IDW Year Five comic previews and art

IDW have recently released details of their July releases, which include just one new Star Trek comic, the epilogue to soon to be concluded TOS: Year Five maxiseries. Continue below for details of that, more Year Five art, and other Star Trek comics updates.

Year Five #25: Experienced in Loss(ad), will be a bumper-size epilogue to the series, which will be written by all the writers from the series: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jody Houser, Brandon Easton, Jim McCann, and Paul Cornell. They are joined by almost all of the series' artists: Angel Hernandez, Silvia Califano, Stephen Thompson, and Christopher Jones. Here's the solicitation blurb:

The five-year mission may be over, but now it’s time for the next adventure to begin. Join the crew of the Enterprise for the end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new.  This special, oversized epilogue from the entire Year Five writing team bridges the gap between the end of the five-year mission and the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

As usual, the book will be offered in two different covers. The main one, not yet revealed, will be by Stephen Thompson, whil J.J. Lendl provided the rarer retail incentive cover, which has been previewed:

Eaglemoss previews latest Picard and STO ship models, plus a look ahead at Build the USS Enterprise-D

Eaglemoss have previewed several forthcoming ships in their various starship model collections, including the latest from Picard, Star Trek Online, and the huge Build the Enterprise project. Continue below to check out the latest ships:

The newest announced issue in the Star Trek Universe starships collection(ad) confirms the "Romulan Vessel"(ad) (previously referred to with the pithier name Romulan Bomber Warbird) as issue five in the so far Picard dominated series, which will eventually include ships from all the currently in production live action series. Eaglemoss have released several new images of this neat W-shaped Romulan ship, the first of the Romulan fleet seen in Picard. We can expected to arrive in July.

Beautiful Hugh Fleming comic cover art from DC's TNG miniseries Ill Wind

Comic art specialists Panel Page Art currently have some especially gorgeous Star Trek cover art up for sale right now. Part of a wider selection of art by Hugh Fleming, they have all four covers for the DC Comics TNG miniseries Ill Wind. Painted in acrylics, seeing the artwork in full you can really see the texture of the pieces. They also feature sumptuous colours, and some great portraits and ships. Continue below to check out the whole series:

Issue one sets the scene for the series, featuring Captain Picard and the main guest-antagonist of the story, Mestral, the leader of Eldela people, who is also a keen solar sailor. The Enterprise is charged with protecting her and otherwise maintaining security while she participated in the Centauris Cup race. Also featured is an exotic ship, the Perhonen, Mastral's solar sailcraft; it get's a bit of an upgrade for the cover; in addition to being particularly shiny and well detailed, it has three sails rather than the two seen in the interior art for the series.

New back-cover previews for the 2022 Star Trek calendars

Star Trek calendar publisher Universe Publishing has release the back cover images for their 2022 range. Next year there will be six different Star Trek calendars to choose from, and now we can get a little look inside each of them care of the back cover previews. Continue below to check them out:

The long-running Ships of the Line(ad) series is the only calendar which gets new artwork each year, lovely wide-format starship art - Essentially a starship art magazine with a small calendar overlay.

This year marks the first Star Trek Online art to feature in the series, alongside lots of TOS and TNG ships, and a little love for DS9 too. Several images feature new starship designs, and there's a new cutaway diagram too. Check out the thumbnails on the back cover:

Star Trek music round-up: Discovery season 3 soundtrack, The Motion Picture complete score, and new Goldsmith music!

Whether you play music or just like to listen, it's a good time to be a Star Trek music fan right now, with the latest Discovery soundtrack release now upon us, plus a new sheet music from The Motion Picture. Continue below to check out the latest Star Trek music updates, including a never before heard Jerry Goldsmith track!

The latest release from Lakeshore Records is the Discovery season 3 soundtrack(ad), by Jeff Russo. This forty track album is available right now digitally, and will no doubt get a snazzy looking vinyl release later following the pattern of previous seasons. A CD release is looking less likely though.

Year Five #20: The Raptor's Wings, part 1 preview

Out this week is issue twenty(ad) of IDW's Star Trek: Year Five(ad) comic series, which is the first half of a new story arc, The Raptor's Wings, written by Brandon Easton with art by Silvia Califano, and colour from DC Alonso. This chapter sees Spock transported back to the Time of Awakening, giving us a look at Mad Max-esque ancient Vulcan, and a fresh take on Vulcan and Romulan history. Half way in, this is already a highlight of a generally excellent series! 

As ever the book is offered in two different covers. The main cover(ad) by Stephen Thompson gives us Spock standing beneath those raptor's wings. Alternatively, the rarer retail incentive cover(ad) by JJ Lendl is a retro movie style poster also featuring Spock, this time within the silhouette of the raptor as seen on the Romulan Bird of Prey.

Continue below to check out both covers, and a five page preview:

TNG ReAction Figures coming soon from Super7

Super7, makers of the retro-styled 3¾ inch scale ReAction Figures are returning to Star Trek with a new TNG collection. They have now revealed an assortment of six characters, which include Captain Picard, Worf, Data, Guinan, Wesley Crusher, and a Borg. These are described as wave one by Super7, so presumably more of the TNG crew will be following later. Continue below for a closer look at each of them:

More preview pages from Designing the Final Frontier

A few weeks ago I shared some of the first preview pages from the forthcoming book Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier - How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future(ad). Due out in August, authors Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire will be taking us on a tour of the design influences and uses of real world products in TOS. 

Now some more pages, and a slightly updated cover, have been released, giving a much better feel for the book, and delightfully geeky and detail-obsessive book it is. Continue below to check out TOS design spanning architecture to salt and pepper shakers!

The Gift and First Contact comic previews

This past week IDW delivered a double dose of TNG comic reprints. One was specifically to mark First Contact Day, and the other ended up with a surprising connection to this week's big announcements too. Continue below to check out the details and preview pages of The Gift and First Contact in comic form.

Released as a special one shot, The Gift(ad) is a facsimile edition of what was originally a DC Comics annual from 1990. This Q story was written by no less than Q himself, John de Lancie, with some additional dialogue from Star Trek comic writer and novelist Michael Jan Freidman. Art for the book is by DC regulars Gordon Purcell and Pablo Marcos, with colour from Julianna Ferriter. 

Of course de Lancie was announced just this week to be returning as Q soon in Picard season two, so this seems a nice moment to revisit his own take on Q. This particular book was written when Q was still very new, presenting him firmly as a menace to the crew, and still largely an enigma. It sees Q take Picard on a trip to his past, as well as a dark alternate timeline. One of the highlights of Q in comic form here is the choice of how to present him, made of space and stars in many scenes, and toying with the fabric of the universe. The story also has a lot of visual fun in how Q and Picard visit the past, including turning them into ducks! 

For this new printing IDW had J.K. Woodward create a new painted edition of the cover based on the original design by J.K. Moore. Otherwise it seems to be a straight reprint, so one to fill a gap in your collection if you've not picked up the original before.

Next Star Trek movie coming in 2023

After half a decade of bouncing ideas around for the next Star Trek movie, Paramount Pictures seem to finally found one they like, as they have now scheduled the next Star Trek movie for release on the 9th of June 2023. The film will be produced by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot productions, who also brought us the previous three Kelvin timeline movies. Officially, that is all we know so far. 

io9 report, via "a source close to the project" this is not one of the previously considered scripts that have been in the offing over the past few years - Even though the most recent project know about, from Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez, was only revealed to the world a month ago!

Will this continue the adventures of the familiar Kelvin timeline crew? Will Jaylah come back? - I strongly hope for both! - Or will it be something completely new in the Kelvin or Prime timelines? Production must be getting underway fairly soon to make that date just over two years away, so we'll no doubt here some more details fairly soon.

Prodigy theory: The series ship will be USS Voyager's missing Aeroshuttle

With the announcement that the new animated children's TV series Star Trek: Prodigy will take place in the Delta Quadrant some years after the USS Voyager visited, and that Captain Janeway's part in the series will be in the form of an emergency training hologram, it starts to get one wondering: What is this Starfleet ships the young alien crew the series is about are going to take command of, and how did a holographic Janeway find herself installed there? Well one idea springs to my mind: The Aeroshuttle!

The what? For those unfamiliar: The Aeroshuttle is one of those almost forgotten ideas you sometimes get in TV production, a concept brewed up early on in development of the series, but never called upon by the needs of the plot. It is a distinctive smallcraft attached to the underside of the USS Voyager's saucer section, in much the same way the captain's yacht is on the USS Enterprise-E. 

New trailers and updates for Picard season 2, Discovery season 4, Lower Decks season 2, and Prodigy!

Big Star Trek TV news day! To mark First Contact Day today StarTrek.com hosted a series of panels, including reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the best TNG movie, behind the scenes and cultural impacts of other Trek, and some major new Trek-TV news for most of the currently in-production series, including lots of new trailers, and release date updates. Continue below for a round-up of the day's news:

The first big announcement of the day is that the original Q, John de Lancie, will be returning for Picard season two, which is set to arrive in 2022. This was revealed in this teaser trailer:

 

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Patrick Stewart and de Lancie, along with host Wil Wheaton discussed this a little in the panel as well, in which Stewart noted Q's reappearance comes at a "shattering moment" of trauma for Picard, which may or may not be directly related to Q's motivation to return.

TNG characters join the Tubbz ducks in cosplay collection

Last year Numskull brought us one of the odder Star Trek collectables of recent times, their range of TOS character Tubbz ducks in cosplay(ad) - Which while modelled after a classic rubber duck alas are not designed to float properly like one. Now they're back with The Next Generation to add to your duck collection...

The TNG assortment includes Captain Picard(ad), Geordi La Forge(ad), Deanna Troi(ad), and Worf(ad) - If you ever wondered what a Klingon, or bearded, duck looks like, now you know! 

Like other characters in the Tubbz range (which spans many more franchises than just Star Trek), each duck comes in its own miniature bathtub, which with a bubble top forms the packaging too. Continue below to check them all out:

Latest starship model kit box art from Round 2 Models

Round 2 Models have released lots of new box art for forthcoming Star Trek model kits, with new or re-issued kits on the way from Voyager, TOS, and DS9. Continue below to check out the latest kits:

On the way in the next few months is a brand new new 1:1000 scale USS Voyager kit. Round 2 have now released box art for two versions of this kit, in either solid grey or clear plastics; the latter ready for extensive lighting. Both versions come with clear elements for the nacelle elements, deflector dish, and the big mess hall windows. They also come with landing gear parts, and of course the nacelles can be posed in impulse or warp angles. The built kit will be about 13.5 inches long.

TNG shuttlecraft tent, and Star Trek multitools, for the practical/survivalist trekkie

Ukonic, makers of Star Trek pizza cutters, glassware, and loungewear, are branching out into outdoor pursuits and DIY with their latest releases. Continue below to check out their range of multitools in various forms. But first, what I think might be the first officially licensed Star Trek tent(ad)! 

Not just any tent, this tent is a type-6 shuttlecraft (the Justman specifically)! Yes that right, you can pitch up anywhere (you're allowed), and re-enact all your favourite oops-we-crashed-a-shuttlecraft episodes. This is a two-person pop-up tent, and is available from Toynk(ad) right now. Behold:

Hallmark brings little starships back to the Christmas tree, plus their latest Mirror Mirror figurines

Hallmark have revealed their 2021 Keepsake Christmas decoration range, which includes three new Star Trek releases - Those include the expected continuation of the Mirror, Mirror Storytellers range, and the welcome return of Hallmark's little starships to hang on the tree too. Continue below to check them out.

Last year was the first without a little ship since the Star Trek collection began in 1991 - We got a big ship instead, see below - But the smaller format is thankfully back this year. The starship for 2021 will of course be the latest hero ship, the star of Picard, La Sirena. So far Hallmark have just released a fairly low resolution rendering of this in their Dream Book catalogue, so we'll have to wait for a clearer look of the real thing closer to release. La Sirena is expected in October, and will include sound features, with clips from the show.