Multi Vector Assault Mode in STO

The Star Trek Online Cryptic Store has been updated with the addition of a multi vector assault mode enabled Prometheus class:

New Mondo print.

Mondo Prints have released (and sold out all but instantly) their latest Star Trek poster, this time based on The City on the Edge of Forever:

Prose updates

More news on the books front.

The second Romulan War book appears to have been renamed (the listing on Simon and Schuster's website has been updated); instead of In Shariel's Jaws it will now be titled To Brave the Storm. The Simon and Schuster online catalogue also briefly had a stand-in cover for it, though oddly had put it on the page for the reprint of the first book in the series.

The Simon and Schuster website has also updated the listing for the fourth Starfleet Academy book, which will be titled The Assassination Game, with the author changing from Rick Barba to Alan Gratz.

Looking further ahead in the Trek schedule, according to reports on the TrekBBS David Mack has posted on his facebook page that his next Vanguard novel will be titled Storming Heaven and that he has been contracted to write a TNG trilogy too! David R. George III has also announced on his facebook page that he is set to write two more Star Trek novels as well.

Finally Unreality SF has posted another in depth interview, with Jens Deffner talking to Dayton Ward this time. The article talks at length about the recent Typhon Pact novel Paths of Disharmony, and also previews some forthcoming titles from the author. On the Vanguard anthology Declassified he described his story Almost Tomorrow as an opportunity for him to:

...flesh out a few bits of backstory for some of the series’ characters, and show you the motivations and circumstances that put them where they are when we’re introduced to them in the first Vanguard novel. Savvy readers who’ve been following the stories Kevin and I have written for other Star Trek projects over the years also will recognise elements from one of our earliest works, which fate has now conspired to let us revisit as a very natural outgrowth of the Vanguard series.

He also gave a summary of the other stories in the anthology:

Hard News, is set just a week or so after the events of the third novel, Reap the Whirlwind. It’s a first-person story, told from Tim Pennington’s point of view, with our redeemed journalist on the hunt for a hot new story. Both Marco Palmieri’s and David Mack’s stories, The Ruins of Noble Men and The Stars Look Down, are set after Precipice. Marco’s story focuses on Diego Reyes, and Dave gives us another thrilling adventure with Cervantes Quinn.

And gave us a small glimpse of what to expect in the next Vanguard novel, What Judgements Come:

the “novel will pick up the action at a point after Marco and Dave’s Declassified novellas, which are both set after Precipice”, and that the “the story will unfold in parallel to the events as chronicled in the original Star Trek’s third season. One episode in particular, which just happens to feature as antagonists a certain crystalline alien race around which Vanguard has been revolving since the beginning, will play at least some role in the events of the book."

As ever the article explores all these subjects and much more is greater detail, so go check it out on Unreality SF.

New DVD and bluray collections

A couple of new DVD and bluray releases found on Amazon:

In the UK, May will see the release of a new complete TOS Bluray or DVD collection; featuring a single case with three fold-out holders, one for each season. Got to be the most shelf-friendly release of the series yet.

The US meanwhile gets the "franchise collection", DVD or bluray movie double packs coming in March. The first, includes The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home (if you for some reason dislike Search For Spock enough not to buy the trilogy set already out). And the second, for which there is so far not any box-art, will contain the odd combination of The Undiscovered Country and First Contact!

Once Burned (in Germany)

Cross Cult have released their latest new New Frontier artwork, this time for Once Burned:

Infinite Space news

IGN has posted an interview about the forthcoming browser game Infinite Space. Other than refreshing us on the basics (DS9 setting, played through a browser plug-in, out this year, free to play but with options to purchase extra features, etc) the article sheds some light on what the game will be like: All missions will available to play either as a single player or with friends. The game will feature both space-based missions, including exploration, and third person settings on starbases and in ships. There will be a significant element of developing your crew to properly maintain your ships systems. There will be missions for both Federation and Klingon factions, with some element of player vs player also planned.

The article also included some images from the game, here is a sampling:

 

 

GameForge has also recently releases a sample of the music to be used in the game:

Newslets

A mixed bag of little things:

Round 2 Models have announced they will not be going ahead with their planned model kit based on the new movie USS Enterprise.

The Star Trek Magazine will hence forth be available world-wide, rather than just the UK, Austrailia, New Zealand, USA and Canada.

And coming soon, you'll be able to hop straight out of the shower and into Starfleet uniform, with new Star Trek dressing gowns on the way, available modelled after Kirk and Spock's uniforms...

Comics update

Star Trek: Infestation #2 was out last week, and if you haven’t got it yet, startrek.com has a five-page-preview up, including this amazing cover:

Got to be one of IDW's best ever; can we have the Attack of the Killer-Tribbles comic to go with it?

With that issue out the Star Trek and Transformers parts of the event are over, with G.I. Joe and Ghost Busters to go before the concluding issue. And here is David Messina's cover for that issue:

You can see it before colouring too, on his blog.

Finally IDW's May solicitations are out, and once again there are no new Star Trek comics listed. They are re-releasing their Khan cuddly toy though...

Prose updates

Bunch of (exciting) book updates from the last couple of weeks:

Christopher L. Bennett has confirmed the DTI: Watching the Clock cover is in fact the final design. There had originally been consideration for including illustrations of the characters on it as well, but it was ultimately decided not to overcomplicate things. There is also this new blurb for the book on the Simon and Schuster website:

There's likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it's up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.

That's where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation's unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet's finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.

The Simon and Schuster website also now has an excerpt from the recently released Starfleet Academy book, The Edge. You can read it, here.

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has a cover and blurb up for the next New Frontier book, Blind Man's Bluff:

Captain MacKenzie Calhoun has faced incredible odds before, but nothing he has ever experienced could prepare him for the simultaneous threats from two of the most destructive forces he’s ever encountered. The first is the D’myurj—a mysterious and powerful alien race bent on either the complete domination of humanity or its destruction... a potentially massive risk to the very foundations of Starfleet, one that goes so deep it’s impossible to determine whom to trust. The second is even more alarming: Morgan Primus, once a living creature with a soul and a conscience, now an incredibly sophisticated computer simulation taking up residence within the very core of the U.S.S. Excalibur... and quickly becoming a growing menace for the Federation. MacKenzie Calhoun is playing a dangerous game as he attempts to outwit and outmaneuver these new enemies, with the fate of the Excalibur crew members and potentially the lives of billions at stake...

Dayton Ward and David Mack have both posted details for the Vanguard anthology Declassified. The following will be the contents:

• “Almost Tomorrow”, by Dayton Ward - Set before the first Vanguard novel, Harbinger, and the Corps of Engineers novella Distant Early Warning.
• “Hard News”, by Kevin Dilmore - Set just after the third novel, Reap the Whirlwind.
• “The Ruins of Noble Men”, by Marco Palmieri - Set after the fifth novel, Precipice, but telling a dual story through the use of flashbacks.
• “The Stars Look Down”, by David Mack - Set after Precipice.

And this is Doug Drexler's glorious cover:

Dayton Ward has also revealed the title for the next Vanguard novel will be titled What Judgments Come. (Disappointingly not The Taurus Key: A Crystalline Fairy Tale, Founded Upon The Mysteries of the Shedai and the Oppression of Their Servants. It Was Written for Kollotuul, But Others Should Read It.) And has been brought forward from December to the end of September (which probably makes it the October book).

And finally Cross Cult have been busy again, with new covers for their editions of New Frontier: The Quiet Place, and Enterprise: Kobayashi Maru:

 

Online updates

The latest from Star Trek Online

Blurbs are now up for most episodes of the latest feature episode series, Cloaked Intensions. New ones:

#2: Mine Enemy

The crew investigate claims of illegal weapon use on Hfihar only to uncover evidence of greater atrocities.

#3: Frozen

A tricky political situation must be resolved with quick thinking and a deal that could backfire.

#4: Coliseum

Trapped on an alien world, the captain is forced to fight in order to survive.

You can also see a trailer for the series, on startrek.com.

Elsewhere in the world of Online, Cryptic have released several "spotlight missions", made by players of the game in the new Foundry mission creator:

The Longing

A Federation colony is caught in the crossfire when, in their quest for perfection, the Borg come after a rather unique lifeform on the planet.

Crouching Ty’Gokor Hidden Demon

The High Council has ordered you to investigate Ty'Gokor, one of the most heavily fortified installations in the Klingon Empire. Strange energy readings have been reported and must be investigated at once.

The Syndicate Extraction

An operative with information about the Orion Syndicate needs to be extracted from a deep cover operation. Starfleet would like you to perform this task.

Unholy Alliances, Part I

A contact on Drozana Station has some disturbing information. A cadre of mercenaries, smugglers and pirates are selling crewmen as slave labor from several vessels they raided on the frontlines of the Klingon/Federation War.

And finally, more in the Cryptic store: new ships; Delta Flyer, and the always beautiful Vulcan D'kyr class:

 

New open neck uniforms:

And new melee weapons; the Seleya ceremonial lirpa and Kri'stak blade, a type of bat'leth: