Tease for John Byrne's second photo comic

John Byrne has released a teaser image (on his forum) for his second photo-comic, which will be titled The Mirror, Cracked, and appears to feature an incursion by mirror-Kirk into the prime universe *dun dun duuunn!*

IDW are sufficiently confident at how well the first photo-comic, Strange New Worlds, will do, when it is released as IDW's first Star Trek Annual in December, that this page will be used as the inside backcover of that book.

Byrne also spoke at little about the format for the next story in an interview with Comic Shop News, which IDW posted:

Chris and I have been talking about a second story, this time possibly to be done as two regular sized issues. If nothing else, that will give us the necessary page count for a trade paperback release! But, quite frankly, if Chris asked me to do this as an ongoing monthly, I think I'd be game for it.

The interview also talked a little bit about the development of the first photo-comic, which you might be familiar with from my previous coverage, or if you've been following the project unfold on Byrne's forum. IDW recently released samples pages from that book, which you can find in another of my previous reports.

Updated Enterprise season 3 bluray cover

CBS have released an updated version of the cover for the bluray release of Enterprise, season three. The overall effect is much the same as the previously released cover, but they've now swapped out T'Pol for version of her from this season, and similarly replaced Archer with a meaner looking image, rather than the cheery champion of exploration from the first two seasons:

Season three is due out in January, you can see the trailer, and previous version of the cover, in one of my previous posts.

Worf in Star Trek Online

StarTrek.com have announced, Sphere of Influence, a forthcoming feature episode in Star Trek Online, which will see Michael Dorn returning to voice Ambassador Worf. Here's how they describe the mission, which will see Worf hoping around the galaxy via Iconian gateways:

Deep under the surface of Mol'Rihan (New Romulus), Romulan and Reman scientists have been working tirelessly to study the discovery made there. As promised, D’Tan, the leader of New Romulus, has shared this research and invited his allies from the Federation and the Klingon Empire to attend what he hopes will be a triumphant success for his people; the reactivation of the Iconian Gateway.

Reactions to this news have been mixed. The power of instant travel would do much for the fledgling republic, but the specter of the Dewan’s past failure looms over their hopes for the future. Players will team up with an old ally – that’d be Worf -- to uncover the mystery of the gateway, and together make some surprising revelations.

Game Trailers released this trailer for the story:

Completing the mission also gains access to a new starship, the massive Obelisk carrier (the largest playable ship in STO apparently), which is of unknown ancient origin. You can find full specifications of the carrier, it's fighters, and unique systems, on STO's blog.

Spock wants to abduct you from a train station and make you play X-Box

...or something like that anyway. Spock, the Zachary Quinto variety, appears briefly in this new advert for the X-Box One. His appearance is contextualised later in the advert when the nuTrek films are shown on offer as movies you might watch on your next generation X-Box.



This is one of a string of Star Trek adverts lately, following the General Electric adventure, the call back to The Motion Picture in Samsung's smart-watch adverts, and numerous tie-ins around the release of Into Darkness. A good sign for Star Trek's strength in popular culture right now I guess?

Books bits: New Lost Era, comic extra features, Khristmas preview, and German covers

A few bits of books news, starting with the reveal of the title of David R. George III's forthcoming Lost Era novel. The Simon and Schuster website has recently had a listing added for The Lost Era: One Constant Star, which they have listed for release in May. There are no other details yet, but George has previously suggested it will be set between 2303 and 2319, will feature a captain he has previously written, and will be exploration focused.

If that is the final format of the title, it would be the first time The Lost Era (the catch all title for books set between the end of the TOS movies, and the start of TNG) has been part of the title of a book since the original 2003 series. Subsequent lost era books, The Buried Age, and the Terok Nor trilogy, used the cover copy "A tale/saga of the lost era", while Cast No Shadow made no reference to the idea of a lost era series at all.

UPDATE: A little more novel news. Jens Deffner pointed be towards a tweet from David Mack, in which he revealed his forthcoming novel, Section 31: Disavowed, will be a direct sequel to his entry in The Fall series, A Ceremony of Losses (which has just been released).

Elsewhere in the publishing world, StarTrek.com has launched what they promise will be a new regular feature, providing a writers commentary to Star Trek comics. In their first "Writer's Log", Mike Johnson pulls apart the first issue of the Khan prequel series. If you follow the comics it's certainly worth a read, as Johnson expands on some of his decisions in characterisation, and points out some of his nods to other parts of Trek. For instance, here's what he had to say about the appearance of Samuel T. Cogley, from the TOS episode Court Martial:

Cogley’s appearance here was suggested by John Van Citters of CBS Consumer Products, and brought to life by the great David Messina, artist on both 2009’s “Countdown” and 2013’s “Countdown to Darkness.” Whenever we can, we like to insert characters and places into the new comics that are callbacks to the original timeline. Part of the fun of having an alternate timeline is seeing how familiar things have changed (or haven’t) in this reality.

For a completely different sort of illustrated Star Trek, this month sees the release of Paul Ruditis' A Very Klingon Khristmas. Amazon have now added pages from that book to their look inside feature, giving us a look at this particularly quirky release, and its lovely artwork by Patrick Faricy, including a look at the real Shakespeare! Here are the three spreads they preview:

Finally, Cross Cult have released the finalised covers for several of their forthcoming books. Continue after the jump for a look at those:

QMx's latest replicas, and other ship bits

QMx have added a listing to their site for the forthcoming Enterprise ring ship artisan replica. The model, based on Mark Rademaker's take on the design (which premiered in the 2011 Ships of the Line calendar), will be released at the end of November. There will be just twenty-five produced! The ring ship will come with the same design stand as used for the model-ships display in Star Trek Into Darkness. Here are some pretty pictures:

QMx have also updated their listing the USS Vengeance replica model (which is now available to order), showing off their optional display case:

You can see high res photos of the Vengeance in my previous report. Continue after the jump for the latest Starships Collection images, and more:

"Yes, we have a T-rex."

"Doctor Grant, my dear Doctor Sattler, welcome to..." uh, Star Trek Online! Yup, dinosaurs are coming to Star Trek Online, as combat companions to the Voth in the new Dyson Sphere story line. They don't actually have a T-Rex; sixty-five million years after that species presumably left Earth in the Voth zoo-ship, its descendent, the Viriosaurus Rex is one of three "bio-engineered dinosaurs" the Voth have also equipped with armour and weapons to help in combat situations. STO's Designing the Voth blog post beautifully summed up the role of dinosaurs in the game:

At one point our Lead Designer, CaptainGeko, said, “all I want is dinosaurs with frickin’ laser beams on their heads!” We all chuckled, and then he said, “I’m being serious; this is a game. Let’s have some fun!”

While the Viriosaurus Rex is the Voth's cyber-dino tank, he is joined by the smaller Dankanasaurs, which are "raptor-like dinosaurs used by the Voth as shock troops and terrifying swarmers", and Furiadons, "larger alien raptors with higher cognitive abilities than the animalistic Dankanasaur". You can read more about them in STO's Voth ground combat post. Here they are in action:

Aside from dinosaur awesomeness, the Voth themselves also have a role to play in all this, and have got an STO make-over as result, with greater variety in their look. As if dinosaurs aren't enough, they also have mechanical exosuits to give them the upper hand. Here are a few examples, you can read more about the Voth and their tech in the above linked STO blogs as well:

The Voth have ships too of course, continue after the jump for a look at those, and the latest STO Starfleet design too.

Latest Star Trek curiosities

Here's a look at the latest of the more unusual Star Trek products. Starting with the most recent every-day item to find itself reformed into the shape of the USS Enterprise. Available now from the StarTrek.com store is the USS Enterprise divot tool. I know nothing about golf, but looking at normal divot tools it appears the Enterprise is already the perfect shape for the job, so an ideal match! What a shame the USS Enterprise putter is no longer available, to give you a more complete Star Trek golf experience.

ThinkGeek's ongoing efforts to infuse Star Trek into every part of your home has now moved to the bathroom, with their new transporter room shower curtain and bathroom mat combo:

For a slightly subtler infusion of Star Trek into your life, Cufflinks.com have added a couple of new designs to their Star Trek cuff-links range. Available now are the magnificently detailed TOS communicator cuff-links, and a duel "live long and prosper"/Starfeet delta design:

Cufflinks.com have also added a couple of money clips to their range, with either a TOS or TNG delta design. These match their previously released delta cuff-links and tie-clips, which means they've also been able to cunningly combine them into matching gift sets.

Back at ThinkGeek, they have also recently made available QMx's "Ode to Spot" print, by Jonathan England. QMx previewed this a few months ago, and it's now apparently ended up being an ThinkGeek exclusive:

And finally, the new Star Trek pin ball machine is now available to order from Entertainment Earth. If you fancy one you might want to brace yourself though, as they've categorised it as "Really Cool Expensive Stuff"! (More details of these in my previous report)

Comic bits: Eugenics Wars, photo-comic, and new covers

A few bits of comics news, starting with the latest comments from Mike Johnson on the Khan prequel series: The IDW Tumblr posted an interview, which included this note of how the Eugenics Wars will be presented in relation to real history, in comparison to Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars books:

I’m a fan of that series, but in developing this new one we wanted to stick to what is canon, which is what is on film and TV, and create a new story based on that. The biggest difference is that we wanted the Eugenics Wars to be known to the public in the 1990’s, rather than allow the possibility that they happened without anyone knowing in our own ‘90s.

You can read the rest of the interview, here. IDW's editor-in-chief, Chris Ryall, also has a Tumblr, and that's where he posted these preview pages from John Byrne's forthcoming photo-comic (the first in a series if it goes well):

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

Finally, here are the latest omnibus covers (after the jump):

The Khitomer Conflict, Part 2 preview

Out this week is the second issue in the four-part The Khitomer Conflict arc, in the Star Trek ongoing comic series. A seven page preview of this issue is below, with Spock facing a dilemma after Kirk's landing party has been captured by the Klingons on Khitomer.

Having read through the full issue I'm really pleased with the direction the ongoing series has taken here. Moving to a longer multi-part format for this story has been a really good move; giving us time to enjoy some nice character moments with the crew of the Enterprise (both established and ongoing original characters), while gradually revealing more of what's going on with the many factions at work in this arc. With this particular story picking up in things laid out earlier in the ongoing series, and more exploration of interstellar plots and politics, I can't help but feel the series is starting to develop a similar style of story telling to the 24th century litverse - Which not so long ago I wouldn't have imaged is a comparison I'd find myself making with the current Star Trek comics. It's great to see the nuTrek world expanded and being bold in its story telling. More like this please IDW!

Anywho, here's the first seven pages of this issue. The preview continues after the jump:

Super spoilery new blurb for Peaceable Kingdoms

Simon and Schuster have released a new blurb for the final book in The Fall series, Dayton Ward's Peaceable Kingdoms. I guess now the series is under-way they feel more comfortable spilling the beans, but if you haven't Revelation and Dust yet I suggest you read no further on this page! It also rather gives away some of the outcomes on the way in the middle books in the series, so if you're spoiler averse I'd stop here too. New blurb after the jump, and this picture of the cover:

New Star Trek Pop! vinyl figures

Entertainment Earth and Forbidden Planet have added listings for a new series of Star Trek Pop! vinyl figures from Funko. The wave of six characters all come from TOS, with three based on the crew (Kirk, Spock, and Scotty) and three aliens (Andorian, Klingon, and Orion slave girl). Entertainment Earth suggest they will be out in December, while Forbidden Planet anticipate a January release.

Also listed by both Entertainment Earth and Forbidden Planet, with the same suggested release dates, is a set of The Big Bang Theory Pop! vinyl figures. The latest in the Big Bang/Trek crossover series, each of the male characters comes in Starfleet uniform. These are standard version of the Comic Con exclusive mid-transport effect versions of the Starfleet uniformed figures released earlier this year. Check them out after the jump:

Latest Starships Collection models, and other starship stuff

Entertainment Earth has added new listing for issues of the Official Starships Collection coming in the first half of next year, including revealing the official model photos for the Jem'Hadar cruiser (issue thirteen), and Galor class (issue fourteen):

Things From Another World's listing meanwhile include a new image of the USS Excelsior model (issue eight):

Here too are better quality versions of previously released images of the USS Defiant and USS Voyager models, from Forbidden Planet and the next-issue preview from the Romulan Warbird issue:

For an previews, reviews and a complete listing of issues in the Starships Collection, check out my index page. Meanwhile, in other starships news, check out this cool little animation of the USS Titan, made by The Light Works in support of a campaign to make a Titan TV series:



And finally, Mark Radmaker has been busy with ringships. Here's an unusual forward view of his ringship Enterprise, which he posted on Facebook:

And jumping ahead a couple of generations, here is the latest work-in-progress shot of his design for the USS Demeter (from the Voyager relaunch), also posted on Facebook. He's preparing this one for an appearance in next year's Ships of the Line calendar: