Eaglemoss Starships Collection updates, including first look at Star Trek Beyond USS Enterprise

Eaglemoss have released their latest solicitations for models in Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, giving us the first look at several new ships on the way.

Among them is the next special issue, the slender Star Trek Beyond refit version of the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise.

Star Trek 4 gets a writer, and other updates

Tarantino and Abrams in 2009, via GQ

Work to bring Quentin Tarantino's vision for Star Trek 4 to life seems to be continuing apace, with Deadline now reporting the film has signed up a writer, Mark L. Smith. After a writers room exercise, it seems Smith was picked out of several candidates, and will now write the film while Tarantino is busy on his current project - Deadline's latest report suggest Tarantino remains keen to direct the Star Trek film too.

Best known for the gritty western, The Revenant, it is perhaps not a coincidence that Smith's next film, Overload (due next year), is being produced by J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot, and Paramount. Previous films generally have a horror bent, including Vacancy, and Martyrs.

Which is maybe fitting, given Deadline also report Paramount have oked the Tarantino Trek film to be R-rated. This could mean a bit of profanity being thrown around the bridge, more explicit violence, or sexual content. Which would all be fairly new to the generally not so edgy (in that regard) Star Trek universe - We might find ourselves with Kirk declaring something a little stronger than "double dumbass"!

New Visions: The Hunger preview

Our this week was issue nineteen of IDW's and John Byrne's New Visions photocomic. The Hunger takes us on a bit of a roller coaster ride of a story, with the crew tackling an interplanetary threat in grand fashion. And it all starts with the Enterprise taking a typically TOS casual extravagant new mission, in this case "an exploratory mission into intergalactic space". You can check out the start of said mission in the preview pages below - Watch out for the cool breathing masks!

Discovery bits: Episode titles, new posters, soundtrack preview, and behind the scenes photos

A few bits of Discovery news below, starting with the announcement of the final episode titles for "chapter two" of season one. They are:

• Episode 10: Despite Yourself
• Episode 11: The Wolf Inside
• Episode 12: Vaulting Ambition
• Episode 13: What’s Past Is Prologue
• Episode 14: The War Without, The War Within
• Episode 15: Will You Take My Hand?

News of which came via this dramatic announcement video:

#StarTrekDiscovery unveils titles for the final 6 episodes of season 1. Mark your calendars. Chapter 2 beings Sunday, January 7 on #CBSAllAccess!

A post shared by Star Trek Discovery (@startrekcbs) on Dec 13, 2017 at 10:03am PST

New bridge set lamps from ThinkGeek

The creative souls over at ThinkGeek have had one of their odd moments of inspiration once more, and the result is two new lamps, both featuring miniature bridge sets at their base. You have the option of either the TOS or TNG bridge, and I feel the TNG set pulls of the concept best, with the swooping bar around the command well providing a neat edge to the diorama. Continue below to check out both:

IDW's Star Trek comics for March

IDW have released details of the Star Trek titles in their March solicitations a little earlier than normal, via 13th Dimension. Among the titles are two new comics, including a newly announced Discovery comic, plus an omnibus book. Continue below for the details.

Star Trek Discovery Annual 2018
Written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, with art by Angel Hernandez.

The U.S.S. Discovery is a ship unlike any the galaxy’s ever seen, developing tech based on an unstable mycelial network… and it is all in the hands of Science Officer Lt. Stamets, tasked with perfecting it to win the war against the Klingons.

In addition to the blurb, the solicitations also offer a couple of extra lines detailing what will be included in this bumper 48 page book:

Who is Stamets, and how did he, with his old partner, Straal, come to discover the mycelial network?
Plus: Learn how Lt. Stamets met his significant other, Medical Officer Hugh Culber, and came to know fan-favorite Cadet Sylvia Tilly!

The comic will be offered in at least two covers, with the A cover by Angel Hernandez, and B cover by George Caltsoudas:

QMx updates: New Terran Empire insignia badge, captain's chair, and possible USS Discovery model!

I've got a few updates from various different Quantum mechanix product lines today, including what I suspect is a rather impressive model of the USS Discovery, and the latest release in their 1/6 scale action figure line. But first...

QMx have revealed the latest release in their long-running series of insignia badges, which, rather than being carefully constructed based on screen-used replicas like many of the other badges, is the latest spin-off from IDW's Mirror Broken comic series. The TNG Terran Empire insignia is currently available from Anovos who expect initial orders to arrive this month, or Entertainment Earth who are anticipating January - Curiously QMx haven't listed it themselves yet. Like most of QMx's other badges, it's made from metal, and used a magnetic fastening to avoiding poking holes in whatever you wear it with.

Mirror Broken #5 preview

IDW's latest release brings to an end their current TNG mirror universe comic adventure, Mirror Broken. The fifth issue (yup, the series seems to have been cut down from the originally announced six, although it did have two bonus issues in addition to the main run) is as ever written by Scott and David Tipton, and illustrated by J.K. Woodward - This time bringing us some very impression space battles!

The book is available in three different covers, with the crew-on-the-bridge A cover by Woodward too. The B cover continues George Caltsoudas character portrait series, with Data. And there's also a retail incentive cover, this time by Rachael Stott, in which mirror-Picard seems to be punching his way through the cover itself! Continue below to check them out, plus a five page preview from the issue.

Discovery updates: Third novel announced, plus art prints, comics, pins, video game, and music updates!

Lots of different Discovery merchandise and tie-in fiction updates today, including updates from both the novel and comic lines, soundtrack news, new art prints, FanSets latest releases, and new additions to Star Trek Timeline. Continue below to check them all out.

First up, the third Discovery novel has been announced. Coming in June will be the Saru focused Fear Itself, by James Swallow. StarTrek.com released the blurb:

Lieutenant Saru is a Kelpien, a member of a prey species born on a world overrun by monstrous predators…and a being who very intimately understands the nature of fear. Challenged on all sides, he is determined to surpass his origins and succeed as a Starfleet officer aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

But when Saru breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crewmates, what begins as a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress soon escalates out of control. Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and the conflicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races.

To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold…. 

TNG uniforms for all occasions

There's been run of TNG uniform inspired clothing releases lately. Continue below to check out your uniform options for smart and casual events.

First up, by far the most stylish of the recent releases is Her Universe's new (released in September) TNG command style shift dress. This elegant two-tone piece keeps things fairly simple, with a TNG combadge cluing you in to it's design origins.

First Discovery soundtrack on the way

CBS have announced the first soundtrack release from Star Trek: Discovery is imminent. Available digitally from the 15th of December will be Season 1, Chapter 1, comprising Jeff Russo's music from the episodes we have so far seen, and implying a second soundtrack will come later to fill in the rest of the season.

The Chapter 1 release will also be made available on both CD and vinyl in early 2018, published by Lakeshore Records - Who seem to be in the good habit of producing very attractive looking physical media, so that should be something to look forward to. Continue below to check out the cover and track list.

Quentin Tarantino pitching for next Star Trek movie

Tarantino and Abrams in 2009, via GQ

Rumour is abound that Quentin Tarantino has come up with an idea for a new Star Trek movie, and having pitched it to J.J. Abrams work is afoot to develop it. As Deadline have reported:

Sources said that Tarantino has come up with a great idea for a Star Trek movie at Paramount. After sharing his idea with JJ Abrams (who himself is busy prepping Star Wars Episode IX), I’ve heard the plan is to assemble a writers room of scribes who’ll hear Tarantino’s take and begin to put together a movie. If it all works out, Tarantino might direct it, with Abrams producing.

Presumably, if Tarantino came to Abrams with this idea, it isn't related to the previously announced fourth Kelvin timeline movie set to feature George Kirk, which Paramount went as far as as announcing the casting of (Chris Hemsworth returning) last year. That was supposed to be written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, having a second go after their ideas for the third movie were put aside for what became Star Trek Beyond.

Latest Star Trek novel previews and hints at future books

We've got a quite time coming up for Star Trek novels, with only a couple of books on the schedule so far for next year (more on that below), but before we enter the lean months ahead the year is ending with a bumper load of releases. So continue below for preview from all the new novels and novellas released in the last week or two, and other Star Trek novels news.

The last Star Trek book from Pocket Books this year is David Mack's Fortune of War, the latest in the Titan series, and a follow up the TNG episode The Survivors, exploring the fallout from the disappearance of the Husnock. Here's an except from that book: