New (and decidedly unfinal) covers

The Simon and Schuster digital catalogue has been updated with new covers for Raise the Dawn and Fallen Gods. Both are marked as not final, and are noticeably so: With Raise the Dawn featuring the inaccurate series title, Chains of Destiny (when it should be Typhon Pact), and Fallen Gods having the Enterprise-E (which could be accurate for all we know I suppose...). The artwork for Raise the Dawn seems consistent with what we've seen for Plagues of Night, and seems to be showing what could be the construction of the new shipyards in the Bajor system (cool!) :

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Latest Star Trek Tactics preview

Wizkids have released their latest preview for Star Trek Tactics, their next Star Trek HeroClix game launching in February. This time they're showing off a couple of TNG-era ships:

 

The four-ship starter pack is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com too. And if you're really keen you can also order a retail ready box of the individual booster-ships, containing twelve random ships (of a total of twenty).

Star Trek (ongoing) #4 preview

Comics Continuum have posted previews of this week's IDW comics, including eight pages from this week's fourth issue of the Star Trek ongoing series; part two of The Galileo Seven. Here's the first page (the rest are after the jump):

New features for STO's Enterprise-F

Star Trek Online's starship artist has been tweeting away about some new part of the Enterprise-F design, including this nifty little auxiliary craft that clips into the back of the engineering hull:

You can see it spinning, and it's nacelles sliding in and out here:

And here's what it looks like docked:

 

Unrelated to that little ship, its big brother also does saucer separating it seems:

 

New cover for Plagues of Night

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a new cover for Plagues of Night; the first book in David R. George III's Typhon Pact duology:

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Thankfully they seem to have dropped the horrible floating heads that did so little justice to the first Typhon Pact books.

Star Trek 2's 3D

I was excited to hear that the next Star Trek film would be shot in 3D, until I heard, via an interview with J.J. Abrams by MTV, that it will in fact be shot in 2D and converted:

We're shooting on film, 2-D, and then we'll do a good high-end conversion like the 'Harry Potter' movie and all that. Luckily, with our release date now we have the months needed to do it right because if you rush it, it never looks good.

Oh well, I'll look forward to real 3D cinema from The Hobbit, and enjoy Star Trek in its native two dimensions. There's some better news though, Abrams is keen on IMAXing it:

We were talking about [shooting in IMAX] and I would love to do it. IMAX is my favorite format; I'm a huge fan.

Star Trek Tactics preview

Wizkids have released their first preview of their next Star Trek game, Tactics. The new game will be launching in February with a four-ship starter pack and individual ship boosters; allowing you to grow your fleet up to twenty different ships. This first preview shows of the ships (and their special abilities) from the starter pack:

 

 

New Storming Heaven blurb

Simon and Schuster have updated their listing for the next and last Vanguard novel, Storming Heaven, with a new blurb; which sounds a bit more final and a lot more dramatic!:

“I WAS THERE UNTIL THE END, MATE. THE BITTER, BLOODY END.”

Vanguard is under siege. Surrounded by enemies, Admiral Nogura sends the scout ship Sagittarius to find an ancient weapon that might be the Federation’s only hope of stopping the alien threat known as the Shedai . . . Qo’noS is wracked by scandal. Councillor Gorkon fights to expose a Romulan plot to corrupt members of the Klingon High Council, only to learn the hard way that crusaders have few allies, and even fewer friends . . . Tholia teeters on the brink of madness. To prevent Starfleet from wielding the Shedai’s power as its own, the Tholians deploy an armada with one mission: Kill the Shedai—by destroying Vanguard.

THE EPIC SAGA’S EXPLOSIVE FINALE

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

8of5 on social networks

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Star Trek (ongoing) #6 cover art

Tim Bradstreet has released his cover art work for Star Trek (ongoing) #6. Which we have seen before, with the titles, when the February solicitations were released; but as it's my favourite ongoing cover so far I think it's worth enjoying the pretty picture:

Project Cutaway: USS Enterprise

While trying to find box art for Revell's recently released TOS Enterprise and Klingon D7 model kits (see later in article) I came across something far more intriguing. This poster, displayed at a Germany modelling event in February:

A new Star Trek cutaway model? The TOS Enterprise has been done before by AMT, but that's still intriguing. Project Cutaway is a range of cutaway models from Dragon Models, which has just launched, and will include aircraft, real world spacecraft and even architectural monuments such as the Coliseum. You can see various examples on Dragon's website, including the first model in the range, a 747:

Looks quite cool to me, and also done differently the the previous AMT cutaway Enterprise. So I hope this is still coming some time.

