Star Trek Online introduces Section 31 Command Heavy Battlecruiser

Star Trek Online have unveiled a new ship coming soon to the game; Discovery's four nacelled Section 31 drone carrier, otherwise now known as the Section 31 Command Heavy Battlecruiser. Here's how they describe it:

When it comes to top secret organizations, few things are as they appear, and the Section 31 Command Heavy Battlecruiser is a master of deceptive appearances – provided your sensors will even pick it up. Its powerful stealth capabilities are backed by a giant swarm of fighters to overwhelm any foes it encounters, and its infiltration capabilities are unmatched.

Here's a cool animation of the drone swarm in action, which also gives us an interesting look at the structure of the ship:

Mego reveals their TNG action figures

After several waves of TOS characters, Mego are now branching out to The Next Generation, with their eighth wave of revival action figure releases including two TNG characters; Captain Picard, and Data. According to Entertainment Earth, who have them up for pre-order, these could be here as soon as next month. At the recent New York Toy Fair Mego gave us their first look at these new figures, and thanks to Mego Museum, we can see them too:

Picard 1x07 Nepenthe trailer, and The Impossible Box support shows

CBS have released a trailer for the seventh episode of Picard, Nepenthe, which promises to give us plenty of exciting Borg Cube action, and the return of Riker and Troi. Here's the blurb:

Picard and Soji transport to the planet Nepenthe, home to some old and trusted friends. As the rest of the La Sirena crew attempt to join them, Picard helps Soji make sense of her recently unlocked memories. Meanwhile, Hugh and Elnor are left on the Borg cube and must face an angered Narissa.

Check out the trailer (via Nación Trek's upload here, or on StarTrek.com):



As ever, there's also a clip from the next episode in this week's edition of The Ready Room. The show otherwise features interviews with Jeri Ryan and Rod Roddenberry, and a couple of featurettes on the Borg (check it out here, or on StarTrek.com, Facebook, or Instagram):

Picard behind the scenes: Lots of Romulans, Mr Vup, Chabon musings, and much more

Here's a round up of the latest Picard behind the scenes bits and pieces shared by the cast and crew recently. Including loads of different Romulans, a closer look at Mr Vup and Bjayzl, a couple of unfortunately battered characters, musings of Mr Michael Chabon on that and other subjects, and more! Continue below to check out:

My favourite Romulan is perhaps the most obscure of this batch, one of the Q’wat Milat nuns, seen here shared by hair stylist Maria Sandoval, who made this character's wig:

Fourth Castle planning Star Trek army-men, squishy starships, and more!

Fourth Castle, a company that under several different brands makes all manner of toys and novelty items, have revealed a wide range of new Star Trek toys and accessories at the recent New York Toy Fair - Including Star Trek army-men type figurines, squishy stress-ball like toys, and more. Continue below to see what they're planning.

One of Fourth Castle's brands is EMCE Toys (a name you might recognise as the producers of DST's Mego revival line a few years ago; an effort now handed back to the revived-itself-Mego), and they have several brands themselves. One of those is Nanoforce, a twist on the classic army-men type figurines, but using licensed characters. Star Trek is set to join this range, with several different series to be represented in forthcoming releases.

At Toy Fair they had, as reported by TrekCore on Twitter, 3D printed prototypes of their first TOS collection. This initial release will include twelve two-inch figurines, of most of the main TOS characters, plus six classic aliens. The set will also include a four-inch model of the USS Enterprise, and two-inch models of a tricorder and phaser (the latter two items were not previewed yet). Check them out, via images from TrekCore and Figures.com:

Picard: The Impossible Box stills

CBS have released a load of images from this week's episode of Picard, The Impossible Box. Alas not as much Borg Cube goodness in this batch as you might expect as the two main clusters of characters look to finally intersect this week, but plenty else to look at:

The sort-of-new character introduced in this collection is young Soji (played by Ella McKenzie Gross), who it would seem appears in a flashback - See previous report for a clip featuring her in the latest episode of The Ready Room.

Voyager Fluxx game on the way

Looney Labs have revealed plans for a new Star Trek edition of their Fluxx card game. The game of ever changing rules has been released under many themed variants before, including TOS, TNG, and DS9 versions, so naturally up next is a Voyager version, with all the Delta Quadrant goodness that should entail. This latest edition is expected to arrive late July. Here's how they describe it:

Journey home from the Delta Quadrant aboard the Starship Voyager! The fourth Fluxx-style excursion into the Star Trek universe features Captain Janeway and her crew along with plenty of their enemies: The Kazon, Species 8472, and of course, the Borg. You will also find several Timeships, the Holographic Doctor’s mobile emitter, and Janeway from the Future. The usual ever-changing rules of Fluxx apply, with a few new twists like the Caretaker and Ancestor’s Eve.

Factory Entertainment's latest barware and collectables

At the New York Toy Fair, Factory Entertainment have been showing off their latest Star Trek creations, which as ever for the company span a wide range of product types, including wine bottle stoppers, bottle openers, coasters, collectable props, and toys! Continue below to check out the latest.

Among the most eye-catching pieces on display are the starship wine bottle stoppers. They've previewed the USS Enterprise and Klingon battle cruisers before, although they seem to now have shinier finishes. And joining them in the range is the USS Enterprise-D. TrekCore tweeted an excellent set of photos giving a really close look, including this group shot:

Discovery behind the scenes: ships, Ba'ul, and more

A round up of a few recent Discovery behind the scenes bits and pieces today, including a look at several of the ship models from early in the series, a gooey look at the Ba'ul, and even a little something from season 3. Continue below to check it all out:

VFX artist Hamza Butt has shared some of his work modelling several ships from season one on his website. Butt worked remotely from most of the production, modelling ships in the UK from concept art he was sent. The most obscure of those is the escape pod from the USS Europa, which looked like this at concept:

Red Sea Astrarium Star Trek ride concept art

Remember back in 2011 when they announced that Star Trek would be a key attraction in the planned Red Sea Astrarium resort in Aqaba, Jordan? Well as far as I can tell that never quite got built. But work was still going on for it as late as 2014, when it was reported Bad Robot were working on an innovative 4D film/ride as part of the attraction. Concept artist Bruno Werneck was part of the team working on that, eventually becoming the art director for the project. He has recently shared some work from the ride on his ArtStation portfolio. Continue below to check it out:

Here we have some familiar Starfleet elements, plus a new shuttlecraft that I would imagine to be setting of the ride from what we see in the artwork here: