Sunday 31 January 2021

Discovery aliens and costumes behind the scenes

The creators of Star Trek Discovery have, following the conclusion of season three, been sharing some examples of their work on the show, including some great looks at the alien make-up and costumes. Continue below to enjoy Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, Xaheans, and more!

First up, a very dapper look at everyone's favourite Saurian, Linus! Make-up artist Shane Zander shared these delightful photos David Tomlinson in character, and getting into character, for his final appearance this season, sporting the new uniform:

Saturday 30 January 2021

Year Five comic updates

IDW have released their solicitations for April, which include just one new Star Trek comic, the latest issue in the Year Five series. Continue below for all the details of that, and some other Year Five updates.

Issue 21 of Year Five(ad) is part two of the Vulcan/Romulan time travel story, The Raptor's Wings. The story is written by Brandon Easton, with art from Silvia Califano. Here's the blurb:

With Spock still missing, the crew of the Enterprise needs to figure out where—and when—he is if they want to save the future! Meanwhile, on Vulcan, Spock is faced with a choice that won’t only change his life, but Vulcan society as he knows it! The final voyages of the original mission continue in this episode from writer Brandon Easton (Transformers: War for Cybertron, Thundercats) and artist Silvia Califano (Star Trek: Year Five, X-Files: Case Files)

The book will be available in two different covers, and both have been previewed already. The main cover featuring Spock with the Stone of Gol, and a Vulcan and Romulan, is by Stephen Thompson, while a more elusive retail incentive cover is J.J. Lendl, the latest of their travel posters, advertising a time travel holiday to "Ancient Vulcan at Civil War".


Friday 29 January 2021

Star Trek Online introduces new Alliance hybrid ship, Picard Romulan goodies, and lots of Klingon content

It's a busy time in the Star Trek Online universe, with their ongoing Year of the Klingon content role outs bringing more established on-screen characters into the game, new Picard inspired goodies, and always more ships. Continue below for all the latest.

First up, to mark the 11th anniversary of the game the second cross-species Alliance ship is joining the game (following last year's Federation/Klingon Khitomer class). The new Temer class raider is meant to be a Romulan/Klingon hyrbrid design, although the colours and escape pods also suggest Starfleet influences to me.


Here's how STO describe it's in-universe origins:
The Allied Cooperative Starship Development Board (ACSDB) is excited to announce their second vessel with unified design philosophies. Due to its nature, it draws heavily on the expertise of the Romulan Republic and Klingon Empire, a collaboration that continues to bode well for the Khitomer Alliance’s future.

The Alliance Temer Raider is a unique starship – fitting command and control capabilities into a compact, lightweight shell. In order to ensure it survives to coordinate the battle, it features high maneuverability, an Enhanced Battle Cloaking Device, and a weapons layout with an emphasis on longer-ranged attacks. In trials, it’s been shown to exceed at performing a support role from the shadows, appearing for a matter of seconds to strike before vanishing again.

Friday 22 January 2021

First look at Eaglemoss' La Sirena and USS Zheng He

The new series-spanning Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection(ad) is set to launch this April, and Eaglemoss have now revealed the first two models in that collection: Both from Picard, La Sirena, and the USS Zheng He. 

The new collection will eventually encompass all the current live action TV series, including Picard, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds (and presumably the Section 31 show eventually too), and takes the place of the previous Discovery only series(ad) (but continues with that series' bigger than Eaglemoss-classic scale), enabling Eaglemoss to mix and match the most wanted ships from all the current series without having to run separate series for each - Although the series is specifically covering the live action shows, so now indication yet on what becomes of the also-awesome-ships of Lower Decks (and Prodigy when that arrives too).

It all kicks off with lots of Picard ships though, with Disco season three ships due later. The first two are now ready for previews, so continue below to check out some pretty neat looking models.

As the first issue in the series, and the hero ship from Picard, there's a particular abundance of previews for the La Sirena; via Eaglemoss' web-shop(ad) as well as the series subscription site(ad). Looks like a great model, and of course with that glorious red paint job is going to be a particularly distinctive addition to the model ship fleet.

Wednesday 20 January 2021

FanSets release All Good Things combadge, Titan pins coming, and much more

FanSets have kicked off the new year with loads of new spins from Star Trek old and new, and lots of teases of what they're working on for later in the year - Including Titan merch and other Lower Decks releases, new ship pins, characters, and insignia badges. Continue below to check out their latest.

First up, and just released, is the latest in their rapidly growing insignia badge range, the All Good Things... combadge, which was also seen in the alternate future in Voyager's Endgame, and DS9's The Visitor, and inspired the similar Picard badge.


Monday 18 January 2021

First look at 2022 Star Trek calendars

We might be less than a month into this year, but Universe Publishing have already set their sights on 2022, and revealed no less than seven Star Trek calendars(ad) ready for next year! All the calendar series that been offered for 2021 are set to continue next year, joined by the surprise resurrection of a classic series. Continue below to check out the range.

First up, the eternal highlight of the calendar range, Ships of the Line(ad); the starship art calendar, which is presented in landscape format with a pretty minimal actual calendar.


Saturday 16 January 2021

Discovery round-up: Cool art, latest behind the scenes, amazing aliens, double Captain's Logs, and more

With Discovery season three now at an end, there's still a lot of new content being shared in it's wake, celebrating the completed season, and all the amazing behind the scenes work that went into make it. Continue below to check out amazing alien make-up, cast and location photos, artwork, and more.

First up is this cool college of everything season three, which has been shared across CBS's Trek social media. It includes some nice new views of the 32nd century Starfleet ships:


Friday 15 January 2021

EXO-6 launch new Star Trek action figure range with First Contact Data

New company EXO-6 has been created with the express intent of making high quality Star Trek action figures and statues! And they're kicking things off with a First Contact Data


The 1:6 scale format (30cm tall) and styling might seem familiar, as it's the same highly accurate look of OMx's 1:6 scale range which has been gently released over the last few years. That's no accident, as this new company was formed by the creator of those figures, Schubert Tam. The new license covers the entire Star Trek universe, and world wide releases. Hopefully as a separate entity EXO-6 will be able to offer a broader range than QMx achieved.

The Data figure is a fun start to the new range, offering Data in two forms, either his regular Starfleet look, or with the skin and hair grafts given to him by the Borg Queen (via an interchangeable head). Continue below to check him out:

Monday 11 January 2021

Picard: The Dark Veil, USS Titan novel excerpts

This month has brought us the second Picard novel, a bit of a Titan novel in disguise, James Swallow's The Dark Veil. As usual Simon and Schuster have released excerpts from both the print and audio editions. Continue below to check them out. But first, here's a reminder of the blurb:

A thrilling untold adventure based on the acclaimed Star Trek: Picard TV series!

The Alpha Quadrant is mired in crisis.

Within the United Federation of Planets, a terrorist strike on the shipyards of Mars has led to the shutdown of all relief efforts for millions of Romulans facing certain doom from an impending super­nova. But when the USS Titan is drawn into a catastrophic incident on the Romulan-Federation border, Captain William Riker, his family, and his crew find themselves caught between the shocking secrets of an enigmatic alien species and the deadly agenda of a ruthless Tal Shiar operative. Forced into a wary alliance with a Romulan starship commander, Riker and the Titan crew must uncover the truth to stop a dev­astating attack—but one wrong move could plunge the entire sector into open conflict!

Sunday 10 January 2021

Seven's Reckoning #3 covers and preview pages

Out this week* is the third issue(ad), and already the penultimate issue, of IDW's Voyager comic miniseries, Seven's Reckoning(ad). The series is written by Dave Baker, with art by Angel Hernandez, colours by Ronda Pattison. The issue is titled Symphony for the Damned, sees Seven of Nine getting involvement in an uprising among an alien race Voyager has encountered.

Once more the book is offered in three different covers: The A cover(ad) is also by Hernandez and Pattison, and features Seven leading the Ohrdi'nadar rebellion; the B cover(ad) is a photo-cover featuring Chakotay; or there's the rarer retail incentive cover(ad) by Jeffrey Veregge, which presents the Voyager crew and aliens in a unique deck-spanning cross-section.

*Note, I say out this week because IDW have released preview pages already, but if retailer listings are accurate you probably can't actually pick this up until the 20th.

Continue below to check out a five page preview, and all the covers for this issue.

Year Five #18: On the Death of a Friend part 1 preview

Out this week was the eighteenth issue(ad) of IDW's TOS comic maxiseries Year Five(ad), and the first part of a new story-arc in the series, On the Death of a Friend, which continues the alarmingly prescient run of story in the series (following the recent demagogic presidential election story), with a plague-based medical mystery! 

This new story arc is written by Jim McCann, with art by Angel Hernandez, and colours by Fran Gamboa. After an issue off the main cover team returns, with Stephen Thompson (coloured by Charlie Kirchoff) delivering the beautiful virus filled Doctor McCoy main cover(ad). Or alternatively there's a rarer retail incentive(ad) design by JJ Lendl, also featuring McCoy, along with Isis hinting at other elements of the story, in a retro poster design.

Continue below to check out the covers, plus a five-page preview:

Thursday 7 January 2021

Discovery round-up: That Hope Is You, Part 2 previews, plus latest behind the scenes and more

This week has brought us the final episode of Discovery season three, That Hope is You, Part 2, and as ever CBS have released plenty of previews to ready you for watching. Continue below to check out those, alongside a round-up of all the latest Disco behind the scenes.

Here's the blurb for the new episode:

As the Emerald Chain tightens its grip and the mystery of the Burn is finally solved, Burnham and the crew have one last chance to save themselves – and the Federation.

Unusually CBS seem to have neglected to upload the trailer to Instagram or Youtube this week. You can find on StarTrek.com though, and the ever helpful Nación Trek have also uploaded the copy below:



Tuesday 5 January 2021

Our best look yet at Starfleet of the 32nd century

CBS Star Trek social media accounts have today shared some cool concept art montages of several of the new 32nd century Starfleet ships seen throughout Discovery season three, giving us our clearest views yet of several of the new and very varied designed. The images also name several of these ships, and identify their classes. Continue below to check them out:

  • Eisenberg class, USS Nog NCC-325070 
    • Named for the lost-too-soon actor Aron Eisenberg, and his character from DS9 of course. 
    • This is one of several of the more vertically oriented ships in the future fleet, which collectively seem to point towards a new movement in starship design within the Federation, sitting alongside the saucer-forms we know better - The Earth ships seen this season are not that different from this look too.
  • Mars class, USS Le Guin NCC-325060 
    • Presumably named for the planet (or Roman god?), and of course the master science fiction writer, Ursula Le Guin, who also recently passed.
    • This was the class referred to as a scout when it was first seen, and with it's chunky prominent nacelles, it kind of looks like a Federation-ified Disco-Klingon ship to me!
  • Angelou class, USS Maathai NCC-325023 
    • The class I imagine named for the writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, while the ship is presumably named after Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Prize winning Kenyan ecologist and founder of the Green Belt Movement. Both persons are also fairly recently deceased.
    • This is the beautiful and distinctive flying rainforest, which looks like an amazing ship to live on!

Mego Q and Locutus coming soon, and Saru in the wild

Mego's Star Trek action figure range is expanding with new characters from TNG and Discovery, including Saru who arrived last year, and Q and Locutus who are starting to turn up now. Continue below to check out all the latest preview images from Mego.

All of the new figures are quite ambitious designs for Mego figures, but I think Q's(ad) striking red and black judge's robes are definitely the most eye catching:


Sunday 3 January 2021

Year Five #17: Weaker Than Man preview

This week brought Weaker Than Man, issue seventeen(ad) of IDW's TOS comic maxiseries Year Five(ad), which is a special one-off story filling in the back story of Gary Seven. The book is written by Jackson Lanzig and Colin Kelly, with JK Woodward dropping into the series to provided painted artwork.

This issue is offered in two covers, either the main one(ad) , featuring Gary Seven and Isis (in both human and cat form), by Mark Laming, or a rarer retail incentive(ad) design by JJ Lendl, also featuring Seven and Isis, in a cool poster-style design, with them surrounded by Tholian ships.

Continue below to check out the covers, a five-page preview, plus a look at some other artwork from this series.

Before that just one other comic update of note: IDW recently released their March solicitations, which unusually featured no Star Trek comics at all! Looks like we're having a little break soon. But not super soon, as their are two books out next week, including the net Year Five issue already! Before then, here's issue seventeen:

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