so there's so great stuff, but there's also some terrible stuff! Here are a few of my favourites:

Picard's mug

Red shirt badge

Tribbles on board

Girls’ best friend

Live long and prosper

Cuddly Khan Cover

In celebration of their first time presenting at the New York Comic Con IDW are going to offer several of their titles in limited variant covers at the convention, including Khan: Ruling in Hell, issue 1, with their cuddling Khan on the cover!

STO updates

Cryptic have listed details of their second series of weekly missions for Star Trek Online, The Devidians:

Thousands of Starfleet officers and KDF warriors have died in the battles in the Neutral Zone. The destruction has drawn the attention of the Devidians, unseen predators who use chaos as a cover for their kills. This time, however, their plans involve more than simple survival. You must stop them before they can change the face of the quadrant forever!

#1: Skirmish

An unexpected enemy returns when your ship is called to battle in the Neutral Zone.

#2: Spin the Wheel

A deep cover intelligence operative on Drozana Station needs your help. Dabo!

#3: What Lies Beneath

Something more than Devidians haunts the lower levels of a 200-year-old space station. Will you survive long enough to learn the truth?

#4: Everything Old Is New Again

Follow the mystery back to a place where everything is familiar, but nothing is the same. Get the help of a legend and find out what the Devidians have planned.

#5: Night of the Comet

Even help from old friends may not be enough to stop the Devidian threat in time.

They have also posted the latest Ask Cryptic feature. Highlights include concept art for Tholians:

 And a forthcoming borgified ship feature!

Infinte Space

GameForge has announced the first title for one of its browser-based Star Trek games. Coming next summer will be Star Trek: Infinite Space, a DS9 era game developed by Keen Games.

Sources: Gamastutra and TrekMovie.

Latest from Cross Cult (New Frontier and comics)

Cross Cult have released their latest New Frontier character image, it's Shelby:

On the comics front, my usual German informant, Jens Deffner of Unreality SF, has pointed me towards a Cross Cult forum post announcing their future plans for comics. After impressive sales of Countdown they have found further comic sales disappointing and will no longer be releasing series omnibuses. As an alternative they are considering doing much larger omnibuses instead, with four miniseries in a single limited edition hardcover book. They're seeing customer feedback on the idea on the forum post. The first book provisional could include Klingons: Blood Will Tell (TOS), Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor (TOS), Fool's Gold (DS9), and Turnaround (NF).