Latest Fansets Star Trek pins

Makers of collectable pins, Fansets, have had a busy few months, expanding their main series of character and ship based designs, and also marking the 50th anniversary with a variety of commemorative pins. Continue below to check out all their latest designs.

One of their more recent releases was a convention exclusive for the 50 Year Mission Tour in San Francisco, featuring the city itself as part of a tribute to The Voyage Home.

Star Trek Discovery has its lead

Sonequa Martin-Green in The Walking Dead

The cast of Star Trek: Discovery is forming rapidly. After recent casting announcements for several Starfleet and Klingon characters, CBS were apparently still searching for the lead; looking for a black of latina actress to fill the role. Entertainment Weekly now report that search has ended, with Sonequa Martin-Green set to star.

Martin-Green has already had significant roles in several other series, including The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, and The Good Wife.

Star Trek Discovery's Klingon cast revealed, and other updates

Hot on the heals of the recent casting announcements for several Starfleet characters in the new Star Trek TV series, Discovery, CBS have now revealed a trio of actors set to play Klingons on the series

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this announcement is the implication that Klingon characters will have a leading role in the series, which coupled with the mention of at least two Starfleet ships in the character profiles for the Starfleet characters, might suggest a very varied multi-ship/location setting for the new series.

As with the previous announcement, CBS have released short descriptions for each character, giving us a glimpse of the setting of the series:

Chris Obi will star as “T'Kuvma,” the Klingon leader seeking to unite the Klingon houses.

Star Trek Beyond complete soundtrack available now

Varèse Sarabande have released Star Trek Beyond: The Deluxe Edition, Michael Giacchino complete soundtrack for the movie. This release now comes as a bit of a surprise, as it comes much closer the the film than the extended soundtracks for the previous Kelvin timeline movies, which were released a year or more after the films.

A limited edition of 5000, the new expanded release features 47 tracks over two discs, including some beautiful new themes (especially those for Yorktown and Jaylah). I cannot wait for my copy to arrive! Continue below to check out the covers and track listing.

All the latest super-deformed Star Trek toys

The trend in super-deformed cartoon/caricature style toys shows now signs of slowing down, and in just the past few months the world of Star Trek toys has seen many new examples. Continue below to check out all the latest releases.

Just out from Funko, is the first Star Trek figure in their new Dorbz line. Like the long established Pop! vinyl range, Dorbz have a particular style that is used across the various licensees Funko have. This first beaming Spock figure is exclusive to GameStop, although I'm sure it's just a matter of time until a regular Spock comes along as part of a larger Star Trek Dorbz collection.

First Star Trek: Discovery cast announced

The first three members of the Star Trek: Discovery cast have been announced. The news confirms the rumour of Michelle Yeoh as captain of the starship Shenzhou (although named Georgiou rather than Han Bo), plus two members of the USS Discovery crew, including confirmation of the previously rumoured new alien, Lieutenant Saru. CBS have released brief character descriptions of all three:

 Michelle Yeoh will star as “Captain Georgiou,” the Starfleet Captain aboard the Starship Shenzhou.

Yeoh is probably best known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and its recent sequel. She has also appeared in manye other films, including the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and a few TV roles, including Marco Polo.

50th Anniversary soundtrack collection compiles the obscurities of Star Trek music

La La Land have announced the details of their 50th Anniversary Star Trek soundtrack collection, which has turned out to be a bit of a curious collection of musical odds and ends spanning the franchise.

The set includes new variations of tracks from the previous and pretty comprehensive TOS and movie soundtrack releases, plus the first ever collection of TAS music, soundtracks from the video game Borg and Star Trek: The Experience, plus a varied collection of TNG scores, and a smattering of tracks representing DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.

Here is the official summary of the collection's contents:

DISC ONE features cues from the original, classic STAR TREK TV series (most of which were released on our TOS BOX SET, but have been sourced from newly discovered elements), as well the oft-requested STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE track “Inner Workings,” (featuring the wind machine more prominently) and STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KAHN’s “End Titles,” (without the narration as heard on previous soundtrack releases.)

DISC TWO showcases the official world premiere release of music from STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES, the beloved 70’s Filmation TV series, as well as original STAR TREK-inspired compositions from Ron Jones, and STAR TREK BORG, a score by Dennis McCarthy from an interactive 1996 movie/computer game.

DISC THREE features previously unreleased scores from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, including such episodes “Coming of Age,” “The Hunted,” “Tapestry” and more, as well as the series’ trailer music.

DISC FOUR contains more unreleased THE NEXT GENERATION, including “Deja Q,” “Elementary, Dear Data,” and others, as well as unreleased demo tracks from DEEP SPACE NINE, and VOYAGER, original score from the famed Las Vegas attraction, STAR TREK: THE EXPERIENCE, and still more!

Posting on the Film Score Monthly forums, producer Lukas Kendall made note of how some of the tracks were selected, and also revealed more soundtrack collections in the works for the less represented series in this set:

Round 2 Models latest Star Trek model kits

Round 2 Models, makers of Star Trek model kits under the AMT and Polar Lights brands, has had a busy year of releases, and already has several kits lined up for 2017. Continue below to check out their latest and forthcoming kits.

Expected in the spring of 2017, all the Enterprises from the 1:2500 scale Cadet Series range have been combined into a single new model kit collection, which will also add a brand new Enterprise NX-01 to the series. The snap-kits are all molded in suitably coloured plastics, and come with pressure sensitive decal sheets, plus display stands.

Michelle Yeoh cast as captain on Discovery

Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

Actress Michelle Yeoh has been reported as the first known cast member of Star Trek:Discovery. According to Deadline, she will play Captain Han Bo of the starship Shenzhou, which will apparently "play a big role in Discovery‘s first season".

Yoeh has an extensive filmography, probably best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and its recent sequel. She has also appeared in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and a few TV roles, including Marco Polo.

The casting has not been officially announced yet, but several leading trade press sites have reported the news, citing insider sources, after ComingSoon.net originally broke the story.

According to Variety, the lead role, a female first officer, remains uncast:

...casting has been underway, CBS has been looking for a younger, African-American or Latina actress. The network is not seeking a huge star and would prefer a fresh face for the part.

The casting process for the lead role has spanned more than three months at this point and the show is having difficulty settling on a star.

Between Yeoh, and the intended Number One, it looks like a promising start to a diverse and representative cast, here's hoping that continues as the rest of the cast shapes up.

Fill your home with isolinear chips and LCARS displays

If you ever wanted your home to feel like a little (landed) starship, there are a plethora of new products this year to give it a little 24th century flavour; with LCARS displays and isolinear chips scattered about.

Most of these come from The Coop, who launched a large collection over the summer. The highlight has to be a fully functional isolinear chip (aka USB stick), which even glows when in use.

Star Trek Cats, and other quirky new books

Do you like cats? And Star Trek? Then this is the book you've been waiting for! Due out in February from Chronicle Books, is Star Trek Cats, a curious new take on TOS from illustrator Jenny Parks. Amazon recently added a listing, complete with cover and blurb:

Captain's log: We have entered a galaxy where beloved illustrator Jenny Parks has conjured an astonishingly vivid homage to the original Star Trek series with an unexpected twist: a cast of cats. Featuring a hilarious new take on iconic characters and scenes—from Kirk in the Captain's chair to Spock offering his Vulcan wisdom—this eye-opening adventure stays true to the tone of the classic TV show. Playful, loving, and from a strange new world, Star Trek Cats is the perfect gift for fans of, well, Star Trek and cats.

But that's not all, continue after the jump for a look at a couple more quirky new Trek books on the way.

Latest Star Trek mugs and glasses

Drinking vessels are one of the more prolific of Star Trek products, and lately there have been some pretty creative examples (although mostly mugs ...so so many mugs). Continue below for a look at the latest releases:

From ThinkGeek, we have a set of "planetary glassware", released back in July. The set includes four ten ounce glasses decorated to look like Earth, Vulcan, Romulus, and Qo'noS, plus a Borg Cube shot glass.

Bryan Fuller stepping down from Discovery showrunner position

Drama in the Star Trek: Discovery production office! Bryan Fuller has stepped down from his showrunner role, due to the pressures of juggling work on several other shows at the same time. But his vision will still shape the series, and he continues on as an executive producer and writer. In a statement CBS explained the situation:

We are extremely happy with the creative direction of Star Trek: Discovery and the strong foundation that Bryan Fuller has helped us create for the series. Due to Bryan’s other projects, he is no longer able to oversee the day-to-day of Star Trek, but he remains an executive producer, and will continue to map out the story arc for the entire season. Alex Kurtzman, co-creator and executive producer, along with Fuller’s producing partners and longtime collaborators, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, will also continue to oversee the show with the existing writing and producing team. Bryan is a brilliant creative talent and passionate Star Trek fan, who has helped us chart an exciting course for the series. We are all committed to seeing this vision through and look forward to premiering Star Trek: Discovery this coming May 2017.

In a tweet, Fuller endorsed Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts to take the lead on the production now:

Riker spent 7 years of TNG unready for Captaincy, @GretchenJBerg @AaronHarberts are ready. Thrilled to see them in command of the Bridge.

According to Variety, the new arrangement was worked out quickly, to allow Fuller to continue to be a key creative voice in the production, while also juggling his other projects. Variety also report writer-director Akiva Goldsman is also to join the production in a "top creative role". Goldsman's previous work is mostly on movies (with writing credits including A Beautiful Mind, I, Robot, and I am Legend), but has also worked on several TV series, including writer, producer, and director credits on fellow Discovery producer, Alex Kurtzman's, series Fringe.

Reporting on the news, The Hollywood Reporter also noted lots of new character details for the series from "sources":

...the cast also will feature an openly gay actor as one of the male leads (which Fuller confirmed), a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser and a British male doctor.

Although with production due to start next month, the female lead is apparently yet to be cast.

Star Trek: Discovery is due to start in May next year, it will be distributed almost everywhere in the world on Netflix, except for the US where is will be available on CBS All Access, and Canada where it will be on Bell Media channels and services. To keep track of all the latest details from the new show, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page.

Latest Star Trek coins and stamps from the Perth Mint and Australia Post

The Perth Mint have been busy designing coins to celebrate Star Trek's 50th anniversary this year, with some create designs and packaging, and tie-ins to releases from Australia Post. Continue below to check out all the latest Star Trek coins:

The most recently minted join pulls together the entire TOS main cast on a colour printed two ounce silver coin. As ever with Star Trek coins from Perth Mint, this is technically legal tender in Tuvala, however the metals used are rather more valuable than the face value of two dollars! Being from Tuvala, the other side of the coin features the bust of Queen Elizabeth II. This is released in an edition of five-thousand.

Bridge Crew cover and release date

Ubisoft have announced Bridge Crew, the virtual reality video game, is having it's release date pushed back, and will now launch in March next year, rather than this autumn. They posted a short update on their blog, indicating the delay is to allow more time to develop the game:

In order to deliver the best game experience possible at launch, we have decided to push the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew to March 14, 2017. Star Trek: Bridge Crew is designed exclusively for VR and we want to offer a compelling and engaging experience. Command of the USS Aegis is right around the corner!

Meanwhile the cover has been released:

Mega Bloks Kubros Worf figure

Mega Bloks have released their second wave of Kubros brick build figurines, and among the diverse range of characters is their second Star Trek Kubros figure, and first TNG building set, Worf.

Worf is built using 157 pieces, which is enough to arm him with a bat'leth. I think they've done a rather impressive job for the scale! Continue below to have a closer look:

New RockLove Enterprise ring and gold necklaces

Rocklove have announced several new pieces in their Star Trek jewellery collection, including an impressive USS Enterprise ring.

The spindly silver ring features a detachable saucer, held in place on a magnetic track. It is accented by two faceted bezel set red ruby bussard collectors, and two faceted blue sapphires are set in the top and bottom of the saucer, The whole thing measure three quarters of an inch wide by one and a half inches long.

New Enterprise soundtrack release

La La Land have followed up on their 2014 Star Trek: Enterprise soundtrack collection with a second volume featuring music from many more episodes. The four disc set features just over five hours of music, with two discs devoted to individual composers, Dennis McCarthy and Jay Chattaway respectively, and two more featuring several others: Paul Baillargeon, Velton Ray Bunch, Kevin Kiner, David Bell, Brian Tyler, and John Frizzell.

Here's the cover, and continue below for a full track listing.

DST's Romulan Bird of Prey, Khan Select figure, and more

A round up of Diamond Select Toys latest Star Trek offerings today, starting with a new ship in their Starship Legends range of electronic starship models: Due out next month is the Romulan Bird of Prey, which is only the second non-Starfleet ship in the series so far (following the Klingon Bird of Prey). DST recently tweeted a new photo of the model, which revealed an exciting and attractive new feature, the ship will have window lighting!

Doesn't she look pretty lit-up! The Bird of Prey is also expected to have sound features, and DST have released a couple of new images of the model better lit too:

Strange New Worlds cover vote

After a nearly a decade break, the Strange New Worlds writing contest was relaunched last year, with a new anthology of winning fan written short stories due out as an ebook next month. To add the finishing touch to the release, Simon and Schuster have prepared two possible cover designs, and are allowing the final one to be picked in an online poll.

You can choose from either a TOS shuttlecraft, or the USS Enterprise. So far the Enterprise is leading by a wide margin, but not that many votes have been cast. The poll closes very soon; you've got until the end of today to add your vote, here.

Star Trek Encyclopedia preview pages

Due out next month is the newly revised and expanded edition of Mike and Denise Okuda's Star Trek Encyclopedia. Published by Harper Collins, the book now includes coverage of large swaths of Star Trek released since the previous edition was published in 1999, detailing everything from Voyager season 4-7, all of Enterprise, Nemesis, and the first two Kelvin timeline movies (alas Beyond was too recent a release).

To accommodate all this new content, the now 1056 page book is split into two hardcover volumes, and comes in a neat slipcase.

StarTrek.com have now released several preview pages from the book, demonstrating the comprehensive coverage of every generation of Star Trek rather pleasingly. Check them out after the jump:

Star Trek sewing patterns from Simplicity

Simplicity have relaunched their long retired line of Star Trek sewing patterns, to help you get into uniform on a budget! Available are several different uniforms from TOS and TNG, and they all have rather glorious cosplaying promo photos to go with them. Check them out below!

For some wonderful reason Simplicity have decided to make patterns for early TNG uniforms, including the skant!

Star Trek Beyond merchandise in China

In addition to unique poster art and music in China, Star Trek Beyond has been the subject of a huge merchandise range unique to the Chinese market. CBS announced details of the licensing agreements with Alibaba, China Film, and Mtime, via Licensing.biz: A bewildering range of products are on offer, including toys and games, electronic accessories, clothing and accessories, and homewares of just about every form you can imagine! Continue below for a look at the highlights from the extensive offering:

While the rest of the world only has the option of Funko Pop! vinyl figures of Star Trek Beyond characters, Alibaba are offering several different ranges of action figures and figurines, from a company called Emen. The most detailed seem to be 1/6th scale sculptures of Jaylah and Krall, which are standing on based styled after the USS Kelvin's saucer.

Star Trek Discovery launch pushed back, and other updates

CBS have announced the new Star Trek TV series, Discovery, which was initially due to begin in January, is being given a few extra months for development and production, and will now launch in May instead. StarTrek.com posted a statement from executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller:

Bringing Star Trek back to television carries a responsibility and mission: to connect fans and newcomers alike to the series that has fed our imaginations since childhood. We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality. Before heading into production, we evaluated these realities with our partners at CBS and they agreed: Star Trek deserves the very best, and these extra few months will help us achieve a vision we can all be proud of.

So we have about twice as long to wait for new Trek than we were expecting. But it should be even more fantastic and well made than we might otherwise have got. I can live with that.

Star Trek Beyond's Chinese posters and more

Paramount made a big push when they launched Star Trek Beyond in China, and it paid off, with significantly higher takings than Into Darkness. Among the promotional efforts China got its own posters, music, and more. Continue below to check out the highlights from Star Trek Beyond's visit to China.

The film got some unique new posters for it's Chinese release. Similar art was used in landscape and portrait formats, featuring images from the film forming the wake of the swarm-chased crashing USS Enterprise (via Star Trek China Twitter):

Bye Bye Robot celebrates Star Trek's 50th Anniversary

Bye Bye Robot have joined the Star Trek 50th Anniversary celebrations with a new collection of four TOS artworks. Continue below to check them out.

My personal favourite of the bunch is something new for Bye Bye Robot, an interior painting. New artist David Owens has created The Bridge, a 12x24 inch print which, as Bye Bye Robot note in their description, being presented as the room only "allows the viewers’ imaginations to create the story of this piece".

Loads of new ships announced and other Starships Collection news

At this weekend's Star Trek Mission: New York convention Eaglemoss ran a panel on Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, in which series manager Ben Robinson announced loads of new ships,and other news. Continue below for a round-up of what we learnt:

The big news is that once again the collection has been granted an extension, and will now run for at least 130 issues (plus specials and other additional issues), which is almost twice the originally planned 70 issue run!

Ben announced a whole load of new ships during the panel, but by far the most exciting to me was confirmation that the USS Titan issue will be coming, off the back of the petition to find support for it championed right here on The Trek Collective. And better yet, Ben also confirmed the USS Aventine will be released too! Both ships are due out in 2017.

The Roddenberry Vault details and previews

CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution have released the cover art and full details of the forthcoming bluray release of Star Trek: The Original Series - The Roddenberry Vault. The three disc set includes several new documentaries built around an amazing archive of lost footage from the production of TOS, promising never before seen deleted scenes, alternate takes, outtakes, and all sorts of other things rescued from the cutting room floor.

This amazing recovered footage, which has been secretly and painstakingly catalogued and analysed by Mike and Denise Okuda over most of the last decade is joined by new interviews by Star Trek creators and commenters. Additionally the set includes twelve episodes picked to compliment the recovered footage, presented in HD but with the original effects footage.

The main new footage is presented in a three part film, Inside The Roddenberry Vault Rod Roddenberry, split across the three discs of the set. Two further documentaries is a look at the origins of the series, in Star Trek: Revisiting A Classic, and a the visual effects, including original effects elements rediscovered in the vault, in Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic. And there's more too, additional clips have been compiled into Swept Up: Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor.

Each disc also features a new audio commentary for one episode: This Side of Paradise with Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana and Gabrielle Stanton. The City on the Edge of Forever with Roger Lay Jr., Scott Mantz and Mark A. Altman. And The Trouble With Tribbles with David Gerrold and David A. Goodman.

The set is due for release in December. Full details of all the new features are described in the press release text after the jump. But first, here are some tantalising preview videos:

Star Trek Discovery comics and novels to launch beside TV series

Kirsten Beyer and a big Discovery banner (via Jordan Hoffman)

The Star Trek: Discovery panel at this weekend's Star Trek Mission: New York convention revealed some exciting news for us Star Trek tie-in fiction fans: As I'm sure many anticipated, the series will see Star Trek novels and comics published to tie-in, but in a new move for Star Trek, those stories are being developed in tandem with the production of the series, coordinated by Voyager novelist and Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer, and to be ready for release alongside the series early next year.

The first prose story, published by Simon and Schuster of course, will come from David Mack (of Destiny, Vanguard, and so much more renown), while IDW's new comic series will be written by Mike Johnson (switching timelines from his usual role as the writer of almost every Kelvin timeline comic).

While it's not clear exactly how much each medium might bounce off the other, it certainly sounds to me from the brief remarks that this will be a somewhat different approach to Star Trek tie-in fiction than usual - Having some degree of multimedia coordination, when normally the novels and comics trail behind some time later following wherever on-screen Trek leads.

It might even sound somewhat reminiscent of what Disney are doing with Star Wars tie-ins these days, with Kirsten Beyer existing in the role of Lucasfilm's "story group". Indeed this kind of cross platform vision for Star Trek is what Bad Robot were hoping to launch when they took over the movie arm of Trek - But they only got so far as having the many comics, and one video game (and of course several Kelvin timeline novels were sacrificed along the way).

And for anyone concerned, Kirsten Beyer apparently also confirmed she will be continuing with her wonderful Voyager novels alongside her Discovery writing. Yay.

Continue below for further remarks on Discovery from Beyer, and fellow Discovery writer and panel member Nicholas Meyer.

You can soon 3D print your very own Star Trek Online armada

Cryptic Studios have announced the most excited expansion to Star Trek Online yet: The game will soon be entering the real world, in the form of 3D printed model starships from Eucl3D.

You will soon be able to order twelve inch models of any of your ships in the game - And with the game featuring several hundred starship designs from every corner of the Star Trek universe, and endless ways to customise them, that is one huge range of potential ships just waiting to be printed!

Details of pricing and how to order are yet to be announced (but based on what they quote for products from other games, I'd expect somewhere between $100-$200 for models this size). Cryptic and Eucl3D have released a load of pictures with sample models of several unique Star Trek Online ships. Continue below to check them out:

Version Five of the Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Order Flowchart

Can't figure out which book to read next in the tangled web of Star Trek novel continuity? Well fear not, Thrawn and I have once more updated The Almighty Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Order Flow Chart, with all the latest releases, and a few not even out yet.

If you've not found your way to it before, the flow chart lays out all the connections between the modern prose continuity which link the relaunch series books of TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, New Frontier, Titan, Vanguard, and more, detailing how they crossover and spin-off.

As always, you can find the full size version on its own dedicated page here on The Trek Collective, which you can find at any time via the "Reading Order" tab at the top of the page.

Star Trek Beyond's costume design

Star Trek Beyond introduced several new Starfleet uniforms, plus a whole load of clothing for all those aliens roaming around on Yorktown and Altamid.  So the costume designers certainly had plenty to get their teeth into! Continue below for a look through some of their work from the film.

Sanya Hays was the costume designer on the film, and worked with several other concept artists to develop the look of what we saw on-screen. These first couple of images looking at Jaylah come from Christian Cordella:

Latest Star Trek: Discovery details from Bryan Fuller

Star Trek: Discovery show runner Bryan Fuller recently appeared on the Nerd World Report radio show, and revealed several new details about the new Star Trek TV series and its production.

That chat included some details on how far along the writers have got: At the moment they have the first three scripts written, outlines for episodes four and five, and a clear idea of the overall shape of the rest of the series (so far there are no time travel stories it was noted). The first episode is a two-parter, with the first hour written by  Alex Kurtzman and Fuller, and the second half from Nicholas Meyer.

Fuller is expecting there will be some casting announcements in October, and is hoping to work with actors from previous projects.

An interesting detail was revealed about the lead character: She is apparently a first officer, and will be referred to as Number One:

Our character, when we introduce our protagonist, she is called Number One, for that very reason, in honour of Majel Barrett’s character in the original pilot. And as we were first talking about the series, and talking to CBS, we said, initially we will only call the character Number One, because in the 60s, in the first pilot, Gene Roddenberry was very progressive and had a female first officer.

First nuTrek postage stamps, and US stamp release datails

It's been an exciting year for trekkie stamp collectors, with dozens of new Star Trek postage stamps released around the world, representing almost every Star Trek series. While we're still waiting on some TAS stamps to truly cover every corner of the Star Trek universe, St. Kitts have now helped to fill one gap, with the release of the first ever postage stamps featuring Kelvin timeline subjects.

Seven stamps have been released as two miniature sheets, using promo shots from the first nuTrek movie. One sheet features most of the main characters (sorry Scotty and Chekov), while the other has a single stamp featuring both Spocks.

Star Trek Beyond's alien prosthetics

Star Trek Beyond makeup designer Joel Harlow boasts there are no less than fifty aliens in the movie, packing in dozens of new species as a nod to the fiftieth anniversary. In fact by the time his team were done there were some fifty-six different species featured in the film, many represented by multiple unique character designs!

A team of about seventy makeup artists and designers worked throughout the shoot to bring the aliens of the film to life, and now many of those artists, as well as the actors they transformed, have been sharing their amazing creations. Continue below for a look at some of the many new aliens from the film.

One of my favourite images to appear so far is a fantastic split screen photo posted by actor Joe Taslim, showing his character Manas as both the alien we saw throughout the film, and his original Human form as Anderson Le of the USS Franklin:

Book bits: DTI and Prey covers, and details of future books

Books news! Continue below for bumper update on the latest novels and novellas, including new covers, and details of new books.

First up, the latest cover to enter the wild is snazzy spacey cover for the latest book in Chrisopher L. Bennett's Department of Temporal Investigations series. The ebook novella Time Lock, is due next month.

Star Trek Beyond tie-in adverts

Several companies have arrangement promotional partnerships with Star Trek Beyond, with a few of them releasing TV adverts in the progress. I've previously posted Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Starfleet Academy field-trip to Iceland. But by far the more interesting element of HPE's association is that they designed several props for the film, integrating their own technology concepts of The Machine, and their rectangular logo. I've posted some details of those before too, and now HPE have released a couple of videos giving a closer look at what they helped design.

IDW's November Star Trek comics

IDW have released their November solicitations, which include no less than four Star Trek titles; including two new comics, and two omnibuses. Continue below for all the details.

Boldly Go #2 will, as ever, be written by Mike Johnson, with art by Tony Shasteen. Here's the blurb, which reveals a lot of the set-up for the post-Beyond pre-Enterprise-A adventures of the crew:

The blockbuster series continues with an all-new STAR TREK adventure set after the events of STAR TREK BEYOND! Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S Endeavour encounter a new threat to the Federation, but one very familiar to STAR TREK fans! Meanwhile, Spock and Uhura face an uncertain future on New Vulcan!

The book will be offered in four different covers. The main cover featuring a pretty exciting image of Sulu about to quantum leap... is by George Caltsoudas. Tony Shasteen provides the subscription cover, which continues a series that will through the first six issues of the series, with each cover focused on a different member of the Enterprise crew. Two further covers have yet to be revealed, but one will be a photo cover, and the cover will feature art by Marc Laming. Note the covers feature a pretty sharp new title treatment for the series. Boldly going indeed!

Visit the TOS sets, remade in Ticonderoga, New York

Last month a cool new Star Trek attraction opened in Ticonderoga, New York: Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour. Based around recreations of the TOS sets perfectly rebuilt by James Cawley and associates, using blueprints and reference stills, the tour allows visitors to immerse themselves in world of Star Trek. Included is the full bridge, corridors, transporter room, and engineering. Continue below to check out the sets:

Mezco's Mirror Spock figure

ThinkGeek have an exclusive mirror universe Spock figure from Mezco's One: 12 Collective. Initially offered at the San Diego Comic Con, the figure is now available to all on ThinkGeek's website - Which also means lots of new pictures to give it a closer look.

Like all the One:12 Collective figures, mirror-Spock feature highly detailed cloth clothing, lots of accessories and hands to hold them in, and many points of articulation. All crammed into a six-and-a-half inch tall figure. Continue below to check him out:

John Eaves' prop designs for Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek production artist John Eaves has been working on Star Trek productions since The Final Frontier. He is something of a rarity among the the Star Trek old-guard, in having continued to boldly go, in working on all three of the Kelvin timeline movies. For Star Trek Beyond he worked on several prop designs, the artwork for which he has been sharing on Facebook.

His favourite prop for the movie is what I am sure will be a favourite scene for many of us, when Spock the younger finds a photo among the belongings of Spock prime.

Apparently early on they planned to use a TV era image of the crew, but thankfully that changed to the promo image shot for The Final Frontier - Spock seeing his older self and crew has so much more impact on his decision making in the film.

Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise joins the F-Toys model ship range

Back in 2008 Japanese maker little models (which come packaged with sweets!) F-Toys released a range of Star Trek starship models. Now they are reissuing that original "Starfleet Collection", with one new ship in the range; the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise (original configuration).

Non-fiction updates: Beyond book, Picard and Klingon blurbs, and more

Lots of non-fiction updates today, including blurbs for new Picard and Klingon focused books, a video preview, and a limited edition. Continue below for all of those.

First up though, a look inside the much anticipated Star Trek Beyond Collector's Edition, which is perhaps a little anti-climactic. While the book promises to take us behind the scenes on the movie, if you're a reader of the Star Trek Magazine, it might seem familiar, as it appears the book is the latest in Titan's Star Trek Magazine article collection reprint books. Continue below to check out some preview pages (via Amazon):