Discovery behind the scenes: Aliens

Aside from the Klingons, and Saru, Discovery so far hasn't featured a huge number of aliens, but those that have turned up have been a nice mix of updated classics, and new species. Today I'm going to take a look at the alien visitors to set, as shared by the cast and crew, in celebration of the design and prosthetics teams that have brought them to life.

First up, here's a nice image shared by the Discovery Instagram account, with busts of several aliens from the series: Saru, a couple of Klingons (including the helmet), a Tellarite, and a Crepusculan.

New Eaglemoss Discovery ships revealed

Eaglemoss have a booth at the Destination Star Trek Germany convention, and have on display several new items from Star Trek: Discovery - The Official Starships Collection, including a number of subscription bonus releases, and graphics giving us new looks at a number of Discovery ships. Continue below to check them all out.

We have our first look at the Klingon Bird of Prey model, which looks absolutely fantastic! The two images here come via Eaglemoss' Ben Robinson, and Twitter user Verzweigter:

Star Trek 4 finds its director

The new on-screen Star Trek news keeps coming! Variety report Paramount are in the process of signing up S.J. Clarkson to direct the next movie; a notable move in terms of representation behind the scenes, as this will make the next Star Trek movie the first in the franchise to be directed by a woman.

This appears to be Clarkson's first movie, but she has numerous TV credits to her name, spanning a diverse range of series; starting out with episodes of UK series such as Hustle, and Life on Mars; before moving across the pond to work on numerous popular series including Heroes, Ugly Betty, House, Dexter, Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones, and The Defenders. She has also been the sole director of a couple of miniseries; Love Nina, and most recently Collateral.

Variety believe Clarkson will be working on the project announced a couple of years ago, featuring the return of Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk, with a script by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. They also state that the other film currently in development, under the guidance of Quentin Tarantino will likely come after this fourth Kelvin timeline movie, while The Hollywood Reporter believe the Tarantino film will also be set in a separate timeline.

First look at Discovery's USS Enterprise uniforms and sets in new behind the scenes video

CBS have released a new behind the scenes video, giving us our first look at new uniforms, sets, and characters from the second season of Discovery. Continue below to check it out, and for a closer look at all the new stuff!



The Youtube version is geo-locked as ever, so if you wanting to watch from elsewhere, Instagram comes to the rescue, albeit cropped to square.

Two Star Trek movies confirmed in development

After much recent rumour and confusion about what path the next Star Trek movie is taking, Paramount Pictures CEO Jim Gianopulos has cleared things up a little by confirming that there are indeed two Star Trek movies currently in development. Details remain sparse, but The Hollywood Reporter report that he made comments at CinemaCon yesterday noting that Paramount and Skydance were at work on the two films.

Does that mean both will actually get made? Who knows! Or that both will be Kelvin timeline? Also a mystery! Zachary Quinto (Spock) seemed similarly unsure when he remarked on the current possibilities when talking to the Observer recently:

I mean the only thing I can say is there’s a lot of energy around more movies. Which ones are going to happen, which ones might happen first? I can’t really say, I don’t know honestly. I know there are lots of conversations being had about it. I know there are plans afoot to do at least one if not more movies.

I know Paramount, under their new administration, is eager to keep the franchise going. I feel like as soon as we go reconvene and then there’s a script that the studio believes in and a director, whether it’s Quentin or somebody else, that comes up… Hopefully, we’ll move it all forward. I’m pretty sure Quentin is doing his other project, which he wrote, so that might kind of contextualize things in terms of the chronology of how we might make more than one movie, if we make more than one movie.

Discovery ship bits: New views of worker bee, Hoover class, and Klingon Bird of Prey

Starship loving Discovery fans, I've got some nice finds for you today, with new views of several of the ships from the series. Continue below to check them out.

First up, via the portfolio of Discovery visual effects artist Mark Krentz, we have really good look at the delightful Discovery-era worker bee; a very tangible and functional twist on the Star Trek classic:

Book bits: Novel and non-fiction covers and updates

A few bits of Star Trek book news today, including updates on novels, audiobooks and non-fiction titles. Continue below for all.

First up, Voyager novelist Kirsten Beyer recently appeared on TrekFM's Literary Treks podcast to discuss her most recent book, Architects of Infinity. Some time ago it was revealed Beyer was set to write a further Voyager novel, To Lose the Earth, after this book, but of course her new role writing for Discovery has already delayed work on both books. Fortunately Beyer was able to confirm work on To Lose the Earth is still going ahead, and so we should at some point get to continue Voyager's ongoing adventures in the Delta Quadrant; albeit with such a busy schedule, just when that book will come remains a mystery.

Beyer also briefly discussed her role as Discovery's media tie-in coordinator, which of course includes having a hand in the development of James Swallow's forthcoming Discovery novel, Fear Itself. That book is due out in June, and Simon and Schuster have now revealed the audiobook edition cover, which is as usual a somewhat expanded version of the previously released print edition cover:

New Star Trek swimwear from ThinkGeek

Another summer approaching brings us another new wave of releases in ThinkGeek's ongoing range of Star Trek swimwear. This year's releases see new men's versions of the TOS and TNG uniform inspired swimwear release for women in previous years. But first...

Adding to the women's collection, is this gloriously zany 80s/90s print style TNG ships one-piece swimsuit, featuring a cocktail of Starfleet and alien ships from TNG.

2018 Hallmark Keepsake decorations revealed

Hallmark have released their 2018 Dreambook, featuring all their Keepsake Christmas decorations for the year, and among them a pretty generous selection of Star Trek releases. Continue below for all the details of those, and other new Hallmark releases.

Every year Hallmark release a Star Trek ship ornament, and this year we've got two! One of those is of course the USS Discovery, which features light effects.

Latest Eaglemoss Starships Collection previews

Eaglemoss have released their latest round of solicitations, giving us first looks at several new ships in The Official Starships Collection. Plus there's news of a second wave of possible XL ships, and new images of several other models. Continue below to check them out:

First up we have the third issue of the Discovery collection, which, despite previous reports that issue would be the new Klingon Bird of Prey, is in fact, in line with even earlier reports, the Shepard class USS Kerala! It looks like a rather attractive model!