Posters from Cross Cult

Remember a little while ago Cross Cult floated the idea of producing a poster of the cover art from the Crucible trilogy? Well it looks like they're going forward with it, and will even offer it for free to customers who buy a Trek book directly from their online shop. They posted this version on their Facebook page to get some feedback on whether or not to include text, and it seems they're leaning towards not at the moment:

And it also seems they're thinking about doing the same for their Destiny covers. They posted this mock-up, the actual poster would blend the three covers better:

Galor class in STO

The Star Trek Online blog has been updated with details of the Galor class being added to the game. This ship will be available as the highlight of the potential awards available when you open a Cardassian lock box; which are starting to appear in the game. Here's the description of the STO version of this Trek classic:

The broken alliance between the Cardassians and the Dominion was one of the pivotal conflicts of the Dominion War. Faced with the loss of a valuable ally and continued pressure from the allied forces of the Alpha Quadrant, the Founders were forced to retreat to a hostile Cardassia Prime where Damar led a popular revolt that sapped away Dominion soldiers and resources. This rebellion opened the door for the Dominion's ultimate defeat.

Recently unclassified documents reveal that during the rebellion, Damar arranged for a small surplus of Cardassian Galor-class warships to be given to both the Federation and the Klingon Empire to aid in their efforts fighting the Jem'Hadar. With the threat of the Dominion again looming, the Cardassian Detapa Council has finally agreed to release these forgotten vessels for Starfleet and Klingon Defense Force use.

The Galor is a cruiser, but smaller than many other vessels of its type. Its hull is not as strong as other cruisers in its class, but its smaller size makes it fast and maneuverable. It also has some of the best shields of any cruiser. The Galor class employs Spiral Wave Disruptor Arrays. This technology differs from standard disruptors by utilizing phaser technology as well. As such, it has the best properties of both energy types. Spiral Wave Disruptors have a chance to reduce the target's damage resistance and to damage a target's subsystems. They are also more accurate and deliver more damage than standard disruptors.

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #5 preview, plus covers

IDW has posted, on their new tumblr page, all of Phil Jimenez's amazing covers for the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes series, including these newly revealed covers for the last two issues:

 

Meanwhile StarTrek.com has posted a seven-page preview for issue five, which is due next week. You can read that after the jump:

DTI: Forgotten History blurb

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with a blurb for Christopher L. Bennett's second Department of Temporal Investigations novel, Forgotten History:

The agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations are assigned to look into an anomaly that has appeared deep in Federation territory. It’s difficult to get clear readings, but a mysterious inactive vessel lies at the heart of the anomaly, one outfitted with some sort of temporal drive disrupting space-time and subspace. To the agents’ shock, the ship bears a striking resemblance to a Constitution-class starship, and its warp signature matches that of the original Federation starship Enterprise NCC-1701—the ship of James T. Kirk, that infamous bogeyman of temporal investigators, whose record of violations is held up by DTI agents as a cautionary tale for Starfleet recklessness toward history. But the vessel’s hull markings identify it as Timeship Two, belonging to none other than the DTI itself. At first, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur assume the ship is from some other timeline . . . but its quantum signature confirms that it came from their own past, despite the fact that the DTI never possessed such a timeship. While the anomaly is closely monitored, Lucsly and Dulmur must search for answers in the history of Kirk’s Enterprise and its many encounters with time travel—a series of events with direct ties to the origins of the DTI itself. . . .

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Excerpts from new TOS novels

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with excerpts from new and forthcoming TOS novels: The Rings of Time, which just came out, and That Which Divides, which is out next month.

The Rings of Time

June 28, 2020

“Launch minus five minutes . . .”

The space shuttle Renaissance faced the early-morning sky at Cape Canaveral. Its enormous fuel tanks and boosters dwarfed the vessel as it towered over the launch pad. The launch tower pulled away, leaving the shuttle and its booster rockets clear for flight. It was a beautiful morning, the last Colonel Shaun Christopher would see for more than six months. It would be winter the next time he set foot on Earth.

Assuming all goes well, he thought.

Inside the cockpit, Shaun was strapped into his seat, staring up at the nose of the ship. A flight suit and helmet provided meager protection from the titanic forces about to be unleashed. The Atlantic Ocean could be glimpsed out the starboard window. A pair of old-fashioned military dog tags dangled above the lighted instrument panel in front of him. A good-luck charm, the tags had accompanied him into space before.

“Ready to go, Colonel?” the pilot sitting next to him said. Commander Shirin Ludden was among the first of a new breed of shuttle pilots. She seemed shockingly young to Shaun, who was in his early fifties.

“You tell me,” he answered. “I’m just a passenger on this flight.”

Despite their banter, the launch procedure continued on schedule. The sound-and-heat-suppression system fired up far below the cockpit, but Shaun could feel the vibration from all that water where he was sitting. He and Ludden closed the visors on their flight helmets. He took a deep breath of piped-in oxygen. The entire shuttle trembled as the launch engines gradually came online. Shaun felt a familiar excitement growing inside him.

The Renaissance had been intended to be the first in a new fleet of second-generation shuttles, but then the aerospace bubble had gone bust, cratering the economy again and creating entire districts of homeless people in many of the world’s cities. The latest round of budget cuts had left the Renaissance as a one-of-a-kind prototype, kept alive primarily by private investors and international partners who couldn’t afford to build ships on their own. She was an impressive vessel, state-of-the-art. A shame she had to fly alone.

Continue reading the rest of chapter one on Simon and Schuster's website.
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

That Which Divides

As a former science officer and now the captain of a science vessel, Ronald Arens had encountered his share of interesting stellar phenomena. There had been the odd black hole or quasar, stars in the midst of going nova, and the occasional nebula here and there. He even had spent two weeks studying a rogue pulsar. Nothing Arens had seen with his own eyes or read about in reports submitted by those observing even stranger examples of spatial oddities compared to the image now displayed on the main viewscreen of the U.S.S. Huang Zhong’s bridge.

“Okay,” Arens said, rising from his command chair and moving closer to the screen, “I think this qualifies as an impressive welcome to the Kondaii system, especially considering how we nearly blew out our engines trying to get here.” Built for speed, the Huang Zhong, an Archer-class scout ship configured to hold an enhanced suite of sensor arrays and other science-related information-gathering equipment, had proceeded here at maximum speed after its abrupt reassignment from patrol duty. Despite his comment, the dependable little craft had handled with ease the exertion of traveling at high warp for nearly a week. As for why they had been dispatched, the captain had been told that the ship originally assigned to be here, the U.S.S. Lexington, had been deployed elsewhere on a task of greater priority. Though his ship’s science equipment would do in a pinch, Arens knew it could not substitute for a Constitution-class vessel. To that end, the Enterprise was being redirected to the Kondaii system to take on the brunt of the survey and research tasks. Until then, it was the Huang Zhong’s show.

Continue reading the rest of chapter one on Simon and Schuster's website.
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

STO's next feature episode: The 2800

Cryptic have released a trailer for Star Trek Online's next feature episode series, The 2800, which seems to be a sequel to Sacrifice of Angels, with the return of the missing Dominion fleet. Cool:



Enterprise-F designer Adam Ihle has also posted a picture of said starship in spacedock on his twitter feed, also cool:

USS Titan orthographic views

Sean Tourangeau, the designer of the USS Titan, has posted on his Facebook page, orthographic views of the CGI mesh model of the ship by Ellery Connell. These were apparently used to build the real world model of the Titan for Star Trek: The Tour (photos of which you can see in a post from all the way back in 2008!).

Now can someone explain to me why this still has never been in a Ships of the Line calendar!?

UPDATE: Looks like the Titan model has resurfaced as part of Star Trek: The Exhibition. As far as I can tell it wasn't in show until the Exhibition set up in the Kennedy Space Center last summer though. Anyone seen her anywhere else? (Picture from Flickr):

Star Trek (ongoing) #8 cover art

Tim Bradstreet has posted on his Facebook page, his cover art, without the titles, for Star Trek (ongoing) #8, part two of the first original story, The Vendetta Conspiracy:

Warship Voyager in Tactics, and individual ships now on Amazon

Wizkids have released a second Tactics preview this week, to mark the release of the game. This time we have "Warship Voyager", the variation of Voyager recorded in Kyrian history as seen in the episode Living Witness:

Unfortunately, this seems to be a straight reuse of the standard Intrepid class model, so none of the extra weapons emplacements seen in the episode are present here.

As the game is now out there are already Amazon listings springing up for the individual ships. I've made a handy list of all those already up. There should be more to come though, as the previews so far suggest the following missing ships are also part of the initial wave: IKS Gr'oth, Regency One, IKS Maht-H'a, USS Enterprise-E, Warship Voyager (assuming there is a standard Voyager as well), and one of the two versions of the USS Reliant. Also suspiciously absent is the USS Enterprise-D, and as these ships are reusing the Fleet Captains molds, which included a Galaxy class, I would surprised if that didn't turn up too.

Those already up include a USS Montgolfier; has anyone ever heard of this ship? It's Saber class, but doesn't ring a bell to me, and neither Memory Alpha or Memory Beta seem to list it either.

This Month: February 2012

New this month from the Trekverse:

The Rings of Time
This month's novel is a TOS story by Greg Cox, with a time travel plot featuring Colonel Shaun Christopher from the 21st century.

2020 The U.S.S. Lewis and Clark, under the command of Colonel Shaun Christopher, sets off on humanity’s first manned mission to Saturn. But the unexpected presence of a stowaway complicates the mission—as does a startling encounter with an alien probe. But when Colonel Christopher attempts to capture the probe, he suddenly finds himself transported across time and space to a future era of space exploration...

Stardate 7103.4 The U.S.S. Enterprise responds to an urgent distress call from a mining colony orbiting Klondike VI, a ringed gas giant not unlike Saturn. For unknown reasons, the planet’s rings are coming apart, threatening the safety of the colony and its inhabitants. Searching for a way to avert the disaster, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew investigate a mysterious alien probe that has just entered the system. But when the probe is beamed aboard, Kirk abruptly finds himself floating in space above Saturn, wearing an old-fashioned NASA spacesuit, with the Enterprise nowhere in sight...

Two missions. Two crews. And a time-twisting crisis that spans the centuries...

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

Star Trek (ongoing) #6: Operation: Annihilate!, Part 2
The concluding part of the third episode adaption in the Star Trek ongoing series, by Mike Johnson, with art by Joe Corroney.

It's the stunning conclusion of OPERATION: ANNIHILATE! The events of the new timeline unfold in shocking ways as Kirk reunites with his estranged brother to save a colony from extinction. STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci oversees this story that continues the lead-up to the much-anticipated film sequel!

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #5
Chris Roberson brings us the penultimate issue of his Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, with art by Jeffrey and Philip Moy.

In the distant past, one team of Legionnaires and Starfleet officers come face to face with the force that erased both of their timelines from existence, while in the altered 23rd century another team confronts the latter-day version of that same force. But now that they know how history was changed, can anything be done to set things right?

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

Enemy Unseen
The second in IDW's Star Trek Classics series, this reprint of a 2001 WildStorm Comics omnibus, includes the TNG stories Perchance to Dream, Embrace the Wolf, and The Killing Shadows.

In a long and distinguished career, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew have faced uncounted foes and vanquished incredible dangers. But what happens when the ememy can't be easily seen–when it lurks in the shadows, disguises itself as polite society, or emerges from the depths of one's own mind? These are the antagonists with which the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise must contend in this volume, the most dangerous kind of enemy–the enemy unseen. Contains the three stories "Perchance to Dream,” "Embrace the Wolf,” and "The Killing Shadows.”

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp, Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

Expeditions Expansion Set
An expansion of Star Trek Expeditions, Wizkids game's first Star Trek game, designed by Reiner Knizia, and arguably the first original story set after the film in the new timeline. This set includes three extra characters; Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov.

Joining the original crew from the base game Star Trek Expansions, is the charismatic trio of Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov! Featuring their own unique talents and skills to the game that give way to even more avenues of gameplay for you to enjoy! The Expansion Set also allows for you to bring a Fifth Player to the table, increasing the size of your away team by one! Requires Star Trek Expeditions Game to play!

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Entertainment Earth.

Tactics
A new Star Trek game from Wizkids, kicks off with a four ship starter set, and a selection of individual ship boosters.

Star Trek HeroClix: Tactics puts you in command of Federation and Klingon vessels and is 100% compatible with the HeroClix core rules system. Tactics is intended as a standalone game system and will exist outside of the Modern and Golden Age tournament environments. What this mean is Tactics operates by the same rules and Powers and Abilities card that your standard HeroClix game is played with, but is meant to be played as its own game.

Tactics features more than 20 pre-painted ships from both the Federation and Klingon affiliations and will be available for sale in both a 4-Ship starter product and single figure boosters.

Pre-order: Amazon.com (starter set), Amazon.com (booster).

Masterpiece Collection: Kirk and Picard
Titan Merchanidise kick off their Masterpiece Collection series of Star Trek busts this month, with Kirk and Picard.

Titan Merchandise is proud to introduce the high-quality, limited edition Star Trek Masterpiece Collection! This amazingly detailed 8-inch tall maxi-bust painstakingly recreates pop-culture legend William Shatner's iconic performance as Captain James T Kirk. Every detail of Kirk's facial appearance, Starfleet uniform, and accessories is captured in this astonishing three-quarter length sculpt.

Titan Merchandise is proud to introduce the high-quality, limited edition Star Trek Masterpiece Collection! This amazingly detailed 8-inch tall maxi-bust painstakingly recreates Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart's signature performance as Captain Jean Luc Picard. Every detail of Picard's facial appearance, Starfleet uniform, and authoritative demeanor is captured in this astonishing three-quarter length sculpt.

Pre-order (Kirk): Entertainment Earth, Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.
Pre-order (Picard): Entertainment Earth, Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

Enterprise Plush
ThinkGeek's latest innovative Star Trek product, your very own cuddly starship!

James T. Kirk never raised a child, but if he did, that baby would teethe on a type-2 phaser, learn to dive-roll before he could walk, and his teddy bear would be a plush Enterprise. Would you want your child to be anything less?

But who are we kidding... we're pretty sure you know more than one full-sized human who would love to cozy up with this cuddly replica. In fact, there's probably a Klingon in your life who would enjoying sinking their teeth into the hull of this cute reminder of their enduring shame and defeat.

The Star Trek Plush Enterprise was lovingly designed by the Trek nerds at ThinkGeek. Our goal was to create a plush adorable and snuggly enough for wee geeks but with details that would make a manchild or womanchild of any age squee with delight. Our NCC-1701 measures a little over a foot in length with a saucer section width of about six inches. Give the ship a squeeze to fire the photon torpedoes and see the red LEDs light up on the nacelles.

Pre-order: ThinkGeek.

Drinking vessels
Finally, Entertainment Earth have a variety of Star Trek items for drinking coming into stock this month. A nice mug covered in images of the TOS Enterprise, a travel cup also covered in Enterprises, and a set of glasses with TOS characters and phrases.

For a listing of prose, comics, games, music and DVDs in the rest of the year ahead, see the 2012 schedule page.