More Beautiful Than Death cover, and other Star Trek book updates

Lots of Star Trek novel updates today, including excerpts and author comments, and new audiobook and back covers for TOS, Kelvin, Voyager, and Discovery books. But first, a brand new cover reveal.

Coming in  August is the second in the new Kelvin timeline novels, David Mack's More Beautiful Than Death. The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has revealed the new cover, which follows a similar style to the previous Kelvin novel, The Unsettling Stars, but this time in a more colourful red/orange monotone:

The Year of Hell that could have been an actual year of Voyager

Star Trek writer Bryan Fuller has shed some light on what could have been an actual year long version of the classic Voyager two-parter Year of Hell (the one where Voyager gets blown to bits while dealing with the time altering hyjinx of the Krenim), while talking Trek on the Inglorious Treksperts podcast.

While thinking back on the production of the whole series, he highlighted Year of Hell as a lost opportunity to take Voyager down a very different, and much more serialised, path:

The Year of Hell and the behind the scenes drama around trying to craft no only that episode, but that season, was fascinating because we wanted Year of Hell to last the entire season. We wanted to see Voyager get its ass kicked every episode, and through that season was going to be marbled the story of Annorax and the time ship that was changing things. So we would go back to it every once in a while to remind the audience that's the larger story.

Splash the rainbow across the final frontier with new Star Trek Pride merchandise

The Star Trek Shop have revealed their annual range of Star Trek themed Pride merchandise, which this year is pretty ginormous! Pride flag themed designs inspired by TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and Discovery have found there way to all manner of products. Continue below to check them out:

Naturally, as a starship lover, the Ships of the Line design jumps out to me. This features the six hero ships of almost all the live action TV series (sorry La Sirena), in rainbow hues. It is available as a tote bag, a cheerful wrap-around print on a mug, or of course as a T-shirt:

Rare Galoob TNG action figure prototypes up for auction

Two super rare Galoob TNG action figure prototypes, Wesley Crusher, and a Romulan, are currently up for auction on Ebay. These figures would have been part of a second wave of TNG figures from Galoob's first range of TNG toys; but alas the line was cancelled before they ever entered production. These prototypes are hand-painted resin figures, on a single-sided card-back. They would have been used for promotional and sales purposes before final figures went into production. Just a handful of each of these prototypes exist. Continue below for a rare chance to get a really good look at these lost toys:

Picard behind the scenes: Cinematography, visual effects, and storyboards

I've gathered some of the latest behind the scenes insights from the nitty gritty production side of Picard today, including a look at the cinematography, visual effects, and storyboards. Continue below for a look at how the series was brought to life:

First up is this amazing video shared on Facebook by cinematographer Carlos Gonzalez, showing how a remarkable tracking crane and gimbal setup was used to capture that long meandering shot around La Sirena at the end of the series. What an incredible camera move!

The Voyage Home storyboards

PropStore currently have a whole load of original storyboard artwork from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home up for sale. The artwork, by Nilo Rodis-Jamero and Ralph McQuarrie, includes many scenes featuring the Klingon Bird of Prey, the time warp sequence, the probe, and of course the whales! Continue below to check them out; there's some really beautiful imagery among them.

The sequences I found most striking are those showing the probe coming and going from Earth. The stark geometric shape of the probe, coupled with the directional instructions of the storyboards give them a really beautiful simplicity.

Take your feet on an away mission, with new Star Trek character socks

You can turn your toes in a landing party with a new range of TOS and TNG character socks which are set to arrive in June. If you're some kind of monster, you could mix and match non-matching pair of characters between your feet to come up an ideal away team for any mission; even a crossover team-up if you wanted!

The assortment includes a three pack of TNG characters, which includes Captain Picard, Worf, and Geordi La Forge:

Official Star Trek face masks have arrived, and they're Feeding America

The Star Trek Shop has revealed the first of the inevitable line of official Star Trek licenses face-masks. The reusable, washable, polyester masks are available in four different Star Trek designs, inspired by TOS and Picard. In a move that would surely make Picard proud, ViacomCBS are donating all the profits from the sale of these new releases to Feeding America's COVID-19 Response, which includes supporting food banks and other schemes to make sure Americans struggling in these difficult times don't go hungry.

The Picard designs are revealing some new artwork, and my favourite is the fun turn-your-face-into-a-Borg-Cube look:

Star Trek comics updates: IDW releases resume from June

IDW have released their latest solicitations, for August release, with just one new Star Trek title on the cards. Meanwhile regular releases are set to resume from June (following the recent Covid induced pause), with rescheduling of already announced titles filling up the schedules towards the end of the year already. Continue below for an update on all IDW's Star Trek series.

So first up, let's check out the newly announced book. The final issue in the latest DS9 miniseries, Too Long a Sacrifice has officially been announced. Issue four continues with the same creative team of writers Scott and David Tipton, and artist Greg Scott. Here's the blurb:

Everyone is a suspect on a space station one murder away from plunging into total chaos. Constable Odo has a suspect in his sights, but there's one final piece to this dark puzzle that will change everything he thought he knew-not to mention life on Deep Space Nine-forever. Don't miss the shocking conclusion to this space noir from David & Scott Tipton (Star Trek: Mirror Broken, Star Trek: The Q Conflict) and Greg Scott (Gotham Central, The X-Files)!

The book will be available in three covers, either the A cover by Ricardo Drumond, a B photo cover, or a retail incentive by J.K Woodward. So far only the photo cover has been released.

Eaglemoss to publish lost Gold Key comic, as the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection gets an extension to 140 issues

Eaglemoss' Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection has been granted it's second extension, pushing the comic collection up to 140 issues, and giving it a chance to come ever closer to completing the mission of reprinting every Star Trek comic from the long and varied publishing history of the franchise. The latest announced issues include some real obscure treats, including many comics that have never been reprinted since their original publication, and in one very special case, a comic that has never before been published at all: The cancelled Gold Key #62!

Series editor Rich Handley announced the news on the Star Trek COMICS : Across Generations Facebook group, and gave details of the first few books in the extended run, up to issue 124. Continue below for the details of each issue (working backwards from 124, which is due in August):

#124: Splashdown

• Marvel Voyager miniseries Splashdown
• Written by Laurie Sutton, with art by Terry Pallot and Al Milgrom.
• A four-part underwater adventure notable as the only time we see the aeroshuttle in action. 
• Gold Key #62: Trial By Fire
• Written by John Warner, with art by Frank Bolle.
• A cancelled issue brought to print thanks to Mark Martinez of The Star Trek Comics Checklist. 

Here's how Handley summarises that bonus story:

As a special bonus, this volume will present the unpublished 62nd issue of Gold Key Comics' Star Trek run. Writer John Warner had turned in a script for this issue, titled "Trial By Fire," but it remained in limbo for decades once Gold Key parent company Western Publishing dropped the Star Trek license. Scans of Warner's script, and of nineteen lightly penciled pages from artist Frank Bolle, have been shared informally among collectors, but thanks to Star Trek comics expert Mark Martinez, Eaglemoss has gained access to the actual script and original art pages for high-quality reproduction purposes. At last, this lost Gold Key tale is being presented to fans in an official capacity.