USS Enterprise and more join Rihanna in Sledgehammer video

We got our first sample of Rihanna's new single Sledgehammer, which is attached to Star Trek Beyond, with the release of the third trailer for the film, and now the full song has been revealed, complete with Star Trek filled music video. We get some especially nice shots of the Enterprise, along with Rihanna summoning swarm ships, levitating rocks, and dancing about on a planet near to Starbase Yorktown:

New Visions Gorn and Swarm issues

Fans of John Byrne's New Visions series of photo-comics will be pleased to learn that September will be bring two new issues! One of them comes via unconventional channels though. Continue below for all the details.

IDW have once more teamed up with Humble Bundle, to offer a large selection of Star Trek comics in a bundle, with revenues split between the publisher and charities. In this case Traveling Stories and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, plus a third charity of your choosing if you so desire. Currently digital copies of twenty-eight different titles are available (with the promise of more to be added), representing a diverse range of IDW's titles. All you have to do is decide how much you want to pay, with as little as $15 granting access to the entire collection (which would cost hundreds at normal prices). If you want to pay more, you can, and thus more will go to IDW and the charities.

This time there's a very enticing bonus though. If you donate $25 or more you will also be able to claim an exclusive brand new issue in the New Visions series, More of the Serpent Than the Dove, which features the Gorn. As StarTrek.com describe:

...a brand new story that picks up where the fan favorite TOS episode “Arena” left off. Master photostory artist/writer John Byrne presents the comic-book return of the Gorn, as the Federation’s first attempts at a Gorn peace treaty take a dire turn. 

The book, which unlike the rest of the bundle will will be delivered as a printed volume, will also reprint the first issue of Byrne's Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor.

Star Trek Beyond trailer #3 dazzles

The third major trailer for Star Trek Beyond has been released, and it's simply stunning, and features Rihanna's new single that is attached to the film, Sledgehammer.



Continue below for the usual screencap breakdown, and as ever, proceed with caution if you are spoiler adverse; looking at stills can tell you a lot more than fleeting glimpses of video:

Book bits: Prey cover, new TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Section 31 blurbs, and more!

Lots of book news today, including brand new blurbs for the first four novels on the 2017 novel schedule, which continue the adventures of the Enterprise-E, new-DS9, Voyager and the Full Circle fleet, and Docotr Bashir's efforts to thwart Section 31. But before we get to all those exciting stories, there's new cover!

Coming in November is the middle book in John Jackson Miller's Prey trilogy, The Jackal's Trick. The TNG era story is Klingon focused, and the cover, released by StarTrek.com, certainly demonstrates that, with a couple of Klingon ships and a big--scary-demon-thing (anyone recognise what that is?).

Behold the huge Mega Bloks USS Enterprise

This year Mega Bloks have returned to the world of Star Trek with a range of TOS construction sets, which include playsets of key locations, and models of ships. All but one of the sets in the first wave have already made their way into the world, and now that final set, the largest in the range, has joined them on Amazon, where it can be pre-ordered ahead of an expected July release.

The huge USS Enterprise set is made from 3,098 pieces, which build a model that is 85cm long. It also features light-up nacelle caps with built in LEDs, and two figurines, Kirk and Spock in dress uniform variants. To top it off, the display base features a miniature recreation of the ship's dedication plaque. Continue below to have a look at the many new images that show off the impressive model:

Rihanna joins the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack

It appears Rihanna will be contributing to the soundtrack for Star Trek Beyond, and has a single on the way, called Sledgehammer. Here's the cover (via Rihanna Fenty):

New details of new Star Trek TV series, a 13 episode arc

Collider have posted an interview with new Star Trek TV series showrunner Bryan Fuller, who, while carefully avoiding giving away too many specifics, gave a lot of new details about the show.

First up, speculation that this might be a shorter season than we traditionally get in Star Trek has been confirmed. The first season will be thirteen episodes long, with a season long story arc, and the writing team are already well into it:

We’ve got the arc of the first season entirely written, or arced out, and we’ve got the first six episodes entirely broken.

Interestingly the fact this is being made for a streaming service apparently also mean we might not get the usual episode lengths either. When asked if they would be hour long episodes:

I think our runtime is flexible because it’s streaming.

Fuller also spoke a little about the general shape of the series, and how the creative team was able to shape it:

When I first sat down with them, it was “Do you have a plan of what you want to do?” And they said, “No,” and I said, “I have a plan,” and we started talking. And it was wonderful to be working with Alex Kurtzman, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, and who’s such an elegant storyteller and crafting a story with him that ties in so many elements of Star Trek that I think people will be really excited about because you can look at the original series and pick out episodes we’re using the DNA of and using the spirit of what Star Trek offers, both in terms of high-concept science fiction storytelling and really wonderful metaphors for the human condition.

UPDATE: Speaking to Moviefone as well, Fuller roundly debunked many of the rumours about the new series, while suggesting some of the reports have hit upon truths:

I mean, it's funny. I've read that we're [set] before "Next Generation," after ["Star Trek VI: The] Undiscovered Country," which is false. I've read that it's an anthology show, which is not accurate. So it's interesting to see those suggestions, and seeing the truth mixed in with them and going like, "Oh, they got that part right..." But it's sort of on the truth-o-meter on PolitiFacts. It's sort of like some truth, and a lot of like, "No -- pants on fire! That's not true."

Star Trek Online visits the 23rd century of two realities

Star Trek Online, which under normal circumstances is set in the early 25th century, will be opening up a new series of missions in the 23rd century, both the TOS version, and nuTrek! All this comes in a major expansion of the game, Agents of Yesterday, which will launch in July. Here's how Cryptic described what's ahead in their announcement:

Agents of Yesterday will allow players to create a new captain in Star Trek: The Original Series era and will set them on an adventure featuring classic story lines, locations, celebrities, and era-appropriate starships. In 2270, the year following the third season of the original series, the player will adventure with Walter Koenig, reprising his role of Chekov, and Chris Doohan, filling in for his father as Scotty. There is a new threat to the security of the Federation, and they are invading with hopes of overwhelming the past to destroy our future.

In addition to the ability to create a brand new Star Trek: The Original Series Starfleet captain, we will be introducing a new episode arc for players of every faction, the Temporal Initiative Resistance Reputation, a Temporal Operative Primary Specialization along with brand new Bridge Officer powers. Players who create their captains during the first six weeks of launch will also be able to participate in the new Temporal Agent Recruitment system for bonus personal and account-wide rewards, a new iteration of the popular Delta Recruitment system that released a year ago. This release is packed with content to keep you engaged in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series era - and beyond.

Missions will include follow-ups to classic episodes such as Arena, The Galileo Seven, The Tholian Web, and Journey to Babel. The game will also see lots of new ships, and uniform options. Continue below for more details. But first, here's a trailer:

Star Trek Beyond soundtrack track listing

The Star Trek Beyond soundtrack has been available to pre-order for some time, and now Amazon have added a track list to their listing, which is full of composer Michael Giacchino's usual quirky titles. Speculate away on what this tells us about the plot!

1. Logo And Prosper (1:47)
2. Thank Your Lucky Star Date (2:15)
3. Night On The Yorktown (5:36)
4. The Dance Of The Nebula (2:22)
5. A Swarm Reception (2:30)
6. Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard (6:10)
7. Jaylah Damage (2:50)
8. In Artifacts As In Life (1:51)
9. Franklin, My Dear (2:50)
10. A Lesson In Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17)
11. MotorCycles Of Relief (3:17)
12. Mocking Jaylah (3:26)
13. Crash Decisions (3:16)
14. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23)
15. Shutdown Happens (4:35)
16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17)
17. Par-tay For The Course (2:46)
18. Star Trek Main Theme (3:45)

UPDATE: And publishers Varèse Sarabande have also released the cover on Twitter, which is of course based on the main poster.

In case you missed them before, Giacchino has also posted several clips from the soundtrack recording on his social media channels. Continue below to have a listen to them all:

New Star Trek anthology comic series: Waypoint

IDW have announced the launch of a new Star Trek anthology comic series, Waypoint, that promises to deliver short stories from the entire Star Trek universe, from a variety of creative teams.

The first issue, due out in September, will feature two stories: A TNG tale starring Data and Geordi, by Donny Cates, with art by Mack Chater. And then a TOS Uhura story, titled Daylily, which will be written and illustrated by Sandra Lanz. Continue below for more details - Starting with the covers, by Marc Laming, and blurb: