New book blurbs

TrekBBS user JD found some new blurbs on Amazon, and in subsequent discussion author Dayton Ward provided the final blurb for Vanguard: Open Secrets. Here are those blurbs:

Vanguard: Open Secrets

The Taurus Reach is in turmoil.

With tensions mounting between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, Ambassador Jetanien works frantically on Starbase Vanguard to halt the escalation toward war. Commodore Diego Reyes, the station's former commander, awaits trial for treason, while the shattered mind of his intelligence officer, T'Prynn, becomes the battlefield in a fight for her very life.

But even as matters deteriorate, the discoveries made in the Taurus Reach have attracted one of the Federation's most promising scientific minds: Dr. Carol Marcus believes she is close to solving a puzzle that will transform her life's work. Meanwhile, an unexpected defection brings a new perspective to the investigation, and Vanguard's Lieutenant Ming Xiong is confronted with an artifact that could be the key to decoding the Taurus Meta-Genome.

With Operation: Vanguard teetering between its greatest breakthrough and a conflict that could engulf two quadrants, its future may depend on the man Starfleet has selected to replace Reyes as base commander: Admiral Heihachiro Nogura.

TNG: Losing the Peace

Fortune has smiled on Lieutenant Jasminder Choudhury, chief of security on the USS Enterprise. She has survived. But her homeworld, Deneva, one of the planets targeted in the massive Borg invasion, has not. The entire surface has been wiped clean, killing anyone who was not evacuated in time and rendering the planet uninhabitable. She does not even know whether her family is among the displaced -- or are they gone forever? All across the galaxy similar stories are being repeated. Hundreds of thousands of refugees haunt the spaceways, seeking comfort, looking for some place safe, somewhere, anywhere to find solace. For the first time in generations, citizens of the Federation know want, uncertainty and fear. Bloodied yet unbowed, the Federation stands on the edge of a precipice. As he battles to rescue the displaced and the desperate, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is forced to wonder if those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace.

TOS: Troublesome Minds

First contact becomes an interstellar incident when the Starship Enterprise responds to a distress call from an unknown ship and saves the life of a man left to die by his own people. Berlis, a member of a telepathic species calling themselves the Isitri, claims not to know why those from his homeworld would want him dead. Captain James T. Kirk wants to believe him, but the damage is done: the Enterprise can neither leave the stranger to die nor turn him over to those who would kill him. Berlis seems harmless, but his people say he cannot live among them: his telepathy is so strong that their wills are subsumed to his. The same fear that compels the Isitri to seek the death of one of their own drives the neighbouring Odib people towards genocide. For every time an 'alpha mind' dominates the Isitri, the Odib pay the price in their own blood. With Spock becoming erratic under Berlis's influence, and the Isitri begging Kirk to allow them to destroy the man who threatens their existence, matters take a disastrous turn when Berlis makes his way back to Isitra -- and an entire world falls to his whims.

Star Trek Online: 2385

Cryptic Studios have released the latest entry in their Path to 2409 timeline, which seems to have taken the opportunity to work in recent developments in the Countdown miniseries. In brief:

In part of a Starfleet reassessment of resources the Enterprise is reassigned to exploration missions and undergoes an extensive refit. At the bequest of the federation President Captain Picard resigns from Starfleet to take up an ambassadorial position on Vulcan. Doctor crusher accepts command of the USS Pasteur. Geordi La Forge works with the Soong Foundation to unlock the "Data matrix" in B-4, allowing Data to be restored by asserting his persona over B-4's. Worf leaves Starfleet again to make use of his diplomatic skills once more on Qo'noS in light of the increasing tensions between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.

Elsewhere in Starfleet, much to the dismay of Annika Hansen, Starfleet Command decides to dismantle its Borg task force, believing the Borg threat to be minimal following the blow dealt to them by the USS Voyager on her way home.

In Romulan space years of near civil war are brought to an uneasy end with an agreement that folds the worlds of the recently founded Imperial Romulan State back into the Romulan Star Empire. Senator Chulan is chosen as the new Praetor but much of the power in the Empire sits with Donatra who maintains control of the military and extends a hand of friendship to the Remans, offering them full citizenship and representation in the senate. While both sides accept the new peace many Romulans continue to treat the Remans as second class citizens.

Read the entry in full, here.

Crew, in colour!

On his blog, Chris Ryall has released the cover for the forth issue of John Byrne's Crew series, as well as the first look of a coloured interior page (or pages). Ta-da:

Early Voyages omnibus cover

On his blog, Chris Ryall has released a cover-in-the-works (by zach Howard) for the forthcoming Early Voyages omnisbus book. Looks like this:

Mission's End preview

Colorist John Hunt has posted a couple of pages from the second issue of Mission's End in his deviantART gallery. Here's one, with some alien aliens:See another page, here.

Star Trek goes straight

Paramount have released a new font/logo design for the new movie title. It's all 3-D and shiney like the old one, but no longer italised! It looks like this:

New Online images

IGN have posted some new screencaps from Star Trek Online, including these:

See more, here.

Countdown #2 preview

TrekMovie.com have posted a four page preview for the second issue of Countdown (out next week). Here's a two-page spread:

See the rest, at TrekMovie. Or, UPDATE: See the rest, including a fifth page, at Ain't it Cool News.

Best of DVD sets

TrekMovie.com have reported details on the forthcoming Best of DVD sets. There will be two sets, each containing just four episodes:

The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series, containing "The City on the Edge of Forever", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "Balance of Terror" and "Amok Time".The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation, containing "The Best of Both Worlds" (parts 1 and 2), "Yesterday’s Enterprise" and "The Measure of a Man".See additional images of the packaging, at TrekMovie.

Bluray news

TrekMovie.com and The Digital Bits have co-reported to confirm and expand on details of previously rumoured forthcoming bluray and DVD releases.

Starting with the first season in April and the last two later in the year, the entire run of The Original Series will be released on bluray, with seamless branching to give the option of watching with or without the new remastered effects, and the ability to choose between 7.1 sound or the original mono. Special features are largely the same as the previous HD-DVD release of the set.
On top of that all the films will be released, starting with a box set of the TOS films, and a smaller set containing just the genesis trilogy (bluray and DVD rleases for the latter). These will be the original theatrical releases and feature a variety of new HD extras in addition to existing SD content.Later in the year the TNG films will be released separately in their own set. Additionally there is a possibility of a set of all ten, or by then, all eleven films. Finally in region 2 there might also be DVD box sets featuring the "best of" TOS and TNG.