Next Wizkids Star Trek games is Tactics

Wizkids have announced their third Star Trek Heroclix game, a two-player game called Tactics. Here's how they describe it:

Star Trek HeroClix: Tactics puts you in command of Federation and Klingon vessels and is 100% compatible with the HeroClix core rules system. Tactics is intended as a standalone game system and will exist outside of the Modern and Golden Age tournament environments. What this mean is Tactics operates by the same rules and Powers and Abilities card that your standard HeroClix game is played with, but is meant to be played as its own game.

Tactics features more than 20 pre-painted ships from both the Federation and Klingon affiliations and will be available for sale in both a 4-Ship starter product and single figure boosters.

And here's a flyer for the game, which says the more-than-twenty ships are in fact twenty-eight ships (or thirty-two if the four in the starter pack are unique to that set?).

And here are some hgher res mock-ups of the Soverign and Negh'Var class from the game:

 

The starter set and individual ships are set for release in February. Even if you're not interested in the game this could be a good way to get some nice ship models.

First Star Trek ongoing omnibus coming in March

Amazon have a listing up for what appears to be the first omnibus for the Star Trek ongoing comic series. Currently sporting the imaginative title "Star Trek Volume 1", it's set for release in March. Based on the page count, and IDW's usual three-months-after-the-last-issue omnibus publications, I suspect this book will contain just the first four issues (I thought they might wait for six, but guess not).

More ways to die a trekkie

I can't quite believe that for the third time I am reporting on Star Trek themed funeral products (one and two), but here I am again telling you about Eternal Image's latest set of Star Trek caskets. The first time I posted about them (which included the best product they've done, the photon torpedo casket) I jested about preparing to go to Sto-vo-kor, but now it seems they're actually trying to tap into the Klingon market with a new Klingon styled casket:

Also available in Federation and Starfleet versions:

 

Nearly a new Star Trek part work

StarTrek.com has this week published a two part interview with designer Rick Sternbach (link and link), discussing his work on Star Trek and beyond. Their last question to him asked what he's been up to recently, and he offered tantalising news of a new Star Trek part-work magazine and model kit which we won't be getting:

I’ve recently finished up a year of work on a Star Trek project jointly produced by K. K. DeAgostini Japan and Midsummer Books U.K., which would have seen the creation of a large, very detailed, 28-inch-long model of the Enterprise-D, built over time with subscribers receiving a few hull parts and internal decks every week or so. Each issue of the subscription would have included blueprints and color pages related to missions, episodes, and technical briefings. The model project was cancelled, unfortunately, but some of the printed material - much of it brand new - may eventually see publication.

I hope the new content does find an output soon (never can there be too many Star Trek technical books), and the model sounds kind of interesting too; if it was building not just the usual outside of the ship, but the internal decks too?!

Star Trek Online pet Gekli

The latest addition to Star Trek Online's Cryptic Store is a Gekli, to follow your starship about as it explores strange new worlds. What's a Gekli? Why it's what they call the cosmozoan from Galaxy's Child apparently - In fact, according to the Star Trek Online wiki, they've also decided the Gekli are from Fluidic Space.

Here's how they describe the pet Gekli:

Ever wanted to have a little "Junior" following your ship happily munching on spare power from your ship's fusion generators? Now you can! This infant Gekli will accompany you from Risa to Fluidic Space and explore the galaxy by your side.

And the next Titan novel is...

StarTrek.com has posted the second part of its interview with Michael A. Martin, which discusses his entire acareer as a writer, including news on his next Star Trek project, which is also the next Titan novel, titled Fallen Gods. Here's how he describes it:

Fallen Gods explores the devastating effect that Andor’s surprise decision to join the Typhon Pact is having on Lieutenant Pava and the other Andorian members of Will Riker’s crew, even as Titan continues to explore the hinterlands of deep Beta-Quadrant space. Meanwhile, a new menace that is simultaneously brand new and utterly familiar will begin wreaking havoc across the galaxy. Fallen Gods is slated for release in the fall of 2012, about a year from now.

Star Trek (ongoing) #2 preview

Comics Continuum have posted previews of IDW's comics for this week, including an eight-page excerpt from Star Trek (ongoing) #2. Here's the first page:

You can see the rest of the preview, complete with new-timeline phaser rifles, after the jump, or on Comics Continuum, which also shows all the covers for the issue.

