Discovery updates: Season 3, Light and Shadows previews, and more

Got lots of Discovery updates today, with previews of this week's episode, Light and Shadows, and more on last week's The Sound of Thunder. But first, the big news of the week is that Discovery has been officially renewed for a third season - Which is hardly surprisingly given the numerous mentions to plans being afoot for that eventually, but it's still good news it's definitely happening! No info yet on when the season will start or how many episodes it will have.

Along with that announcement, Discovery writer Michelle Paradise has been made co-showrunner for season three, working alongside Alex Kurtzman who took on that role on his own for the second season. Here's what Kurtzman had to say about that when talking to The Hollywood Reporter:

Michelle joined us midway through season two and energized the room with her ferocious knowledge of Trek. Her grasp of character and story detail, her drive and her focus have already become essential in ensuring the Trek legacy, and her fresh perspective always keeps us looking forward. I’m proud to say Michelle and I are officially running Star Trek: Discovery together.

Naturally CBS have released a little announcement video for this news too:

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The #StarTrekDiscovery crew is beaming in to Season 3

A post shared by Star Trek (@startrek) on Feb 27, 2019 at 10:58am PST

The Q Conflict #2 preview

Out this week is the second issue in IDW's mega-multi-series-crossover The Q Conflict, in which various superbeings brings together the crews from TNG, DS9, Voyager, and TOS as their playthings, and this time throw in the Iconians too!

The series comes from writers Scott and David Tipton, with art by David Messina, who also provides both the A and B covers, which themselves continue a series begun with the covers from the first issue, framing an assortment of the main cast characters inside the bodies of their superbeing overseers, in this case Trelane and a Metron. A further retail incentive cover, featuring a sculptural Captain Picard, comes from George Caltsoudas.

Continue below to check out all those covers, plus a five page preview from the book - Interesting to see the Discovery USS Enterprise featured there.

Star Trek vs Transformers #5 preview

Out this week is the fifth and final issue in IDW's Star Trek vs Transformers comic series; if you thought Fortress Tiberius (the USS Enterprise Transformer) was wild, just wait to see what this issue delivers!

The series is from writers John Barber and Mike Johnson, with art by Philip Murphy, who also provides the action packed space battle A cover. The B cover, also rather spacey, is from Josh Burcham, and there's also a more down to Earth (or Qo'noS?) retail incentive cover from Chris Panda.

Continue below to check out all of those, and a five page preview from the book:

QMx's Sulu action figure

QMx have put up a listing for the next Star Trek character in their 1:6 scale action figure range, Sulu.

Like previous figures in the range, Sulu features a very life-like face, fabric uniform, and an assortment of accessories; a phaser pistol, communicator, and tricorder, plus hands to hold them all, and alternate fisted and neutral hands too.

QMx have released a whole bunch of images to show off the figure, including some delightfully exotic landing party scenery. Continue below to check it out:

Ships of the Line 2020 preview

With the recent reveal of the 2020 Star Trek calendar range, there was one calendar awaiting finalised artwork, my personal favourite every year, Ships of the Line. Well fear not starship fans, distributors Andrews McMeel Publishing have updated there listings to reveal both covers and some interior previews. Continue below to check them out:

IDW's Star Trek comics for May

IDW have released their solicitations for May, which include two new Star Trek comics. Continue below for all the details of those, and other comics updates:

Star Trek: Year Five #2
Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. Art by Stephen Thompson.

As the last year of their original mission begins, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise will have to use all of the skills they’ve acquired along the way as they prepare to face the biggest challenge of their lives—a dark threat that doesn’t just threaten their existence, but the existence of the entire Federation as well...

Two covers have been announced for this one, with the main Tholian dominated cover coming from the issue artist Thompson (which you can also see on Twitter pre-colouring). A retail incentive (not yet revealed) will be by J. J. Lendl.

Trek TV updates: Animation rumours, Discovery titles, The Sound of Thunder previews, and more

Lots of Discovery updates today, including new episode titles, previews for this week's The Sound of Thunder, and follow-ups to last week's Saints of Imperfection. But first, a little note on other Trek TV news:

The Hollywood Reporter among others have reported that the child-orientated animated series in the works is close to finding a home at Nickelodeon. The series, which is also reported to be written by Kevin and Dan Hageman (whose previous credits include the series Trollhunters and Ninjago, and The Lego Movie), is described as being tentpole in a refreshed lineup for the network - I'm really glad to see this series progressing; Star Trek for a younger audience is long overdue, and much needed to help indoctrinate *ahem* inspire a new generation of trekkies.

Back to the current series, TV Passport has again revealed the titles for several more episodes of Discovery. Speculate away what they might mean:

• 2x07: Light and Shadows
• 2x08: If Memory Serves
• 2x09: Project Daedalus
• 2x10: The Red Angel
• 2x11: Perpetual Infinity

And just before all those we have this week's Saru focused The Sound of Thunder. Here's the trailer:

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"Warm up the phasers." All new episode 22 February.

A post shared by Star Trek: Discovery (@startreknetflix) on Feb 19, 2019 at 12:29pm PST

New Star Trek licensee Factory Entertainment promises quirk Trek toys

Factory Entertainment have become the latest company to take on a Star Trek license, and promise a broad variety of different products, with Star Trek entries into several of their brands, spanning toys, collectables, and homewares. Factory Entertainment's modus operandi seems to be to come up with a product concept brand and then apply different licenses to it, so Trek items in each range will sit alongside an eclectic mix including Jurassic Park, DC Comics, Game of Thrones, and Monty Python.

At the recent New York Toy Fair they displayed Star Trek items from several toy lines they have in the works, and according to their announcement, will also be offering "desktop environments" (whatever they might be), bottle openers, and wine stoppers.

Of the ranges on show, the Revos line of vinyl figurines looks most fun to me. Their defining feature seems to be that they sit upon an inverted dome base, so must wibbly and wobbly about a bit, and be able to spin, maybe even fight; as the pairing of Kirk and the Gorn seems to suggest here. There's no suggested release date for these yet. Image via Figures.com:

New Eaglemoss Starships books revealed

New listings give us our first looks at two new Eaglemoss starships books on the way, plus previews of other books coming before those. Continue below to check them out:

First up we have the fourth in the Designing Starships series of books, which this time is focused entirely on Discovery, promising to detail the design of every ship from season one. These books are normally mostly content from the Official Starships Collection magazines, with a few extra pages added in, but in this case, with the Discovery Collection still some way off releases of many of the season one ships, this should bring us a lot of new content finding it's first release in the book. This Discovery Designing Starships book is due out in October.

2020 Star Trek calendar line-up revealed

The Star Trek calendar ranges for 2020 from both US publisher Universe Publishing and Germany Heye have been announced, offering a selection of eight different designs to choose from. Continue below to check them out.

Perhaps this year's most unique calendar is 2020 16 Month Engagement Calendar. This format has seen a fresh new look every year for several years now, and this year they have got quite creative with a fully bilingual Klingon calendar! As you can see from the preview pages below, not only have they translated absolutely everything, but they've also gone to town with Klingon design inspired by the unique triangular based monitor designs often seen used by Klingons. The description also suggests this will encompass Klingons from all the live action TV series.

For the first time in Klingon and English, Star Trek 16-Month Klingon Engagement Calendar for 2020 features full-color photos from every live action Star Trek television show.

With text in both Klingon and English, and featuring more than 40 fan-favorite images from across the franchise's six live action television shows, this 16-month engagement-style calendar will captivate casual fans and die-hard Trekkers alike.

Mego reveal first 14 inch Star Trek figures, plus other updates

The Mego action figure revival continues to show a big commitment to Star Trek with a new forteen inch assortment of figures now set to join the already quite numerous eight inch range. On show for the first time at the New York Toy Fair, the first releases at this large scale are revealed to be Kirk, Spock, "Security Guard", and most excitingly a Gorn! I assume from the sculpt that the red shirt is actually meant to be Scotty, and Mego Museum reporting on that basis too.

While on show they are all marked up as "not final", which is clear from the packaging which has them marked up as being eight inchers! The images here come from Mego Museum and Toy Ark, who both have additional images if you'd like a closer look.

Star Trek comics update: New covers and art previews for Captain Saru, The Q Conflict, Transformers, and Waypoint

IDW and their artists have been busy releasing new covers and teases of things they're working on lately, so continue below to check out lots of exciting stuff from almost all the Star Trek series (sorry Kelvin timeline fans, nothing for you).

First up with have a new retail incentive cover for the forthcoming Discovery one shot, Captain Saru (set shortly before Captain Pike came and stole his chair!). This retail incentive cover is from Angel Hernandez, who is also doing the interior artwork. The book should be out this month.

Eaglemoss Discovery ships updates: First look at Sarcophagus ship, another Disco-Enterprise, tardigrade, and more!

Eaglemoss have updated their listings for ships in the Discovery Starships Collection, giving us first looks and new looks at several forthcoming ships. Continue below for all the latest:

First up we have our first look at the first larger special issue in the series, the Klingon Sarcophagus ship. Even as a larger model it seems hard to do this ship justice with all it's pointy details, but they've certainly had a good crack at it! The US Eaglemoss shop has this down for March release.

UPDATE: Eaglemoss have released a much higher res image of this model as part of their Toy Fair press release:

Discovery: Saints of Imperfection previews

This week's fifth episode of Discovery season two is Saints of Imperfection, and as ever CBS have released a trailer and images for what looks to be a big spore drive unspooling episode.

Here's the trailer, via Instagram (or StarTrek.com for slightly higher res):

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"There's been a complication." All new Star Trek: Discovery 15 February.

A post shared by Star Trek: Discovery (@startreknetflix) on Feb 11, 2019 at 12:49pm PST

CBS's preview images for the episode are particularly spoilery this week regarding who's in the episode, so if you'd rather not know, look no further (the most spoilery image is a few down):

Eaglemoss Build the USS Enterprise-D part work launches

Eaglemoss have launched a new Star Trek magazine a model partwork series, Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, which does exactly what the title says! Each issue includes parts to build a large (70+ cm long) model of the Enterprise-D, with built in lighting features, and of course comes with a magazine, in this case split between building instructions and behind the scenes articles.

The model is meant to be a hybrid of details from the various studio models used in the series to try and best represent the ship, while also converting it into a model kit issued in many pieces. The kit is either assembled by clicking it together or screwing in certain parts. It does still manage to have a working saucer separation feature. Here are a few images of the model from the subscription site:

Valentines Star Trek style: Romantic Trek-shirts from Fifth Sun, and new Star Trek jewellery

Are you in the mood for love? Continue below for some Trek-inspired Valentines fashion!

Fifth Sun have released a big range of Valentine's themed Star Trek T-shirts, tank tops, and hoodies, with playful takes on Trek tropes, and a lot of hearts!

My favourite appears to have taken inspiration from ThinkGeek's Valentine's tribble of a few years ago, with an added punny caption! This and most of the designs below are available on multiple clothing types to suit different preferences and bodies.

Oodles of Discovery production art from Disco panel at Director’s Guild of Canada

This weekend the Director’s Guild of Canada hosted a special Star Trek: Discovery panel, with many members of the the production team discussing and showing their work from the series. The panel largely focused on season one set design, but also looked at some of other details, and a few hints at things to come. Continue below to check out what was shared.

Prior to event the DGC also shared several sets of artwork, some of which don't appear to have been discussed at the panel itself. For instance this interesting set of drawings and photos from set designer Michael Stanek on the construction of the Discovery shuttlecraft set:

New Star Trek activewear from Wild Bangarang

Wild Bangarang have launched a new range of Star Trek activewear, with an initial offering leggings, crop tops, and a skirt drawing inspiration from TOS and TNG. Continue below to check out all their designs.

There are several costume inspired pieces in their range, the most distinctive of which is a pair of Borg leggings, which transform your legs into those of a drone!

Discovery: Point of Light behind the scenes

The cast and crew have had a lot to share from behind the scenes of last week's Discovery episode, Point of Light, continue below to check out Klingons, Section 31, and more.

This episode saw the return of Kenneth Mitchell to the cast, but of course not as the quite-dead Kol, but instead as his father, the grizzly and rather more hairy Kol-Sha. Mitchell shared a couple of great photos of his new look on Instagram:

Eaglemoss starships: V'Ger and Discovery ships previews, plus hints of things to come

Eaglemoss' latest survey gives us a look at the possible future of The Official Starships Collection, with proposals for a twenty-ship extension, plus lots of new images of the latest Discovery issues in the series. Continue below for all that, but first, let's have a closer look at the next special issue in the series, V'Ger.

Eaglemoss have released a lot of new images of this model, and a few preview pages from the magazine too, via their Hero Collector blog, and listings on the UK web shop. This is currently expected to arrive later this month.

Discovery: An Obol for Charon previews, and other screen-Trek updates

Got a few updates from Star Trek on screen (TV and film), below, starting with the latest previews for the next Discovery episode,  An Obol for Charon. Here's a great trailer for the episode; looks exciting! (You can also see it a bit higher res on StarTrek.com)

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Like a fly in the web. New episode of Discovery 8 February.

A post shared by Star Trek: Discovery (@startreknetflix) on Feb 4, 2019 at 2:58pm PST

Star Trek toys prototypes and production assets at auction

There's some pretty cool Star Trek stuff on offer in Prop Store's latest auction, of toys and memorabilia. Among the reams of Star Wars stuff you'll find a healthy selection of Star Trek toys, spanning a good chunk of Star Trek toy history, including some pretty unique items, such as unreleased action figures, prototypes, and production art. Continue below to check out what's on offer:

My favourites among the listings are a series of molds for The Final Frontier figurines produced by Galoob. These were made by roto-molding, which Prop Store have an excellent description of in their auction catalogue:

Rotational molding or “roto-molding” uses liquid vinyl material to create items such as baby doll heads or squeeze toys. The molds are composed of one piece with an opening. A set amount of vinyl is poured into the opening, which is then capped and rotated in many directions while heated until the material forms an even, detailed coat on the inside of the mold. While still warm, the part is pulled from the mold and allowed to cool. Roto-molding is a very economical manufacturing method because the mold is cheap to produce and simple to use.

The molds themselves are made by submerging a wax pattern in a bath and electroplating onto it until the desired mold thickness is reached. The wax is then melted out of the mold, leaving the “clean” form inside. The inside of the mold is where the detailing lies; therefore, the exterior may only provide a marginal representation of the final toy.

All five character's in Galoob's Final Frontier range are available, Klaa, Sybok, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, although most of the molds are missing parts, with just Klag and McCoy complete (I wonder if you could make your own figures from them?)

QMx Discovery Enterprise and mirror universe insignia badges, plus red angel print

QMx are releasing a whole bunch of new insignia badges, ready for you to join the crews of the Discovery USS Enterprise, or become part of the Terran Empire. And if that's not enough Disco for your life, you can also now get your very own red angel stained glass window! Continue below for all the details.

Available soon from QMx are the new Enterprise style Discovery-era insignia badges, which are offered in command, science, operations, and medical variants. Like most Qmx badges these feature magnetic backs for damage-free wear. In a new twist each badge also comes with a mini pin version of the badge.

Eaglemoss Starships: Second version of the Enterprise-F and other updates

Got lots of new images of new and forthcoming ships in Eaglemoss' Official Starships Collection today. Starting with a surprise addition to the line-up:

Freshly added to the Eaglemoss UK webshop is a second version of the USS Enterprise-F bonus issue! The previously seen very monotone grey version has just recently moved to pre-order status on the webshop is being supplemented with this more Star Trek Online accurate edition of the ship; with a brighter base colour and dark highlights giving it a lot more pop. Eaglemoss have dubbed these the Federation livery and Star Trek Online livery. The STO version isn't available to order yet, but is expected to arrive by the end of the month, so both editions should be coming about the same time.