Review: Picard season one on bluray

I recently rewatched Picard, via the bluray edition of the first season(ad). Continue below for my thoughts on the season as a whole (some vague spoiler discussion after the first few paragraphs), and the offering of extra features on the bluray.

The Story

Despite hearing it from the producers repeatedly when the series was being promoted, what really struck me in the rewatch was truly how much the series is like a long film. Not just that it feels like a film, but is a much more engaging experience to watch that way. 

So much so that I now really wish they're released the whole series as four or five two-hour-ish episodes. It would have been a bold departure from the normal format for Star Trek that I think would have done the story a great service. But with that not being the case, the whole series now being available, on bluray or streaming, we can still watch it like that anyway.

I liked Picard a lot watching it as it came out, but viewing back as a whole I really love it. The word that keeps coming to me thinking of it, is beautiful. For several reasons.

Review: Science Division's Interactive Tribble

Science Division's Interactive Tribbles have started to find their way out into the world, and one of them has found it's way to me to have a play with. It's proved to be no trouble at all, but plenty of fun. Continue below for my thoughts on the deluxe ball of fluff.

While there have been many tribbles produced over the years, at various sizes and colours (and as a tribble lover I have a few myself!), but there's never been one like this. Some have featured sounds and vibration features before, but always requiring a squeeze to make them go - This one is almost alive! Tucked inside is a little box of tricks that makes the tribble coo (or scream), vibrate, sense when it's touched, and links it up with features enables by a mobile app - Although many of the things the tribble can do can be controlled without an app (see below).

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.

Review - Year Five: Valentine's Day Special comic

Out this week, just in time for Valentine's Day, was IDW's latest Star Trek comic special, this time tied into the current TOS Year Five series. Captains of Sea and War, so named for a quote of a quote in the story, does start in the time period of that series, but then continues into the TOS movie era, with sections in both The Motion Picture era, and around about the time of The Final Frontier, managing to tell a decades spanning romance in the progress. For one regular length (20 story pages) comic, it packs in an impressive amount of story, character, and emotional resonance. Continue belew for my thoughts on the book.

The book is written by Paul Cornell, his first Star Trek fiction as far as I can tell (he's done some articles and an unofficial episode guide before), but he has long list of credits on-screen, in books, and comics, including a lot of Doctor Who in all formats. Art comes from Christopher Jones, also new to Trek I think, but a busy comics artist, working on lots of DC books, and plenty of Doctor Who too. The pairing has delivered nicely here with an ambitiously wide ranging story calling on the art to delivery lots of distinct time periods and places.

Review - Picard: Countdown comic miniseries

Coming to a conclusion by the time the second episode of Picard was released, the Picard Countdown comic series sheds a little light on events prior to the series, most notably Picard's relationships with Raffi Musiker, and his Romulan pals Laris and Zhaban. Continue below for my thoughts on the series.

The three-part series (each issue slightly longer, at 24-story-pages, rather than the normal Star Trek 20-page book) was brought to us by writers Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson; a team that have previously worked on all of IDW's Discovery comics. Johnson has been busy tying into the leading edge of Star Trek productions since IDW's first Countdown series for the first Kelvin timeline movie (subsequently writing most of the numerous Kelvin timeline comics that followed), while Beyer is no less than the co-creator of Picard, a writer on Discovery, and has a highly regarded run of Voyager novels to her name too. They are joined by artist Angel Hernandez, who has worked with them on several of the previous Discovery and Kelvin timeline comics too. So we enter this story in safe hands, very familiar with IDW's Star Trek house style, which baring a few more experimental tales is normally very screen accurate in visual style, and adapt at teasing out a prequel story to a new production.

This particular story jumps right to the point: We are joining Picard, and Raffi, as they work to bring to reality the Romulan evacuation in preparation for the Hobus supernova (not so named in the series), and before the attack on Mars that halted that mission. We are fairly quickly introduced to Laris and Zhaban, and then there are a few hiccups, due to a lot of sneaky twisty Romulan antics. What the story does best is set up Picard and Raffi's relationship, and give a rewarding backstory for Laris and Zhaban. Where I'd have liked more, is giving us a wider view of the Romulan evacuation effort; as this story is contained to one planet, and has a surprisingly upbeat ending; I suppose that works well for everything to then unravel after, as we've seen in the series so far. It's hard to talk about that without some spoilers though, so proceed with caution from here on.

Review: Star Trek Select Borg action figure

Diamond Select Toys have just released the latest character in their Star Trek Select range of action figures; a Borg drone. Being a generic alien rather than a specific major character, this is a bit of a change for the range. The format is also a little different, a fully articulated figure, rather than the more sculptural style featured in most of the previous releases, and a lot of modular components instead of the scene setting props that most of the other characters in the range have come with. Does this new approach make for an appealing action figure? Continue below to find out...

Review: Discovery #9 - Into the Forest I Go

Ready for the start of Discovery's second chapter, I sat down to rewatch the last episode, Into the Forest I Go, and finally reflect on what was a really outstanding episode!

This one had so much going on, with one of the best space battles in Star Trek history, exploration of subjects that, though they shouldn't be, are still pretty edgy and not well explored in TV, and a beautiful symmetry to Burnham's arc that would have made this a pretty satisfying season finale had the series been shorter. Continue below for my thoughts on all those points and more.

Review: Discovery #8 - Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

I have pretty mixed feelings about Discovery's eighth episode, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. There's an awful lot going on in this episode, maybe too much... As we return to the more serialised story after two fairly standalone episodes we also seem to be returning to Discovery's familiar air of mystery; who is playing who? What is everyone's real motivation? Continue below for my thoughts (spoiler filled) on those unfolding mysteries.

Review: Discovery #7 - Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

Week after week each episode of Discovery just seems to get better. Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad, episode seven, is by far the most standalone in the series so far, and so very very Star Treky. Continue below for my spoilery thoughts on last week's episode.

Review: Discovery #6 - Lethe

Lethe, Discovery's sixth episode, is probably my favourite to date. It feels a little more self contained than previous episodes thanks to the Sarek and Burnham plotline, and that part of the episode adds to the overall Star Trek continuity in a surprisingly impactful way. Continue below for spoilery thoughts.

Review: Discovery #5 - Choose Your Pain

More Captain Saru please. This is my main thought by the end of Discovery's fifth episode, Choose Your Pain. Lot of plot points progress, and perhaps that is where I am struggling most so far with Discovery; it is so serialised I don't think I could so far point at one episode in particular and go that was great, just as an episode. But as each character arc unfolds, and as we learn ever more, the series becomes that bit more satisfying, and spurs us on to the next set of reveals - The series as a whole is proving great indeed. More thoughts on all that below, spoiler laden as ever.

Review: Discovery #4 - The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

The rather grandly named The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry leaves me once again curious about a lot of things to come in Discovery, but most of all, am I meant to like these characters or not? I say that not because I dislike any of them or the story being told, but because this series seems quite determined to make every character super ambiguous about whether they are are a nice person and how they are playing others (with the possible exception of so-far always excessively pleasant Cadet Tilly). Continue below for my thoughts on this and other aspects of the fourth episode.

Review: Discovery #3 - Context is for Kings

Discovery's third episode, Context is for Kings, finally introduces to the USS Discovery itself, and my main takeaway from meeting ship and crew is to wonder if this air of mystery will continue; I kind of hope so, as it certainly has me intrigued right now. Continue below for spoiler fills thoughts on the episode below:

Review: Discovery #1 and #2 - The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars

After waking up promptly at 8am to watch new Star Trek as soon as it arrived here on Netflix in the UK, I feel highly content with my Discovery breakfast.

We knew a lot of setup going into these first two episodes, The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars, but not a lot about the hows and whys of these new characters - And all credit to CBS, you played a blinder with misdirection in your promotional efforts; I anticipated some of what happened, but I certainly didn't a lot more! Continue below for my thoughts on this rebirth of Star Trek. Spoilers follow!

Review: The Official Starships Collection - USS Titan

Following a demonstration of fan demand championed by this very website, Eaglemoss have recently released their first bonus issue in The Official Starships Collection featuring a ship that originates from the Star Trek novels, the Luna class USS Titan.

If you're not familiar, the Titan was of course named in Nemesis, as the new command of Captain Riker. But we never saw it until Sean Tourangeau won a competition to design the ship at the heart of the then (a decade ago) new Titan book series. The Luna class has since gone on to appear in Star Trek exhibitions, comics, and video games - It is surely the most prominent of non-canon ships, and indeed is at least technically canon!

I've been clamouring for this since the collection began; so it's safe to say my views may be a little biased - But none the less, continue below for a closer look at this much anticipated model, and the accompanying magazine.

Star Trek Beyond review

I love all of Star Trek, including wholeheartedly both of the previous Kelvin timeline movies. Like every iteration of Star Trek ever they have their bumpy elements, but like all Star Trek before I am more than willing smooth over those cracks and enjoy the bright shiny vision of our future they show us. So I always approach new Trek with an open mind, looking forward to the things I can enjoy, the beautiful things, the thoughtful things, and the things I will hope too see more of in novels and comics to come. Well Star Trek Beyond has more of those things than is reasonable for a two hour film. I left the cinema grinning in sheer joy at what I had experienced.

I've split this review into five sections, covering the major things I took away from the film. The first two sections are pretty spoiler free (you'd get more from some of the trailers), the rest I spill a few beans, so proceed with caution from section three onwards.

Review: Metal Earth Vor'cha class

Newly available from Fascinations are the four Star Trek starships in their Metal Earth range of laser etched steel model kits. I've got all four to play with, and am going to take a close look at each.

Hoping the angular design might be easier than the curvy forms of the other ships in the range, I've opted to start with the Klingon Vor'cha class.

The kits are delivered on two square sheets of steel, which come packaged with extensive instructions in a flat packet which is about the size of a mass market paperback book cover.

The instructions recommend the use of needle-nose pliers to help build the model, and I also found a craft knife very handy to separate out the components from the metal sheets, where they are held on with small tabs.

The Vor'cha class is built from thirty-nine separate components, ranging from miniscule details, through to the two large pieces that make up much of the basic shape of the ship. These are all held together with little tabs which slot into small holes, and are secured by making a twist in the tab so it doesn't slide out again.

It's quite fiddly work, but very satisfying too, as small oddly shaped bits of metal suddenly turn into satisfying clusters of details. For this ship you basically build it up in two sections, forming the top and bottom, before the most fiddly bit of the job, lining up all the tabs to connect those two halves together. The head is then added on, and you're done, with the base having already been attached in the process of making the underside of the ship.

The final result feels surprisingly solid! Although I wouldn't want to test that rigidity too much! What's most impressive though, is all the detail; almost every surface is coated edge-to-edge in laser etched lines, building up the panels and other details all over the ship. Combined with all the 3D detailing from the built up sections, and the end result is quite spectacular. Plus, it's literally shiny - The steel finish looks great!

I thought these models looked pretty good in the preview images, but the result in hand is even better. With enough care, you can build a very solid and neat model, and that build is pretty fun too; it took me the better part of two hours to build the eleven centimeter long model - I'll be interested to see if I speed up with the other models, now I'm familiar with following the instructions and the building technique.

Continue after the jump for lots more images of the final model:

Review: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, The Original Teleplay.

The recently concluded five-part comic adaptation of Harlan Ellison's original telelplay for The City on the Edge of Forever is almost unique in Star Trek comics history. To the best of my recollections there has been just one other episode adapted into comic form, the TNG finale, All Good Things..., and while most of the movies have also been adapted, aside from the odd deleted scene they have not strayed far from the on-screen presentations. The City on the Edge of Forever though, is like an episode of Star Trek from an alternate reality. My thoughts on the series continue after the jump below.

From the first few pages we are introduced to a much darker version of The Original Series, with the antagonist of the story, Beckwith, a drug dealer on the Enterprise, having signed on to starship duty to gather riches from exotic worlds and retire early to a life of luxury - A stark contrast to the good natured humans of the Starfleet we have come to know over the decades since this script was first written.

Beckwith takes the place of McCoy in the story as we know it from the television episode, and in doing so changes the tone throughout. Now we are not on a mission rescue a friend, we are out to stop a dangerous distasteful criminal (and in either case correct the timeline).

The mysterious and ethereal Guardians of Forever

This also gives us a great contrast with Edith Keeler, who in this version of the story is perhaps a little further along in her mission of peace in the world, already giving public addresses; well on the way to the future peace-maker that would ultimately lead to US defeat in the second world war - Or at least we can understand that from the episode, as the comic is more ambiguous about her future, with Spock inferring her significance in history from a riddle the Guardians give him and Kirk before they follow Beckwith, rather than having read the precise history they must avert off a tricorder screen, as in the episode. At any rate, Keeler is the good in reflection to Beckwith's evil, something that makes the ending all the more ambiguous when Beckwith tries to save Keeler from her death.

Review: Star Trek Pop-Ups

I love pop-up books. I only own a few, but they are probably the most frequently visited in my library, and the ones I like to show to friends. So I was delighted to learn I would be able to enjoy another thing I love in pop-up form, with the release of the new Star Trek Pop-Ups book. Continue below for my thoughts on this newly released book.

The book is huge, the largest Star Trek book I own, at 31x34cm. It also has a curious padded cover, which makes it a bit squishy to hold. Inside there are seven two-page spreads of pop-ups, designed by Courtney Watson McCarthy, plus another pop-up-free pair of pages providing an introduction. The book covers all the prime universe live action series, with ships and characters representing ordinary and extraordinary takes on Star Trek. The text of the book by Paula Block and Terry Erdmann (not credited in the actual book, but widely listed by online book sellers), is written from a real world perspective, with the introduction giving an overview of Star Trek, and each page then giving behind the scenes stories that led to the creation of the particular scene being brought to life in the pop-up.

The first spread in the book is a celebration of the original USS Enterprise, based on The Corbomite Maneuver, which means the beautiful remastered version of the First Federation ship Fesarius gets to feature as the bright yellow backdrop. A couple of the Fesarius' orbs also pop out with the Enterprise. The Enterprise is boldly presented as a fully 3D model, rather than just a flat image standing up-right - an ambitious decision given all the rounded shapes on that ship. Some of the pop-ups work from all viewing angles, some are better off seen just from the designed viewing angle of the book - The latter is true of this spread, but it looks fantastic from that angle, and the way it unfurls as you open the pages is quite delightful; it makes the Enterprise seem so alive.

The next spread is also TOS based, giving us the Kirk in a pile of tribbles scenes from The Trouble with Tribbles. This is technically the simplest pop-up in the book, made from several layered images that are made 3D with a single fold. But it's also one of the most effective renditions; the layers of tribbles give a really nice sense of their abundance.

The third pop-up takes us into the movie era, and is probably my favourite of the book, featuring the Klingon Bird of Prey swooping under the Golden Gate Bridge, from the end of The Voyage Home. Like the Enterprise, this has a very satisfying animation as you open the pages, and works even better here, as it seems the Bird of Prey is flying towards you, with its wings adjusting as you open. The delicate layers of detail in the background bridge make the whole scene seem very real too.

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.