I did also manage to find the box art I was originally looking for, though it is disappointingly unspectacular:

 

Star Trek Classics 3

Amazon.com has revealed the third book in IDW's Star Trek Classics series, and once more it's a duplicate of a previous Wildstorm Comics omnibus; this time the Voyager themed Encounters with the Unknown.

Contained within will be: the Borgy False Colors; Avalon Rising, a Medieval prime directive tale featuring the Doctor; Elite Force, a comic adaptation of the popular game; and an encounter with a doomsday machine in Planet Killer.

Amazon say it will be out at the end of May.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca.

Cool covers for new and forthcoming IDW comics

Joe Corroney has posted on his Facebook page his cover art for the forthcoming fourth issue of the Star Trek ongoing series, which continues his series of cool retro recruitment posters:

You can see the sketch version of this, featuring Spock and Kirk, here.

Meanwhile this week's release of the third issue of Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes also featured a cool variant cover: This one continuing the Gabriel Rodriguez series with one character from each half of the crossover, but with Mario Alberti providing the charter art on top of Rodriguez's background - This time featuring Uhura and Shadow Lass:

2013's Star Trek calendars

Following Doug Drexler's reveal that a new publisher will be taking over Star Trek calendars for the 2013 year onward, I have been in contact with Rizzoli to get the details on what's coming: Universe Publishing, one of Rizzoli's imprints, will be publishing four Star Trek calendars for 2013:

• Ships of the Line - Staying with the familiar image indulgent panoramic format, Ships of the Line will continue to showcase Star Trek art based around starships.
• The Original Series - The other stable of Star Trek calendars will also continue under Universe, though they will be taking the opportunity to refresh the look of the calendar, and are adding a Ships of the Line style centerfold featuring the Enterprise.
• Day to Day - A few years after the old "Stardate" calendar was replaced by a digital version, Universe will be reviving the daily Star Trek calendar. This boxed calendar will feature trivia and quotes from across the entire Trekverse, both prime reality and the new movie timeline.
• Captain's Log - This spiral bound engagement calendar will feature images, quotes, and trivia focusing on the Star Trek captains, and again will span the entire franchise, new and old.

We can look forward to seeing what these all look like some time in the spring.

IDW March solicitations

StarTrek.com has announced IDW's Star Trek titles for March, which inlcude the first original story in the onging series, the final issue of Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes, and a second "100-Page Spectacular". UPDATE: Solicitation blurbs and more cover details from IDW's full solicitations.

Star Trek (ongoing) #7: The Vendetta Conspiracy, Part One
By Mike Johnson, art by Joe Corroney, cover by Tim Bradstreet, plus Bradstreet sketch-cover and a photo-cover.

The adventures of the new crew of the Enterprise continue in this all new two-part story that takes place soon after the events of the last film! While Vulcans struggle to survive in the wake of their homeworld's destruction at the hands of rogue Romulans, and some Vulcans believe that the logical response can be summed up in one word: revenge!

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #6
By Chris Roberson, art by Jeffrey and Philip Moy, covers by Phil Jimenez, Jeffrey Moy, and J.K. Woodward.

It's all been building up to this. Captain Kirk, Cosmic Boy, and the rest of the timelost Legionnaires and Starfleet officers have reached the end of the line, and are confronted with the powerful forces which have unwritten their respective histories. But with half of their teams stranded in the past and the other half held prisoner in the future, what chance do they have of overcoming the odds and restoring the worlds they once knew?

Star Trek, Volume 1
By Mike Johnson, art by Stephen Molnar, cover by Tim Bradstreet

The adventures of the Starship Enterprise continue in this new story that picks up where the blockbuster 2009 film left off! Featuring the new cast of the film, these missions re-imagine the stories from the original series in the alternate timeline created by the film, along with new threats and characters never seen before! With creative collaboration from STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci, this new series begins the countdown to the much-anticipated movie sequel premiering in 2012.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular 2012
By Scott and David Tipton and Stuart Moore, art by Elena Casagrande and J.K. Woodward, cover by Joe Corroney

Several classic Star Trek  stories offer an exciting-and reasonably priced!-introduction to the exciting universe that is Star Trek. Including the origins of a tragic and heroic captain to a mischievous alien intent on causing mayhem, plus more!

New publisher for Ships of the Line

In part one (of two) of an interview with StarTrek.com Doug Drexler has revealed the Ships of the Line calendar is on its last year with Pocket Books (and Andrews McMeel Publishing?) as Rizzoli will become the publisher for the 2013 edition onwards. Drexler also revealed it was only down to the efforts of him and his band of artists that Rizzoli didn't kick off their run with a best-of-old-stuff edition:

Rizzoli is the new publisher. Pocket Books is not continuing on. I don’t know exactly the reason. All I know is that their licensing agreement with CBS came up again and it didn’t survive through that. So, Rizzoli has picked it up. Their publishing schedule is totally different from Pocket Books’. If it was Pocket, we would have until March to finish the image. But Rizzoli just got the license and there wasn’t enough time. Their thought, was, “Let’s do a Best of….” issue.

Now, frankly, when you’re making a transition like that it’s really important how you look when you come out the other side. You can’t look like a retread. So I talked to my buddies who work on the calendar and I said, “Look, they want to do a rerun thing. Personally, I’m not going to do that; I’m going to create new art for the rerun price, and you guys are free to do that as well if you want. I hope you will.” And everyone just jumped in. We actually got the calendar together in about three weeks. I think it’s one of the best-looking calendars yet. So, sometimes extra-cool stuff comes out of adversity. I’m real excited about it.

No news yet on what effect this will have on the other Star Trek calendars. We look in fairly safe hands though; Rizzoli's output for this years includes tie-ins such as Buffy, Smallville, and True Blood calendars, as well as more creative subjects such as a zombie calendar, or the glow-in-the-dark lunar calendar.

Complete Voyage Home soundtrack on the way

Bringing us another eleventh closer to a full Star Trek movie complete soundtrack collection, Intrada have announced they will shortly be releasing the complete soundtrack from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Almost seventy-three minutes of music include the complete score, the punky "I Hate You" track, plus unused cues such as a new arrangement of the original series theme.

Here's how Intrada describe it:

World premiere release of complete Leonard Rosenman score to all-time classic fourth installment of legendary STAR TREK feature-film franchise, starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, directed by Nimoy. Intrada presentation is part of current ongoing CD restoration series of complete STAR TREK film soundtracks being overseen by Paramount, this one through courtesy of both Paramount, UMG. (Other titles appear on Film Score Monthly, La-La Land labels.) Time travel, whales feature in this particular movie, Rosenman draws inspiration from both in exciting score. Musical ideas are sometimes energetic, exciting, sometimes cerebral, complex. Rosenman even gives thematic attention to Chekov, a franchise rarity! Complete Intrada CD restoration offers full score with previously unreleased cues, versions appearing on 1986 MCA album plus several alternates including Rosenman's unused take on famous Alexander Courage TV theme. Fun to hear Rosenman's own signature brass "pyramid" at climax of Courage's melody! CD even includes wild "I Hate You" by Kirk Thatcher, Mark Mangini that annoys Star Trek crew on San Francsico bus ride. Production by Lukas Kendall, mix & assembly by Mike Matessino plus definitive liner notes by Jeff Bond round out stellar package, itself designed by Joe Sikoryak to comfortably fit in with other STAR TREK feature soundtrack restorations. Leonard Rosenman conducts.

You can see the full track listing, listen to samples, and order your copy, on Intrada's website.

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #3 preview

Comic Book Resources has posted a seven page preview of Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #3, which is out this week. The two groups of good-guys finally meet up, and as fans of both series predicted, the meeting of Spock and Brainic 5's minds does not disappoint. Here's the first page:

More pages after the jump:

Trek toy news from DST

It's been a long time since we've had any news from Diamond Select Toys about Star Trek stuff; Art Asylum's latest Q and A confirms they're still in the Trek game, and that some of the new products announced a year or two ago are still on the way, as part of a "steady stream" of Trek things in the next couple of years:

Honestly LOTS of Trek work is going on behind the scenes right now, might not be what each fan wants us to do but I expect a decent amount of Trek output from DST over the next couple years.

The answers confirm that the Excelsior class and Klingon Bird-of-Prey ship models are still on the way, plus some new ships being developed with a Japanese company:

YES over the last year we have been working with some Japanese companies on Trek ships and you should all see the results of that soon.

