Cool Star Trek miniatures, props, and artwork up for auction from PropStore

This week PropStore are running their Treasures from Film and Television auction, which includes props, costumes, miniatures, and artwork from numerous series, including a lot of really cool Star Trek stuff. Continue below to check out the highlights.

The most eye-catching item on offer is a miniature of the refit USS Enterprise, used in The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, and The Undiscovered Country. The model is used for close-ups of the engineering hull, with a battle damaged section (patched-up) on one side, and one torpedo tube. The other torpedo tube lights up rather satisfyingly, as do many oft he windows. Which you can see in action in this video:

Kelvin timeline behind the scenes round-up: Prosthetics, costumes, props, concept art, and photos!

Do you enjoy a visit to the Kelvin timeline? Then dive below for a look back at some behind the scenes goodies to recently surface from the production of all three films! Including lots of on set photography, concept art, alien prosthetics, costumes, and props!

We can start almost right at the start, with Alnschloss K'Bentayr, a crew member on the USS Kelvin. The prosthetic mask for this character is currently up for sale from The Prop Gallery, giving us a great chance for a closer look. Check her out:

Red Sea Astrarium Star Trek ride concept art

Remember back in 2011 when they announced that Star Trek would be a key attraction in the planned Red Sea Astrarium resort in Aqaba, Jordan? Well as far as I can tell that never quite got built. But work was still going on for it as late as 2014, when it was reported Bad Robot were working on an innovative 4D film/ride as part of the attraction. Concept artist Bruno Werneck was part of the team working on that, eventually becoming the art director for the project. He has recently shared some work from the ride on his ArtStation portfolio. Continue below to check it out:

Here we have some familiar Starfleet elements, plus a new shuttlecraft that I would imagine to be setting of the ride from what we see in the artwork here:

Star Trek: The Compendium previews

Due out in less than a week is Star Trek: The Compendium, the new bluray release of both nuTrek films, including the IMAX version of Into Darkness and all the extra features which were previously scattered to the retailer exclusive winds. In fact the Into Darkness portion of the set even has a couple of new featurettes, on props and costumes, and StarTrek.com have posted a preview clip from the costume piece, looking at the Starfleet issue wetsuits seen early in Into Darkness:



UPDATE: And TrekMovie have released another clip, looking at the new unifom variations seen in Into Darkness:



A couple of clips have been released from the gag reel. Continue after the jump for a look at those:

Compendium rebate

Out next month is Star Trek: The Compendium, the new bluray release of both nuTrek films, which will include the IMAX version of Into Darkness, and all the extra features that were previously sprinkled around different retailer exclusive releases (plus a couple of new ones).

If you already have these films, you might be a bit perturbed at having to buy them again to get the complete Into Darkness experience, which is why Paramount have set up a rebate. If you go, here, and download a form to mail in, Paramount will reunite you with five dollars, as long as you've bought a bluray version of either of the films before.

It appears this offer is only open to US residents, and indeed The Compendium is only going on sale in North America. The rest of the world might be able to track down the apparently region free release, but maybe we'll also get our own versions of the complete Into Darkness bluray release some time later.

Complete Into Darkness soundtrack available now!

It is now possible to listen to the every minute of music from every single Star Trek movie, as Varèse Sarabande has just released the final soundtrack in the complete Star Trek movie soundtrack collection, the long awaited complete score from Star Trek Into Darkness. A limited edition of six-thousand, the two-disc set includes two hours of Michael Giacchino's beautiful music from the film.

Here's the track list. Emboldened entries are new to this release:

Disc One:
1. Logos / Pranking The Natives (2:58)
2. Spock Drops, Kirk Jumps (1:43)
3. Undersea Enterprises Inc. (1:33)
4. On The Bridge And On The Rocks (1:42)
5. Sub Prime Directive (2:23)
6. London Calling (2:11)
7. Demotion Emotion (:53)
8. London Falling (2:33)
9. The Pride Of Iowa (:43)
10. Astronomical Manhunt (2:12)
11. Man vs Blaster (1:55)
12. Meld-Merized (2:41)
13. Admiral Exposition (3:23)
14. Personal Space (:45)
15. So Long Scotty (:57)
16. Chief Concern / The Moral Mission (2:15)
17. Covert Carol (:38)
18. Galactic Road Trip (1:16)
19. Torpedo Diplomacy (2:19)
20. Spock And Uhura (1:05)
21. Klingon Chase / Meeting (5:03)
22. Harrison Attack (2:46)
23. Harrison Brought Onboard (2:00)
24. Harjugal Visit (2:04)
25. Damage Control (1:18)
26. Scotty’s Floored (1:36)
27. Torpedo Tango (1:08)
28. Cryo Your Heart Out (:17)
29. Harrison's Heart / Enter The Vengeance (3:44)
30. Mom’s Calling (2:19)
31. You’re Not Safe At Warp (:35)

Disc Two:
1. Kirk’s Last Stand (2:24)
2. Guns Down (1:07)
3. Chair Of Command (:57)
4. You Wanna Do What? (1:58)
5. Pull The Trigger (:27)
6. Ship To Ship (2:53)
7. Hallway Fight (1:33)
8. Head Games (1:48)
9. I’m Gonna Make This Simple (2:47)
10. Human Popsicles (1:18)
11. Earthbound And Down (4:19)
12. Warp Core Values (2:57)
13. Max Thrusters (:57)
14. Buying The Space Farm (3:20)
15. Go Get ’Em (1:13)
16. The San Fran Hustle (5:05)
17. Kirk Enterprises (2:57)
18. End Credits (8:43)
19. Ode To Harrison (6:36)
20. Ode To Vengeance (6:29)

And here are some sample tracks:



Star Trek Into Darkness, The Deluxe Edition is available now, directly from Varèse Sarabande.

At last, the Into Darkness bluray release we wanted!

The Digital Bits have announced a new improved bluray release of Star Trek Into Darkness. As you might recall, when Into Darkness was released to the home video market last year the extra features were sprinkled around different retailers, with some available on extra bonus discs, some as digital download extras, and some only on X-Box's SmartGlass app (you can see a breakdown of what's where in my review of the bluray release). As this meant buying the film at least twice to get all the extra features, or not being able to at all in many parts of the world, this left something of a bitter taste in the mouths of trekkies everywhere.

After shaming Paramount's poor efforts The Digital Bits' Bill Hunt got invited to suggest a remedy, and now it's on the way. Coming in September, there will be a new four-disc bluray release of both the nuTrek films, Star Trek: The Compendium, which will contain the full suite of extras from the first nuTrek film, and everything, including all the retailer exclusives, from Into Darkness. There will also be a bit more for Into Darkness, two new featurettes, Fitting the Future (on costumes), and Property of Starfleet (on props), plus a gag reel and deleted scenes.

For Into Darkness this set will be using the IMAX version of the film, so not cropped in to widescreen, meaning more Trek on the screen (although it wont contain the 3D version so if you want that you'll need to hang on to the existing version). On top of all that Paramount are looking at arranging a discount for those of us who already bought the extras-light versions of Into Darkness.

Hunt also reminded Paramount that what we all want as well is proper bluray releases of the older Star Trek films, with directors cuts n'all. That is apparently being considered too.

Here's the box art for The Compendium. UPDATE: Higher res version via TrekMovie:

Continue after the jump for a full breakdown of this new release and comparisons of IMAX footage against the widescreen format:

Alfonso De La Torre's Into Darkness wildlife

Concept artist Alfonso De La Torre, has posted some of his work from Star Trek Into Darkness on Facebook. De La Torre worked on several creature designs to be seen on the planet Nibiru, in the opening of the film, although none of his were used in the final production.

First up we have some alien horses, which may have been used for Kirk and McCoy's get away, had Kirk not shot it. In the end the polarilla from from the first film was reused, with a different finish.

Here's a design for a smaller Nibiru native:

And finally (continuing after the jump), several concepts for the big fish that Scotty sees from the birdge window/viewscreen:

Review: Star Trek Live in Concert

I think of any medium, I probably consume Star Trek the most in music form. The soundtracks to the films regularly make up the soundtrack of my own life. So when I heard Star Trek Live in Concert would be coming to the UK, to say I was a little excited would be quite the understatement. I've spent the last couple of days immersed in Star Trek, and it has been without a doubt the best Star Trek thing I have ever experienced, and one of the best musical experiences too.

For those of you that haven't caught my previous reports mentioning Star Trek Live in Concert: The set-up is that you go to a concert hall to watch a Star Trek film, and an orchestra and choir perform the soundtrack live, perfectly (and miraculously) in time with events occurring on screen. In this case the venue was the Royal Albert Hall in London, and the films were both of the nuTrek movies; 2009's Star Trek, and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, both featuring beautiful music composed by Michael Giacchino. I saw both, on two consecutive nights. Continue after the jump and I shall tell you all about it.

Epic environments from Into Darkness concept art

I recently came across the website of Nathan Schroeder, a member of the art department on both of the nuTrek movies. His site includes galleries for many of the films he has worked on, including the X-Men films, Pirates of the Caribbean, an aborted Battlestar Galactica movie, and many more.

For Into Darkness he appears to have been focused on scenic design, where he worked on the look for Qo'noS, Earth, and the Nibiru volcano. I've picked out a few of my favourites from his portfolio here, including a Blade Runner-esque take on Qo'noS, and a busy future Earth full of organic forms. You can see much more on Schroeder's site.

For the first nuTrek film, Schroeder's work was focused on the design of Spock's ship, the Jellyfish. Continue after the jump for a few of my favourite concepts for that design, or again, make your way to Schroeder's site to see a lot more.

Star Trek Live in Concert coming to the rest of the world

Last year the first tracks from the Into Darkness soundtrack made their premier in Switzerland, at an encore performance at a special screening of Star Trek (2009), where the soundtrack was performed live by an orchestra. As a UK resident I was thrilled when it was announced both nuTrek films would be getting the same treatment at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in now a little over a month. But there's good news for those of you in other parts of the world too, as the Star Trek Live in Concert experience is now on the way to the US and Canada, as well as making a return visit to Switzerland.

Continue after the jump for details of all the venues (as reported by StarTrek.com), plus some clips recorded at the Switzerland concerts last year, to keep you entertained while you wait for a performance to appear near you:

Into Darkness deleted scenes and concept art

An original Constitution class from one of the Into Darkness cut scenes

As you might recall, Paramount did an impressive job of dividing up the extra features on the Into Darkness home video releases, so that you had to seek them out from as many different retailers and providers as possible if you wanted to see everything. One of those sources is X-Box SmartGlass, an app for mobile devices that displays extra bits on your second screen along-side the digital copy of the film on the X-Box. That includes exclusive behind-the-scenes clips, concept art (which I have posted a sampling of before), and the only place you'll find any of the deleted scenes (although some have been eluded to in other behind-the-scenes features).

For those without a X-Box those deleted scenes have remained a mystery, until now. The resourceful people over at TrekCore have tracked them down, and posted detailed descriptions of them all. There are nine deleted scenes available:

• An alternate take on the discussion between Pike and Kirk in Pike's office.
• The explanation of Carol Marcus' English accent.
• A different version of Uhura speaking to the Klingons on Qo'noS.
• And a different version of the start of the fight with the Klingons.
• Thomas Harewood's message to Admiral Marcus.
• A Captain's Log scene after the Nibiru incident.
• Kirk witnessing Pike's death.
• Scotty blagging his way into the Section 31 shipyard.
• Kirk meeting the Harewood's after his speech at the end of the film.

Check out TrekCore's coverage for full descriptions of all the scenes.

Meanwhile, one of the film's production artists, Victor Martinez, has posted some samples of his work form the film on his website. Including artwork of Qo'noS, the Enterprise's warp core, and England, like these:

Creating and destroying the USS Vengeance

It seems the new year is the time to look back at Into Darkness, as here are some more behind the scenes goodies to enjoy. ILM has released a third video (following from the previous two a few days ago), this time looking at their work building San Francisco of the future, and then crashing the USS Vengeance into it:

What does the storied city of San Francisco look like in 2259? How does it function? Who lives there? All good questions -- these are exactly the questions that ILM VFX supervisor Roger Guyett, Co-VFX supervisor Patrick Tubach, VFX art director Yanick Dusseault, digital environments supervisor Barry Williams and model supervisor Bruce Holcomb had to answer to create a version of the city by the Bay that satisfied director J.J. Abram's vision for the film.

Meanwhile Into Darkness production artist James Clyne has updated his website with lots of new artwork from the film, including several images looking at the design of the Vengeance:

You can see a few more of my favourites from Clyne after the jump, and find even more of his artwork from both Into Darkness and the first nuTrek film, by clicking through the slide-show on his website.

New Into Darkness behind the scenes video and art

The ILM youtube channel has posted a new behind the scenes video, deconstructing several of the effects from Star Trek Into Darkness. Watch below to get some insight into the mind-boogling number of elements that went into shots including the Nibiru volcano, Enterprise's shuttlebay, warp tunnel, and the Vengeance's crash into San Francisco:

"Star Trek Into Darkness" contains over 1600 visual effects shots, created by Industrial Light & Magic, Pixomondo, Atomic Fiction and Kelvin Optical Inc. In this reel, we'll take a look at ILM's work which encompassed virtually every tool and discipline in our effects arsenal.

UPDATE: ILM have now released a second video, looking at their work on the Nibiru chase sequence:

The opening sequence sequence of "Star Trek into Darkness" is a great example of the varied visual effects challenges faced by ILM: large digital environments (with plenty of organic elements), creatures and digital doubles, animation, ships and a tremendous amount of simulation work (lava, smoke, water, etc.) Here we explore what it took to create the "Red Planet", Nibiru for "Into Darkness".

From earlier in the production, John Eaves has a gallery of concept art on his website. He seems to have mostly worked on equipment designs. Below are some of my favourites, but you can see much more on Eaves' website.

For more concept art and information on effects in Into Darkness, see the "behind the scenes" section of my Into Darkness guide page.

Bluray bits

A couple of bits regarding the latest Star Trek bluray releases, starting with a clip from the extra features of Enterprise season three, which is out this week. Here's how to autopsy a Xindi Insectoid, (via IGN):



UPDATE: CBS have released a second clip:



You find full details of the extra features in the season three boxset in my previous report.

In other Enterprise news, Amazon have added a listing for the complete seasons one to four, which they expect to be released alongside season four in April. If it follows the partner of previous multi-season releases, this will be a straight release of the four season sets together with no extra bells and whistles.

Meanwhile in one possible future timeline following Enterprise, the limited edition release of Into Darkness, with a QMx phaser has reached another market. While Amazon has offered this pack as an exclusive in several markets, each with one version or other of the Into Darkness bluray, this latest release has come from JB hi-fi in Australia, who are packaging the phaser with not just Into Darkness, but the first nuTrek film too.

Into Darkness' almost Bird of Prey

Visual effects artist Pierre Drolet has updated his website with a page showing of his proposed design for the Klingon Bird of Prey in Star Trek Into Darkness. Here's what he had to say about his version of the nuBird of Prey:

I have been asked to design a small Klingon attack ship "Bird Of Prey" style for the movie Star Trek Into Darkness. The design concept has been rejected by the JJ Abram art department halfway before I could finished it. A lot of Star Trek fans who saw the unfinished version of the Klingon BOP on my website, ask me if I will complete it. So, here we go! I just took a few days to make it look close to what I was aiming, and this is my vision of the redesign Klingon ship.

You can see more of the Drolet's Bird of Prey on his website, and while you're there make sure to have a good look around, it's full of Star Trek (and Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and more) goodness.

Meanwhile for a good look at the Bird of Prey design that did make the cut, check out my previous behind the scenes article, with a video and stills examining the Qo'noS sequence in Into Darkness.

Japanese advert supplies solution to Scotty's underwater woes

For all those nit-pickers out there (and Scotty), concerned about the practicalities of hiding the Enterprise underwater, this new Japanese lubricant (Kure 5-56) advert solves at least one problem in the scenario:



According to Kotaku the Japanese actor (and general celebrity) inserted into these Into Darkness scenes is Shigeru Izumiya. They also provided the following pithy explanation of events in the advert:

Scotty says the ship is going to rust, but Izumiya says the 5-56 spray will prevent that from happening.

Then, Captain Kirk asks Spock if he's an acquaintance, and Mister Spock says he doesn't know the guy. (I don't blame him!)

The next shot shows Japanese Spock telling the Captain to sit down.

Into Darkness only opening in Japan last month, hence this latest promotional partnership only coming about now. But there have been plenty of other weird and wonderful tie-ins, check out the promotion section on my Into Darkness guide page to have a look at some of the other adverts associated with the film.

Into Darkness: Deleted scenes, displays, and USS Vengeance concept art

Another look behind the scenes at Into Darkness for you. Starting with another reason to glare at your inept bluray copy for not having enough extra features (see my review if you don't know what I'm referring to): As you might recall, if you get Into Darkness as a download via your Xbox, you are also able to experience additional content through the SmartGlass application, which lets you use mobile devices as a second screen to display behind the scenes imagery such as concept art. To announce this feature a range of the concept art on offer was released to the web a few weeks ago, and very appealing it looked too. But what was on offer gets even better, as apparently there are also deleted scenes connected to this release of Into Darkness.

TrekBBS user Cap.GRPrime1701 posted the following image, reportedly from one of these deleted scenes, which intriguingly appears to show a nuTrek version of the classic Constitution class, above Admiral Marcus' office (presumably another of his model starships):

StarTrek.com also revealed the details of another cut scene, in an interview with actress Nazneen Contractor, who played Rima Harewood, the wife of the Starfleet officer who blew himself up in exchange for Khan curing his daughter:

There was a scene at the end of the movie, after the memorial service, in which Chris Pine (as Kirk) comes up to me and my daughter. He sees us, and my daughter is now healthy, with a full head of hair, and I thank him for his speech. He looks up at me and he knows who I am, and then he looks at my daughter, and they both have this moment where they know they share Khan’s blood. But it got cut.

Elsewhere behind the scenes, one the interface artists from OOOii posted the following video of their work from the film on Vimeo, giving us a good look at some of the displays from the film:



Another TrekBBS user, Locutus of Bored, posted a pretty comprehensive breakdown of all the easter eggs hidden in the above displays. You can also see more examples of the interface design from Into Darkness in another of my behind the scenes reports.

One of the designers from Into Darkness has also posted lots of work to his portfolio. Tex Kadonaga worked on the design of the USS Vengeance, as well as the trade ship and garbage scowl. Here are a few examples, including an early concept for the Vengeance bridge, with a greater focus on it being operated by a single person, and a handy scale image. You'll find a lot more on Kadonaga's portfolio.

Finally, yet another resourcefully TrekBBS user, SalvorHardin, posted the following much earlier concept sketches of the USS Vengeance. I believe these are screencaps from one of the more elusive extra features on the bluray (more after the jump):

How to make a Star Trek title sequence

Ready for another behind-the-scene look at Into Darkness? This latest video comes from Andrew Kramer, who made the end-title sequence (with all the swooshy planets). He tells us all about the tricks they used to make the sequence, and also destroys a Lego Millennium Falcon!



For more behind-the-scenes goodies, and everything else you need to know about Into Darkness, check out my guide page.

Review: Into Darkness on bluray

Star Trek Into Darkness has been available for digital download a few weeks now, and was released on bluray and DVD in the UK last week, with the US release today! With the horrible mess Paramount have made distributing the extra features (more on than later), it was tempting to consider boycotting this release. Alas I don't have the strength of will to resist new Trek coming to my library! Plus I really like the film, so no matter what this release doesn't offer, it does at least give me a film I want to watch. So before I get to the other stuff on the discs (and not on the discs), lets have another look at the film itself (spoilers abound):

The Film

I watched the film twice at the cinema, read the novelization, and then sat back and waited for it to drop into my bluray player. I enjoyed the film immensely on the big screen, and found that hasn't diminished at all watching it again at home. Sure this is a modern block-buster, with some emphasis on visual spectacle, unrelenting pace and action, and yes there are a few things that drive a nit-picking trekkie insane. This wouldn't be the first time Star Trek has played fast and loose with the speed of the plot warp factors though, and in the grand scheme of things I don't find such issues detract that much from what is overall a good film. Plus for every decision I'm not so enthusiastic about, there are those I think are inspired creative choices. The use of the National Ignition Facility as the warp core for instance, is brilliant; never has Trek tech felt so real, complex, or powerful. I think the nuTrek cast are also brilliant, and in particular Benedict Cumberbatch has made Khan something far more menacing and chilling than the character's previous outings.

With a title like Into Darkness one might have expected this film to be casting a shadow over the optimistic future of the Star Trek universe. But if you feel this film tarnishes said future, I think you're kind of missing the point. The darkness of Marcus and Section 31's readiness for war is what the whole film is showing us the Star Trek world opposes. Overtly through Scotty's reaction to events, and more subtly through Kirk's journey from seduction into vengeance, to ultimately allying with Khan to resist the true source of darkness in the film, we are shown how the heroes of the Federation feel about such paranoid politics of fear. Which is of course what makes the film all the more interesting and relevant to today, with allusions to interventionism, drone warfare, terrorism, and the dangers of fear driving our politics.

At the end of this film we are left, again, with the crew set up to go and explore strange new worlds. While I did enjoy this outing, I hope that promise is fulfilled through more than the opening scenes in the next instalment. I also hope the next film continues to tackle the issues of today, but I hope we can shift to other problems in our world, maybe a strong environmental theme? Into Darkness did leave some big obvious open doors for continuation. Do we want to see a Klingon war? If we get that I certainly hope it's more interesting than just a lot of battles. While I'm hoping for more of an exploration theme next time around, I certainly wouldn't be upset if Khan-berbatch found himself defrosted once more too; it would seem almost a waste not to have more of such an amazing performance.

Continue after the jump for my thoughts on the extra features, both those on my standard retail copy, and those not offered to most customers: