Starship miniatures, concept art costumes and props from TOS, The Motion Picture and more, all up for auction

In the coming hours and days two different auctioneers are offering up quite a variety of interesting props, costumes, starship miniatures, artwork and more from across numerous Star Trek TV and film productions, including a lot of items from TOS and The Motion Picture, and more spanning right up to Into Darkness. Continue below to check out some of the highlights.

The most notable item is probably the iconic TOS phaser rifle from Where No Man Has Gone Before, which is coming up for sale later today from Hertitage Auctions in their Hollywood and Entertainment Signature Auction. This large one-of-a-kind prop remains in remarkable condition 55 years on from its creation.

Prodigy round-up: A close look at the USS Protostar, concept art, character images, behind the scenes, trailer, movie-potential, and first episode for free

Prodigy it into it's third episode this week - Though it feels more like the second after the extended two-part start to the series, which you can, for a while, watch for free (more on that below).  Paramount+(ad) have of course been enthusiastically promoting the series, both looking ahead, and reflecting back on the first episodes. Plus several of the production team have shared some really cool behind the scenes artwork. Continue below to check out all the latest from the series.

First up, director and executive producer Ben Hibon shared some great images of the USS Protostar, giving us a chance to really examine the shaping and details of this shiny new starship design. In his tweets he credited designer John Eaves for the "early ideation", the final design to himself and the Nuen Studio team, and the textures to look development designer Nikie Monteleone.

Star Trek Day brings trailers, release dates, casting updates and more for SNW, Picard, Discovery, Prodigy, and Lower Decks

At today's Star Trek Day event Paramount+ announced lots and lots of new Star Trek TV news (and a little movie update too even), including very exciting casting/character news from Strange New Worlds, an exhilarating new trailer and keyart for Prodigy, plus a new trailers for both Picard and Lower Decks too, a release date for the next season of Discovery, a tease for the Starfleet Academy series, and a little preview from the remastered edition of The Motion Picture: The Director's Edition. Continue below to check out all the news!

First up let's look at Strange New Worlds, with the exciting news of the extended cast beyond Captain Pike, Number One (whose full name we now know is Una Chin-Riley), and Spock. Here's a little casting announcement video:

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Next Star Trek movie finds its director and writers

The next Star Trek movie has a new director (again) and writers (again)! Deadline report Paramount have signed up Matt Shakman to direct a script by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.

According to Deadline, getting Shakman is a coup", as he is in much demand following success directing every episode (and executive producing all but one) of Marvel's WandaVision. His other credits include directing and producing numerous episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Great, and lots of other TV directing jobs.

Geneva Robertson-Dworet also has Marvel roots, having written Captain Marvel, and before that the 2018 Tomb Raider movie. Lindsey Beer doesn't have much made yet, but has written for several projects in development, including a number co-writing with Robertson-Dworet: Another Marvel story, Silver Sable, part of Sony's Spiderverse, and a couple of movies in Paramount's G.I. Joe and co universe, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light and M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, whose co-writers also include another trek scribe, Michael Chabon.

The Motion Picture director's edition getting a 4K upgrade, plus latest TOS movie and TV bluray releases

Paramount have got some real treats in store for TOS fans and physical media peeps, with new releases of the TOS movies on the way, and the complete TV series. But the biggest most exciting news is...

Two decades after The Motion Picture got a significant facelift in the form of The Director's Edition DVD(ad) release - In which director Robert Wise re-edited the film, including adding several new visual effects shots - Paramount have finally taking the plunge to do the work all over again and produce a 4K release of this much improved version of the movie!

Paramount are expecting the restoration project to take 6-8 months, and the end product will be a 4K Ultra HD release with Dolby Vision high dynamic range and a new Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The final product will initially be available exclusively on Paramount+(ad) (one hopes and assumes home media releases will follow in due course).

The restoration will be undertaken by the original team who worked with the late Robert Wise before; producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman,

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:

Next Star Trek movie coming in 2023

After half a decade of bouncing ideas around for the next Star Trek movie, Paramount Pictures seem to finally found one they like, as they have now scheduled the next Star Trek movie for release on the 9th of June 2023. The film will be produced by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot productions, who also brought us the previous three Kelvin timeline movies. Officially, that is all we know so far. 

io9 report, via "a source close to the project" this is not one of the previously considered scripts that have been in the offing over the past few years - Even though the most recent project know about, from Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez, was only revealed to the world a month ago!

Will this continue the adventures of the familiar Kelvin timeline crew? Will Jaylah come back? - I strongly hope for both! - Or will it be something completely new in the Kelvin or Prime timelines? Production must be getting underway fairly soon to make that date just over two years away, so we'll no doubt here some more details fairly soon.

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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Kalinda Vazquez to write latest Star Trek movie

The ongoing efforts to get another Star Trek movie into production seem to have started over once more, with Deadline reporting Paramount have signed up Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez to write a new Star Trek movie. There's no detail just yet on which crew or timeline might feature in the film, although it will be a Bad Robot production, who of course previously brought us the three Kelvin timeline movies.

Vazquez's has previously written the Pike-focused Short Treks episode Ask Not, and Discovery's recent return to the mirror universe, Terra Firma, Part 2. She has also been a consulting producer for the latter half of Discovery season three. Her other cool Star Trek connection is that she is named after a Star Trek character! Kelinda the Kelvan, from the TOS episode By Any Other Name.

TNG aliens come back to life

Inspired by some awesome restoration projects, I've gathered together some of the latest TNG behind the scenes bits and bobs I've come across to take a look at a few of TNG's aliens; including some memorable one-shot wonders, and some more established species too. Continue below for some real treats.

What sparked this exploration was seeing some amazing work done recently by Tom Spina Designs, who specialise in restorations and display models and have worked on several Star Trek projects over the years. Their newest creation is a beautiful display of one of the Solanagen-based lifeforms from the episode Schisms. Working with an original costume and mask, they recreated new hands to finish off the alien and then gave it a suitably creepy pose for display. Check it out:

Paramount considering where to go next with Star Trek movies

It seems Paramount are taking a fresh look at their Star Trek movie options. According to Deadline, the new President of Motion Picture Group At Paramount, Emma Watts is apparently considering what path is best to take, in a hope of revitalising the movie wing of the franchise. Deadline's reporting of reveals new details of previously announced projects in development, and where they currently stand as prospects.

What Deadline have a feel of, is that while Paramount see some of the scripts they have in the works as good potential spin-offs - Working as stand-alones akin to Logan next to the wider X-Men franchise - They feel a need to first revitalise a core movie franchise, and to build on that.

Lower Decks trailer gives us first proper look at the series, plus other screen-Trek updates.

With the series due to star just next month, CBS have finally released a trailer for the new animated comedy Star Trek series, Lower Decks. Steeped in TNG-era goodness, and an obvious love for all things Trek, with a generous dose of humour, it looks freaking fantastic. Check it out:



Along side this CBS have also release a new poster, which might be work a closer look, as it reveals multiple new ships, including on the right hand side what appears to be an absolutely ginormous alien vessel encountering a couple of Starfleet ships.

Continue below for a closer look at what the trailer had to offer. Plus some other screen-Trek updates.

Star Trek (2009) storyboards reveal unseen and alternate creature designs

Storyboard artist Richard Bennett has been sharing some of his work from the first Kelvin timeline movie, Star Trek, revealing some really cool creature designs, and a cut scene. Continue below to check them out.

This first sequence, which Bennett shared in two posts on his Instagram account, reveals a cut scene where Spock travels through a series of conduits, and encounters a huge snake-like creature, with lots of teeth and tendrils!

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.

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.

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:

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:

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:

Star Trek: The Next Generation behind the scenes round-up

Want to check out some goodies from the making of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Well continue below to have a look at some brilliant examples of production art and technique, and on set fun, in my latest round-up of behind the scenes stuff!

First up, thanks to Heritage Auctions current movie poster sale we have another Star Trek matte painting to enjoy up close. By Syd Dutton, this cityscape was glimpsed ever so fleetingly as Angosia III, in The Hunted:

The Motion Picture returning to cinemas and maybe a home video upgrade too

This year is the 40th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and there's already plenty in the planning to celebrate. We already knew about plans to reprint Gene Roddenberry's novelisation of the film, and an audiobook edition to match. And now there's news about the film itself coming back to screens big and small:

This September, on the 15th and 18th, Fathom Events will be bring the film back to (select) cinemas in the US - The first nationwide release since the original December 1979 showings. The film will be preceded by a behind the scenes featurette, The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture, which comes from a previous bluray release. Tickets will be available from August 2nd on Fathom's website.