New DVD and bluray collections

A couple of new DVD and bluray releases found on Amazon:

In the UK, May will see the release of a new complete TOS Bluray or DVD collection; featuring a single case with three fold-out holders, one for each season. Got to be the most shelf-friendly release of the series yet.

The US meanwhile gets the "franchise collection", DVD or bluray movie double packs coming in March. The first, includes The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home (if you for some reason dislike Search For Spock enough not to buy the trilogy set already out). And the second, for which there is so far not any box-art, will contain the odd combination of The Undiscovered Country and First Contact!

Once Burned (in Germany)

Cross Cult have released their latest new New Frontier artwork, this time for Once Burned:

Infinite Space news

IGN has posted an interview about the forthcoming browser game Infinite Space. Other than refreshing us on the basics (DS9 setting, played through a browser plug-in, out this year, free to play but with options to purchase extra features, etc) the article sheds some light on what the game will be like: All missions will available to play either as a single player or with friends. The game will feature both space-based missions, including exploration, and third person settings on starbases and in ships. There will be a significant element of developing your crew to properly maintain your ships systems. There will be missions for both Federation and Klingon factions, with some element of player vs player also planned.

The article also included some images from the game, here is a sampling:

 

 

GameForge has also recently releases a sample of the music to be used in the game:

Newslets

A mixed bag of little things:

Round 2 Models have announced they will not be going ahead with their planned model kit based on the new movie USS Enterprise.

The Star Trek Magazine will hence forth be available world-wide, rather than just the UK, Austrailia, New Zealand, USA and Canada.

And coming soon, you'll be able to hop straight out of the shower and into Starfleet uniform, with new Star Trek dressing gowns on the way, available modelled after Kirk and Spock's uniforms...

Comics update

Star Trek: Infestation #2 was out last week, and if you haven’t got it yet, startrek.com has a five-page-preview up, including this amazing cover:

Got to be one of IDW's best ever; can we have the Attack of the Killer-Tribbles comic to go with it?

With that issue out the Star Trek and Transformers parts of the event are over, with G.I. Joe and Ghost Busters to go before the concluding issue. And here is David Messina's cover for that issue:

You can see it before colouring too, on his blog.

Finally IDW's May solicitations are out, and once again there are no new Star Trek comics listed. They are re-releasing their Khan cuddly toy though...

Prose updates

Bunch of (exciting) book updates from the last couple of weeks:

Christopher L. Bennett has confirmed the DTI: Watching the Clock cover is in fact the final design. There had originally been consideration for including illustrations of the characters on it as well, but it was ultimately decided not to overcomplicate things. There is also this new blurb for the book on the Simon and Schuster website:

There's likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it's up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.

That's where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation's unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet's finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.

The Simon and Schuster website also now has an excerpt from the recently released Starfleet Academy book, The Edge. You can read it, here.

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has a cover and blurb up for the next New Frontier book, Blind Man's Bluff:

Captain MacKenzie Calhoun has faced incredible odds before, but nothing he has ever experienced could prepare him for the simultaneous threats from two of the most destructive forces he’s ever encountered. The first is the D’myurj—a mysterious and powerful alien race bent on either the complete domination of humanity or its destruction... a potentially massive risk to the very foundations of Starfleet, one that goes so deep it’s impossible to determine whom to trust. The second is even more alarming: Morgan Primus, once a living creature with a soul and a conscience, now an incredibly sophisticated computer simulation taking up residence within the very core of the U.S.S. Excalibur... and quickly becoming a growing menace for the Federation. MacKenzie Calhoun is playing a dangerous game as he attempts to outwit and outmaneuver these new enemies, with the fate of the Excalibur crew members and potentially the lives of billions at stake...

Dayton Ward and David Mack have both posted details for the Vanguard anthology Declassified. The following will be the contents:

• “Almost Tomorrow”, by Dayton Ward - Set before the first Vanguard novel, Harbinger, and the Corps of Engineers novella Distant Early Warning.
• “Hard News”, by Kevin Dilmore - Set just after the third novel, Reap the Whirlwind.
• “The Ruins of Noble Men”, by Marco Palmieri - Set after the fifth novel, Precipice, but telling a dual story through the use of flashbacks.
• “The Stars Look Down”, by David Mack - Set after Precipice.

And this is Doug Drexler's glorious cover:

Dayton Ward has also revealed the title for the next Vanguard novel will be titled What Judgments Come. (Disappointingly not The Taurus Key: A Crystalline Fairy Tale, Founded Upon The Mysteries of the Shedai and the Oppression of Their Servants. It Was Written for Kollotuul, But Others Should Read It.) And has been brought forward from December to the end of September (which probably makes it the October book).

And finally Cross Cult have been busy again, with new covers for their editions of New Frontier: The Quiet Place, and Enterprise: Kobayashi Maru:

 

Online updates

The latest from Star Trek Online

Blurbs are now up for most episodes of the latest feature episode series, Cloaked Intensions. New ones:

#2: Mine Enemy

The crew investigate claims of illegal weapon use on Hfihar only to uncover evidence of greater atrocities.

#3: Frozen

A tricky political situation must be resolved with quick thinking and a deal that could backfire.

#4: Coliseum

Trapped on an alien world, the captain is forced to fight in order to survive.

You can also see a trailer for the series, on startrek.com.

Elsewhere in the world of Online, Cryptic have released several "spotlight missions", made by players of the game in the new Foundry mission creator:

The Longing

A Federation colony is caught in the crossfire when, in their quest for perfection, the Borg come after a rather unique lifeform on the planet.

Crouching Ty’Gokor Hidden Demon

The High Council has ordered you to investigate Ty'Gokor, one of the most heavily fortified installations in the Klingon Empire. Strange energy readings have been reported and must be investigated at once.

The Syndicate Extraction

An operative with information about the Orion Syndicate needs to be extracted from a deep cover operation. Starfleet would like you to perform this task.

Unholy Alliances, Part I

A contact on Drozana Station has some disturbing information. A cadre of mercenaries, smugglers and pirates are selling crewmen as slave labor from several vessels they raided on the frontlines of the Klingon/Federation War.

And finally, more in the Cryptic store: new ships; Delta Flyer, and the always beautiful Vulcan D'kyr class:

 

New open neck uniforms:

And new melee weapons; the Seleya ceremonial lirpa and Kri'stak blade, a type of bat'leth:

 

Mega update #9: Miscellaneous

A few bits and bobs:

A fan of potatoes? Well you're in luck, coming in August are Star Trek Mr Potato heads from PPW Toys, styled after Captain Kirk and Kor. Check out startrek.com for some commentary on their development.

Like to customise your starships? Well you're lucky there too, in April Round 2 Models will be releasing set of decals for its 1:350 scale Constitution class refit model. Complete with lots of names and registrations for you to choose.

Enjoy well seasoned food? Good news here as well, you can now poor salt and pepper out of starships and senior Starfleet officers thanks to Westland Giftware. In addition to their Enterprise and shuttlecraft, and Kirk and Spock salt and pepper shaker sets they also have several Trek cookie jars, including a Spock shaped one!

Perhaps you'd like to dress with a hint of Trek too? Good news, Pull and Bear have a new license for T-shirts based on Star Trek The Animated Series.

And finally, for all those aspiring cadets out there; better hop over to the Starfleet Academy store, where you can find everything from SA pencils, to keychains, T-shirts, and mousepads. All decorated in your favourite Academy logos!

 

Mega update #8: Art

The ever productive Mark Rademaker has been blogging away at regular intervals in the last few months. My personal highlight was this detail view of his ringship Enterprise, pretty!:

You can see that, here, as well as a sketch for how the Ships of the Line image might of looked with the original deflector shield concept. You can also see updates from the Project Full Circle Ships, here, and here. And nice higher resolution pics of the Aventine too!

Meanwhile Doug Drexler has released what is (presumably) a preview image for next year's Ships of the Line: Landing Party, by Max Rem:

And on startrek.com a Drex Files video post sees some more Ships of the Line images animated, and as a bonus, Vanguard in motion too! Check it out, here.

Finally if you want some Trek-art for your home, no fewer than two companies are offering new ranges of print on demand wall stickers, available in sizes up to huge!

LTL Prints, who previously offered a range of QUOGs prints have now expanded out, with new sticker designs from across the Trekverse, with at least a few images from every series except Enterprise (and including TAS). The highlight I think has to be the range of movie poster prints, like these:

 

 

Check out the full range, here.

And company number two is a new player, Walls 360, who have launched their Star Trek offering with a variety of TOS specific graphics (and a greater proportion of neat graphical representations rather than the mostly screencap style images LTL are offering). The highlight of Walls 360 range has to be those derived from the Haynes manual, with both individual diagrams available as giant prints, and fantasy covers for individual items of technology!:

 

Check out this range, here. At some point soon I should have a couple of these to review and maybe even one or two to give away in a competition too!

Mega update #7: IDW

It's a bit of a quiet time on the Trek front from IDW. The end of last year saw just one series runnning, Khan Ruling in Hell, and following the current Star Trek element in the Infestation crossover we wont have any new Trek comics for at least a couple of months (the first time since IDW starting doing Trek comics a few years ago)!

TrekMovie talked to IDW about this and were reassured there was more Trek coming later this year:

IDW is not moving away from Star Trek. We’ve included it in our company-wide event, INFESTATION, and are working on some big things to start in the spring. There are several Star Trek books in the works. 

Those books apprently include stories form both the prime and new-movie timelines.

If you missed any of Khan you can find previews for the final three issues: here, here, and here.

Solicitations for the next few months:

February

Star Trek Infestation #1

The first-ever event in IDW Publishing’s history crosses over into the Star Trek universe with this two-part, bi-weekly series! A routine visit to a colony world takes a horrifying turn when Admiral Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy find themselves surrounded by hordes of the undead! Spinning out of the pages of last month’s INFESTATION, this series takes the crew of the Enterprise into a dark and deadly new direction!

Star Trek Infestation #2

The second chapter of a bi-weekly Infestation tie-in! Admiral Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy fight for their lives against mobs of zombie colonists! Will they be able to prevent the Infestation from spreading throughout the Federation? And will they discover the greater threat behind the undead invasion in time to save themselves?!

March

Captain's Log omnibus

The most legendary captains of Starfleet get their due in this collection of five standalone tales! See how Captains Pike, Sulu, Harriman, and Jellico handle the responsibilities and challenges they face as Starfleet Captains.

April

Infestation #2

IDW's first-ever mega event ends here! Britt has returned from the universes of TRANSFORMERS, GHOSTBUSTERS, G.I. JOE and STAR TREK, armed with new technology that will spread the Infestation across all known realities. Zombie apocalypse looms and the remaining members of CVO are running out of options... humanity's last hope may be a risky sacrifice that could alter the IDW universe forever!

Khan: Ruling in Hell omnibus

When the most infamous villain in Star Trek history is last seen in the Original Series episode "Space Seed," Khan Noonien Singh's an elegant, proud warrior-king. When he's next seen in Star Trek II, he's a grizzled maniac, twisted by loss and an unquenchable thirst for revenge. What has happened between these two points in time to so radically alter what seemed to be an unbreakable will? That story is finally told!

Countdown #1 100 penny reprint

Our line of affordable reprints continues with the prequel to the blockbuster film from Paramount Pictures! JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman present the origin of Nero, the mysterious Romulan who will ultimately threaten the survival of the entire universe.

And finally with Infestation now begun, and the Star Trek section starting this week, there are lots of previews about! From Infestation #1 preview pages before colouring, and after. From Star Trek Infestation, three pages to get you going. Some character designs from David Messina. And a zombie-McCoy by J.K. Woodward, which appeared in the retale incentive Infestation Sketchbook. There's also a Comic Book Resources interview with Scott and David Tipton on their work on the Star Trek issues. They noted the choice of setting:

...one choice we did make was to use a slightly later incarnation of the Classic crew, as seen in ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture.’ This was done in part in the hopes of setting the stage for future stories to be told in that period, which has long been a favorite of ours, and also because that 1970s feel that's found in ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ seemed to be a good match for this more bleak kind of tale.