Star Trek Into Darkness IMAX preview

The first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness will be shown in an extended preview in front of the IMAX release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, from December 14th. Here's what a Paramount press release has to say about it:

Paramount Pictures will release the first 9 minutes from J.J. Abrams' eagerly-awaited "STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS" exclusively in IMAX 3D months prior to the film's official release in May 2013. This first-look at the movie will play in approximately 500 digital IMAX 3D theatres beginning December 14th.

"STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS," the sequel to Abrams' 2009 hit film that redefined the Star Trek universe for a new generation, marks the first time exclusive footage has played in IMAX 3D and only the third time a first-look will be released in IMAX.

"Our longtime partners J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk and the Bad Robot team have really hit it out of the park – the footage is absolutely incredible," said Greg Foster, Chairman and President, IMAX Filmed Entertainment. "Their use of the IMAX® Camera and canvas is sure to impress current and future Star Trek fans alike, and we're thrilled to once again work with our friends at Paramount Pictures to offer this extended ‘first look' at this highly anticipated summer blockbuster."

To further the IMAX experience, "STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS" used IMAX cameras to capture several sequences. Exclusively in IMAX theaters, sequences filmed with the extremely high-resolution cameras will expand to fill more of the screen with unprecedented crispness and clarity, putting moviegoers right into the explosive action and vast scope of the film.

Hopefully a regular trailer will pop up soon too, for those of that don't have an IMAX cinema handy!

UPDATE: TrekMovie now report the regular release of The Hobbit will indeed come with a theatrical trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness. If you want to see both the trailer and the first nine minutes you'll need to go see The Hobbit in IMAX and standard releases. Or wait for the trailer to start appearing with other films a little later.

One month to first Star Trek Into Darkness trailer, mark it in your diaries!

Oh look, I'm a dot com

Five and a half years after turning my Star Trek forum name into a blog I've decided it's about time I got a slightly more stylish url than 8of5.blogspot.com, and so I have rechristened myself: www.thetrekcollective.com. I've also tweaked the name of the site a little, from 8of5's Guide to the Trek Collective, to simply, The Trek Collective - Which neatly summarises the world of Trek stuff I report on.

So do feel free to update your bookmarks and such (although the old address should redirect you). And while I'm waving the flag of self promotion. Don't forget I'm also on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr!

Also, I have a new email to go with my new url: 8of5 at TheTrekCollective.com.

Visions from Federation: The First 150 Years

Federation: The First 150 Years is just a few weeks away. Here are preview images posted by StarTrek.com, TrekCore, and Trek News, with comments from the author, David A. Goodman, from a recent StarTrek.com interview:

The point of the book for me was to never take a liberty that would bug me as a fan. So it never came up that I was taking too much liberty with the canon, because I was so focused on what was already established, and then both filling in the blanks and linking those pieces of history that were mentioned or dramatized in the shows. The bigger challenge for me was making obvious contradictions between the shows and movies not seem like they were contradictions. So for instance, in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard says that the Prime Directive was the result of a disastrous first meeting with the Klingons. But then in the pilot of Star Trek: Enterprise we see humanity's first encounter with the Klingons. It doesn't seem to support Picard's comment, but I looked at it and figured out a way that it could, and I think it makes a lot of sense, and tells an interesting story. Some things could not be completely resolved, like the fact that Kirk has never seen a cloaking device before "Balance of Terror," but those idiots on Star Trek: Enterprise used them all the time. I was one of those idiots, which is why I can say that. Though, again, I did my best to resolve this in a way that I think makes sense.

Here is one of the examples of filling in a gap, an ancient Vulcan document which seems to describe the sundering of the Romulans from Vulcan, and their intent to return:

As one might expect from a product from a different publisher, it sounds as if Goodman won't be drawing upon existing non-canon sources to fill in some of the historical gaps, having crafted his own explanations for the Eugenics and Romulan Wars:

My CBS contact and I disagreed about Khan and the 1990's. I felt like referencing events that didn't happen in our 1990's would be a problem, but he insisted that I bring it in. I relented, and resolved the issue with a footnote that I think covers all the bases very subtly about why none of us who lived through the 1990's were never under the rule of the genetically engineered supermen.

At that first lunch with my CBS contact, when he mentioned his idea for the book, the first thing I thought of was, "I get to write the Romulan War!" Almost nothing in canon was written about this. I had only to figure out a war where the two sides never met face to face, that no one knew where Romulus was, and decide if the Cheron mentioned in The Battle of Cheron in TNG’s "The Defector" is the same Cheron from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." Otherwise, I had free reign. I've read a lot of military history, especially World War II, and it inspired how I laid out the war, and how it helped lead to the formation of the Federation. Also, I figured a link between Cheron from "Battlefield" and the Romulans that is canon, so I decided it was the same Cheron.

Here is the attack on Starbase 1, from the start of the Romulan War:

This document comes from the logs of the starship Intrepid, during the war:

Enterprise was probably the most detailed look at its own period of history, so that chapter of the book didn't require much of my imagination, but that doesn't mean it was easy. The fact is Enterprise stopped short of saying how the Federation was formed, so I had to explain where Archer was speaking in that last episode. Also, the Temporal Cold War and the war with the Xindi were things that the writers had fun using, but we never fully figured out, so I had to do that in the book, and I was cursing the writing staff of Enterprise the whole time I was writing that section.

Of course the book also goes well into history after Enterprise, here is a young Lieutenant Commander Matthew Decker, on the USS Patton:

And here is a Romulan document describing the formation of the Klingon-Romulan Alliance:

"Part of a cache of documents smuggled out of the Romulan Empire, the transcript documents a speech recorded during a special secret session of the Romulan Senate. The speech lays out Varus’s conclusion of the first agreement with the Klingons, and his plans to remake the Alpha Quadrant. The relationship between the Klingons and the Romulans was far from tranquil, but it did lead to the Romulans sharing cloaking technology with the Klingons, in exchange for the Klingons sharing the designs of their D7 ship. It is uncertain if Varus’s use of the term “Earth Federation” was a deliberate attempt to identify the Federation as an Earth-centered Empire, or whether he truly believed it."

Inside the Haynes Klingon Manual

Out now, is the new Klingon Bird-of-Prey Haynes Manual. Mine arrived a couple of days ago, and from my first flip through it looks like a really interesting book, a big step up from Enterprises Manual. If you've not got your own copy yet StarTrek.com have posted interviews with the writers, Rick Sternbach, and Ben Robinson. Here are a few snipits to tempt you, with some samples pages from Hayne's promo website for the book.

Sternbach, speaking about the technical challenges of looking at Klingon design in detail:

It was a challenge, a fun technical challenge looking into the guts of a ship that you didn’t personally design. Not only was it a fun challenge from the standpoint of it being a ship, but a Klingon ship. I’ve had some experience with things like the Vor’cha, but mostly from the outside. With the Bird-of-Prey, I went crazy designing pieces and parts that nobody had ever seen, including the engine room.

We know what Starfleet equipment looks like. We know what some Klingon hardware looks like based on the things that were built for the Bird-of-Prey interior sets, from other Klingon hardware that’s been developed, especially the weapons. It came down to, how would the Klingons build an engine? How would they build an anti-matter pod? How would they construct a torpedo launcher?

Robinson on his goals for the book:

I think the Enterprise book had been very much a canter through these different ships, and nothing like as detailed as I knew some people would have liked it to have been. So I wanted to create a book that had a nice balance between more technical data, but was still a bit more approachable than some of the really tech-heavy publications there have been in the past.

Both authors mentioned the possibility of future projects. It sounds like Robinson is working on the Starship Collection magazine, and has in mind the possibility of turning that into a book:

I think the logical thing to do, and I haven’t even said this to Haynes, would be a Starfleet shipyard. I’m actually working on a collection of small model Star Trek ships. We’re collecting all the different CG models together as reference and then producing die-cast scale-model ships. These ships, like the Akira or… you can get much more obscure, like the Equinox or the Prometheus… they’re a big part of what makes the franchise cool for people, and there’s been remarkably little done about them. So if Haynes come back and say, “That went really well. What do we do next?” I think that’s what I would suggest to them.

The Haynes website also has some wallpapers featuring images from the book, including the centerpiece cutaway diagram. Or if you prefer it without embellishment, the Haynes Books twitter account also posted this version:

Also posted to twitter is this image, used as one of chapter openers. Here we get to see the whole image without the introductory text:

Ward, coming out of the shadow

With the title of his latest book revealed (From History's Shadow), Dayton Ward has at last able to tell us what his next Trek book is all about. And that would be the latest TOS time travel adventure, with adventures in the twenty century following in the footsteps of Greg Cox's Khan books, and indeed one of Ward's own early Trek stories, The Aliens Are Coming! Here's how he describes it:

...it’s an original series novel, set during Kirk’s fabled five-year mission. In fact, it begins a week or so following the events of the second season’s last episode, “Assignment: Earth.” The Enterprise is on its way to its next mission when it’s discovered that two unknown life forms have transported aboard the ship not just through space but also time. While one of the aliens is from a familiar race (no, he’s not carrying a cat), the other is all but unknown to Kirk and the gang, and the mystery only gets weirder when it’s learned that the unlikely visitors have traveled through time from Earth and the year 1968. But, the real ice breaker comes when this alien from an unknown race tells Kirk that he’s spent the last twenty-odd years on Earth trying to bring about humanity’s destruction.

Elsewhere and when, an Air Force captain named James Wainwright (introduced in the Deep Space Nine episode “Little Green Men”) is transferred in September 1947 to a base in Ohio from his previous posting in Roswell, New Mexico. There, he learns he’s now one of the first members of a secret organization, Majestic 12, with a two-fold mission: Seek out any and all evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth, and develop a strategy to combat aliens if they’re proven to pose a threat. It’s a task that will consume Wainwright’s life for the next twenty years, driven by the knowledge that the danger is real, and not just because of those pesky Ferengi and their invasion fleet that never did show up.

What does this have to do with Kirk and his crew? Well, that’s a mighty fine question.

In other book news, listings for David R.Gerogre III's DS9 anniversary novel has been updated, with it switching from Time and Revelation, to, Revelations and Dust.

Pick the Enteprise bluray cover art

The official Star Trek Facebook page is taking a poll of likes on potential cover designs to be used on next year's bluray releases of Star Trek: Enterprise. There are three designs to choose from:

Personally I favour option two, with the focus on the Enterprise. Option one is just a horrible boring mess, and while I don't mind option 3, with the big logo, I think the Enterprise ones are just a bit sleeker (plus I'm generally biased towards starship imagery). Which did you pick?

Star Trek Online's new pop-up starships

A couple of the latest new starships added to Star Trek Online are exclusively for use by a thousand day veteran users of the game. As every there is one each for the Federation and Klingons, and this time each design features huge pop-up weapons ports.

The Klingon design is the Peghqu' class heavy destroyer:

 

Here's how they describe here:

An engineering team at the Empire Shipyards have designed a heavy ship with increased maneuverability that is nimble enough to outmaneuver a cruiser but strong enough to take a barrage from an escort. Only experienced ship commanders with the backing of the High Council will have the chance to fly this ship.

As a 1000-day Veteran, the Klingon Defense Force has granted you command of this unique new starship — the Prototype Heavy Destroyer: Peghqu' Class.

The Peghqu' Heavy Destroyer is similar to a Raptor, but it is much more versatile. While in its innate Regenerative Mode, excess power is transferred to the Auxiliary System and you gain a bonus to Starship Shield Systems. It comes equipped with a prototype Dynamic Tactical System console (or DTS). This console allows you to transform your ship between Regenerative Mode and Tactical Mode. In Regenerative Mode, your Tachyon Inversion Beam is enabled, which can siphon shields from multiple targets. Activating Tactical Mode transfers power to your Weapon Systems, and increases your ships Starship Targeting Systems skill, granting an Accuracy bonus. In Tactical Mode, the DTS console enables a powerful multi-targeting Lotus, which is capable of piercing multiple targets. However, while in Tactical Mode, your Starship Shield Systems bonus, Auxiliary Power bonus and Tachyon Inversion Beam are disabled.

And her she is with her pop up mega-disruptors blazing:

 

The Federation meanwhile get the Chimera class heavy destroyer:

 

Starfleet Corps of Engineers (SCE) has been working on a special new destroyer class starship, designed for high-level combat situations. The project was so secret that access to the Utopia Planitia shipyard was restricted for months while the project was completed. Now, Starfleet Command decided to offer the ships to its most experienced captains.

As a 1000-day Veteran, Starfleet has granted you command of this unique new starship — the Prototype Heavy Destroyer: Chimera Class.

The Chimera Heavy Destroyer is similar to an Escort, but has many qualities of Light Cruisers and Science Vessels. While in its innate Regenerative Mode, excess power is transferred to the Auxiliary System and you gain a bonus to Starship Shield Systems. It comes equipped with a prototype Dynamic Tactical System console (or DTS). This console allows you to transform your ship between Regenerative Mode and Tactical Mode. In Regenerative Mode, your Tachyon Inversion Beam is enabled, which can siphon shields from multiple targets. Activating Tactical Mode transfers power to your Weapon Systems, and increases your ships Starship Targeting Systems skill, granting an Accuracy bonus. In Tactical Mode, the DTS console enables a powerful multi-targeting Lotus, which is capable of piercing multiple targets. However, while in Tactical Mode, your Starship Shield Systems bonus, Auxiliary Power bonus and Tachyon Inversion Beam are disabled.

And she too has massive pop-up phasers:

 

The Chimera class was originally submitted to STO in the Design the Enterprise-F competition. Comments from the designer, Jason "Vektor" Lee after the jump:

More books news

Simon and Schuster and Amazon listings have appeared for more new Trek books in 2013.

August's book has been revaled as Dayton Ward's mysterious new Star Trek book, and if the listing is correct will be no less than the sixth TOS novel of 2013! Titled From History's Shadow.

September's book is David R. George's DS9 novel. It is currently listed as a TNG book on Simon and Schuster, titled The Fall, Book 1: Time and Revelation. George has posted on Facebook clarifying that despite the current series allocation this is indeed a DS9 novel, and will be the first in a series called The Fall. Time and Revelation was an early working title for it, and will not be the final name.

There is now a paperback listing for June's book; The Shocks of Adversity, by William Leisner. Which had until now only been available for pre-order as an ebook on Amazon.

Christopher L. Bennett's July Enterprise book, Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures, is also now available for pre-order.

Back in the present, UnrealitySF have recently posted an interview with Una McCormack, in which she discussed her recent Typhon Pact novel, Brinkmanship. She talked about the creative opportunities afforded by the cold war-like setting of the Typhon Pact era, and how the book allowed her to explore familiar ground with the Cardassians, as well as really developing the Tzenketh.Check out UnrealitySF for all she has to say about that novel, and more of her work.

In other prose news, Cross Cult have recently announced the addition of the Voyager relaunch to their schedule of German novel translations, starting in October 2013 with Homecoming, the first of Christie Golden's Alpha Quadrant Voyager books. UnrealitySF's Jens Defner also tells me Cross Cult are already looking into doing a translation of the new movie prequel comic, Countdown to Darkness.

New start to Enterprise from Christopher L. Bennett

Christopher L. Bennett has just announced on his blog that he is to author the next Enterprise novel, in what he hopes will be the first in a new series set after the Romulan War. This is how he summarises Star Trek: Enterprise — Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures, which is due out in July:

The Romulan War saga of the previous Enterprise novels concluded with the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161. I’ve been chosen to tell the next phase of the story. How did an alliance forged in wartime become the peaceful union we know? How did its founding members balance their differing views of what the Federation should become? What did they each contribute to the UFP government and Starfleet? How did that Starfleet end up being so similar to the United Earth Starfleet, and what familiar elements owe more to the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites than we might have realized? What challenges did this fledgling union face in dealing with neighboring powers unsure of its intentions or threatened by its unity? What new enemies arose in the wake of the Romulans?

This is a followup to the Star Trek Enterprise — The Romulan War duology, but it’s also a fresh beginning, picking up about a year after the Federation’s founding. The war is over, Enterprise herself is in mothballs, and Admiral Jonathan Archer, his former crew, and his allies including Shran and Soval have moved on to new phases in their lives, playing new roles in the Federation and its combined Starfleet. The novel will feature many familiar characters from the era, a few new crewmates for the familiar cast, and some unexpected names as well. It’s called Enterprise for branding/marketing reasons, but I see it more as a sequel to Enterprise — and a prequel to the original series.

Continue reading on Bennett's blog for more analysis of Enterprise and what he hopes to achieve with this novel. Or make your way to the TrekBBS to discuss it. Bennett has already revealed some interesting titbits of extra info there, including how this came about from a pitch for a pre-Enterprise series:

...my original pitch was Star Trek: Beginnings, which would've been a multibook series covering the span between 2063 and the start of ENT. But it was wisely decided that that would be far too narrow in its appeal, since it would be too lacking in familiar characters and elements. I was offered this project as an alternative, and after my initial hesitation, I saw how much potential there was in it.

And also a little hint at the direction of his proto-Starfleet uniform design:

I approached the uniform design as an intermediate step between the ENT and Kelvin uniforms, with elements foreshadowing later uniform designs as well.  

I for one am very excited! While we wait for this book, Bennett fans might also enjoy Only Superhuman, his first original novel, which has just come out. It's sitting right at the top of my own reading pile; just need to dash through The Persistence of Memory first. Plus of course there's the new Federation: The First 150 Years book out imminently; will be interesting to see how these compare.

Tough little ships

If you like little model starships then you're in for a good time next year!

Back in May, Eaglemoss did a trial launch for a new part work magazine in the UK, Star Trek: The Official Starship Collection. One of my readers, Darth Duranium, has now pointed me to the new Facebook page for that publication, which after having paused for several months will launch nationally in February next year.

There are initial plans for seventy issues/ships, all based on either original CGI files (where available) or newly created models 3D models from Star Trek veteran effects artist Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz (who's previous credits include a whole book for of starship imagery, the Starship Spotter). Eaglemoss were present at the recent Star Trek convention in London, and had a banner sporting twenty-six of the ships to feature in the magazine (including some insanely obscure ones), which they've subsequently posted on Facebook:

At the moment the magazine will be available only in the UK and Ireland, but Eaglemoss are aware of international demand and are looking to CBS to consider launching in other territories.

UPDATE: Darth Duranium has come back with even more information; a complete list of the initial ships planned. You can read that in the comments section of this post (or on the Facebook page). It includes ships from all series, including to my surprise and delight ones from the new movie timeline. Especially exciting are the many Enterprise designs which have never been modelled before.

My personal highlights include the Enterprise-J, USS Kelvin, various Xindi ships, Akira class, Valdore, Enterprise-era Klingon ships, The Scimitar (I wonder how the wings will be presented...), Scorpion fighter, and the USS Dauntless. Exciting stuff, and hopefully the initial 70 issue run will do well enough to fill in some notable gaps, like the Jellyfish, assorted shuttlecraft, the D'Kyr class, Andorian ships, and (in my dreams) the Titan, Aventine, and Enterprise-F.

There is hope for small ship fans elsewhere in the world. Darath Duranium has also pointed me towards news of a revival of the Hot Wheels starships range. Coinciding with the release of the new film next year will be a wave of ships. There are mixed reports on exactly what the new collection will include. Initial rumours indicated the USS Excelsior, and a Klingon battle-crusier form Star Trek Into Darkness. Big Bad Toy Store currently have a preorder for four ships: The Narada, Enterprise NX-01, USS Enterprise NCC-1701, and a none-specific Into Darkness ship. Entertainment Earth also note a ship from Star Trek Into Darkness will be included, and also suggest there will be battle-damaged variants. At any rate it looks like a mix of new and old - See my Hot Wheels starships list for the run-down of previous releases.

Finally Wizkids have announced their latest Star Trek Heroclix game, a second series of ships in their Star Trek Tactics game, due in January. This second series will include ships from an assortment of races, including the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Jem'Hadar, Cardassians and Ferengi.

It appears it will follow the model of the first Tactics series, with a four-ship starter kit, and individual ship releases. The starter set includes the USS Fearless, IKS Drovana, IRW N'Ventnar, and Jem'Hadar 4th Division Cruiser 1.