Wednesday 23 December 2009

Frontier Doctor cover

Best cover ever? C.o. of Mr John Byrne, via his forums, the cover for the first issue of his next Trek series, Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor:UPDATE: Now in colour too:

Tuesday 22 December 2009

New covers for german TNG novels

Check out the new cover art for the German editions of Q & A and Before Dishonor, coming out from Cross Cult early next year:And Death in Winter, if you've not seen it before, has been out a while:

IDW March

Comics Continuum have posted IDW's solicitations for March, which include three Star Trek comics and one omnibus. The solicitions also reveal Fool's Gold will only have four parts.

Ghosts #5
It's the stunning conclusion! As Worf's execution draws ever closer, Commander Riker sends Data alone into enemy territory to find him. Meanwhile, Picard and his fellow prisoners search desperately for a way out of the white zone before their link to the real world disappears -- trapping them forever! Fool's Gold #4
With Deep Space Nine descending into chaos, Captain Sisko turns to an unexpected source for assistance -- but how can the Cardassian tailor Garak help? It all comes together in this final issue of IDW's debut Deep Space Nine mini-series!
Star Trek Movie Adaptation #2
The official comics adaptation of the blockbuster film Star Trek continues in this mini-series presented by J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman! Follow young Kirk and Spock on their journey towards Starfleet Academy and witness Kirk's first encounter with the USS Enterprise! Brought to you by the creative team behind the best-selling Star Trek: Countdown, this series includes scenes not included in the original film! Alien Spotlight, Volume 2
Cardassians, Klingons, Q, Romulans, and Tribbles. Five different and distinct alien races, all part of the Star Trek Universe. Five stand-alone stories that take you on unique and intriguing adventures, each focusing on an alien species that has come into contact -- and often conflict -- with the Federation of Planets!

Ghosts previews

TrekMovie have posted a five-page-preview of this week's coming issue of the TNG miniseries Ghosts. Here's one page, see the rest at TrekMovie:
Elsewhere... on deviantART the series' colorist, John Hunt, has posted a couple of pages from the third issue. Here's one (see the other here):

Online updates

Are as numerous as ever... bunch of new videos, including ones featuring Leonard Nemoy doing some narration and Zachery Qunito as the the game's training EMH:






And some new pictures too (via massively and TrekMovie):

And finally, check out this article from TrekMovie, "Top 10 Trekkie Reasons To Play", which highlights some features of the game, like tribbles and the Guardian of Forever!

Sunday 13 December 2009

Comics update

TrekMovie posted a five-page-preview from last week's Alien Spotlight: Cardassians. Here's a page:
Comics Continuum have posted one for the coming week's first issue of Fool's Gold, here's a page of that:And finally John Byrne has announced his next Trek series, Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor will now be starting in April, rather than March as first indicated.

Coming soon from David Mack

Unreality SF have posted an interview with David Mack regarding his latest and forthcoming publications.

The article sheds some light on his forthcoming expansion of his Mirror Universe novel The Sorrows of Empire, which will be more than twice the length of the original short novel version. "I’ve detailed at least one event from each of the 28 years spanned by the story. Marlena’s point of view is given greater examination, and I’ve worked to better integrate the characters who previously had made only cameos - in particular, Saavik and, to a lesser degree, T’Prynn from the Vanguard series." It also reveals he's already delivered a proposal for a novel to complete the story of Spock's plan. So finger's crossed the new trek editor likes it!

(You can also read an excerpt from the book on TrekMoive, here)

The article also discusses Mack's next trek outing in 2010, his new movie tie-in More Beautiful Than Death, which he provides a summary for: "The Enterprise crew is ordered to escort Ambassador Sarek to a dilithium-rich planet called Akiron, which has sent out a planetary distress signal. When the Enterprise crew reaches Akiron, they find that the planet is under siege by dark-energy creatures that some of the planet’s more religious denizens believe are demons. In short order, one calamity after another puts our heroes in jeopardy. Sarek begins trying to pull diplomatic rank so he can pull the plug on the mission, and young Captain Kirk must fend off this unexpected challenge to his still-fragile command authority.

As Kirk sinks himself, his crew, and his ship deeper into danger with each passing minute, he finds his own beliefs in a rational universe challenged by a mystic who insists it’s no coincidence that has brought Kirk to Akiron but rather the alien equivalent of a Karmic debt. Meanwhile, one of Sarek’s young Vulcan aides has a sinister agenda - and its chief objective appears to be the cold-blooded murder of Spock."

And a third Mack Trek work coming in 2010, the Typhoon Pact novel Zero Sum Game: "will be a tense, action-packed science-fiction spy thriller that focuses on the Breen Confederacy, and that it will feature Captain Ezri Dax and her crew aboard the U.S.S. Aventine, as seen in my Star Trek Destiny trilogy." Mack commented that the book will not be published under an Aventine title, and in fact "Although Captain Dax and the Aventine figure prominently in the story, I should probably drop this hint right now to nip wild speculations in the bud: they are not the stars of the story."

The article also talks a lot about the recently release Vanguard novel Precipice, and gives lots of background on all those new stories mentioned above, check it out.

DST's TMP PHAser

Diamond Select Toys have posted a video of their new The Motion Picture phaser, enjoy:

Online product and pictures

There are now listings abound for a "Collectors' Edition" of Star Trek Online, which will include a whole host of extra bits, such as: A hardcover manual and art book, containing forty pages of concept art for the game. A metal comm badge from the game's uniform design. Three guest passes to give some friends a ten-day trial of the game. TNG and DS9 design uniform options for your in-game crew. And the "Red Matter Capacitor: A unique item that charges up and delivers extra energy to all of your ship’s equipment for a short time."

On top of all that yet more retail exclusive versions have been revealed. In addition to the TOS Enterprise model and Borg bridge officer previously revealed, there will also be:
-A pet tribble (for Federation), or Targ (for Klingon) for captains in-game, from Best Buy.
-A TR-116 weapon for ground based offensives, from Target.
-Multi-spatial personal shields, which constantly regenerate! from Direct2Drive.
-Chromodynamic Armor, which improves the effectiveness of weapons, from STEAM.
-And Walmart will offer a "bonus skill points package".

And finally the usual plethora of new screencaps, including quite a lot of new ship designs:
See more in Massively and IGN's galleries.

Monday 30 November 2009

IDW bits

From Joe Corrney's website we have the first look at his cover for the fifth and final issue of the Ghosts miniseries:And from Amazon a cover for the omnibus of Alien Spotlight II (though I'm assuming not final as the Enterprise is rendered rather roughly and it omits the Cardassian issue at the moment):
Also from Amazon the first hints at a new book in IDW's Omnibus series, this time collecting several of their own miniseries. Star Trek Omnibus: The Original Series will apparently contain IDW's Year Four, The Enterprise Experiment, Klingons: Blood Will Tell, and the TOS Alien Spotlight issues (the other series are all IDW's earliest TOS series, so maybe just from Alien Spotlight I?).

Saturday 28 November 2009

IDW in February and comics updates

Comics Continuum have posted IDW's solicitations for February, which include three new Star Trek comics and two omnibuses.

Ghosts #4
With Captain Picard shifted into another dimension, Commander Riker takes command of the Enterprise and negotiates with Worf's hot-tempered captors for his release. Troi tries to pick through the noise in her patient's head to unravel information on the extra-dimensional ghosts. Meanwhile, the missing Picard finds himself in a peculiar leadership role.
Fool's Gold #3
As the temperature rises aboard Deep Space Nine, Captain Sisko, Kira and Odo come closer to getting to the bottom of the mystery. Can Sisko calm the volatile situation and restore order before another riot breaks out? And what does Garak have to do with all that has transpired?
Star Trek Movie Adaptation #1
JJ Abrams' blockbuster revitalization of the Star Trek franchise was the most thrilling film of the year. Now, under the direction of Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, comes the highly anticipated graphic adaptation of the film! Additionally, new scenes and moments cut from the movie are revealed‹an event no Star Trek fan can dare miss!
Romulans: Pawns of War omnibus
Collecting Byrne's tales of Star Trek's Romulans in one volume. This special edition tells tales leading up to the seminal "Balance of Terror" episode. Included within is the Romulans Alien Spotlight, the two-part Hollow Crown story, and the three-issue Schism series. As an added bonus, Byrne writes and draws an all-new 12-page "Balance of Terror" adaptation just for this collection.


Nero omnibus
From Star Trek writer/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, comes an all-new story set within the events of the hit film! Not an adaptation, this exclusive story follows the villainous Nero as he seeks to destroy the Federation.

Meanwhile on his forums John Byrne has given some new details of his forthcoming series Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor. It apparently sees McCoy dealing with a new disease in each issue, and is based on an idea Byrne once had for a TV series set in the American Civil War.

And final some new art. David Messina's cover for Fool's Gold issue 2 (also available on Messina's blog, Captain's Log: Sulu cover art at higher res than previously released):
And from the interior artist of the same series, Fabio Mantovani, a page from the first issue (which you can also see pre-colouring on the original post):

Books update

A few bits and bobs from the world of Pocket Books. First up, they have a new editor for the Trek line at last, Jaime Costas apparently (so says Mark Rademaker).

On the Simon and Schuster website you can find an excerpt from the latest Vanguard novel, Precipice.

Thanks to Amazon we have some new summaries for the new-TOS books coming out next year (plus a title and new authorship for the forth in the series):

Refugees, by Alan Dean Foster
Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise must decide if a group of refugees are a menace or misunderstood.

Seek a Newer World, by Christopher L. Bennett
Enterprise under attack escapes and discovers an entire civilization also hiding as is the ship. Kirk decides to find out what are they hiding from.

More Beautiful Than Death, by David Mack
Kirk leads a mission to Akiron, a dilithium rich world. Aboard is Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, who is hoping to broker a Federation trade agreement.

The Hazard of Concealing, by Greg Cox
When the elder Spock surfaces from the future, will he be able to escape a sinister plan wrought by the enemies of the Federation, or will their quest to exploit Spock's knowledge succeed, with disastrous consequences?

And from an interview with James Swallow on Unreality SF we have the first indications of what his story, The Slow Knife, from Seven Deadly Sins is about: “The Slow Knife is set pre-DS9, during the period of Cardassian-Federation border skirmishes as detailed in the TNG episode The Wounded," "It’s about an ambitious young Cardassian officer who is passed over for a promotion and becomes slowly consumed by her own resentment and jealousy.” “a certain other Cardassian of note may or may not also appear in the story…

Ships of the Line 2011!

Doug Drexler has announced work has begun on the 2011 edition of the Ships of the Line calendar, with editorial oversight from Margaret Clark (apparently back at Pocket Books working freelance). Drexler has given a few hints at what to expect:
-An image of the new movie Enterprise
-An NX-01 refit for the fifth season that never was, with "a secondary hull and a TOS porcelin finish"
-A "a TNG era Romulan uber cruiser"
-And a "TOS.5.2 E" (whatever the heck that is?!)

Additionally Mark Rademaker has posted on his blog confirming he is working on something for the calendar.

DAC updates

Here are a couple of videos promoting the new updates to Star Trek DAC available now on PC and Playstation 3 as well as X-Box 360:

Star Trek The Experience, Online!

For those who never got the chance to go there, or those who wish to relive fond memories, here's a neat little site for you. The now closed Star Trek: The Experience has been put online in the form of a collection of 360 degree interactive images, you can view all the major areas of the exhibition, including staff areas. Check out, here.

Art of the Film previews

To compliment the release of the DVD/bluray of the new film Titan Books also released an art book. Several websites have previewed the publications, here are a few highlights:


And links to the rest: here, here, here, here, here and here!

Additionally the latest issue of the Star Trek Magazine has a supplement of additional material that couldn't fit into the book, and promises a second supplement in their next issue!

New Movie on DVD

The new movie is out on DVD and bluray now, you can find a whole host of clips from the extra features if you hunt about online, but it's much easier to just get the DVD/bluray and enjoy it all together.

When you do get it one of the cooler exclusive versions comes from Target, who offer it in a model of the Enterprise!!Not on the DVD is an unfilmed scene which could have given William Shatner his much demanded cameo, you can read it as it was scripted on TrekMovie (glad they didn't go through with it myself, sounds very forced to me).
Find Star Trek comics, toys, statues, and collectibles at TFAW.com!