They are also continuing to work on the Klingon disruptor, but it's more behind than the new ships. Re-issues of older ships are also being considered.

Star Trek game screencap

Digital Extremes have released a new screenshot from the forthcoming new-movieverse game, which apparently still on track for release next year:

Nice to see they're using the same design of phaser rifle that was recently introduced in the Star Trek ongoing comic.

UPDATE: Giant Bomb has posted several more images, including this cool concept art for a creature encounter in what is labelled the "contagion cavern":

The other images are screenshots, one of which is apparently a Vulcan colony:

 

 

 

 

24 hours of relaxing Enterprise-D ambience

An insane/ingenious trekkie has made a loop of Enterprise-D ambient noise. I wish my laptop sounded more like this than the jet-plane impression it insists on...

Another insane/ingenious trekkie has made it into an mp3 file.

Trio of new Trek novel blurbs

Simon and Schuster have updated their listings with three new blurbs for forthcoming Star Trek books (all of which sounds amazing!):

Typhon Pact: Raise the Dawn

An all-new novel set in the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

After the disastrous events in the Bajoran system, Captain Benjamin Sisko must confront the consequences of the recent choices he has made in his life. At the same time, the United Federation of Planets and its Khitomer Accords allies have come to the brink of war with the Typhon Pact.While factions within the Pact unsuccessfully used the recent gestures of goodwill—the opening of borders and a joint Federation-Romulan exploratory mission—to develop quantum-slipstream drive, they have not given up their goals. Employing a broad range of assets, from Romulus to Cardassia, from Ab-Tzenketh to Bajor, they embark on a dangerous new plan to acquire the technology they need to take control of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. While UFP President Bacco and Romulan Praetor Kamemor work feverishly to reestablish peace, Captains Sisko, Jean-Luc Picard, and Ro Laren stand on the front lines of the conflict...even as a new danger threatens the Bajoran wormhole as it once more becomes a flashpoint of galactic history.

           Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Titan: Fallen Gods

The Starship Titan continues on her outward voyage of discovery in this latest exciting novel.

Though the Federation still reels from Andor’s political decision that will forever affect the Federation, Captain William T. Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan are carrying out Starfleet’s renewed commitment to deep space exploration. While continuing to search the Beta Quadrant’s unknown expanses for an ancient civilization’s long-lost quick-terraforming technology—a potential boon to many Borg-ravaged worlds across the Federation and beyond—Titan’s science specialists encounter the planet Ta’ith, home to the remnant of a once-great society that may hold the very secrets they seek. But this questalso takes Titan perilously close to the deadly Vela Pulsar, the galaxy’s most prolific source of lethal radiation, potentially jeopardizing both Titan and what remains of the Ta’ithan civilization. Meanwhile, Riker finds himself on a collision course with theFederation Council and the Andorian government, both of which intend to deprive Titan of its Andorian crewmembers. And one of those Andorians—Lieutenant Pava Ek’Noor sh’Aqabaa—uncovers a terrible danger that has been hiding in plain sight for more than two centuries....

           Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Voyager: The Eternal Tide

An all-new novel that continues the epic saga of the Starship Voyager!

As the Voyager fleet continues its exploration of the Delta Quadrant, investigating the current status of sectors formerly controlled by the Borg becomes the fleet’s priority. Two of the fleet’s special mission vessels, Galen and Demeter are left at New Talax to aid Neelix’s people while Voyager, Quirinal, Esquiline, Hawking, and Curie move out to do a systematic search for any remnants of the Borg or Caeliar. Achilles moves to a location central enough to offer aid to the exploring vessels as needed.

As this mission begins, Fleet Commander Afsarah Eden, who has shared what little she knows of her mysterious past with Captain Chakotay, begins to experience several more “awakenings” as she encounters artifacts, people, and places that make her feel connected to her long lost home. She is reluctant to allow these to overshadow her mission, but this becomes increasingly difficult as time passes….

           Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Starfleet issue iphones

If being a communicator just isn't enough for your iphone, then they're in luck as they can now sign up to Starfleet and don the uniform, thanks to Think Geek's new glitter-infused Starfleet uniform style iphone cases - Or silvery mirror universe case for any evil phones out there:

Guide to the Gorn

IDW’s reprint of The Gorn Crisis came out this week, and Hollywood Collectables’ new Gorn statue is out too soon. Together with the Gorn’s growing presence in Trek literature, as part of the Typhon Pact, is seems like a good time to celebrate everyone’s favourite Trek reptiles (sorry Xindi).

The Gorn first appeared in 1967 in the first season TOS episode, Arena - A classic TOS morality tale, where what at first seems to be an unprovoked attack from an aggressive alien race, turns out to be a reaction to the Federation unknowingly invading their territory. The rubbery costume, designed by Wah Ming Chang, became an instant icon of Star Trek; perhaps equally loved and ridiculed to this day. That design got a minor update in 2006 when the remastered episode of Arena first aired; adding blinking eyelids to give a bit more life to the otherwise inanimate face.

The Gorn appeared twice more on screen: as a background character in the TAS episode The Time Trap, and more recently in the two-part mirror universe episode of Enterprise, In a Mirror, Darkly. The Enterprise version of the Gorn updated the design, using CGI to make a much more agile creature. This version also removed one of the more unique elements of the design; the metallic compound eyes, replaced with more typical reptilian eyes.

The new CGI Gorn from Enterprise.

A Gorn, or something Gorn inspired at least, almost made it into the new Star Trek movie too, but didn’t make the final cut:

Gorn inspired concept, from Star Trek: The Art of the Film.

But that is of course no end to the Gorn, because like any good Star Trek subject, they have appeared many a time in books, comics, and games.

The aforementioned, The Gorn Crisis, is probably the most intensively Gornish comic. Originally published in hardcover by WildStorm Comics in 2001, it features lavishly painted artwork by Igor Kordey. The story sees the Enterprise-E on a mission to the Gorn homeworld, hoping to enlist the Gorn in the fight against the Dominion, but ending up embroiled in a coup by a military faction.

Earlier Marvel Comics published the Gorn-centric Dying of the Light, one of two stories in the first issue of their Star Trek: Unlimited series. This story sees Kirk and the original Gorn captain from Arena coming face to face again when a Federation anthropologist defiles an ancient Gorn funeral planet.

More recently IDW have gone Gorn with an Alien Spotlight dedicated to the race, seeing yet another misunderstanding with Starfleet on a Gorn planet, this time in the TOS movie era, featuring the pre-Wrath of Kahn crew of the Reliant. The Gorn also appear in the finale of the Burden of Knowledge series, where are a whole army of cloned Gorn face off against other cloned beings.

In Star Trek prose the Gorn are playing a big role in the leading edge of 24th century stories as part of the Federation’s new adversary, the Typhon Pact. Exploring their role in that alliance is, Seize the Fire, featuring a deep space encounter between the Gorn and the USS Titan, and exploration of the various Gorn castes - Some of which have been previously hinted at in other books and comics, but this novel really fleshes it out, and factors in the variety of Gorn physiology seen between TOS and Enterprise.

The Gorn have previously featured in the TNG novel Requiem, which sees Captain Picard lost back in time on Cestus III, the planet the Gorn attacked back in Arena. The Gorn also turned up in the SCE novella Where Time Stands Still, a sequel to the TAS episode they previously appeared in.

In the world of Star Trek games the Gorn featured as major race in the Starfleet Command series. In Star Trek Online the Gorn of the 25th century have become subjects of the Klingon Empire, one of several other species available to play in the Klingon part of the game.

If reading about, or virtual play with, Gorn isn’t enough for you, there are also many Gorn toys to play with. Perhaps most notoriously the first Gorn figure came from Mego; but rather than bother to make something truly Gorny, they recycled the mould from a super hero lizard figure, made it brown, and gave it the costume from their Klingon figure! When DST more recently began making reproductions of the Mego figures, rather than recreate this non-Gorn, they made a whole new Mego-style Gorn figure, which actually looks like a Gorn!

The original and remade Mego Gorns

Plenty of other toy and collectable makers have done their own Gorn since. The best has to be DST’s version, which is superbly sculpted. The original is a bit pricey these days, but there’s a more recent reissue, partnered with battle damaged kirk!

A variety of Gorn figurines: Playmates 5" and 12" toys, DST's version with battle damaged Kirk, The first 3" minimates Gorn and the later 2" version, Funko's Wacky Wobbler and Nodniks Gorn, and the new Hollywood Collectables statue.

And if playing with little Gorns just isn’t enough for you, then you can always be one yourself, with this handy Gorn mask: