Timetable for TNG bluray, and maybe more series later?

StarTrek.com have posted an interview with CBS's Ken Ross, who discusses the incredible amount of work that is going into the TNG remastering project:

It was and continues to be an enormous project that will take several years to complete. From a manpower perspective, we have more than 20 people working on this project full time in three shifts 24 hours a day. It’s a huge commitment to transfer all seven seasons to high definition.

CBS are aiming to release about two sets a year, starting with season one late summer or early autumn this year. Which means the whole series should be done by 2015. There will also be new extra features coming with the releases.

Beyond TNG Ross had this to say:

Our focus right now is on TNG, but we will certainly consider all of the other Star Trek series.

Yay for maybe DS9 and Voyager in HD! But I hope that doesn't mean we have to wait until after 2015 for Enterprise, which needs no converting!

Star Trek Tactics' Klingons

Wizkids have released their latest preview for the next HeroClix Star Trek game, Tactics, which is out this week! This time we get a look at two Klingon ships, although one of them has been borrowed by Admiral Kirk:

 

Next Typhon Pact novel by Una McCormack

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with a new listing for another Typhon Pact novel: Brinkmanship, by Una McCormack. It's due out in September (or in other words is the October book). Which in turn means David Mack's TNG trilogy presumably won't be starting until at least November.

McCormack's previous Trek works include Cardassia: The Lotus Flower (in the Worlds of DS9 series), Hollow Men, and the brilliant, The Never-Ending Sacrifice. So Cardassian-centric Typhon Pact novel maybe?

Undiscovered Country expanded soundtrack on the way

According to Trekweb, Intrada will be continuing their role in the Star Trek expanded soundtrack series (hot on the heals of their recently released soundtrack from The Voyager Home), with the forthcoming release of an expanded version of the soundtrack from The Undiscovered Country. Featuring the complete score, alternate cues, and music composed for the trailer, the two disc set is due out in February or March.

An expanded Generations soundtrack is apparently also in the works.

£5 off with TNG: The Next Level

My copy of the TNG HD sample disc, The Next Level, arrived this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised to find inside a leaflet advertising the season one box set, and on the reverse, a slip that can be posted off to get a five pound refund when I purchase the season one set later in the year. At Amazon.co.uk's price for The Next Level, that effectively makes the sample disc just £1.99. Are there similar offers around the world?

The Next Level also comes in a slipcase; despite my general aversion to excessive packaging I find it wholly satisfying when books and DVDs come in slipcases.

As expected TNG in HD looks simply amazing, gone is that horrible pink tint, and the effects are stunning. There are bumps too though, while you can pick up lots of nice extra details, it's also seems more obvious when there are mistakes in the set dressing, and some of the wobbly steadycam work seems even more pronounced. The few seconds of upscaled footage in Sins of the Father are also alarming obvious; it does at least serve to demonstrate how impressive the new transfer is. I still feels very much a product of its time, and I've always found TNG seems to have aged the worst of the Trek series; this renewed version goes a long way to fixing that. While the cinematography and editing still feels dated in places (especially in Encounter at Farpoint) the picture quality is outstanding, and allows the detail and attention to the design of the series to really shine; I feel confident TNG will no longer feel like the ugly duckling of the franchise.

New Aventine pic, plus Voyager update

In celebration of the USS Aventine's third birthday Mark Rademaker has created a new render of his design for the ship, doing battle battle with the Borg:

See Mark's original blog post for some facts about the design. Mark also posted on twitter his latest preview of his work on the Voyager refit, including adding in the second shuttlebay. Spot the differences:

Another Star Trek HeroClix game on the way

ICv2 reports that Wizkids are planning another Star Trek HeroClix game, based on the new movie timeline. Star Trek HeroClix: Away Team will include seven herolix based figures, including Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu making up the rest?), and is expected to be released in July.

Meanwhile Star Trek Tactics is out next month, and Wizkids have done another preview, this time with two ships from The Undiscovered Country:

 

Specs for Star Trek Online's new flagships

The Star Trek Online dev blog has been updated with posts giving specs for the new Federation flagship, the Odyssey class USS Enterprise-F, and the Klingon's new Bortas class.

The pinnacle of Federation starship design, the Odyssey Star Cruiser will carry the Federation into a new generation of exploration.

In honor of this monumental technological achievement, Starfleet Command has authorized the construction of a new flagship. This vessel, the U.S.S. Enterprise-F, will embolden its crew to embrace the principles of exploration and cooperation that are the hallmarks of the Federation. In the Odyssey class, crews will explore strange new worlds, seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations and boldly go where no ship has gone before.

The Odyssey class is the largest vessel ever created by Starfleet. Its massive size makes it very resilient, but its turn rate is reduced by the bulk of the vessel. The Odyssey's unique split saucer pylon reduces subspace wake at higher warp speeds. The Odyssey is designed as an extreme long-range vessel, and can operate for long periods of time away from support. Because of this, it is the most versatile cruiser ever developed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and features Universal Ensign and Lieutenant Commander Bridge Offer Stations that can by operated by any Bridge Officer class.

Not content to rest on their laurels, the KDF engineering teams at the Ty'Gokor Fleet Yards have been hard at work advancing Klingon ship design into the 25th century. When Chancellor J'mpok demanded a new, more powerful flagship to lead the Empire, they were ready with the Bortas, a ship that will bring swift vengeance to enemies of the Empire.

The Bortas Battle Cruiser is the largest, most powerful battle cruiser in the Klingon arsenal. Its massive hull affords it incredible resilience in battle, but it sacrifices turn rate for that size. The Bortas is designed to take on any foe no matter how powerful, and because of that is designed with versatility in mind. It features Universal Ensign and Lieutenant Commander Bridge Officer Stations that can be operated by any Bridge Officer class.

STO's ship designer also posted more pictures of the Bortas, on twitter:

The Okuda's on TNG remastered

TrekMovie have posted a two part interview with Mike and Denise Okuda about the TNG remastering project; here are a few bits that caught my attention, about making tweaks while putting together the episodes again:

One thing we are trying to be cognizant of is that people who buy the show, know the show really well. We want them to get the show that they fell in love with and not say "wow, these guys were really clever." We want them to say "the original designers were clever." We want to highlight their work.

...very occasionally there will be some minor tweaks. An example of that is in The Next Level, there is a shot where Picard orders the phasers to be fired at a low level to bathe the wounded space creature to bring it back to life. In the original version the phasers incorrectly came from the Captain’s Yacht. Having worked at Paramount at the time, the original ship’s designer Andrew Probert was very disappointed because that wasn’t where the phasers were supposed to come from. So we thought "let’s make Andy happy."

Refering to an effects shot that was recreated in Sins of the Father:

Virtually all the ship shots are the original film elements. Occasionally a film element won’t be found or will be unusable for whatever technical reason. In that particular case, that was not a CG Enterprise, that was actually a new matte painting. However, they do have a digital Enterprise, because we know it will be needed at some point.

On details revealed in Okudagrams that wouldn't have been visible in SD previously:

For the most part we are going to leave those as they are, as they are not particularly noticeable if you don’t go looking for them. There will be a few places where if we think they are going to be distracting, that is if you watch the show and go "oh, there is Gene’ Roddenberry’s name!" Those kind of things we will look more closely at them and undoubtedly change some of them.

You can read the full interview, here, and here. Screencaps from TrekCore.

Final Cross Cult Double Helix cover

Cross Cult seem to be keen to show off their new covers again, with a second one revealed this week, this time for the last book in the Double Helix series, The First Virtue, aka Doppelhelix: Die Oberste Tugend: