Stargazing with Pakleds in the Mind Star Trek: Intelligence Gathering 4: Continuing the story, deepening the mystery, the Tiptons take us closer to the endgame in the season five ending storyline. "Matters of the Mind" lays out a few more pieces to the puzzle, bringing mind control and aliens and scenarios we’ve previously encountered into the mix.
A year before Paramount brings Star Trek back to the mainstream in a big way, they are working on another big franchise comeback, Indiana Jones. The Collective is keeping a close eye on how Paramount market this year’s big Indy movie to gain insights into what we may be expecting for next year. We will have a full report in June, but today offer an example of just one bit of the Indy media blitz…racing promotion.
Pocket Books has a lot of Summer Trek reading for you lined up with five books coming out between June and August. TrekMovie.com has a full rundown on these, including some exclusive covers. Plus William Shatner’s new autobiography comes out in a week and we have info on his upcoming book signings and promo appearances.
This week we have a review of the second New Frontier comic from Peter David, where he continues the story of the stolen prototype timeship. Plus, we have news on a new DVD, coming out later this year, that will have digitized versions of every Trek comic from 1967-2002. And IDW are branching out from Trek into Trek parody with their new Galaxy Quest comics!
Over two months after being the last studio to announce support for Blu-ray, Paramount has finally announced titles, but so far no Trek. The initial five Blu-ray releases (coming out between May 20th and June 3rd) are catching up on previous films released on DVD like There Will Be Blood, and Cloverfield. Then, starting on June 24th Paramount will issue its first Blu-ray title on the same day as the DVD, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” with ‘more to follow.’
Following closely on the heels of the classic Original Series episode "The Enterprise Incident" comes "Star Trek: The Enterprise Experiment," a comic book sequel by the same writer, D.C. Fontana. This week we review the first of the five issue mini-series telling the story of the experiment with the Romulan cloaking device stolen "The Enterprise Incident." Plus we have news and previews on upcoming comics
We are a year away from seeing JJ Abrams Star Trek origin story, and so this week the Library Computer journeys back to 1986 to look at how the books tackled this moment in (non canon) Trek history with "Enterprise: The First Adventure," by Vonda McIntyre. Also this week we look forward with news on 2009 Trek books coming out of New York Comic Con.
At the New York Comic Con this weekend, Diamond Select Toys has revealed their (previously announced) Original Series era Tricorder toy, the final piece of DST’s TOS ‘landing party’ set. They also announced their seventh retro action figures set to be of Sulu and the Gorn, both of which are new designs (but in the MEGO style). Images, details and pre-order info below.
This week’s Library Computer looks at "Night of the Wolves" a personal journey into the heart of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and the second book in the ‘Terok Nor DS9 prequel trilogy.’ Plus William Shatner talks about his new autobiography, "Up Til Now".
The recently announced 2nd Season DVD set of the digitally remastered Star Trek: The Original Series now has box art and more details. The set includes similar bonus features as Season One, plus 2 special ‘bonus episodes’ and has a retail price of $99.00. UPDATE: Amazon have it available Pre-Order for $58.99. More details below.
Confirming previous reports, today CBS and Paramount officially announced that Season Two for the digitally remastered Star Trek The Original Series will be released on August 5th, 2008…on DVD only. In addition, a new media player from Adobe allows you to view all of the (classic) TOS episodes for free (with ads).
Captain James T. Kirk is bigger than life and now, his action figure is too. Diamond Select Toys today provided the first image of their new Ultimate Quarter Scale line Kirk action figure, first reported by Trekmovie.com from Toy Fair in February. See below for details and full size image
This week Library Computer takes a look at a number of ‘making of’ books for specific Star Trek episodes, including a review of the latest one about making the classic TNG episode "Yesterday’s Enterprise." We also have an interview with the author Eric Stillwell (who co-wrote the story for the episode) where he discusses both the episode and his time working on the TNG staff.
AOL Movies has a new interview with William Shatner covering the new Boston Legal episodes (where he reveals Denny Crane will be running for president) his upcoming autobiography (which he says will have you “laughing out loud”) and of course Trek. Shat talks about how he feels about not being in the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film, but how he hopes the movie will give new life to his Trek novels.
This week, The Collective has your details and a guide to new Diamond Select/Art Asylum’s Star Trek items for 2008 (announced at ToyFair) which are now available for presale. This week you can reserve DST’s first Enterprise D, their first TMP figures and the latest Minimates.
Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 may have cut their TV adventures short, but they continue in print. This week’s Library Computer takes a look at the Star Trek Enterprise releaunch including an exclusive sneak peek at the next fall’s "Kobayashi Maru," written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, as well as a tease on next year’s Romulan War books.
The latest museum quality prop replicas from Master Replicas (which were announced at last month’s ToyFair) are now available for pre-order. This year MR are offering the Starfleet Assault Phaser (from Star Trek V and Star Trek VI) and the Mark IX Science Tricorder (from DS9, VOY and TNG feature films). Both ship in October, but often MR products sell out with pre-orders. More info below.
Strip-mining a planet to the bone has to begin somewhere. This week the Library Computer reviews "Day of the Vipers", the opening salvo of the Deep Space Nine prequel "Terok Nor" trilogy, from which any would-be planetary overlord might learn a thing or two. We also have a mini-interview with the book’s author and some thoughts on the works of Arthur C. Clarke.
Is it 2009 yet? While the next feature film is 408 days away, Trek fans can get ready to start checking off those days with the new 2009 Star Trek Wall Calendars which are now available for pre-order. Just like 2008, there will be a Kirk era calendar and another in the popular CGI art "Ships of the Line" series. TrekMovie.com has got some details and sneak peeks of the two new calenders.
TrekInk this week breaks into a "New Frontier" with the first issue of Peter David’s "Turnaround" mini-series (due out this week). This story introduces an action-packed tale of Edward Jellico, Mackenzie Calhoun, and a stolen ship with a fancy new propulsion system. A must-have for fans of the New Frontier novels, but what about those new to the storyline?
A few weeks ago we reported that Paramount had cancelled all HD DVD titles, effectively killing off the planned (but never announced) Star Trek Remastered Season Two on HD DVD / DVD combo (Season One was released last November). Now TV Shows On DVD is reporting that CBS and Paramount are going ahead with TOS Remastered Season Two, but for DVD only.
Tomorrow a new Star Trek-themed art show opens at the Caren Golden Fine Art Gallery in New York City. The solo exhibition by artist Devorah Sperber is called "Mirror Universe." The choice of name was not just to allude to the famous episode, but also because the theme of the show is "the concept of a mirror or parallel universe."
This "issue" of TrekInk takes a look at the upcoming third issue of "Star Trek: The Next Generation – Intelligence Gathering" (due out next week), which focuses on Geordi LaForge and Miles O’Brien. We also have a preview for Trek veteran DC Fontana’s first forray into comics, a new series starting in April, set in Star Trek The Original Series’ “Year 4.”
In January TrekMovie.com was the first to mention Cryptic Studios as the possible new home for the “Star Trek Online” MMORPG. Since then evidenced has mounted that Cryptic has the license, with the latest clue coming from sleuthing by board members of StarTrek-Games.com. Although Cryptic will still not officially acknowledge they are the new license holder, TrekMovie.com has independently confirmed with sources that they definitely are.
Break out the Warnog and buckle up your battle armor… this week’s Library Computer takes us on a journey deep into the heart of the Klingon Empire with Keith R.A. DeCandido’s "A Burning House". Also on tap for this week: the future of Star Trek eBooks, and new details on David Mack’s forthcoming “Destiny” crossover trilogy.
Trek Manga — Big Eyes, Small Mouths In September of 2006, TokyoPop did something that had not been done previously when they released an anthology of five stories from Star Trek The Original Series told in the Japanese ‘manga’ style. For this TrekInk we take a look at the first two volumes of Trek Manga plus we have an exclusive look at the next three from Tokyo Pop.
Christmas is coming early as Hallmark’s 2008 ‘Dream Book’ (their annual catalog, usually available in April) has been leaked to the interweb. The ‘draft’ Dreambook details three Star Trek ornaments for 2008: The U.S.S. Reliant, a scene from “The Trouble With Tribbles” and a Kirk era communicator. See below for more details and (somewhat grainy) pictures
In January we reported that P2 Entertainment was looking to transfer the license for the MMORPG “Star Trek Online” after failing to secure new funding. Since then P2 shut down entirely (as their blank website indicates). In February both the official STO site as well as the largest fan site also shut down. However, in the last couple of days the official site has suddenly reappeared with the same old logo, but a new message “COMING SOON.”
Just this week Diamond Select / Art Asylum has released the next item in their ‘Trek Tek’ line, the Kirk era version of the communicator. This joins the previously released TOS phasers and the forthcoming tricorder (announced at the recent Toy Fair). This is not the first TOS communicator made available, but for $29 it offers many features usually only available with high end replicas.
Recently TrekMovie.com has been picking up rumblings of work on new DVD special features for previous Trek feature films. However, as of now Paramount still do not have a single new Star Trek title announced for 2008 or 2009 on either DVD or Blu-ray, but a new blog post from David Gerrold (writer: “Trouble with Tribbles”) has let the cat out of the bag. Gerrold writes about a recent trip to the Paramount lot to shoot special features for a new DVD box set…and while on the lot, Gerrold was also treated to a visit to the set of JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek.