FanSets reveal Discovery season 3 Burnham, and other new pins

FanSets, makers of collectable pins, are so excited about Discovery season 3's arrival (whenever that might be), that they've travelling to the future already and and brought back the new look Michael Burnham; with her rather spectacular hair. Check out this new pin below, and other new Star Trek pins from Fansets:

More Beautiful Than Death cover, and other Star Trek book updates

Lots of Star Trek novel updates today, including excerpts and author comments, and new audiobook and back covers for TOS, Kelvin, Voyager, and Discovery books. But first, a brand new cover reveal.

Coming in  August is the second in the new Kelvin timeline novels, David Mack's More Beautiful Than Death. The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has revealed the new cover, which follows a similar style to the previous Kelvin novel, The Unsettling Stars, but this time in a more colourful red/orange monotone:

The Year of Hell that could have been an actual year of Voyager

Star Trek writer Bryan Fuller has shed some light on what could have been an actual year long version of the classic Voyager two-parter Year of Hell (the one where Voyager gets blown to bits while dealing with the time altering hyjinx of the Krenim), while talking Trek on the Inglorious Treksperts podcast.

While thinking back on the production of the whole series, he highlighted Year of Hell as a lost opportunity to take Voyager down a very different, and much more serialised, path:

The Year of Hell and the behind the scenes drama around trying to craft no only that episode, but that season, was fascinating because we wanted Year of Hell to last the entire season. We wanted to see Voyager get its ass kicked every episode, and through that season was going to be marbled the story of Annorax and the time ship that was changing things. So we would go back to it every once in a while to remind the audience that's the larger story.

Splash the rainbow across the final frontier with new Star Trek Pride merchandise

The Star Trek Shop have revealed their annual range of Star Trek themed Pride merchandise, which this year is pretty ginormous! Pride flag themed designs inspired by TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and Discovery have found there way to all manner of products. Continue below to check them out:

Naturally, as a starship lover, the Ships of the Line design jumps out to me. This features the six hero ships of almost all the live action TV series (sorry La Sirena), in rainbow hues. It is available as a tote bag, a cheerful wrap-around print on a mug, or of course as a T-shirt:

Rare Galoob TNG action figure prototypes up for auction

Two super rare Galoob TNG action figure prototypes, Wesley Crusher, and a Romulan, are currently up for auction on Ebay. These figures would have been part of a second wave of TNG figures from Galoob's first range of TNG toys; but alas the line was cancelled before they ever entered production. These prototypes are hand-painted resin figures, on a single-sided card-back. They would have been used for promotional and sales purposes before final figures went into production. Just a handful of each of these prototypes exist. Continue below for a rare chance to get a really good look at these lost toys:

Picard behind the scenes: Cinematography, visual effects, and storyboards

I've gathered some of the latest behind the scenes insights from the nitty gritty production side of Picard today, including a look at the cinematography, visual effects, and storyboards. Continue below for a look at how the series was brought to life:

First up is this amazing video shared on Facebook by cinematographer Carlos Gonzalez, showing how a remarkable tracking crane and gimbal setup was used to capture that long meandering shot around La Sirena at the end of the series. What an incredible camera move!

The Voyage Home storyboards

PropStore currently have a whole load of original storyboard artwork from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home up for sale. The artwork, by Nilo Rodis-Jamero and Ralph McQuarrie, includes many scenes featuring the Klingon Bird of Prey, the time warp sequence, the probe, and of course the whales! Continue below to check them out; there's some really beautiful imagery among them.

The sequences I found most striking are those showing the probe coming and going from Earth. The stark geometric shape of the probe, coupled with the directional instructions of the storyboards give them a really beautiful simplicity.

Take your feet on an away mission, with new Star Trek character socks

You can turn your toes in a landing party with a new range of TOS and TNG character socks which are set to arrive in June. If you're some kind of monster, you could mix and match non-matching pair of characters between your feet to come up an ideal away team for any mission; even a crossover team-up if you wanted!

The assortment includes a three pack of TNG characters, which includes Captain Picard, Worf, and Geordi La Forge:

Official Star Trek face masks have arrived, and they're Feeding America

The Star Trek Shop has revealed the first of the inevitable line of official Star Trek licenses face-masks. The reusable, washable, polyester masks are available in four different Star Trek designs, inspired by TOS and Picard. In a move that would surely make Picard proud, ViacomCBS are donating all the profits from the sale of these new releases to Feeding America's COVID-19 Response, which includes supporting food banks and other schemes to make sure Americans struggling in these difficult times don't go hungry.

The Picard designs are revealing some new artwork, and my favourite is the fun turn-your-face-into-a-Borg-Cube look:

Star Trek comics updates: IDW releases resume from June

IDW have released their latest solicitations, for August release, with just one new Star Trek title on the cards. Meanwhile regular releases are set to resume from June (following the recent Covid induced pause), with rescheduling of already announced titles filling up the schedules towards the end of the year already. Continue below for an update on all IDW's Star Trek series.

So first up, let's check out the newly announced book. The final issue in the latest DS9 miniseries, Too Long a Sacrifice has officially been announced. Issue four continues with the same creative team of writers Scott and David Tipton, and artist Greg Scott. Here's the blurb:

Everyone is a suspect on a space station one murder away from plunging into total chaos. Constable Odo has a suspect in his sights, but there's one final piece to this dark puzzle that will change everything he thought he knew-not to mention life on Deep Space Nine-forever. Don't miss the shocking conclusion to this space noir from David & Scott Tipton (Star Trek: Mirror Broken, Star Trek: The Q Conflict) and Greg Scott (Gotham Central, The X-Files)!

The book will be available in three covers, either the A cover by Ricardo Drumond, a B photo cover, or a retail incentive by J.K Woodward. So far only the photo cover has been released.

Eaglemoss to publish lost Gold Key comic, as the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection gets an extension to 140 issues

Eaglemoss' Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection has been granted it's second extension, pushing the comic collection up to 140 issues, and giving it a chance to come ever closer to completing the mission of reprinting every Star Trek comic from the long and varied publishing history of the franchise. The latest announced issues include some real obscure treats, including many comics that have never been reprinted since their original publication, and in one very special case, a comic that has never before been published at all: The cancelled Gold Key #62!

Series editor Rich Handley announced the news on the Star Trek COMICS : Across Generations Facebook group, and gave details of the first few books in the extended run, up to issue 124. Continue below for the details of each issue (working backwards from 124, which is due in August):

#124: Splashdown

• Marvel Voyager miniseries Splashdown
• Written by Laurie Sutton, with art by Terry Pallot and Al Milgrom.
• A four-part underwater adventure notable as the only time we see the aeroshuttle in action. 
• Gold Key #62: Trial By Fire
• Written by John Warner, with art by Frank Bolle.
• A cancelled issue brought to print thanks to Mark Martinez of The Star Trek Comics Checklist. 

Here's how Handley summarises that bonus story:

As a special bonus, this volume will present the unpublished 62nd issue of Gold Key Comics' Star Trek run. Writer John Warner had turned in a script for this issue, titled "Trial By Fire," but it remained in limbo for decades once Gold Key parent company Western Publishing dropped the Star Trek license. Scans of Warner's script, and of nineteen lightly penciled pages from artist Frank Bolle, have been shared informally among collectors, but thanks to Star Trek comics expert Mark Martinez, Eaglemoss has gained access to the actual script and original art pages for high-quality reproduction purposes. At last, this lost Gold Key tale is being presented to fans in an official capacity.

Star Trek ships arrive in Crypto Space Commander

Star Trek Picard is coming to the world of Crypto Space Commander, a newish massively-multiplayer-online-game developed by Lucid Sight. The game will introduce several ships from Picard, and Star Trek at large, alongside a new Borg-focused story in the game. More on that below...

But first, what is CSC? Currently in an "Early Alpha" state, the game is available to play via Stream. Set around the activities of the Sol system based Galactic Federation, the game lets players go explore the galaxy and obtain resources. What really seems to set it apart though is the focus on crafting of unique assets in the game, and a blockchain based economic model that encourages trade, and rewards the creation and obtaining of unique items. Here's how Lucid Sight summarise it:

Get ready to embark on an adventure through the cosmos! CSC (Crypto Space Commander) is a sandbox space MMO that operates a player-owned economy. Players can travel to different star systems, mine stellar bodies for resources, craft items and ships to sell, battle pirates and other players while commanding their very own starship. CSC utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to secure game assets, enforce P2P contract actions, and run the game economy.

CSC is designed to facilitate all facets of Play-To-Own gaming. Are you a traditional gamer looking for a deeper, more immersive experience? Or gaming entrepreneur looking to grow and develop next-generation economies? All players can profit on their skill and wit with CSC’s player-owned asset design.

Asset management is enforced on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for complex actions and trustless cooperation between players. By giving players free rein to influence nearly every aspect of gameplay, the universe truly becomes their own.

Picard travel posters now available as actual posters, plus 32nd century Federation flag merch

The productive people at the Star Trek Shop have been busy lately, coming up with loads of new Star Trek merch, including a whole range dedicated to the 32nd century version of the Federation flag coming to us from season three of Discovery, and a whole bunch of Klingon themed stuff too. Continue below to check those out. But first...

Also newly offered on the Star Trek Shop is the complete series of Picard travel posters. These were originally put out as social media graphics throughout the run of the series, and they've now had the good sense to make the excellent designs available as actual posters. Designs featuring The Artifact, Copellius, Napenthe, Vashti, Freecloud, and Aia are all available as either 16x20 inch or a whopping 30x40 inch print:

Playmates Star Trek toys box art by Ron McPherson

I recently came across the art of Ron McPherson, the artist who created much of the box art for the 90s Playmates Star Trek toy range. Between his website and Behance portfolio, he has shared much of his work on the range, giving a rare opportunity to checkout the artwork without all the other box titles and labels. I've paired each piece up with the final box art, to give a look at how the packaging design works. Continue below to check out:

I have to start with the artwork for one of my favourite ever Star Trek toys, the glorious "transwarping" Enterprise, as Playmates named the tri-nacelled future Enterprise from All Good Things....

McPherson's artwork captures stages of the transformation, complete with the hull panel flaps you have to flip out to reveal the refit components.

TNG Mego previews and other Star Trek toy updates

I've gathered all the latest previews of Star Trek action figures and figurines today, including images of the forthcoming Discovery Funko pop vinyl figures, The Coop's recent Handmade by Robots characters, and Kuzos miniatures from Factory Entertainment. Continue below to check out those, but first...

The next wave of releases from Mego is shifting their retro action figure range into the 24th century with their first TNG characters, Captain Picard, and Data. Mego Museum and Mego's social media have released some new preview images, showing pre-production samples (so they might yet get tweaked). These are currently expected to arrive from June.

Trek TV: Cast and crew updates on Strange New Worlds, Discovery, and Picard

The cast and crew of the various live action Star Trek series currently in production have been providing updates on where each series is at, all requiring some rejigging due to the impacts of Covid-19. Continue below for news from Discovery and Picard, but first some interesting info on Strange New Worlds:

Speaking to Variety, SNW writer and producer Akiva Goldsman gave details of the format of the new Pike spin-off series, confirming a much more episodic approach:

We’re going to try to harken back to some classical ‘Trek’ values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic. Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story building. But I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you’ve seen in either ‘Discovery’ or ‘Picard’.

I think one thing that we always struggled with [as fans] was that Kirk is heartbroken at the loss of Edith Keeler in ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ and has to be just fine the next week. I think what we would want to do is keep the characters having moved through and recognizing the experiences they’ve had in previous episodes, but to be able to tell contained, episodic stories.

Pike and crew to return in new Strange New Worlds series!

Wishes have been answered; CBS have heard the call for a Pike TV show, following the immense success of bringing back Pike, Spock, Number One and the USS Enterprise in Discovery, and have today announced a new spin-off series, Strange New Worlds.

The series will bring back Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock, with the promise to "explore new worlds around the galaxy" "in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise", and Anson Mount declaring the series "a classic Star Trek show, that deals with optimism and the future".

The three main cast members made the announcement in this uplifting video:

Factory Entertainment's Star Trek bottle stoppers, and other Trek drinkware

Need a drink? Several companies have been busy working on Star Trek drinkware recently, including glasses, cups and saucers, bottles, and wine bottle stoppers. Continue below to check them all out:

Factory Entertainment have revealed the final form of the first of their Star Trek wine bottle stopper range, which are now available for pre-order ahead of release later this summer are several designs. First up is the very shiny USS Enterprise:

Trek your workplace with new Star Trek paperclips, mouse pad, and travel pass holder

If you're looking for a little bit of Star Trek in your office-bound life, then the latest creative everyday products from Icon Heroes and Forbidden Planet should do you well. Continue below for some ingenious TOS, TNG, and Discovery designs for paperclips, mouse pads, and a travel pass holder.

You might recall some of Icon Heroes first ever Star Trek products were really fun TOS paperclips? Well they've now returned to a classic and moved it on to the next generation. Behold, the TNG paperclips, in the form of little USS Enterprise-D and TNG combadges:

TNG INtakes ingeniously put the outtakes back in

Ingenious fan and trekkie, Ryan's Edits, has hit upon an idea so fantastic its hard to believe its not be done before: Edit outtakes back into scenes. The effect is subtle and absurd, with scenes played completely straight except for some hiccup where an actor forgets a line or messes about. Some of them are completely hilarious, and all make the characters feel much more real, with the verbal trips of everyday life. Those where Patrick Stewart slips out of stern Captain Picard mode are particularly funny. Here are a couple of my favourites:

A closer look at Discovery's prop design

Discovery's props range from the beautifully ornate reimagining of the Klingons, to the newly robust take on TOS classics, and a whole bunch in between. I've sought out the work of some of the team that brought those props to life to take a closer look. Continue below for phasers, tricorders, helmets, swords, and even a bazooka!

However what really excited me when I came across the work of Ray Lai who designed many of the props in the series, were some of the more mundane items, giving classic Trek forms a new spin. Like this delightful set of engineering tools:

Lower Decks, CBS All Access, and other Trek TV updates

A few Trek-TV updates today. No major news on releases just yet, but of sense of how things are progressing, and the media landscape Trek is working with. Continue below to find out more...

Mike McMahan, the creator of Lower Decks, the forthcoming Star Trek animated comedy, recently spoke to Inverse, about his other new animated sci-fi show, Solar Opposites, and gave a little update on where things are on the Trek front. He also gave a nice summary of what Lower Decks is all about, and it's relationship to wider Trek:

Within Lower Decks, there is a proper in-canon Star Trek show. It takes place during the TNG era. It's on a ship that feels like it’s always existed there and the bridge crew is dealing with big, never before seen Starfleet Star Trek type stories. So every episode has a thing like that happening in it. And then, on top of that, we've got A stories and B stories that are emotionally driven from the point of view of the lower deckers on the ships. So it was an area of storytelling that people had covered every once in a while on Star Trek, but never built a show around.

It was important to me that if you know everything about Star Trek and you watch this show then it fits into Canon and doesn't break Star Trek. In fact, it grows it. And if you know nothing about Star Trek, then all of the canon in Lower Decks feels like mythological, broad understandable sci-fi stuff. So you can still enjoy Lower Decks even if it's your first Star Trek show.

Book bits: To Lose the Earth cover, new book details, and schedule shuffling

Lots of Star Trek books news today, including new covers and artwork, new books, updated book details, and schedule adjustments. Continue below for updates on books on mindfulness, cocktails, starships, and the alphabet!

First up, some fiction news: We finally have a cover for the long awaited tenth book in Kirsten Beyer's Voyager relaunch series, To Lose the Earth:

1:1000 scale Discovery USS Enterprise incoming, and other model kit updates

Twenty-third century fans of all flavours should be happy with the latest model kit releases from Round 2 Models. Continue below for details of Wrath of Khan and TOS TV-era kits on the way. But first Discovery:

Having released the three hero ships of Discovery (Discovery, Shenzhou, and Enterprise) at 1:2500 scale pretty swiftly last year, Round 2's Polar Lights are now back with a bigger 1:1000 scale USS Enterprise kit. That makes for a pretty impressive 44cm+ long ship once built. Here's the box art (which seems to be a new style):

The amazing aliens of Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond featured more than fifty different alien species, with multiple unique beings for each race seen among the citizens of Starbase Yorktown, the corridors of the USS Enterprise, and on Altamid. The make-up department lead by Joel Harlow created such an incredible menagerie, that there's an entire book dedicated to their efforts in the production! Harlow and his team have also shared much of their work online, giving us a better chance to get to know many of the only briefly glimpsed species of Beyond. Continue below to check them out:

One of the most exotic designs was known as Shlerm, photos here from Joel Harlow's website show off both the impressive character design and their grand costumes:

Cherry Tree assimilate new ideas to create the Borg Cube ITX PC mark II

Makers of Borg Cube PCs, Cherry Tree, have remade their smaller Cube PC, the ITX, to create the new mark II model. Here's how the describe what they've done in their announcement:

Every company has that one product they look back at and think, “Why did we do it like this and not the other way?” A few weeks ago we came to this point with our little ITX Borg Cube, so we decided to reengineer the interior completely from scratch and the results are truly amazing. We were not only able to create more room inside and make the assembly easier, but also improve thermals. The Intel i7-9700 model plateaus at 69-71 degrees at 100% load. Every Borg Cube ITX mk ii build comes with 2 HDPLEX 200W DC-ATX Power Supplies, Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler and improved fans. Did we mention we also were able to lower the price?

The 7.5 inch cubed PC is available in either black or a translucent green variant. It is also available either as a fully built PC, or just a case, to build as you like. I believe the exterior is the same as previous versions of the ITX, but here's a look at the redesigned insides (you can compare to the previous version in one of my earlier reports):

Alternate worlds of Star Trek Beyond concept art: Altamid, Starbase Yorktown, swarm mechas, unseen ships, and more

Star Trek Beyond took us to several exotic strange new worlds, and every one of them was conjured from the minds of concept artists, who also thought up plenty of other ideas that never got picked to go to screen. Continue below to check out Altamid as we never saw it, Starbase Yorktown when it wasn't an orb and was full of Galaxy class ships, swarm drone mechas, and unseen starships.

Let's start with a visit to Starbase Yorktown, not quite as we know it. Concept artist Milena Zdravkovic has shared a large selection of her work from Beyond on her ArtStation profile, including this radically different take on Yorktown, as a long ribbon structure, with Galaxy class ships visiting (don't panic timeline fiends, just standing in for designs to come later I'm sure):

Another really striking image shows us a Galaxy-esque ship under construction:

Discovery round-up: Set photography, aliens, concept art, unrealised mirror universe, and season 3 update

In this latest round-up of Discovery behind the scenes stuff, we'll get a good look at some Disco sets, behind the scenes photos and stories from some of our favourite aliens, concept art, and details of the mirror universe that we didn't get. Continue below for all that and more, but first, and update on season three.

Replying to a tweet from actor Wilson Cruz, editor Scott Gamzon gave a quick status update on where production is:

Post production, Sound, VFX and Editorial are all hard at work from our homes.  It’s going to take longer and there have been challenges but the results will be worth the wait!

One wonders how the heck they're going to do the music from home! Here's hoping they find a solution soon and we're enjoying the far future before we know it.

Meanwhile CBS have been pushing Discovery as part of their general promotion of CBS All Access lately, including releasing this set of set photography for use as Zoom background:

Turn your baby into a redshirt

Stuck at home and just wishing your screaming baby would be devoured by a Dikironium cloud creature? Good luck, Aquarius have come up with an excellent signpost for every alien threat to know who to target, in their range of TOS uniform styled baby bibs. For more cautious parents, they also offer science and command styled uniform variants too. The cotton/polyester bids are velcro fastened with a plastic backing making them waterproof ready for dribbling babies (or you know, protection from venomous aliens). Check out the range below (images via Toynk):

Picard round-up: 360 set video, location and make-up photography, easter eggs, and more

Picard season one might be over, but CBS have still been working hard to promote the series, including increasingly some fun behind the scenes stuff coming from the official Star Trek and CBS channels. Continue below for a look at the actors and make-up artists at work, some great location photography, easter egg discussion, promo images and more.

First up, one of the coolest things released lately is a 360 video of Vashti set, specifically while rehearsing the scene where Picard and the former Romulan senator have their discussion. The video starts out tracking with Patrick Stewart as he walks into the scene, and then settles in the middle of the square. If you load it up at high res and full screen (or with a VR headset) it's like you're right there on the set, watching the hoards of people it takes to make a show like this. If you're geo-locked out of YouTube below it's also up on Facebook.

TNG tech from the cancelled Build the Enterprise-D partwork

Do you like starship tech? Well here's a treat for you, pages of awesome techy goodness from the cancelled Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D partwork. Including stunning new artwork not previously seen.

First, a refresh on the history: About a decade ago DeAgostini in Japan hatched an ambitious plan to release a 100-part model kit and magazine partwork, to Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. The large model, with lighting, would have included the ability to pull away part of the hull to reveal deck-plates, detailing every room inside the ship. The series would also have come with a comprehensive new set of blueprints for the ship on loose sheets, and a magazine covering technical details, mission log styled episode summaries, and new interviews with the cast and crew. Alas the first test run of the series coincided with the Japanese tsunami in 2011, and market wasn't receptive to such an ambitious project at that moment. So it was lost to time.

I've reported on this lost gem a few times before, and thanks to editor Tim Leng have been able to share several pages from the publication before as well. Now Tim has shared a bunch more of the techy pages from the series, on the Star Trek Prop Enthusiasts Facebook group, giving us another look at what could have been.

These pages are all from either the Apparatus or Critical Systems sections of the magazine. Each features brand new CGI artwork, detailing the subject matter, and in several cases revealing parts of the ship that never made it to screen. These sections, along with the blueprints and detailing of the model, were created in coordination with Enterprise-D designer Rick Sternbach.

Like the old Star Trek Fact Files, these pages were gum-bound, so could be pulled out and filed away in a sensible order, building up the reference work as the series continued.

La Sirena comes to Star Trek Online, plus other new game ships

Got lots of starshipy updates from Star Trek Online today, including a chance to pick a future design, some remasters of classics, and I think the first ship from Picard to join the game. Continue below to check them out:

First up, from Picard we have La Sirena, which they're calling a Heavy Raider. The ship will be one of many available as a possible bonus upon opening a Research and Development Pack or a Duty Officer Pack purchased between May 7th and May 11th.

Beautiful concept art for Picard and Discovery title sequences

Artists who worked on the title sequences for Picard, Discovery, and Short Treks have shared some of their concept artwork for all those show's opening credits, giving us a glimpse of ideas that never made it to screen, and early iterations of many that did.

All the current Trek shows have stunning and creative title sequences, all produced by Prologue Films. Many of these concepts take the ideas even further, with some really beautiful abstraction and visualisation of ideas from the shows. I'm especially taken by the creative ways the Borg Cube has been represented in many of these Picard concept sequences.

This first sequence was shared by Filipe Carvalho on his Instagram who describes the theme as "a journey within Jean Luc through his own memories and obstacles." This seems a much more minimalist approach than the final design, and Picard himself a much more prominent element, with his figure, often minute, in many of shots. The overall effect seems even more introspective than the final version, so seems very fitting for the tone of Picard:

Interview: Science Division's interactive tribbles

Last year Science Division promised to bring the world life-like interactive tribbles; using sound, motion, and even a mobile app to bring their fluffy friends (with bespoke extra soft fur) to life.

Despite the complications of the Covid-19 crisis, they have just finished shipping out there initial pre-orders, and are now fully open for business for all your ongoing tribble needs.

Science Division is the creation of Kayleigha and Jay, a wife and husband team whose love for Trek and desire for a realistic tribble pet lead to learn coding, found a company, work out manufacturing, and find their way to being officially licensed by CBS - An impressive feat and real show Trek-love. I had a chat with Kayleigha about how mission-tribble is going:

---

Kayleigha amongst the tribble hoards.

I have this vision of your home being something like the tribble-filled scenes of every tribble episode... Have you been able to keep your tribble hoard under control?

During the development process we joked that the Tribbles were multiplying digitally more than anything else. I (Kayleigha) do all of the graphic design and social media for the business. We’re now onto our second external hard drive of Tribble photos, videos, and business documents. That being said, now that our stock has arrived, we do have a room full of Tribbles. Sadly, they are all boxed up to keep them safe. I did take the opportunity to bury myself in prototype Tribbles, though. I couldn’t resist. 

Star Trek comic covers, and other updates

IDW have been busy releasing cover art for several forthcoming releases - Quite when they'll be forthcoming remains uncertain, while we await the rescheduling of Star Trek comics releases beyond the current Covid-19 publishing pause - Continue below to check out the latest TOS, Picard, TNG, and DS9 comic updates:

First up, a vividly brutal Klingon cover  by Stephen Thompson for issue fourteen of the TOS Year Five series. This will be part-two of the Klingon-focused story Guide of Fire.

Cherry Tree reveal their Pixmit hoodie

Borg Cube PC makers Cherry Tree have revealed the final look of their pixmit hoodies, which are part of a pack of goodies you can get when you order one of their Picard Borg Cube PCs. The pixmet, (sort of Romulan tarot cards) "destroyer" card was of course featured in Picard, giving Cherry Tree a chance to produce a really distinct bit of Trek merch. Check out below, plus a look at their actual PCs!

Book bits: New Picard novel, The Unsettling Stars excerpts, and other updates

A few Star Trek book updates today, including previews of the latest release, a new audiobook cover, and story-time with Spock! Continue below for all that, but first, new book news!

Simon and Schuster have added new listings for "Untitled STP", a new Picard novel due out in December. Like the first Picard novel, The Last Best Hope (see review), this will initially be a hardcover release, of course also available as an ebook, and audiobook (The Last Best Hope is getting a paperback release later this year too, so presumably that will come along later for this new book as well). There are no details on authorship or what the book will be about just yet (I'm crossing my fingers for a Seven/Hugh XB/Fenris Rangers backstory book).

Coming back to the present, the latest Star Trek novel just released is the first adult Kelvin timeline book (following the young adult series of some years ago), Alan Dean Foster's The Unsettling Stars. Set shortly after the first Kelvin timeline movie, this book was originally due out before Into Darkness was released, but was put on hold for years, until now! Along with David Mack's More Beautiful Than Death, due later in the year, this book has been rescued from limbo. Here's a reminder of the blurb:

DS9 behind the scenes: Defiant miniature, alien makeup, concept art, and more

In my latest round-up of behind the scenes Star Trek goodies I'm taking a look at some of the latest things I've come across from the production of Deep Space Nine. It's a gloriously diverse collection of amazing alien make-up, beautiful concept art, props, miniatures and more. Continue below to check it all out.

First up, perhaps my favourite behind the scenes thing to enjoy, lots of pictures of a beautiful starship miniature; in this case the USS Defiant. These were shared online in a gallery I believe can be credited to visual effects artist and miniature maker Bill George. We can see every nook and cranny of this tough little ship as a result, all brightly light in outdoor light.

Live long and prosper with the latest Covid-inspired Trek-wear and homewear!

Rule of Acquisition number 23: Nothing is more important than your health... except for your money.

Whoever runs the Star Trek Shop is definitely a Ferengi. Or possibly an over-enthusiastic public health official. Either way, they've taken on some Covid Crisis inspiration in their latest offerings of Star Trek apparel and homeware. Continue below to check out their new pandemic designs:

There are two concepts they've played with, the first of which here is using the "Live Long and Prosper" hand gesture as means of social distance greeting. This first design spells that out mostly clearly and upbeatly:

Big Star Trek starships in real life

After more than half a century of inspiring trekkies world-wide, Star Trek has left a mark on the world. Sometimes more literally than you might imagine; all over the world you can find Star Trek starships, on displays, in parades, as corporate headquarters, and even in dentist offices. I thought it would be fun to try and track down the big Star Trek starships there are out there; I was surprised how many I came up with! Continue below to check them out.

The REALLY big ones

First I thought we should look at the seriously huge ones; I'm talking several times the size of human, or even full-sized recreations. These are rare, and their fidelity to the original designs vary, but some are very impressive.

Perhaps the most screen accurate of the big Star Trek ships in real life was the Borg Sphere that formed the thematic heart of the old Borg Assimilator roller coaster at the Carowinds amusement park. Alas Paramount sold the park in 2006, and soon after the Star Trek theming for the ride was striped off. And so, as seemed to be the habit of Borg Spheres crashed on Earth, this ship is lost to time.

Hallmark previews 2020 Star Trek Keepsake decorations

Hallmark have released lots of new images of this year's range of Keepsake Christmas decorations, including of course all the Star Trek pieces in the collection. This year the Star Trek offering is going in a completely new direction; instead of franchise-spanning assortment of ships, figurines, and small scenes we've grown accustomed to in recent years, this time everything is one theme, all inspired by the original mirror universe episode Mirror, Mirror; and they're all interactive!

As part of Hallmark's Storytellers range all the pieces this year, and over the next couple of years too, interact with each other to tell the story from the episode; with every decoration featuring light and sound functions. Which characters you get will determine which bits of dialogue are activated when they start playing off of each other (you'll need to get a seperate Hallmark's Keepsake Power Cord to power and connect them all). As the collection expands over the next few years you should be able to build ever more elaborate "performances".

The highlight of this initial wave is the impressive USS Enterprise tree topper, which sits upon a pyramid of Starfleet deltas, which illuminate, and form a base for further upward lighting of the ship. The ship itself also has lit parts. This piece does include its own power adapter, and also comes with a remote (also delta shaped) to activate the performance (or you can press a button on the ship itself). On it's own it plays the Star Trek theme music, and if connected to the other Storytellers it starts telling the story too. Jake Angell is credited as the designer of this decoration:

Dark Remnant's USS Galileo concept art

Last year VR Studios and Strange Lizard created Star Trek: Dark Remnant, a VR game available at Dave and Buster's locations in the US. Set in the Kelvin timeline the games features the USS Enterprise and a Klingon battle cruiser, but also a brand new ship, a small "advanced stellar research vessel", the USS Galileo. The unique ship features a bridge inside a large window/forcefield bubble, giving players wide unobstructed views of the action unfolding around them in the game. Several of the artists who worked on the ship have shared their work online, so we can get a good look at this unique and obscure design.

Most of the artwork here was shared by Paul Jouard, who also credits Andrian Luchian and MuYoung Kim, who provided blockout models and concept sketches respectively. These first two Jouard notes as being the final paintovers:

Review: Picard: The Last Best Hope

Alongside the first season of Picard, Simon and Schuster delivered The Last Best Hope, the first Picard tie-in novel, which was written by Una McCormack. The book takes us through the entire Romulan rescue mission; showing Picard's work to tirelessly to build up the resources necessary to save the Romulan people, only to have wider events undo that mission, and Picard's entire sense of person, bringing him the place where we find him as the series starts. The outline of that we saw in the TV series; this book files in the details.

This was also the first hardcover novel Star Trek novel for many years; did it earn that prestige format? Well I think yes, absolutely, wholeheartedly, in fact I would go so far as to say this is possibly the most impactful Star Trek tie-in work there has ever been. Continue below for my thoughts on why.

Picard behind the scenes: XBs, synths, and other characters and actor antics

Another batch of behind the scenes Picard goodies today, care of the cast and crew. This time I'm just looking at characters and cast, so dive in for lots of XBs, synths, Romulans and other people of the Picard universe.

First up, the only (non-flashback) full Borg seen up-close in the series, who was played by no less than the head of the makeup department James Mackinnon. He shared these photos to give us an even better look at the character:

Star Trek comics update: Delayed releases, Khan, Gary Seven, and other Year Five covers, and more

Lots of Star Trek comics updates today, but maybe the last big update in a little while, as the comics industry goes into hibernation over the Covid-19 crisis period. Continue below to check out a bunch of new covers, artwork, and other updates. But first, an update on what's going on with comics right now.

A couple of weeks ago Diamond Comic Distributors, who distribute comics from all the big comic companies, announced that owing to the increased uncertainty throughout the production and sales network, and wishing to play a part in stopping the spread of Covid-19, they were suspending shipping to retailers from April 1st onwards. Following this IDW, the Star Trek comics publisher, announced they would be reducing planned publications, initially through to July.

Of course that means all the currently planned Star Trek comics will be delayed by at least a few months. In fact they were already a bit behind anyway, with solicited March releases not making it out by the end of the month.

Delayed will be Year Five from issue 11 onwards (that issue was originally due in February), the Khan focused TOS mirror universe one-shot (which was expected in March), the new DS9 series Too Long a Sacrifice (which was due to start in April), and the reissue of Debt of Honor (due in June). Before everything ground to a halt, StarTrek.com did put up a preview for the imminent release of Year Five #11, but the issue didn't quite manage to make it to the real world.

Presumably this could have knock on effects for as-yet unannounced planned releases later in the year too - Or if we're lucky maybe we'll just get bumper releases to catch up!

Anywho, to see us through the next few lean months, some of the Star Trek artists have been sharing their recent creations. Here for instance is a striking George Caltsoudas cover for Hell's Mirror, the TOS mirror universe one-shot featuring Khan:

Star Trek jigsaws to wind away your time

Stuck at home in need of something to do? Maybe you need a jigsaw puzzle to fill a few hours? Well lucky you, there are several recent Star Trek designs just waiting to be put together. Continue below to check out the latest:

New to the world of Star Trek are Cobble Hill, who last year launched a range of Star Trek designs spanning all the older series. All of their Star Trek designs are 1000 piece puzzles, and all come with a poster too (I assume of the same design).

My favourite of the collection is their Women of Star Trek puzzle, which celebrates all the major female characters from TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise:

A Star Trek concert and virtual roller coaster, care of the Movie Park

Here's a nice musical treat, in the vein of many an online arts streaming event in these days of quarantine, the Movie Park Germany theme park have released a 24-minute video of the recording of the music for their Operation Enterprise roller coaster. Opened a few years ago, this is currently the world's only Star Trek roller coaster, and also includes a tour through set recreations, all accompanied by specially recorded music; a mix of classic Trek themes, and brand new music composed just for the ride. You can check out the music, which is pretty rousing, right here:

The Starships of Star Trek Picard

Star Trek Picard expanded the fleet of the Star Trek universe with quite a wide variety of ships, including a heroic Borg Cube, giant space flowers, and an impressive expansion of Romulan starship design. I thought it would be fun to have a look back through all the ships featured; so continue below starships fans:

Picard is the only Trek TV series apart from DS9 not to have its primary setting aboard a Starfleet starship with the very familiar saucer and nacelles silhouette. Instead we got La Sirena, Cristóbal Rios' Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter.