More Star Trek soundtracks on the way

According to The Flick Cast, La La Land Records have plans for more Star Trek soundtrack sets following the recent premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Volume One at the San Diego Comic Con. M.V. Gerhard of La La Land commented:

We plan on definitely doing at least one more volume of this, we have left overs from this. And Deep Space Nine will probably come next

Rise Like Lions cover update

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has updated its listing for Rise Like Lions, with a new version of the cover. It's more or less the same as the last version released, but swaps the photo of Picard for a nearly identical illustrated version, and shifts the title down slightly, removing the "Cover Not Final" bar, although it is, for now, still marked as not final on the catalogue page.

IDW October solicitations

Comics Continuum have posted IDW's solicitations for October, which include two Star Trek titles:

Star Trek (ongoing) #2
Written by Mike Johnson, art by Stephen Molnar, covers by Tim Bradstreet, Joe Corroney.

The lead-up to 2012's Star Trek sequel continues here! Kirk and Spock face off against one of their own when crewman Gary Mitchell is possessed by an entity of unfathomable power. The next chapter in the adventures of the Starship Enterprise, a creative collaboration with Star Trek writer/producer Roberto Orci!

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Written by Chris Roberson, art by Jeffrey Moy, covers by Phil Jimenez, Keith Giffen.

The pairing you never thought could happen! IDW Publishing and DC Comics are proud to present the greatest tale of the 23rd century! Or is that the 31st century? As you'll see here, it's both. Eisner-nominated writer Chris Roberson and Star Trek and Legionnaires veteran artist Jeffrey Moy partner up to bring you the most bizarre partnership of any century! In this first issue, a group of Legionnaires end up lost in the 23rd century, but it's a universe that isn't familiar to either the Legion or the crew of the USS Enterprise! 

 

Inside the Book of Opposites

Thanks to Amazon's search inside feature, here are some pages from Quirk Books' forthcoming quirky book, Star Trek Book of Opposites:

 

 

Doesn't it look charming!

Check out Germany's cool new steelbook release of the 2009 movie

Germany has a new limited edition steelbook bluray release of the 2009 movie on the way, here's the pretty case:

Amazing how a transporter effect can make the thousandth viewing of the same promo shots more exciting!

Latest on TNG HD

The Digital Bits have reported the latest news on the TNG HD remastering project and bluray releases:

Multiple sources I spoke with at Comic-Con have also confirmed our report from earlier this year that CBS is hard at work on Star Trek: The Next Generation - Remastered for Blu-ray release starting sometime in 2012. The latest word is that 4 test episodes are currently being worked on for release as a sampler/demo BD disc of the project, and that sampler disc will somehow be available to fans by the end of this year.

The same report also mentioned Farscape is coming to bluray soon!

Picturing the USS Dauntless

Marco Palmieri has posted up the story of how the illustration of the USS Dauntless in the latest issue of the Star Trek Magazine came about. The ship, from Palmieri's story in Vanguard: Declassified, if another Masao Okazaki design, but the picture is by Thomas Pemberton; who was asked to contribute an existing image but made a new one especially instead:

Read the full story on Palmieri's blog.

Titan's Masterpiece Collection

As StarTrek.com have reported, Titan have been showing off their new Kirk and Picard busts from the forthcoming "Masterpiece Collection", at the San Diego Comic Con. Forbidden Planet have subsequently posted up some images of those two busts:

More views of the Enterprise-F, and the Aventine too!

Just spotted, that the version of the Star Trek Online dev. blog posted on the actual STO website (rather than the startrek.com one) has several other views of the final design. Plus this cool development patch!:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And while we're on the subject of shinny new ships, Mark Rademaker recently posted this new shot of the USS Aventine:

Ships and stations fans should check out the most recent edition of the Star Trek Magazine too. It's possibly the best edition yet, with features on the design of the original Enterprise, a look back at Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual, a look forward with new entries to the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, a feature on the design of ships and starbases from Vanguard (plus an illustrated excerpt from Declassified) and lots of other good stuff!

 

 

Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes crossover from IDW

IDW have announced their second Star Trek launch after this summer hiatus; starting in October will see the TV-era TOS crew crossover with DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes in a six-issue miniseries. Here's how IDW described the series in a press release:

STAR TREK/LEGION OF SUPERHEROES tells the tale of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise, who beam down to a planet only to discover that the planet isn’t their intended destination, or even in the right universe. At the same time, a group of “Great Darkness Saga” Legionnaires inside a time sphere find themselves cast into the 23rd century, but it’s not the 23rd century as they know it, either. STAR TREK/LEGION OF SUPERHEROES is a galaxy-spanning adventure that draws both teams together to face a menace that includes Khunds, Klingons, Borg, and other threats that aren’t quite as they should be. The egalitarian United Planets in one universe and a United Federation of Planets in another is now the Imperial Planets of Terra, a dark empire focused on war and conquest, and that’s just the beginning for this special series.