Double Double

Cross Cult have released their latest cover art, for the fifth Doppelhelix (Double Helix) novel, Doppelt oder Nichts (Double or Nothing), the New Frontier book in the series:

Thanks be to Jens Defner (of UnrealitySF) for pointing it out.

Michael A. Martin on The Romulan War

StarTrek.com has posted an interview with Michael A. Martin on his latest Romulan War novel, To Brave the Storm. Here's how he summarised the book:

Things are looking pretty grim. Earth is in the worst shape it’s been in since the war began. Because of T’Pau’s commitment to Syrrannite pacifism, Vulcan is still sitting out the conflict. The rest of the Coalition has essentially crumbled because Vulcan’s pullout has spooked Andoria and Tellar. Starfleet has fallen back, making the Sol system’s defense its number-one priority. Jonathan Archer is forced to seek help elsewhere, hat in hand, and isn’t having much luck despite his concerted effort to rehabilitate Enterprise’s reputation, which the Kobayashi Maru disaster has tarnished pretty badly. Meanwhile, the Romulans are wrapping up a distracting conflict out on the Empire’s far Beta-quadrant frontier, and this allows them to mobilize more ships than ever before against a resource-starved Earth and her ever-dwindling list of friends, allies, and colonies. Did I mention that things are looking pretty grim?

And here's what he had to say about what he would have liked to have explored if he had more books to tell the story in:

I would have like to show more of the developing relationship between Hoshi Sato and MACO Major Takashi Kimura, since she’s destined to marry him and at some point with him retire to Tarsus IV, according to the biographical files Mike Sussman created for “In a Mirror Darkly.” As part of a deepening of the Trip-and-T’Pol relationship, I also would also have liked to take a closer look at the Vulcan take on religion, since it’s established canon that even modern-day Vulcans maintain a tradition of venerating certain ancient gods. It seems to me that to a people as committed to pure reason as the Vulcans, worship probably isn’t a subjective thing, or purely a matter of faith. I would have liked to reveal that Vulcan’s gods are at least as objectively “real” as Bajor’s Prophets. If I’d had a third Romulan War book—ideally a middle volume between BtRW and TBtS—I probably would have tried to work in a plot thread in which T’Pol suffered an injury that left her near death, forcing Trip and Koss to team up to storm Vulcan’s equivalent of the gates of hell in order to force Shariel, Vulcan’s god of death, to relinquish his gradually increasing hold over T’Pol’s katra. Imagine the classical Greek myth of Persephone with a dusting of Faust and Dante’s Inferno thrown in. Or Trip and Koss’s Bogus Journey. Or I might have settled for just blowing up thirty-three percent more planets and spaceships than I did in the other two books.

Here comes the Enterprise, neeerawwwmm ...nom nom nom

ThinkGeek have launched their latest quirky Star Trek product, the "Star Trek Enterprise Light-Up Feeding System". Said system consists of a bib for younglings, featuring renderings of Deep Space Station K7 and a Klingon D7 (complete with motion-activating flashing LEDs), and a model of the Enterprise, also with lights, and a spoon attachment - Allowing you to train your offspring in the fine arts of eating and Star Trek simultaneously, following the tried and tested "Here comes the aeroplane" method (updated for the 23rd century).

Still not convinced this is the feeding system of the future, today? Well ThinkGeek have a little video to explain it all too:



Via TrekNews.

Next Titan novel coming in 2012?

According to TrekBBS user Reanok, Michael A. Martin is currently busy writing the next Titan novel, for release in 2012. This was apparently gleaned from an interview with Martin, which will be published on startrek.com on tuesday - So keep your eyes peeled for more news in a couple of days.

Yay for more Titan! And thanks to TrekBBS user Thrawn for pointing it out.

Updated Rings of Time cover

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a tweaked version of the cover for Greg Cox's The Rings of Time. The design of the Enterprise has been updated to be more clearly TV-era, and Greg Cox is now praised as a "New York Times Bestselling Author". The catalogue page still says "not final", however the "For Solicitation Only" banner has been dropped from the actually cover image, so maybe this is the final version?

Thanks to TrekBBS user DarkHorizon for pointing it out.

IDW January solicitations

IDW have released their full solicitations for January, which, as StarTrek.com already previewed, include two Star Trek titles. The blurbs are slightly differently worded, and we now have a slightly higher resolution version of the Legion of Super-Heroes cover. Also, Tim Bradstreet has posted his artwork, on Facebook, without the titles, for the fifth issue of the ongoing series.

Star Trek (ongoing) #5
By Mike Johnson. Art by Joe Corroney. Cover by Tim Bradstreet, plus a Bradstreet sketchcover and a photocover.

The voyages of the new crew of the Enterprise continue in this re-imagining of the classic episode OPERATION: ANNIHILATE! Captain Kirk comes face to face with the ghosts of his past when a rescue mission reunites him with the last person he expects to see: his brother! STAR TREK feature writer/producer Roberto Orci oversees this continuation of the story from the blockbuster 2009 movie!

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #4
By Chris Roberson. Art by Jeffrey and Philip Moy. Regular covers by Phil Jimenez and Chris Sprouse, plus a retail incentive cover by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Working together to find a way back to their respective timelines, the Starfleet officers and Legionnaires have split into two teams, with members of both groups on each team. One group travels back in time to the moment when their own histories were truncated and this new blended timeline came into being, while the other team travels to the heart of the Imperial Planets of Earth. So as one team finds themselves witnessing what happened in the deep past to change history, the other team discovers the far reaching effects of the aftermath in the present.

New Forgotten History cover

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a new version of the cover for Christopher L. Bennett's forthcoming DTI prequel, Forgotten History. The new cover features many of the same elements from the first solicitation cover, but in a much more polished arrangement, and in colour! They're still using the blurb for Watching the Clock though...

I didn't really like the first cover, but this I like a lot. Looking forward to the book.

But if you can't wait until May, there are plenty of Trek books before then, including the latest Enterprise: Romulan War book, To Brave the Storm, which has just come out. Simon and Schuster's listing for that book currently has a huge sixty-eight page excerpt available to read online!

I'd like to get my hands on her ample nacelles

Didn't fancy one of QMx's $5000 prime reality Enterprises? Then you're in luck, you can now spend your $5000 on a new timeline Enterprise instead! Like the previous QMx Enterprise this will be a 250 unit limited edition, and can be customised to the customer's desire. Features included as standard include 200 lighting effects, including pretty swirly effects in the bussard collector, a tiny detailed shuttlebay with shuttles, and a big mirrored base to see it from every angle.

Lots more pictures, and a video, on QMx's website. 

IDW January preview

Ahead of the release of IDW's full January solicitations, StarTrek.com has previewed the two new Star Trek issues out that month:

Star Trek (ongoing) #5

By Mike Johnson, with art by Joe Corroney and a cover by Tim Bradstreet. The story follows the new Enterprise crew in a retelling of the TOS story "Operation: Annihilate!," as Kirk encounters the ghosts of his past, including his brother, while leading the crew on a rescue mission. Variants will include a Bradstreet sketch cover, a photo cover and Starfleet Academy logo temporary tattoos.

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #4

The story -- with art by Jeffrey and Philip Moy and covers by Phil Jimenez and Chris Sprouse -- tracks Starfleet's officers and several Legionnaires as they take the next steps in their effort to return to their respective timelines. One team, comprised of members from both groups, ventures to the Imperial Planets of Earth, while the other team, also comprised of members from both groups, jumps back in time to determine what happened to their respective histories and how/why the blended timeline occurred. Variants will include a Gabriel Rodriguez cover.

Latest Vesta variation

Mark Rademaker has revealed his latest variation of the Vesta-class, a concept for how the two Vesta class vessels in the Full Circle fleet might be configured, with forward swept nacelle pylons:

See more from Mark, on his blog.

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #1 preview

StarTrek.com has posted a six-page preview of this week's first issue of the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover. Which includes the first look at the B-cover by Keith Giffen:

Here's the first page of the preview, you can see the other five after the jump, or on StarTrek.com, which also has all the other previously released covers up, and the inside cover with a character guide.

The latest ships from STO

In their latest development blog Cryptic have posted a chart of ships in Star Trek Online, which rearranges some of the rank placements, and adds a few new ships (to be shown off in the coming weeks). Alongside that they have released two new ships into the C-Store:

Thunderchild class

The first U.S.S. Thunderchild was an Akira Class starship that fought the Borg at the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373. The Heavy Escort Refit: Thunderchild Class pays homage to the brave men and women who served aboard that vessel. This ship comes equipped with a Point Defense System. This console activates an automated Phaser Turret Point Defense System designed to defend the vessel from small craft, mines and targetable torpedoes, but that will also target larger vessels as well. This console can be equipped on any escort in any console slot.

Koro't'inga class

The famed K't'inga Class has been in continual service for the Empire since the 2270s. Now the Koro't'inga refit provides all the advantages of a K't'inga with an updated design. This vessel comes equipped with a Magnetometric Generator. This console allows the Koro't'inga to knock back, damage and disable ships with a powerful Magnetometric Overload from its deflector dish. The Magnetometric Generator may be equipped on any Battle Cruiser, Flight Deck Cruiser or Carrier, in any console slot. However, only one Magetometric Generator can be equipped on a ship.

Mondo gets a piece of the action

As reported by Treknews, Mondo will be releasing their latest Star Trek poster today (friday 14th), this time based on the TOS episode A Piece of the Action. 260 copies will be available of the standard edition, plus a further 65 of a variant version. Keep your eyes on Mondo's twitter feed if you want a chance to buy one when they are made available at a random time.

Star Trek NOT a part of Infestation 2

IDW have unveiled the details of their sequel to Infestation, and disappointingly Star Trek will not be part of the sequel crossover. Ghostbusters has also been dropped from the lineup, with the two series being replaced by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dungeons and Dragons.

Full details of the Trek-less crossover can be found on IDW's announcement.

A peak inside the Demeter

Over the past few weeks Mark Rademaker has been teasing readers of his blog with glimpses of his design for the Theophrastus class USS Demeter, from the latest Voyager novels. His latest reveal is a preliminary interior schematic, which looks like this:

You can also see a glimpse of the outside, here, and sample mark's insane level of detail, looking at the material that makes up the hull, here. Also in the realm of insane-level-of-detail, is a pdf file Mark has released, which includes the specifications for the Vesta class - Apparently the Vesta class can saucer separate, and has sixteen auxiliary craft! You can find the link to that, here.

Expeditions expansion set box

First announced way back in June, when the original Star Trek Expeditions game was released, Wizkids have now given further details, via StarTrek.com, of the expansion set for the game; which is due out in November. The set will include three new characters: Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty, and comes in a box that looks like this:

Tribbles!

The Star Trek Online website has had updates a plenty over the last week or so as they keep readers informed of all the updates to the game being working on as they prepare to launch the new free-to-play-model. You can find a full index of those particular blog entries, here. All I'm interested in though is tribbles! Because one of those posts (announcing pet tribble rewards for test players) including this awesome tribble-tastic wallpaper:

Christopher L. Bennett on The Struggle Within and Forgotten History

StarTrek.com has posted an interview with Christopher L. Bennett. The impetus for the interview was this week's release of his latest Star Trek book, The Struggle Within. Here's what he had to say about said ebook:

The Struggle Within is a Next Generation story set shortly after Paths of Disharmony, the fourth Typhon Pact novel. Picard and Worf are handling final negotiations for bringing the Talarian Republic into the expanded Khitomer Accords, but they run afoul of an internal rebellion against the patriarchal government, one that ends up putting Beverly Crusher in harm's way. Meanwhile, two of the characters created for the TNG novels, security chief Jasminder Choudhury and contact specialist T'Ryssa Chen, go on an undercover mission among the Kinshaya, the one Typhon Pact member that didn't get a novel about them, and get involved with a nonviolent resistance movement standing up against a brutal regime. I was inspired to do this story by the nonviolent protests in Egypt, and I wanted to pay tribute to the power and courage of such movements.

It's mostly a standalone story like the previous Typhon Pact volumes, but I did try to treat it as sort of a capper on the whole thing by following up on elements from several of the others at least a little. Naturally it follows most directly on Paths of Disharmony, at least from a character standpoint. It doesn't specifically set up anything to come, since I wasn't privy to future plans. It's up to other authors to decide how to follow up on it. But I've talked briefly with David R. George III, who's continuing the Typhon Pact story, and we seem to have compatible ideas about where it's heading from here.

The interview also discussed his next Star Trek project, Forgotten History:

Forgotten History begins with Lucsly, Dulmur, and other characters from Watching the Clock confronting a temporal mystery that requires digging into the origins of the Department of Temporal Investigations and the integral role that James T. Kirk and the Enterprise played therein. It plays on the way the DTI has mythologized Kirk as their personal demon, and as they study the actual record, it challenges their preconceptions. The story is told largely through flashbacks that span the five-year mission and beyond, extending into the post-Motion Picture era. So it's both a sequel and a prequel to Ex Machina as well as a sequel and a prequel to Watching the Clock.

Speaking later on the TrekBBS, Bennett expanded on this:

Forgotten History (or rather, its second half) tells a separate story but continues some of the character threads from ExM, those pertaining to the Enterprise crew. After I wrote ExM, I had some thoughts about what I'd want to do next with the TMP-era characters if I got the chance, and this was that chance, so a lot of what I had in mind is in there.

You can read more about Bennett's work on Star Trek and other projects in the rest of the StarTrek.com interview. Meanwhile UnrealitySF has also recently posted an interview, with James Swallow; which covers, amongst his other projects, his most recent Star Trek novel, Cast No Shadow - Discussing it in UnrealitySF's customary depth; as ever well worth a read.

Cute Enterprise cufflinks!

I came across these on Amazon; have you ever seen the Enterprise looking so cute!

There's a whole range of Star Trek cufflinks, I think next best after the Enterprises has to be the classic delta:

But take your pick; phasers, Klingons, live long and prosper hands! No Romulan emblems sadly though.

More cool new Trek T-shirts

Things From Another World have listings up for some cool new Star Trek T-shirts, which they're taking pre-orders for release in December. My favourite is this awesome TOS Enteprise blueprints T-shirt. Available in medium, large, extra-large, and extra-extra-large (I can't be the only slim trekkie!?):

And for the evil among you there's the evil-Spock T-shirt:

Data bust

Action Figure Insider has posted an announcement from Titan Merchandise on the third in their Masterpiece Collection of Star Trek busts: Data. The eight inch tall sculpture will be available from March.

You can see a few other angles of Data on Forbidden Planet's listing. The first two in the series, Kirk and Picard are expected in January.

To Brave the Storm blurb

The Simon and Schuster website listing for To Brave the Storm, the next Enterprise and Romulan War novel, has been updated with a new blurb:

EARTH STANDS ALONE

The Coalition of Planets has shattered, with Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar abrogating the treaty. Their pledge to come to the mutual defense of any power that is attacked has been shunted aside. Horrified by how easily the Romulans can seize control of their advanced starships, turning them into weapons, Andor and Tellar have joined Vulcan on the sidelines. Humanity is now the only thing that stands between the Romulan Star Empire and total domination of the galaxy.

To drive humans from the stars, the Romulans employ ruthless and murderous tactics . . . and even dare to strike on the Vulcan homeworld with the hopes of demoralizing their Vulcan brethren. Heartened by their victories, the Romulans carry their all-out war assault closer to the heart of humanity—Earth.

But the tattered remains of Starfleet stand unwavering, with the resolution that never again would any enemy strike ever reach Earth. On the front lines of the Earth- Romulan War is the United Earth flagship, the Starship Enterprise. Her captain, Jonathan Archer, has seen his vessel of exploration become a battleship. Once hailed for his work bringing the Coalition of Planets into existence, Archer is now a pariah. Undaunted, the captain keeps fighting, searching for allies and determined to do his duty: to save Earth and forge a new federation of planets.

Plagues of night at the Prophet's door

David R. George III has updated his Facebook page to clear up details of the recent listings of a TNG novel by him called At the Prophet's Door. As suspected this is indeed the first book in his forthcoming 24th century duology. But rather than being the new title for the book it was a place holder, and the working title previously announced, Plagues of Night, is still the one George is using at the moment. You can read the full explanation on the author's Facebook page; where he also noted the TNG classification might not entirely accurate either.

Johnson and Orci on Star Trek ongoing.

StarTrek.com has posted an interview with Mike Johnson and Roberto Orci on the new ongoing Star Trek comics series which recently started, here are a few highlights:

The first few issues of the series are adaptations of TOS episodes, as the “new” crew encounters some of the same threats the original crew did, but with differences that reflect things like Kirk being a younger captain and Spock losing his homeworld. As we get closer to the next movie, the stories will begin to foreshadow the events of the movie, such as possibly introducing new characters we will see onscreen... pun very much intended.

Each episode will be told in two issues, so in issue #3 and #4 we will revisit the events of “The Galileo Seven.” I’m excited about this one because it’s a Spock-centric story that explores his brief experience as a commanding officer and how he was affected by losing command of the Enterprise to Kirk in the last movie. I can’t spoil which episodes come after that, but I can say that events will deviate more and more from the TOS versions as the new timeline evolves.

Orci also gave a little update on the progress of the next film, and Johnson revealed he is also involved in the new timeline computer game coming out next year.