Thursday 30 June 2016

USS Enterprise and more join Rihanna in Sledgehammer video

We got our first sample of Rihanna's new single Sledgehammer, which is attached to Star Trek Beyond, with the release of the third trailer for the film, and now the full song has been revealed, complete with Star Trek filled music video. We get some especially nice shots of the Enterprise, along with Rihanna summoning swarm ships, levitating rocks, and dancing about on a planet near to Starbase Yorktown:



New Visions Gorn and Swarm issues

Fans of John Byrne's New Visions series of photo-comics will be pleased to learn that September will be bring two new issues! One of them comes via unconventional channels though. Continue below for all the details.

IDW have once more teamed up with Humble Bundle, to offer a large selection of Star Trek comics in a bundle, with revenues split between the publisher and charities. In this case Traveling Stories and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, plus a third charity of your choosing if you so desire. Currently digital copies of twenty-eight different titles are available (with the promise of more to be added), representing a diverse range of IDW's titles. All you have to do is decide how much you want to pay, with as little as $15 granting access to the entire collection (which would cost hundreds at normal prices). If you want to pay more, you can, and thus more will go to IDW and the charities.

This time there's a very enticing bonus though. If you donate $25 or more you will also be able to claim an exclusive brand new issue in the New Visions series, More of the Serpent Than the Dove, which features the Gorn. As StarTrek.com describe:
...a brand new story that picks up where the fan favorite TOS episode “Arena” left off. Master photostory artist/writer John Byrne presents the comic-book return of the Gorn, as the Federation’s first attempts at a Gorn peace treaty take a dire turn. 
The book, which unlike the rest of the bundle will will be delivered as a printed volume, will also reprint the first issue of Byrne's Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor.


Monday 27 June 2016

Star Trek Beyond trailer #3 dazzles

The third major trailer for Star Trek Beyond has been released, and it's simply stunning, and features Rihanna's new single that is attached to the film, Sledgehammer.



Continue below for the usual screencap breakdown, and as ever, proceed with caution if you are spoiler adverse; looking at stills can tell you a lot more than fleeting glimpses of video:

Sunday 26 June 2016

Book bits: Prey cover, new TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Section 31 blurbs, and more!

Lots of book news today, including brand new blurbs for the first four novels on the 2017 novel schedule, which continue the adventures of the Enterprise-E, new-DS9, Voyager and the Full Circle fleet, and Docotr Bashir's efforts to thwart Section 31. But before we get to all those exciting stories, there's new cover!

Coming in November is the middle book in John Jackson Miller's Prey trilogy, The Jackal's Trick. The TNG era story is Klingon focused, and the cover, released by StarTrek.com, certainly demonstrates that, with a couple of Klingon ships and a big--scary-demon-thing (anyone recognise what that is?).


Saturday 25 June 2016

Behold the huge Mega Bloks USS Enterprise

This year Mega Bloks have returned to the world of Star Trek with a range of TOS construction sets, which include playsets of key locations, and models of ships. All but one of the sets in the first wave have already made their way into the world, and now that final set, the largest in the range, has joined them on Amazon, where it can be pre-ordered ahead of an expected July release.

The huge USS Enterprise set is made from 3,098 pieces, which build a model that is 85cm long. It also features light-up nacelle caps with built in LEDs, and two figurines, Kirk and Spock in dress uniform variants. To top it off, the display base features a miniature recreation of the ship's dedication plaque. Continue below to have a look at the many new images that show off the impressive model:



Friday 24 June 2016

Rihanna joins the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack

It appears Rihanna will be contributing to the soundtrack for Star Trek Beyond, and has a single on the way, called Sledgehammer. Here's the cover (via Rihanna Fenty):


New details of new Star Trek TV series, a 13 episode arc

Collider have posted an interview with new Star Trek TV series showrunner Bryan Fuller, who, while carefully avoiding giving away too many specifics, gave a lot of new details about the show.

First up, speculation that this might be a shorter season than we traditionally get in Star Trek has been confirmed. The first season will be thirteen episodes long, with a season long story arc, and the writing team are already well into it:
We’ve got the arc of the first season entirely written, or arced out, and we’ve got the first six episodes entirely broken.
Interestingly the fact this is being made for a streaming service apparently also mean we might not get the usual episode lengths either. When asked if they would be hour long episodes:
I think our runtime is flexible because it’s streaming.
Fuller also spoke a little about the general shape of the series, and how the creative team was able to shape it:
When I first sat down with them, it was “Do you have a plan of what you want to do?” And they said, “No,” and I said, “I have a plan,” and we started talking. And it was wonderful to be working with Alex Kurtzman, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, and who’s such an elegant storyteller and crafting a story with him that ties in so many elements of Star Trek that I think people will be really excited about because you can look at the original series and pick out episodes we’re using the DNA of and using the spirit of what Star Trek offers, both in terms of high-concept science fiction storytelling and really wonderful metaphors for the human condition.
UPDATE: Speaking to Moviefone as well, Fuller roundly debunked many of the rumours about the new series, while suggesting some of the reports have hit upon truths:
I mean, it's funny. I've read that we're [set] before "Next Generation," after ["Star Trek VI: The] Undiscovered Country," which is false. I've read that it's an anthology show, which is not accurate. So it's interesting to see those suggestions, and seeing the truth mixed in with them and going like, "Oh, they got that part right..." But it's sort of on the truth-o-meter on PolitiFacts. It's sort of like some truth, and a lot of like, "No -- pants on fire! That's not true."

Thursday 23 June 2016

Star Trek Online visits the 23rd century of two realities

Star Trek Online, which under normal circumstances is set in the early 25th century, will be opening up a new series of missions in the 23rd century, both the TOS version, and nuTrek! All this comes in a major expansion of the game, Agents of Yesterday, which will launch in July. Here's how Cryptic described what's ahead in their announcement:
Agents of Yesterday will allow players to create a new captain in Star Trek: The Original Series era and will set them on an adventure featuring classic story lines, locations, celebrities, and era-appropriate starships. In 2270, the year following the third season of the original series, the player will adventure with Walter Koenig, reprising his role of Chekov, and Chris Doohan, filling in for his father as Scotty. There is a new threat to the security of the Federation, and they are invading with hopes of overwhelming the past to destroy our future.

In addition to the ability to create a brand new Star Trek: The Original Series Starfleet captain, we will be introducing a new episode arc for players of every faction, the Temporal Initiative Resistance Reputation, a Temporal Operative Primary Specialization along with brand new Bridge Officer powers. Players who create their captains during the first six weeks of launch will also be able to participate in the new Temporal Agent Recruitment system for bonus personal and account-wide rewards, a new iteration of the popular Delta Recruitment system that released a year ago. This release is packed with content to keep you engaged in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series era - and beyond.
Missions will include follow-ups to classic episodes such as Arena, The Galileo Seven, The Tholian Web, and Journey to Babel. The game will also see lots of new ships, and uniform options. Continue below for more details. But first, here's a trailer:

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Star Trek Beyond soundtrack track listing

The Star Trek Beyond soundtrack has been available to pre-order for some time, and now Amazon have added a track list to their listing, which is full of composer Michael Giacchino's usual quirky titles. Speculate away on what this tells us about the plot!
1. Logo And Prosper (1:47)
2. Thank Your Lucky Star Date (2:15)
3. Night On The Yorktown (5:36)
4. The Dance Of The Nebula (2:22)
5. A Swarm Reception (2:30)
6. Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard (6:10)
7. Jaylah Damage (2:50)
8. In Artifacts As In Life (1:51)
9. Franklin, My Dear (2:50)
10. A Lesson In Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17)
11. MotorCycles Of Relief (3:17)
12. Mocking Jaylah (3:26)
13. Crash Decisions (3:16)
14. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23)
15. Shutdown Happens (4:35)
16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17)
17. Par-tay For The Course (2:46)
18. Star Trek Main Theme (3:45)
UPDATE: And publishers Varèse Sarabande have also released the cover on Twitter, which is of course based on the main poster.

In case you missed them before, Giacchino has also posted several clips from the soundtrack recording on his social media channels. Continue below to have a listen to them all:

Tuesday 21 June 2016

New Star Trek anthology comic series: Waypoint

IDW have announced the launch of a new Star Trek anthology comic series, Waypoint, that promises to deliver short stories from the entire Star Trek universe, from a variety of creative teams.

The first issue, due out in September, will feature two stories: A TNG tale starring Data and Geordi, by Donny Cates, with art by Mack Chater. And then a TOS Uhura story, titled Daylily, which will be written and illustrated by Sandra Lanz. Continue below for more details - Starting with the covers, by Marc Laming, and blurb:


Monday 20 June 2016

Star Trek for your desk

If your office lacking that dash of final frontier? Your desk just not going boldly enough? Well continue below for a look through the latest Star Trek stuff to spruce up your home office, including all sorts of gadgets, bookmarks, and magnets.

But first, paper weights! Icon Heroes' latest creations are Kirk and Spock statue paper weights. Captain Kirk is seven-and-a-half inches tall, while Spock is almost eight. Made of resin, they should arrive in October.


Sunday 19 June 2016

New Legacies and Prey covers

This year there are two Star Trek novel trilogies on the way (three even, if you count the German-language Prometheus series), and now Pocket Books have released the covers for the last book of one, and the first of the other. Continue below to check them out.

Due out in September, and bringing to an end the TOS trilogy Legacies, is Purgatory's Key, by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Thew new cover features the Enterprise swooping down on the mysterious structure that was first revealed on the cover of the previous book in the series.


QMx's 1/6 scale Kirk and Spock, now with extra accessories

QMx have announced the full details of their forthcoming sixth scale Captain Kirk and Spock action figures, including news of exclusive versions with extra accessorises, and loads of new images. Continue below for all the details.


Saturday 18 June 2016

New starship cross-sections, and other Star Trek Beyond updates

A bunch more Star Trek Beyond updates for you today, including more interviews, notes on the soundtrack, and another trailer variant. But first, a very exciting release for starship lovers!

Available now in the July/August edition of Popular Mechanics is a gorgeous spread of new cross-sectional artwork featuring the major starships of Star Trek Beyond: The USS Enterprise, USS Franklin, and one of the swarm ships.


The artwork was created by Kemp Remillard (who last year illustrated Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections) and gives us the best (first) ever look at the internal arrangement of the nuEnterprise (with new swept back nacelle configuration), and also describes the Franklin as "an early prototype ship that was the first to reach warp 4", further enforcing the design's link to the NX class.

The Bradford Exchange's Star Trek collectors plates

The Bradford Exchange, makers of all sorts of collectables, have released several new Star Trek collectors plates to mark the 50th anniversary. Continue below to check them out:

Commemorating the series' dates on either side of the 50th anniversary logo, and described as the "Premiere Collectible", is a round plate, featuring all the main cast. For the golden anniversary, this twelve inch porcelain plate features a twenty-two karet gold trim, including a quote from the oening monologue, more Starfleet deltas, and a braid design inspired by the captain's rank on the uniform sleeves. This is a limited edition of five-thousand pieces.


Thursday 16 June 2016

Beautiful new Jaylah poster

Paramount have released another poster for Star Trek Beyond, this time giving us a beautiful close up look at our new alien friend Jaylah:


I really love Jaylah's design, it's so gloriously crisp! And those eyes! It's not something that was as easy to create as you might think at first glance, as /Film noted in their set report article:
The make-up for Sofia Boutella‘s alien character Jaylah is a mix of prosthetics and traditional makeup techniques and a wig. Harlow says its of the hardest make-up applications on the show because it’s “so clean.” The entire forehead is an appliance and everyplace you see black is a silicone prosthetic. Every day Sofia works she has to undergo three and a half hours of application and a half hour of removal at the end of the day.

Star Trek Beyond round-up: New stills and props, costumes, interviews, and more

More Star Trek Beyond updates today, including a look at some of the props and costumes, new interviews, and another promotional tie-in. But first, the Star Trek Beyond Omaze fundraising campaign has been re-awoken to offer fans the chance to win the highest degree of access to the world premier of the film at the San Diego Comic Con.

You might recall last year Omaze ran a campaign to win set visits, as well as being able to pick up all sorts of other bits and pieces from the production (most excitingly the concept art of the USS Franklin came from that). This time you can get a ticket to the premiere - But not just any ticket, this one will keep you in the company of the cast at the after-party too. Entries come in the form of donations, this time being made to Mission Continues, a military veterans support charity. The level of donation made will also entitle you to other perks, such as T-shirts, pins, concept art, and props (more on those below).

To mark the launch of the campaign, Omaze and The Hollywood Reporter have also released two new stills. One of those is of the crew on the bridge, looking rather sombre (about to be swarmed maybe):


Note at the center of the scene is the new alien member of the crew who also appeared in a couple of shots in the first trailer. I hadn't been able to make it out in those previous shots, but it's clear here she doesn't wear a standard Starfleet uniform, and has something curiously metallic going across the top of her chest. I wonder who she is!

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Mega Bloks Guardian of Forever and Klingon sets revealed

This year Mega Bloks have a new range of Star Trek construction sets coming out, and while not officially expected until later in the year, they have been sneaking out early. Two more sets have now joined those that are already in the wild, and once again that means lots of pictures have been released. Continue below to have a look.

The latest two sets are the smallest in the range, both essentially figure packs, ideal for building up armies of (in this case) red shirts and Klingons. The red shirt set is based on The City on the Edge of Forever, and includes Kirk and McCoy as well as two generic red shirts, and a brick built Guardian of Forever:


Pop, pin, bobble, cube, titan - All the latest stylised Star Trek characters

It's terribly popular these days to make quirky stylised action figures and figurines, and there's certainly no shortage of such things on offer in the Star Trek world. Continue below for a round-up of the latest releases and announcements.

First up, an extra figures has joined the Star Trek Beyond range of Funko Pop! vinyl figures. A second Captain Kirk, in the new "survival suit" uniform, will be available exclusively from Fye.


Tuesday 14 June 2016

First Star Trek VR game, Bridge Crew

Ubisoft have announced a new Star Trek video game, Bridge Crew, which will be the first virtual reality Star Trek game.

Due out in the autumn, Bridge Crew is set on a new ship from the nuTrek timeline, the USS Aegis, and allows up to four players to assume roles on the bridge, as either captain, helmsperson, engineer, or tactical. It will be available on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

The game was announced at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo), where a trailer debuted, showing game-play, with a special crew of generation spanning Star Trek actors: Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), and Karl Urban (Doctor McCoy):



StarTrek.com have described the mission of the USS Aegis as follows:

Monday 13 June 2016

Fansets pins offer a universe of Star Trek characters and ships

Fansets, makers of pop culture pins, have entered the world of Star Trek, with a huge new range of pins featuring Star Trek characters and ships from all the prime timeline series (even TAS!). As Fansets state in their mission statement:
At FanSets, we are fans too and we want to make pins that we would want to collect. That means you won’t just get the same well known characters that everyone does but you’ll get the ones that only real fans know. 
In fact Star Trek will be the first universe they draw from (with the promise of Harry Potter and DC Comics ranges coming soon). So far they're making good on their promise to offer a wide variety of characters, with main characters from all the series joined by significant but rarely seen friends (heck, offering anything outside of TOS and TNG is a rarity!).

There are currently twelve character pins available, each two inches tall, with a further ten already announced:


Star Trek Beyond round-up: HPE tech revealed, coffee tie-in, music teases, and more

A few Star Trek Beyond updates for you today, including samples from the soundtrack, and some tie-in coffee! But first... Last week Hewlett Packard Enterprise revealed their advertising campaign and and product placement plans tied to Star Trek Beyond, which included them working with the crew on Star Trek Beyond to imagine several future technologies inspired by the potential of HPE's The Machine technology (see previous report for the advert and details of what that tech actually is). Three technologies this collaboration generated made it into the film, and now details those have been revealed.

Those include, the Diagnostic Wrap, a type of portable medical scanner and augmented reality display. HPE's Marissa Freeman told IT Buisness that:
It analyzes the inside of the creature that it’s wrapped around and the data populates on the screen in real time, which is the future of mesh computing.
HPE had the prop on display at the HPE Discover event, which IT Business got a good shot of:


Concept art was also shown (via CNet):

Hot Wheels' tiny Spock, and other new Star Trek cars

A round-up of Hot Wheels' latest Star Trek releases below, starting with their newly announced Comic Con exclusive. Available at the San Diego Comic Con in July will be 1964 Buick Riviera, with a tiny model Spock sitting on the bonnet. This recreates a well know photograph of Leonard Nimoy with his car, taken during the production of Star Trek. The car and figurine come in a display case emblazoned with the 50th anniversary logo, and with a backdrop recreating the original photograph.


Saturday 11 June 2016

New Star Trek Beyond phaser, and other Anovos replica updates

High-end costume and prop makers Anovos have revealed details of their forthcoming replica of the new phaser from Star Trek Beyond. The Type 1B is a variant of the familiar nuTrek hand-phaser design, which maintains the basic lines of the previous design, while tweaking it to make it quite distinct; perhaps most notably in the new wide phaser emitter.


Anovos are releasing this in kit form, which features a metal body with resin, ABS, and PVC plastic details. Like any model kit, trimming, glueing, and painting will be required to bring the phaser the life. There is also the option to buy the kit with an extra servo kit, which will enable the phaser nozzle to electronically flip between stun and kill modes. As Anovos told StarTrek.com the idea is the make the replica an "interactive" project, rather than just a thing you buy and stick on a shelf:
What makes our Star Trek prop replicas unique is the degree of interactivity that we will implement in each high-end kit and assembled replica. For this phaser, the builder will have the satisfaction of constructing their own metal and resin kit with or without electronics, depending on the builder's choice and skill level. Once assembled, the electronics-enabled version allows the user to alternate between "stun" or "kill" settings by depressing a button and executing a sequence of servo driven movements that will flip the phaser head into the desired position without needing to reset. That is just one example of many more features we are considering as ANOVOS moves into the collectible arena with products designed to compel fans to "interact" with their investment, rather than let it collect dust.
Anovos are expecting the kit to start shpping in November. Continue below for more images of this, and other new prop and costume replicas from Anovos:

Thursday 9 June 2016

Legacy of Spock, Part 4 preview

Out this week are two nuTrek stories, and both the final chapters in their respective stories. One of those is issue fifty-eight of the nuTrek onging series, the fourth part in the Legacy of Spock story. Packed full of Vulcans, Romulans, space battles, red matter, and of course Spock-prime, this issue bring a very satisfying close to one of the most enjoyable stories in the entire run of the series. Continue below for a five page preview.

This issue written as ever by Mike Johnson is available in three covers: Issue and series artist Tony Shasteen provides the regular cover. Alberto Silva created the subscription cover. And a third cover is exclusive to the Montreal Comic Con exclusive, a Gold Key style photo college by Tom B. Long.


Manifest Destiny #4 preview

Out this week are two nuTrek comics, both the final chapters in their respective stories. The fourth issue of the Klingon action-fest Manifest Destiny is one of those, and you can see a five-page preview below.

This issue, and indeed the whole miniseries, is written by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott and is available in three covers: The main one is by issue artist Angel Hernandez, with colour by Jose Luis del Rio. The subscription cover is by Tony Shasteen, continueing his run of Bob Peak movie poster homages. And a retail incentive cover comes from Jen Barte.


New official Star Trek podcast launches

CBS have announced the launch of Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast, which is much as the title describes! The show, hosted by journalist, critic, and StarTrek.com columnist Jordan Hoffman, promises interviews, discussion, and debate on all aspects of Star Trek, with both new and long term fans in mind, as the CBS tell us in their release:
Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast, created with both longtime and new fans in mind, will celebrate one of the most iconic franchises in entertainment and pop culture history. Hoffman, who pens StarTrek.com's recurring One Trek Mind column, will interact with enthusiasts, interview guests and debate the minutiae of the 50-year-old fictional universe. 
The show will release hour long episodes, starring with a three-episode splurge kicking things off on the the 15th of June, which will include interviews with “Weird Al” Yankovic and Adam Nimoy.

The podcast will be hosted on CBS's new Play.It platform, as well as all your usual podcast finding places. And for a taste of things to go, they've already uploaded episode zero.

Here's a little trailer too:

Vina the Orion joins the Star Trek Barbie collection

Did you like the new Star Trek Barbie dolls revealed the other day? Well how about an extra one, in green! Coming exclusively to the San Diego Comic Con in July, and to be pre-orderable via Matty Collector website (which also announced the news), is a Barbie version of Vina, from the pilot episode The Cage, in her guise as an Orion slave girl. She looks rather fabulous don't you think!


She comes in equally splendid and rather psychedelic packaging.

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Complete Original Series TV and film coming to one huge bluray box set

CBS and Paramount have announced a new mega box set release, Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV and Movie Collection, which will uniquely include all of the TOS Star Trek adventures. The thirty disc set, due out in September, will bring together the entire original TV series, all six TOS movies, and for the first time on bluray, The Animated Series as well!

In addition to all the previous bluray extra features (some twenty hours worth), the set features a new two-hour documentary, and also comes with a 50th anniversary logo pin, and a set of six mini-poster cards featuring art by Juan Oriz inspired by all the TOS movies. And of course it all comes in snazzy packaging, complete with glittery transporter effect cover, and some really nice new disc art.


While TAS is new to bluray, the rest of the set is familiar content from previous releases - The Wrath of Khan is the most up-to-date version, the just released newly remastered Director's Cut.

Tuesday 7 June 2016

HPE's The Machine coming to Star Trek Beyond, and other updates

A few promotional updates from Star Trek Beyond today, including new trailers and a motion poster. But before that, the big news of the day is the first tie-in advertising campaign related the film. UPDATE: Plus a look at some props too.

It sounds like Hewlett Packard Enterprise have got themselves a pretty huge product placement deal with Paramount to embed their new computing technology, ambiguously called The Machine, into the heart of Star Trek Beyond, and the marketing surrounding it, starting today with the first advert tied into the film.

That advert sees a group of cadets taken (to space-Iceland) to learn about The Machine, and how it changed the face of computing for centuries following its introduction. A grand claim, but the technology does sound genuinely impressive, as this summary from Ars Technica explains (an interesting article if you're curious about the real technology):
The Machine is a hyper-dense collection of computing hardware that could be used in anything from a data center to a mobile device. It has terabytes of storage and a much smaller power draw than today’s computing devices—all because of memristor-based memory and optical interconnects.
Here's the overview the Starfleet cadets got:



The advert is just the start, technologies inspired by The Machine will feature in the film itself, as HPE's press release explains:

Gold Key Archives, Volume 5 preview

Out now is Star Trek: Gold Key Archives, Volume 5, the latest in IDW's reprints of the first ever Star Trek comics series, featuring beautifully restored artwork, bringing these stories to life better than they've ever looked.

Unusually for the series, this book will be available in two covers. The regular retail version features new artwork by Michael Stribling, while a convention exclusive cover sees the 50th anniversary logo superimposed over the covers of the stories within.


As the contents page lists, this volume contains six stories, the original issues 25-28, and 30-31. The missing issue is because that were originally a reprint issue, and so has already been collected in previous volumes of the collection. Reprinted issues in the series did feature new cover artwork, and that is collected in this book too. Continue below for a preview from the first story in the book, Dwarf Planet.

IDW's Star Trek comics for August

IDW have released their solicitations for August, which include just one new Star Trek comic story, the last in the current run of nuTrek comics, but that is joined by a special 50th anniversary publication. Continue below for all the details

Star Trek (nuTrek ongoing) #60: Altered Encounters, Part 2
Written by Mike Johnson, with art by Tony Shasteen
BLOCKBUSTER SERIES FINALE! A Five Year Mission = five years of STAR TREK comics! Celebrate the end of the latest chapter in the Enterprise's epic adventures with this all-new story that brings Captains and crews from two different timelines together!
While we wait with great anticipation to see what September brings us after this "series finale", this second issue of the TOS crossover story will be available in two covers: The main one is by issue artist Tony Shasteen, and completes the diptych with its counterpart on the previous issue. Meanwhile Jorge Fornes will deliver the subscription cover, but that hasn't been released yet.




Sunday 5 June 2016

More new Star Trek TV writers and production details

The writing room for the new Star Trek TV series is starting to fill out. Continue below for all the details.

The most recently announced came via another of the writers, Kemp Powers, who I found about thanks to TrekFM's new Stage Nine podcast. Powers himself is new to TV, but has a wide range of writing credits, including stage-plays, journalism, and his own memoirs revolving around a terrible event from his childhood.

Powers tweeted two new names to add to the the writing room. One of those is Aron Coleite, a writer and producer of several TV series, including Heroes, where he worked alongside new Star Trek showrunner Bryan Fuller who also produced season one of that series.

They are also joined by Joe Menosky, who also will have worked with Fuller, and pre-dated him in the Star Trek world, as writer and producer on many episodes of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Some of Menosky's most notable episodes include Darmok, Year of Hell, and Timeless.

Jesse Alexander in his dangerous work uniform
Another name which appears to be in the room, as highlighted by TrekFM's Commentary Trek Stars, is Jesse Alexander another Heroes alumni, who has also worked with Fuller on Hannibal, and with another of the producers of the new Star Trek series, Alex Kurtzman, on Alias, as well as producing episodes of Lost. Alexander certainly seems happy about this role, posting some fun images from the production offices on his social media.

Saturday 4 June 2016

New Star Trek Barbies

Mattel have announced a new range of Star Trek Barbies. Due to arrive in June are three TOS characters in Barbie form: Uhura, Kirk, and Spock.


I think Uhura has made the transition into the Barbie style especially well. Continue below for a closer look at all three. The Barbie website has a nice set of photos of each doll on a Barbie-scale bridge, including these charming shots:

Friday 3 June 2016

The Borg have assimilated, your beverages

There's trouble brewing in the Delta Quadrant! You better perk up and get ready in a shot, make your way espresso to the transporter room, ready to bean over with the next away team. Don't be latte...

Sorry.

New from ThinkGeek, the latest in a curious run of things inspired by Borg Cubes (fridge, light, rug, leggings, another light...), the new Borg Cube mug! The first couple of lines of ThinkGeek's own description sums it succinctly: "Looks like a Borg cube. But it's a coffee mug". More images after the jump!


Thursday 2 June 2016

Latest Star Trek book covers: Legacies, novelisations, Encylopedia, and more

Lots of Star Trek book covers for you today, including the 50th anniversary novel trilogy in print and audiobook form, a new omnibus of classic novelisations, the latest Star Trek Encyclopedia, and more!

The big prose event of the fiftieth anniversary year is the Legacies trilogy, and the first two covers have now been released, which you can see below. To mark just how big an event this is, Simon and Schuster are not just releasing this in print and ebook form, but also as audiobooks! Author Dayton Ward broke this news on his blog, revealing the unabridged recordings will be read by actor Robert Petkoff. The novelisations of the first two nuTrek movies got audiobook releases, but the last original novel to get an (English language) audio version was Vulcan Soul: Epiphany, way back 2007!

The first of those audiobooks is already available to pre-order on Amazon, alongside the print and ebook version's of Greg Cox's Captain to Captain. Here's the cover, which features a special extended version of the cover art:


Star Trek novel previews: Force and Motion and Elusive Salvation

Out this month is the latest DS9 novel, Jeffrey Lang's Force and Motion, a new adventure away from the station focusing on Nog and O'Brien, and guest starring Benjamin Maxwell. Here's a reminder of the blurb:
In 2367, Captain Benjamin Maxwell of the starship Phoenix ordered the destruction of a Cardassian warship and a supply vessel, killing more than six hundred crew members. Maxwell believed that the Cardassians were arming for a new attack on the Federation, and though history eventually proved he was probably correct, the Federation had no choice but to court martial and incarcerate him.

Almost twenty years have passed, and now Maxwell is a free man, working as a maintenance engineer on the private science station Robert Hooke, home to crackpots, fringe researchers, and, possibly, something much darker and deadlier. Maxwell’s former crewmate, Chief Miles O’Brien, and O’Brien’s colleague, Lieutenant Commander Nog, have come for a visit. Unfortunately, history has proven that whenever O’Brien and Nog leave Deep Space 9 together, unpredictable forces are set into motion…
You can read a excerpt from that book below, thanks to Amazon's handy-dandy preview thing. And continue below for an excerpt from last month's new novel too:

ThinkGeek's new TNG beach-wear

ThinkGeek have launched a new range of swim and beach wear inspired by costumes from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Continue below to check out all your summer uniform options:


Find Star Trek comics, toys, statues, and collectibles at TFAW.com!