Trek-lit editor Margaret Clark details latest books

Whenever Margaret Clark joins one of the Star Trek books podcasts we can be sure of hearing plenty of new news about forthcoming titles, and be certain to have an entertaining listen thanks to her joyful and playful character. So when I noticed Visionary Trek's latest episode of The Captain Table had her on as a guest I clicked over to listen straight away! As ever, I was not disappointed! Clark discussed all kinds of Trek books stuff (and a bit of TV too) including new titles and details of several forthcoming books. Continue below for a few highlights, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for a whole lot more!

Coming in the last three months of this year is John Jackson Miller's new trilogy, Prey, which has been previously announced as a TNG book featuring the Klingons. Well now Clark tells us there's much more to it, as Prey is the next big 24th century crossover:

We have the Titan being recalled from their mission, we have the Enterprise-E, there's some involvement with some Deep Space Nine characters. So it is a Star Trek: All series; if you can do a three book series, you should be able to take out all the pieces, including the sharp knives, and play with them all.

Since it is the fiftieth anniversary, Captain Kirk makes a guest starring appearance in one of the books.

More details of the Battle of Wolf 359 ships revealed

A couple of months ago Star Trek production artist Rick Sternbach shared a few photos of the rarely seen miniatures of the ships seen wrecked following the Battle of Wolf 359 in TNG's The Best of Both Worlds. These ships are barely more than blobs in the episode, and better yet these photos show them before they were distressed with battle damaged, letting us scrutinise the unique designs like never before. And now Rick has posted even more! Continue below to have another good look at those little known ships.

Perhaps the most interesting thing revealed in these latest photos is the underside of the Springfield class USS Chekov. I can't say I love this ship from the top, but from the bottom it's pretty cool, and pleasingly reminiscent of the Oberth class.

First tease of new Star Trek: Ascendancy game

At the recent New York Toy Fair Gale Force Nine finally had a preview of their forthcoming Star Trek board game, which will be titled Star Trek: Ascendancy. Board Game Geek shared the photo to the side, of a banner that was on display.

Gale Force Nine tell me they will be ready to share much more information some time in the next few weeks. For now we can get a good feel for the game already though, from this new artwork, and an interview Board Game Geek took at their own convention late last year. The game will be expandable, and feature a big map building system, and little model ships.

The starting pack appears to include the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans, with other Star Trek species/governments will be released as expansion packs - The Ferengi and Cardassians appear on the artwork.

You can hear a few more details in the interview video below:

First tiny hints about the new Star Trek TV series

A few days ago TOS movie era writer and director Nicholas Meyer was announced as having joined the new Star Trek TV series as a writer and producer. Den of Geek have now posted an interview with him, giving the first tiny hints at the influences on the new Star Trek series, with perhaps the most interesting note that The Undiscovered Country (the best TOS movie, sorry Khan fans) has been picked out as particularly influential:

The one thing I can relate to you is that The Undiscovered Country—according to Bryan [Fuller]—is a real sort of taking off point, or touchstone for how I guess he’s thinking about the direction of the new show. I don’t want to be misquoted and I don’t want to misquote him, but he’s fond of that film. Let’s put it that way.

That answer came off of being asked about the politics of Trek, in reference to both The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country. So while there are many different things you could take a direction from The Undiscovered Country, I certainly wouldn't mind a sharp commentary on the current state of global politics (or environmental issues for that matter).

Meyer was also clear to point out this will be a new sort of Star Trek:

Trek Talks details announced

A little while ago CBS announced many of their 50th anniversary events, including what sounds like one of the highlights of the year to me, the Trek Talks program. Now StarTrek.com have announced more details.

With a nod to TED Talks, Trek Talks will delivery a wide range of lectures, presented by academics, experts, or influentials, discussing a myriad of subjects Star Trek has commented on and inspired, to bring together the fictional universe with real world science, culture, technology and social commentary. The talks will run for a year, starting from this July.

Much as I love pretty starships and the like, what makes Star Trek matter is its philosophies and inspiration commentary on just about every aspect of our society. So I'm really glad CBS want to dig deep into the wealth of ideas as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations.

The talks will be supported by CBS in terms of providing imagery and footage, but for the most part will be arranged by which ever organisations wish to host them, with CBS angling for educational, entertainment, science, and other venues to take part. CBS have pre-approved a wide range of themes, but are also open to venues coming up with their own take on a Trek Talk. Those suggested are:

Nicholas Meyer joins the new Star Trek TV series writing team

Were you happy when just a couple of weeks ago we learnt that Star Trek alumni and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller had signed up as the showrunner of the new Star Trek TV series? Well be happy some more, as it seems he has also signed up no less than Nicholas Meyer as  a writer and consulting producer for the series.

Meyer is one of the biggest names in Star Trek production history, having essentially relaunched the series, along with writer/producer Harve Bennett, when he directed The Wrath of Khan (which uncredited he largely rewrote too). He later wrote both The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country, the latter he directed too. So basically he made all the good TOS movies!

Bryan Fuller had this to say in a statement posted by StarTrek.com:

Nicholas Meyer chased Kirk and Khan 'round the Mutara Nebula and 'round Genesis' flames, he saved the whales with the Enterprise and its crew, and waged war and peace between Klingons and the Federation. We are thrilled to announce that one of Star Trek's greatest storytellers will be boldly returning as Nicholas Meyer beams aboard the new Trek writing staff.

First TOS books of the year out now

It's a double prose week, with the latest novel and ebook novella both out now, sharing the spotlight as the first TOS adventures of the 50th anniversary year.

The new novel is James Swallow's The Latter Fire, which is a five-year-mission Prime Directive conundrum, as the blurb describes:

The five-year mission of the Starship Enterprise has brought the vessel and her crew to the forefront of an important first contact situation. Under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, the ship is heading to the planet Syhaar Prime in the Beta Quadrant—the home world of an alien civilization preparing to take its first steps on to the galactic stage. One year earlier, the Enterprise came across a badly damaged Syhaari explorer vessel drifting in deep space. In collaboration with the explorer’s captain, Kirk and his crew were able to restore the ship to full function and send it on its way. And now, as the Syhaari display rapid technological advances made over the past year, hard questions must be asked. Did the Enterprise crew leak advanced technology or information to the Syhaari during their first encounter, in total violation of the Prime Directive?

Purchase: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp. 

Thanks to Amazon's snazzy new embeddable previews, you can read chapter one right here too!

Roddenberry Vault: Week 7 - Story ideas and scripts

Throughout 2016 the Roddenberry Facebook page will be posting artefacts from their archives, including behind the scenes documents, production artwork, and photos. Dubbed the Roddenberry Vault, there will be new posts every day, some times multiples. To make sure you don't miss any of these insightful glimpses into the production of Star Trek, I will be posting weekly summaries.

In the seventh week's worth of posts we got an in depth look at the development of stories, with notes on unmade episodes, various documents charting the evolution of stories, and complete scripts. Continue below for details of all the week's posts.

Day forty-three kicked off the week with a script, specifically Majel Barrett's copy of Journey to Babel. As with almost all the posts from this week, the Facebook post was just a sample, with the full length pdf documents hosted on the Roddenberry website.

Day forty-four gave us pages of notes by Gene Roddenberry on the first draft of Court Martial, or Court Martial on Star Base 811 as it appears to have been known at the time. Again the full document is hosted by Roddenberry, including the rather brilliant following passages, which give a wonderful bit of futurist speculation on computer technology:

Day forty-five is another script, this time for The Way to Eden, what makes this a bit more insightful into the entire production process is the inclusion of a special effects shot list for the episode too. Once more, the entire document is hosted by Roddenberry.

Reunion, Part 2 preview

Out this week is issue fifty-four of IDW's nuTrek ongoing comic series, which is the second half of the two-art Orion-focused story, Reunion.

The issues comes from the regular ongoing pairing of writer Mike Johnso and artist Tony Shasteen, with the main cover also from Shasteen. The subscription cover is by Derek Charm, and is part of IDW's Valentine's card themed covers across various titles this month (although you better get your Orion pheromones pumping to distract your love from the fact this is a wee bit late for Valentine's Day!). Continue below for a five page preview from the issue.

First look at Wizkids' Star Trek: Frontiers and new Borg Cube

At last week's Toy Fair Wizkids had a variety of their Star Trek games on display, including the first look at their new Star Trek: Frontiers game, and their new big Borg Cube model. Continue below to check them out.

Star Trek: Frontiers, a new game designed by Andrew Parks based on the Venture Tile System from the game Mage Knight, was announced last year, but there has been little news on it, unitl now! On display was the box, and the game setup for play.