Screen-Trek round-up: Discovery season 3 home video, and latest updates from SNW, Picard, Georgiou, and movies

With multiple Star Trek TV series currently in production, and the promise of a new movie, there's a fairly steady stream of news coming from the on-screen portion of Star Trek lately. Continue below for a round-up of the latest from Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, the Section 31 show, and movies.

First up, CBS Home Entertainment have released cover art for the forthcoming home video release of Discovery season 3(ad). While the season is already available for pre-order, a little oddly it's not yet clear when those orders will be fulfilled, as a release date hasn't yet been revealed - UPDATE: CBS Home Entertainment's Facebook page says 20th of July (thanks Star Trek Pike on Twitter). Nor have details of the extra features. But this is what the case will look like at least, for bluray(ad) or DVD(ad) editions:

Screen-Trek updates: SNW cast revealed, another movie pitch, lost Trek TV and film projects, and new documentary series

Lots of Star Trek TV and film updates recently, so continue below for a round-up of the latest from Strange New Worlds, the Khan prequel miniseries, another potential film pitch, a couple of lost Star Trek projects, and a new documentary series!

First up, CBS have announced several new cast members for the Captain Pike series Strange New Worlds, and they did so with this upbeat video:

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Paramount+ celebrates all things Trek, after Spock, Burnham and Pike climb Paramount Mountain. Plus Trek TV updates

Ramping up for the launch of the rebranded Paramount+(ad) streaming service (soon to replace CBS All Access), CBS have released a trailer focused on how Paramount+ will be the home of all things Trek. 

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This comes after a couple of weeks of adverts featuring various Paramount characters and celebs ascending the iconic Paramount mountain in some rather peculiar crossovers. Continue below to check out the ads so far. Plus some other Trek TV updates.

So many Star Trek pins! All the latest from FanSets, QMx, Numskull, and Forbidden Planet.

Looking for some Star Trek pins? Then continue below for all the latest designs from FanSets, including multiple Badgey pins, a Christmas design, new character and ship pins, and more! Plus a new range of TOS pins from Numskull, 32nd century Federation merch from Forbidden Planet, and QMx combadge reissues.

As previously reported, FanSets are continuing their annual tradition of a festive Star Trek pin with a Christmas themed Badgey this year, freshly released this week:

Star Trek Day brings new trailers for Discovery and Lower Decks, and much more

Yesterday's "Star Trek Day", to mark the 54th anniversary of Star Trek, brought together actors and creators from across the franchise in a series of virtual panels hosted on StarTrek.com. That included discussion and previews of currently in-production series, and a look back at older series. Continue below to check out all the new trailers and artwork, and for links to all the panels.

Discovery, with it's third season just weeks away, got the most out of the day, with a new trailer, poster, logo, and even a cat!  So first up, check out the trailer, for all kinds of exciting hints of things to come, and the backstory of, Discovery's new far future setting (check it out on StarTrek.com if you're geolocked out of YouTube):

Discovery to introduce Star Trek's first major transgender and non-binary characters. Plus other Trek-TV updates

Discovery, a show that has already pushed Star Trek's representation forward by several lightyears with it's diverse cast of characters, is continuing it's efforts of showing how truly diverse and inclusive Star Trek can be, by introducing the franchise's first regular transgender and non-binary characters.

Continue below for details of these two new characters, plus other updates on the many Star Trek shows currently in production and development.

Ian Alexander, an Asian-American transgender actor know for his role in The OA, will play a Trill character called Gray. Here's how CBS describe him:

Gray is empathetic, warm and eager to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a Trill host, but he will have to adapt when his life takes an unexpected turn.

Blu del Barrio, who seems to be British, is taking on their first major role here, and will play the non-binary character Adira. And here's how CBS describe them:

Adira is highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years. They will find a new home on the U.S.S. Discovery and form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). 

Trek TV news from the Comic Con virtual panel

The Comic Con Star Trek Universe virtual panel today gave us a few nuggets of news. Continue below for a new preview of Lower Decks, and updates on Discovery season three, and Strange New Worlds. But first, a whole new show:

The biggest is the reveal of a brand new series title. The Nickelodeon animated Star Trek series aimed at younger views will be called Star Trek Prodigy, and has this snazzy title logo:

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:

Strange New Worlds cover vote

After a nearly a decade break, the Strange New Worlds writing contest was relaunched last year, with a new anthology of winning fan written short stories due out as an ebook next month. To add the finishing touch to the release, Simon and Schuster have prepared two possible cover designs, and are allowing the final one to be picked in an online poll.

You can choose from either a TOS shuttlecraft, or the USS Enterprise. So far the Enterprise is leading by a wide margin, but not that many votes have been cast. The poll closes very soon; you've got until the end of today to add your vote, here.

2016 Strange New World winners announced

Cover of the first Strange New Worlds

For ten years, starting in 1998, Simon and Schuster ran an annual Star Trek writing competition, giving an opportunity for fans to get their Star Trek stories published in an anthology book. After nearly a decade without such a book, the publisher revived the Strange New Worlds competition last year, ready to publish a new collection of stories this fiftieth anniversary year. Now the winning stories have been announced. They are:

• Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend, by Neil Bryant
• A Christmas Qarol, by Gary Piserchio and Frank Tagader
• The Sunwalkers, by Kelli Fitzpatrick
• The Seen and Unseen, by Chris Chaplin
• The Façade of Fate, by Michael Turner
• The Manhunt Pool, by Nancy Debretsion
• The Dreamer and the Dream, by Derek Tyler Attico
• The Last Refuge, by Roger McCoy
• Life Among the Post-Industrial Barbarians, by John Coffren
• Upon the Brink of Remembrance, by Kristen McQuinn

These ten "Grand Prize winners" will have their stories published in the digital-first 2016 Strange New Worlds anthology later this year, and each get a $1000 advance too. Bizarrely the two "First Prize winners" also announced, Kerry F. Booth and James Corrigan, do not seem to be listed for the book, instead winning a publishing package with Archway Publishing (worth $5000), to publish a book on another subject...

Book bits - Fiction edition: New covers, new blurbs, new ebook, and more!

Lots of books news lately, continue below for all the latest on prose fiction titles, including new details of next year's anniversary trilogy, new blurbs, a new ebooks, the return of Strange New Worlds, and more! First up, pretty new covers to look at.

Two new novel covers have been released lately, the first one here is for A Pocket Full of Lies, Kirsten Beyer's next Voyager novel, due in February:

The Full Circle Fleet has resumed its unprecedented explorations of the Delta Quadrant and former Borg space. Commander Liam O'Donnell of the U.S.S. Demeter makes a promising first contact with the Nihydron—humanoid aliens that are collectors of history. They rarely interact with the species they study but have created a massive database of numerous races, inhabited planets, and the current geopolitical landscape of a large swath of the quadrant. When an exchange of data is proposed via a formal meeting, the Nihydron representatives are visibly shaken when Admiral Kathryn Janeway greets them. For almost a century, two local species—the Rilnar and the Zahl—have fought for control of the nearby planet Sormana, with both sides claiming it as their ancestral homeworld. The shocking part is that for the last several years, the Rilnar have been steadily gaining ground, thanks to the tactics of their current commanding officer: a human woman, who appears to be none other than Kathryn Janeway herself...

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp. 

Speaking to TrekFM's Literary Treks podcast about he most recent book, Atonement, Beyer also revealed she is already at work on the next two Voyager novels following A Pocket Full of Lies. While this next book isn't the start of another multi-book arc, she does already have ideas on where the series is and could be going:

Book bits: Elusive Salvation, New Frontier, Captain Kirk, and more

Coming next May is Elusive Salvation, Dayton Ward's follow-up to the brilliant aliens-on-Earth novel, From History's Shadow. Simon and Schuster have now updated their digital catalogue with the first blurb for this book, giving details of the new alien infiltration on pre-First Contact Earth:

The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue hunt them at any cost.

San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction.

New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future…

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.  

Continue after the jump for more news of new books, including New Frontier, and Captain Kirk reading his own autobiography: