The Q Gambit part 2 preview

Out this week is the second issue of The Q Gambit, the six-part DS9 crossover story in the nuTrek ongoing comic series. After introducing himself in the previous issue, this part sees Q set the Enterprise crew on their 24th century adventure. The preview continues after the jump:

Star Trek Online's Delta Quadrant, Xindi, and new uniforms

I've not reported on Star Trek Online in a while, so there are a few cool new things to look at. First up the new news is that Cryptic are doing their own Project Full Circle and taking the Online narrative to the Delta Quadrant, in their next big update, Delta Rising. The new content, due in October, will see access to the Delta Quadrant granted via a portal in a Dyson Sphere, allowing players to revisit various races from Voyager, decades after the events of the TV series.

Cryptic promise the likes of the Talaxians, Ocampa, Kazon, Malon, The Hierarchy, and Automated Personal Units will all be appearing.

There will also be the obligatory new ships, plus a certain Intrepid class vessel will be playing its part.

Voyager cast members are set to reprise their roles; Tim Russ will be returning as Tuvok again, joined by Garrat Wang, aka Harry Kim, and other, as yet unannounced, familiar voices. Cryptic announced all this at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, and TrekMovie posted further details and images. Here's the Cryptic team talking about the expansion at the convention:



Continue after the jump for more from Star Trek Online, including the return of the Xindi, and some snazzy new uniforms.

Book bits: Section 31 cover and future book updates

Books news! First up, via StarTrek.com, behold the cover of David Mack's follow-up to the Bashir story from The Fall, coming in November, is Section 31: Disavowed:

The art for this cover is by Tim Bradstreet, who did covers for many of th early issues of the nuTrek ongoing comic series. Here's a reminder of the blurb:

Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, and answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group committed to safeguarding the Federation at any cost.

Doctor Julian Bashir sacrificed his career for a chance to infiltrate Section 31 and destroy it from within. Now it's asking him to help it stop the Breen from stealing a dangerous new technology from the Mirror Universe — one that could give the Breen control over the galaxy.

It's a mission Bashir can't refuse, but is it really the shot he's been waiting for? Or is it a trap from which even his genetically enhanced intellect can't escape?

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

Looking further ahead, several authors have recently hinted at future works. Continue after the jump for the latest news on Titan and New Frontier, plus The Light Fantastic and From History's Shadow follow-ups.

Ship bits: Galor, Jem'Hadar, Reliant and the Enterprise-E

A few starship updates for you. First up, in the works from Round 2 Models is a new addition to their 1/2500 scale Cadet Series model kit range. The new DS9 themed collection will include the Defiant, Saratoga, and a Galor class. The Round 2 blog posted several photos of their prototype Galor class, which looks impressively detailed. Here are a few images, and you'll find more on Collector Model:

Another DS9-related release is coming from Eaglemoss who next month will release in the Jem'Hadar "bug" as issue twenty-nine of The Official Starships Collection. Forbidden Planet recently added a listing for this issue, including a nice high res image of another impressively detailed model:

And there's more, continue after the jump for new images of QMx's Reliant, and a new Enterprise-E painting.

Seekers art

With Second Nature, the first book in the new Vanguard spin-off series, Seekers, out now, the artist that inspired the whole thing, Rob Caswell, has started to share some of his work on the cover art on his DeviantART gallery. Here are some early cover concepts, as Rob explains:

To begin the project I did a few different rough concepts based on author David Mack's cover element description. That's one advantage of the medium. Working in 3D can make concepting like this move pretty quickly. As you can probably see, the final cover drew elements from concepts 2, 3, and 5. 

And here's the final artwork for Second Nature:

Rob also produced an original piece of Seekers artwork which was given away at the Shore Leave convention this past weeked. You can check that out after the jump:

Starships Collection updates - Ships coming until 2017!

A little nugget of information emerged about The Official Starships Collection at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention over the weekend. As reported by TrekMovie, at the Star Trek merchandise panel, CBS's John Van Citters revealed the Collection is now set to continue beyond the originally planned seventy issue run, up to ninety ships.

That extension means the Collection will now run until at January 2017! Hopefully if the series continues to be popular that will only be the first expansion - It's certainly not unprecedented in Star Trek part-works, the old Star Trek Fact Files ended after three-hundred-and-four issues, several expansions on from the originally planned one-hundred-and-ninety-two issue plan.

Back in the present day, the next couple of ships showing up with UK subscribers are the 22nd century  Tholian web spinner and Romulan Bird of Prey. StarTrek.com recently posted a couple of images showing both model:

Finally, I got an interesting tweet recently, from Michael Mould, with this photo of a USS Defiant model from Japan, which has the Starfleet emblem printed in the correct direction (the first run ones in the UK and US have is backwards, as I noted in my review). Further to this Daniel tweeted to note that the Australian release apparently omits the logo altogether!

Star Trek Magazine previews

Due out in October is issue one-hundred-and-seventy-eight (or fifty-one in the US) of the Star Trek Magazine. Things From Another World have added listings for both the standard and Previews exclusive versions of the magazine, including covers and a blurb:

It's another 50th anniversary milestone for Star Trek, as we mark a half-century since production began on original pilot episode, 'The Cage.' The Official Star Trek Magazine looks back at the making of this landmark episode, from the very first scenes shot on stage 16 at Desilu Studios, Culver City, in November 1964. We've also got exclusive interviews with Voyager actor Garrett Wang, and effects supremos Ken Ralston and Craig Reardon. There's also original fiction from Star Trek Online, and we investigate the mysterious Section 31 in regular fiction feature 'A Novel Approach', plus all the latest news, reviews, and competitions!

Meanwhile issue one-hundred and seventy-seven is now out, which includes a feature on the history of the starships Enterprise, a piece by Doug Drexler on Star trek design, and a look at crossover comics. Continue after the jump for some preview pages from this issue (vis Titan Magazines):

Time's Echo preview

Out this week is Time's Echo, the second issue in John Byrne's New Visions photo-comic series. This new double-length comic sees the Enterprise exploring their own future and past after receiving a mysterious message... There's also a short secondary story, Sweet Sorrow, featuring Janice Rand.

Continue after the jump for the rest of this six-page preview.

TNG season 7 and future blurays

Due out later this year is the seventh, and final, season of Star Trek: The Next Generation on bluray. Nerdist recently interviewed Roger Lay Jr., one of the producers of the extra features on the new bluray releases, about what's to come on the final box set.

As we have become accustomed, the set will include a suite of new documentaries, two hours worth in four-parts this time:

By this point, we’ve filmed over a hundred hours of interviews. So all the people you’ve been seeing in these documentaries, you’re now gonna hear from one last time. We always make a feature-length documentary, and this one will be a four-parter. By part 3 you’ll be hearing about the end of the show, ‘All Good Things…’, but by part 4 you’ll kinda get a philosophical approach from everyone involved in the show about what it meant to have been a part of this chapter in the Star Trek saga.

Jon Conway and the Okudas on the TNG in HD panel (via StarTrek.com)

Reporting from the Star Trek Las Vegas convention's TNG in HD panel, TrekMovie reports there will also be a featurette looking at the making of TNG, to let viewers "understand the machinery of making weekly television". Director Jim Conway, producer David Livingston, and director of photography Jonathan West will feature in this documentary.

There will also be some behind the scenes footage filmed by the Mike and Denise Okuda, before the TNG sets were modified for Generations.

TrekMovie got the impression from the panel that All Good Thing... will also be getting the stand-alone release for this season, and are expecting a "new special commentary and that CBS planned in advance to give it special attention". The finale is certainly getting attention, as Lay told Nerdist:

...we’re definitely going to give you guys the definitive final account of everything that happened, and we’re putting a lot of really cool things in there that haven’t been seen before. I’m going through the Entertainment Tonight archive right now, finding behind-the-scenes footage and interviews filmed during the making of the finale. I’m dealing with the TV Academy, trying to get footage from when the show was nominated for the Emmy and all that stuff. So we’ll be covering all that, and we’ve got some really great footage that Mike and Denise Okuda had filmed on the sets before they were altered for the film. So we will have the ability to paint a really clear picture for the fans of what the ending for this chapter was.

Updates on theatrical releases and DS9 after the jump:

Comic bits: Q, Pike, and zombies

A few bits of comics news. First up, from Tony Shasteen, the artist for The Q Gambit, the current six-part DS9 crossover story in the nuTrek ongoing series, we have his cover art for the fifth issue in the story (issue thrirty-nine in the series). This comes via Shasteen's galleries on Candence, where he has the original cover art for the first five issues of the story available for sale (and is where you can see all five pre-colouring too).

This issue hasn't been solicited yet, but it should be this month, due for November release.

In December there will be another nuTrek ongoing release, Star Trek: New Adventures Volume 1, an omnibus of the first twelve issues of the series. Amazon has the blurb:

The adventures of the Starship Enterprise continue in this series of stories that take place between the first and second movies! Featuring the new cast of the film, these issues feature re-imagined stories from the original series in the alternate timeline as well as brand-new missions, all with creative collaboration with Star Trek writer/producer Roberto Orci. Collects the first 12 issues of the new ongoing Star Trek series.

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

Meanwhile over in John Byrne's photo-comic world, it appears Captain Pike will be turning up in a forthcoming New Visions story. As Byrne explained when he posted this preview image on his forums:

Here's a peek at the current issue-in-progress. In a flashback, Captain Pike takes a cautious ride down an anti-gravity shaft. Not a spoiler. Pike and his Enterprise are on the first page of the issue!

Finally, something that escaped my notice when it was solicited. This month will see the release of a new Infestation omnibus. The more than five-hundred page book will contain both the original Infestation series which saw crossovers with various universes into a zombie invasion, and the sequel series which featured Lovecraftian Elder Gods. A two-part Star Trek story featured as part of the original zombie series, with Motion Picture era Kirk and the gang finding a zombiefied colony.