The series will be written by Chris Roberson, with art by Jeffrey Moy, inked by Philip Moy. As ever there will be a variety of covers, with Phil Jimenez providing covers for the entire series, plus covers from Legion of Super-Heroes artists such as Keith Giffen, Steve Lightle, and Mike Grell, and IDW talents such as Gabriel Rodriguez.

Comic Book Resources has posted an interview with Roberson about the series, here's how he describes the setup:

The crew of the Enterprise has returned to Earth so Kirk can give the commencement address at Starfleet Academy. Various other members of the bridge crew are beamed down to do other things, but when they materialize on the surface, it's not the Earth they know. Something has happened to history, and the universe at large, while they were dematerialized. Meanwhile, a group of Legionnaires are returning from an unseen mission in the past to the 31st century and run into an eddy in the timestream, and the time bubble they're in basically crash-lands in the 23rd century. But the 23rd century is not one they know from history, and they are immediately forced to deal with a very unfriendly population of a very changed Earth.

Roberson has compared the alternate reality story to something like the episode Mirror, Mirror, and explained:

In the altered universe they find themselves in, what's happened is that both of their histories have been obliterated by a change that's happened somewhere in the past. So the bifurcations that would have given rise to both their universes didn't happen. Elements of both their universes exist in this blended one.

STO: Enterprise-F and cadets

The final design of the Enterprise-F has been unveiled on StarTrek.com. It is apparently an Odyssey class cruiser, and is described thusly:

Odyssey class represents the next stage of Starfleet Cruiser design, emphasizing stability and firepower while allowing for versatility in exploration. In the Star Trek Online timeline of 2409, the galaxy is embroiled in war with numerous threats to peace and stability. This Enterprise is designed to carry a message of peace, as well as to show the strength of resolve that forms the foundation of the Federation.

UPDATE: Bigger picture, with more angles!

The Enterprise-F will be appearing in a future feature episode of Star Trek Online, and the class will be available to players of the game. The STO website also has a special page up with links to all the blogs on the design process of the Enterprise, have a look.

The Cryptic Store has also been updated with new cadet uniforms, they look like this:

Toys and models news

Several new Trek products have been announced in the last few days:

DST have announced the latest editions to their retro figure collection, shifting from TOS to TNG with Picard and a Borg:

QMx have announced a new original movie era USS Enterprise refit model, targeting the higher end of the market with an edition of just 250, coming in at nearly $5000 each! For that you get a 1:350 scale replica of the ship, complete with all sorts of lighting, fancy paint work and even some tiny interiors, like the shuttlebay and crew longue. QMx are also offering a bespoke customisation service, with the option to add suggestions in a comment box when ordering, which a concierge working with the customer to refine the customisation. Here are a few pictures; there are many more on QMx's website:

 

 

Meanwhile back with DST; StarTrek.com reports they have been showing off a Japanese import, a model of the USS Enterprise-D by Aoshima, which they're offering for about $170. The model has lots of lights, and saucer separation:

 

Hallmark 2012 first look

The nice people at Hallmark have provided a first look at their range of Star Trek Keepsake ornaments for 2012, including images of the prototypes. There will be three, continuing their popular range of ships, the Star Trek Legends series of recent years, and a little scene too:

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of TNG:

Star Trek Legends: Doctor McCoy:

And a scene from the new movie, Spock meets Spock:

These should also be available to view at the San Diego Comic Con this weekend. And for info on the 2011 range check out StarTrek.com's recent article, which has interviews with the designers.

Star Trek comics en Francais

Another foreign market has started to get their own editions of IDW Star Trek comics; since 2009 French publisher Delcourt began to trickle out Star Trek comics in France, with their fourth publication out a couple of months ago. Some of these books have "new" cover art, in that they use montages of different covers, sometimes even from other series. Here's what's been done so far:

La Tactique Romulienne

Published in October 2009 was John Byrne's Alien Spotlgiht: Romulans, this was Delcourts first and so far only single issue release, although it was actually released as a bonus extra with the DVD/bluray release of the 2009 Star Trek film.

Compte à Rebours

Also published in October 2009 came Delcout's version of tober 2009 Countdown.

Spock - Réflexions

In February 2010 came the French edition of IDW's 2009 series Spock: Reflections. The cover featured a montage of images by David A. Williams from retail incentive covers of the second and third issues of Spock: Reflections, plus the Enterprise-E by David Messina from interior pages of Countdown #2 and/or #4.

Leonard McCoy

Finally this April brought Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor, John Byrne's 2010 series. The cover is a montage, using Joe Corroney's images of Kirk and McCoy from the cover of Burden of Knowledge #4.

For less recent French comics make your way over to my other blog, the 8of5 Archive, where I have compiled a history of French Star Trek comics from the 60s right up to these new ones.

Rubies' technicolored phasers

I've stumbled acorss one of these before, and today I found Rubies Costumes has a whole range of brightly coloured (for "safety"?) phaser costume props dating back to 2009. There are two available based on the new film. An orange and white Starfleet phaser:

And an orange and white Romulan disruptor:

And there are two versions of the TOS phaser, available in orange and white, or in blue!: