Tuesday 27 April 2010

Movie Adaptation #3 preview

Comics Continuum have posted a(n incredibly fuzzy) five-page preview for this week's third issue of the Movie Adaptation comic. Here's a one page:See the rest, here.

Ships of the Line 2011 previews

Doug Drexler has posted a couple of previews for next year's Ships of the Line calendar. This vertically oriented image from Andrew Probert:

And schematics for the NX-refit that will appear in the calendar:


German updates

German publisher Cross Cult has released a catalogue detailing some of it's forthcoming titles, which includes the launch of several new series for the publisher; starting next year Cross Cult will add Enterprise, TOS and New Frontier novels to their output, starting from the very start with New Frontier (with the first four novellas compiled into two omnibuses), from Last Full Measure with Enterprise, and the Crucible trilogy for TOS.

The catalogue also reveals the first fuzzy-low-resolution images of new covers for Lost Souls and A Stitch in Time.
Thanks to Unreality SF's Jens Deffner for the tip, and also for the following analysis: What's notable in the catalogue is what isn't mentioned; now Cross Cult has exhausted the David Messina Trek back-catalogue they haven’t announced any new comic titles yet, and the New Frontier list seems to have show Cross Cult will be skipping Once Burned and Double or Nothing, the New Frontier entries in the Captain's Table and Double Helix series.

Updated Rough Beasts of Empire blurb

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated again with a revised blurb for the DS9-focused Typhon Pact novel Rough Beasts of Empire:

Still on Romulus in pursuit of his goal of reunifying the Vulcans and Romulans, Spock finds himself in the middle of a massive power struggle. In the wake of the assassination of the Praetor and the Senate, the Romulans have cleaved in two. While Empress Donatra has led her nascent Imperial Romulan State to establish relations with the Federation, Praetor Tal’aura has guided the original Romulan Star Empire toward joining the newly formed Typhon Pact. But numerous factions within the two Romulan nations vie for power and undivided leadership, and Machiavellian plots unfold as forces within and without the empires conduct high-stakes political maneuvers.

Meanwhile, four years after Benjamin Sisko returned from the Celestial Temple, circumstances have changed, his hopes for a peaceful life on Bajor with his wife and daughter beginning to slip away. After temporarily rejoining Starfleet for an all-hands-on-deck battle against the Borg, he must consider an offer to have him return for a longer stint. Beset by troubling events, he seeks spiritual guidance, facing demons new and old, including difficult memories from his time in the last Federation-Tzenkethi war.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Haynes USS Enteprise manual advert

Haynes has released a new catalogue, which includes a nice big advert for their (amazingly exciting) USS Enterprise Owners Manual, coming in september:

So it covers everything from the NX-01 to 1701-E. Though I find it a little ambiguous about the new movie version; it says it lists all Enterprises, and mentions the new movie version under the 1701 section, but is that a nod, or a listing of contents?? Either way, it has at least seven Enterprises and two-hundred colour pictures!

All praise to the TrkeBBS’s ever vigilant DarkHorizon, who spotted this.

Latest Star Trek prose

Simon and Schuster have updated their online catalogues with loads of new Trek blurbs:

Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
A spy for the Typhon Pact—a new political rival of the Federation—steals the plans for Starfleet’s newest technological advance: the slipstream drive. To stop the Typhon Pact from unlocking its secrets, Starfleet Intelligence recruits a pair of genetically enhanced agents: Dr. Julian Bashir and Sarina Douglas­—for whom Bashir has long harbored passionate feelings. The two must infiltrate a world controlled by the mysterious species known as the Breen, find the hidden slipstream project, and destroy it. Meanwhile, light-years away, Captain Ezri Dax and her crew on the U.S.S. Aventine play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a Typhon Pact fleet that stands between them and the safe retrieval of Bashir and Douglas from hostile territory.

Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire
Shortly after making the stunning revelation that it has joined with Federation’s newest adversary—a coalition of galactic powers known as the Typhon Pact—the Gorn Hegemony suffers an ecological disaster. Fortunately, the Gorn had already been investigating traces of an ancient but powerful “quick terraforming” technology left behind by a long-vanished race — a dead civilization that may be responsible for habitability of many of the worlds on the Gorn frontier and beyond. When the U.S.S. Titan begins pursuing this potent technology as well, in the hopes of using it to heal the many grievous wounds sustained by the Federation, it is unclear how dangerous such planet-altering technology can be, even when used with the best of intentions….

Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire
The Romulans have a divided empire, with the original Romulan Star Empire joining the Typhon Pact and the nascent Imperial Romulan State establishing relations with the Federation. Numerous factions within the two Romulan governments vie for power and undivided leadership, and Machiavellian plots unfold as forces within and without the empires play political games. Spock, still on Romulus in pursuit of his goal of reunifying the Vulcans and Romulans, finds himself in the middle of these political battles.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Sisko returns to life in Starfleet, a lonely, fractured man now divided from his family, a set of circumstances brought about by his fears of what the Bajoran Prophets forecast for him and their recent abandonment of him. Kira Nerys has left Deep Space 9 and the Bajoran Militia to follow a religious path on her homeworld. Elias Vaughn suffers a debilitating injury during the Borg attack that leaves him comatose, with no prospects for a return to health. Finally, the Tzenkethi are introduced as an anti-democratic species, who genuinely believe it foolhardy to trust to the will of the masses when individuals clearly have strengths that suggest where they would best serve the people. Given those beliefs, the Tzenkethi also involve themselves surreptitiously in the struggle for power amongst the Romulans.


Myriad Universes: Shattered Light
What began as the exploration of one Star Trek parallel universe explodes with the introduction of six new alternate realities.

Set across history, touching upon every series, and written by a variety of Star Trek authors, each story in Myriad Universes: Shattered Light presents a unique alternate vision of the Star Trek universe, taking pivotal moments from its history and extrapolating the shocking changes that follow those deviations.

In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism—broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been…is actually what happened.


New Frontier: Blind Man's Bluff
The next exciting Star Trek: New Frontier novel from New York Times bestselling author Peter David!

Following the dramatic events seen in the previous novels, After the Fall, Missing in Action, and Treason, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur now face an uncertain future, as their lives and the very fate of Sector 221-G are thrown into utter chaos. With a storyline concurrent with The Next Generation, and picking up at a point where there have been significant changes, new and old readers alike will be captivated by this series.


And there is also this revised cover for Nightshade (can't quite make out who the author is...):
Finally, David Mack has announced on the TrekBBS that he has just signed the contract to write his next Mirror Universe novel: Rise Like Lions.

Windows: Vesta

Mark Rademaker has posted another update for his Vesta class design, today showcasing it's great big windows!:

Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder

John Eaves has updated his blog (which often includes behind the scenes Trek stuff) with a fantastic post showcasing artwork created for Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder, the magazine featured in the DS9 episode Far Beyond the Stars. Here's my favourite (go check out all the others, here):

Special Task Force trailer

Cryptic Studios have released a new video, a trailer for the next two special task force missions in Star Trek Online:

IDW July

ComicNewsi have posted IDW's solicitations for July, which include three new Star Trek comics and an omnibus:

Star Trek Movie Adaptation #5
J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman present the official comics adaptation of their blockbuster film STAR TREK! The creative team behind the best-selling STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN returns to continue the epic adventure as Kirk comes face to face with an older, wiser Spock... and meets a certain Scottish engineer for the first time. Includes scenes not in the original film!
Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #4
Our visit with the Doctor comes to an end with two titanic tales—first, Dr. McCoy must find a way to deal with a virus that just may be smarter than he is… and then a visit to an old friend finds Bones wrestling with a dilemma that cuts across the very heart of his Hippocratic Oath.Burden of Knowledge #2
When the Enterprise crew embarks on a mission of planetary First Contact, Captain Kirk finds a peaceful, idyllic society, one happily linked together by a global thought network—or so it appeared. When he discovers a bitter rebellion simmering beneath the surface, will he be able to follow the Prime Directive, or find himself compelled to get involved?Fool's Gold
Captain Sisko and the crew of Deep Space Nine make their triumphant return to comics! When the station begins to be overrun by thieves, treasure-seekers, bounty-hunters, and other assorted ne’er-do-wells, Major Kira and Constable Odo must find out why. Can they get to the bottom of it before the station’s new visitors bring things to a boiling point?!

Sunday 18 April 2010

Latest from STO

The Star Trek Online cryptic store has been updated with a few new items (such as emotes and bridges) and a new starship class, the Nimbus class science vessel, a Destiny class varient which looks like this:

The latest task force mission, Khitomer Accord has also been added to the game, Cryptic describe it like this (full details here):
Continue the fight against the Borg in our latest Special Task Force - "Khitomer Accord"!

You cut your teeth during the Borg invasion of the Vega system. ... Or did you?

The Borg seemed unusually weak, unable to adapt and most of their fleet was already seriously damaged. It seems like someone may have got to them first and softened them up, because if the Borg were at full strength that day, you may not have fared so well.

More questions are being raised as Starfleet intelligence and the Klingon Defense Force have both detected a controlled emission of a massive quantity of chronometric particles in the Vega system. The last time a surge like that was detected, the Borg opened a temporal vortex and attempted to change the history of Earth.

Travel to Vega to investigate exactly what the Borg are up to, neutralize the temporal anomaly and prevent history from changing forever!

365 details

TrekMovie has posted a blurb and cover for, Star Trek 365, the reference book coming later this year. Here's the description:

Star Trek 365 is the definitive, comprehensive and authorised guide to Star Trek: The Original Series, Gene Roddenberry’s landmark, groundbreaking television programme that first aired from 1966-69 and went on to become an international phenomenon. A cornerstone of popular and sci-fi culture for more than four decades, the show first catapulted William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to fame and has, through a long series of feature-film and television spinoffs, led to the creation of a uniquely rich and detailed fictional universe. A visual celebration of the original voyages of the starship Enterprise, Star Trek 365 covers each episode and season in unprecedented detail, combining in-depth synopses, behind-the-scenes histories, and interviews with writers, cast, crew and fans with critical commentary on how the show’s themes resonated when they first aired and how they continue to be relevant today. The book also looks at the original days of Star Trek fandom and the show’s enduring cultural legacy, from the launching of NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1978 to the Smithsonian’s exhibition of rare Star Trek material in 1992 to the present day. In addition to its wealth of never-before-seen images and newly commissioned photography of models, props, costumes, collectibles and ephemera, Star Trek 365 uses unprecedented access to the CBS archives to reproduce a treasure trove of still images – newly retouched and remastered – taken directly from the series’ original 16mm film slides. Written by longtime CBS insider Paula M. Block, Star Trek 365 boldly goes where no other Star Trek book has gone before, combining rare and iconic imagery with a complete reference guide to the original show’s seventy-nine episodes – a perfect gift for Star Trek fans of all ages.

And the cover:

Novel new novels

2011 seems to be shaping up as a interesting year for Star Trek novels with two more creative takes on Trek prose join Star Trek: DTI on the forthcoming list.

As annouced by David A McIntee on his blog, coming in the spring will be Indistinguishable From Magic; under the general title of Star Trek the book will feature Geordi, Scotty, Nog and Guinan up to something in 2382, set after The Typhon Pact. The book was apparently originally pitched as a duology, so McIntee expects it to be quite long.

Then, from Dayton Ward's blog; coming mid to late 2011 will be the sixth Vanguard book, with a new twist on the series, giving us four novellas in a single mass market paperback book. The four stories, set throughout the Vanguard timeline will be by Ward himself, Kevin Dilmore, David Mack, and *fanfare* Marco Palmieri!

UPDATE: Also, Kirsten Beyer is working on a third Voyager relaunch novel, which she announced on the TrekBBS (Thanks to Unreality SF's Defcon for finding the source of that for me!)

Friday 16 April 2010

Children of Kings excerpt

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with an excerpt from the new Pike-era novel The Children of Kings. You can read it, here.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Tricorder, now with vials!

The Art Asylum blog has posted images of the latest tricorder model from Diamond Select Toys; the geological tricorder, with vials for mineral samples!

Aventine mark I returns!

Mark Rademaker has noted on his blog that, because of the recent schedule changes which made Zero Sum Game the first, rather than second, book in the Typhon Pact series, the original mark I version of the Vesta class will be used on the cover; rather than the updated version he has been working on in recent months.

On the flip side it means Rademaker can continue to work on the mark II at less hasty pace, and even has his sights on doing the rest of the Full Circle fleet! Here's his latest Vesta saucer image:

Frontier Doctor teases

John Byrne and Chris Ryall have posted a couple of new bits on Byrne's Frontier Doctor series (which started this week). Ryall posted this page from issue three, teasing at the double sequel to both Assignment: Earth and Crew issues!:And on his forums Byrne commented on the third and forth issues of the series, which will also feature the USS Yorktown, seen previously in Romulans: Schism, now with a new bridge (after it was destroyed in that story) featuring a hybrid TOS/TMP design.

Friday 9 April 2010

Frontier Doctor #4 cover

Chris Ryall and John Byrne have posted Byrne's new cover for the forth and final issue of his Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor series. Looks like this:
Which as you can see on Ryall's original post, is based on a Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulip.

New STO ships

Star Trek Online's Cryptic Store has been updated with a couple of new starship classes, the Sovereign class variant, Imperial class:


And the Prometheus class variant, Hephaestus class:


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