How do you overcome the overwhelming sense of futility when dealing with near omnipotent beings? I’ll bet they never covered that one in Starfleet’s training protocols.
Star Trek: The q Conflict #5 is a a story motif that fans can relate to and expect. While an overwhelming sense of frustration might impede the stories in other series, it’s a phenomenon that the different captains and crews of this franchise are used to, and that sets the sets the background for this part of the story.
After all, we are talking about Q – the most pernicious, annoying but popular villain in the Star Trek franchise. Even though one would think a story about confronting an omnipotent being would be present too many obstacles, Star Trek always seemed to do it. Scott and David Tipton have tapped into that motif and, as they are both creators and fans, they are expertly familiar with giving other fans the type of story a fan would expect to read.
The story so far: Q has enraged the Bajoran Prophets by involving them in his contest with the other immortals. The Prophets have demonstrated their discontent by warping time and space to a corporeally unrecognizable extent that even Q cannot contend with. The timely intervention by his fellow Q (Corbin Bernson’s Q from “Deja Q”) and Q-neophyte, Amanda Rodgers (from “True Q”), manage to bring reality back to a level palatable for the Starfleet crews. Q, however, has been placed on notice: no more irresponsible antics or the contest ends, and the war with the other omnipotents resumes, who sense an opportunity to end this charade.
In this issue, Q and Trelane set the next challenge to be the acquisition of a Borg Queen. Quite a daunting task, even for the most advanced starship crew, but given that the selection of crews in this story are from different eras of Star Trek history, the range of available technology puts most of the ships at a disadvantage.
However, the real story is the overall problem: the existence of the contest itself and how the different crews can conspire to extricate themselves from it. That goes back to the tried and true motif of confronting all-powerful, extra-dimensional beings that is a staple feature of a true Star Trek story.
Star Trek comics work because there already is an established fan-base for the franchise and lovers of the comic medium often make up a good portion of Trekkies. Those readers have expectations for a successful story based on established portrayals of characters and any variation that does not have a valid story rationale, will be popularly derided by that fanbase. What’s required for a successful comic is not just a detailed knowledge of Trek trivia but an understanding of the nuances that have made for successful and well-loved stories in different versions of the franchise.
Both David and Scott Tipton have both of those qualities. In extrapolative stories like this, where we have representative characters from four of the versions of this franchise in different situations, the characters have to be accurate. For example, it’s completely within the realm of expectations that Guinan would counsel Captain Picard, especially when it comes to the Q Continuum.
Captain Kirk’s brash and, for lack of a better descriptor, “bulldozer” tactics against the Borg are completely familiar and acceptable, despite their simplistic and brutish nature, they are completely “Kirk”. These behaviours have already been set and it’s the interaction and the speculation as to how these characters would behave in whatever new situation the writers can dream up that provide the entertainment.
That’s the Tiptons’ shared gift. That’s why books like the TNG Mirror Universe, the Trek crossover with Dr. Who or “The Primate Directive” – the shared story set in the “Planet of the Apes” milieu – have also been fan-favorites. Though perhaps not canonically viable, it’s the speculative spirit that matters to long-time fans.
…and in the end, it’s fun. If you can’t have a bit of fun with your fandom, then where’s the joy in it? I mean, I’m really curious to find out how Guinan’s friends involve themselves in ending this conflict, and that’s fun.
Speaking of which, it’s clear that artist David Messina is having fun with this story too. I find his ability to convey part of the story by accurately depicting the same sort of expression one would see in an episode lends itself expertly well in visual storytelling.
Let’s look at the covers to see some more of that expertise.
Covers ‘A’ and ‘B’ are bookends. Cover ‘A’ is a left-facing perspective of the Borg Queen super-imposed over a Cube, with an attacking Defiant and Enterprise-E in front. Cover ‘B’ is a right-facing perspective with Q taking the place of the Queen over the other half of the Borg Cube and the Enterprise and Voyager in front. Both are by David Messina, and like I said, it’s clear he had a lot of fun with this.
The retailer-incentive cover is by George Caltsoudas and he doesn’t fail to disappoint with his depiction of the myriad of Trek villains set inside a stylized portrait of the Borg Queen, seemingly in repose. It’s definitely a sophisticated piece of art that will cause a viewer to lose him or herself in its complexity.
To answer the original question posed at the start of this review, overcoming an overwhelming sense of futility involves providing a sense of enjoyment. It’s a sure thing that the Tiptons have accomplished that with this story.
We last heard from new Star Trek licensee Factory Entertainment back in February when we caught up with their team at ToyFair in New York City — and after four months, the company has announced their first tie-in product for 2019: a golden replica of Star Trek: Discovery‘s Type II phaser which will launch as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive.
While we first saw a prototype of a “normal” Discovery phaser sculpt at ToyFair, the approximately-3″ item — one of the first of Factory Entertainment’s KUZO-brand items — will be a gold-painted variant when it debuts at San Diego in July.
KUZOS™ are detailed die cast metal collectibles based on iconic movie and television characters and props. KUZOS™ are designed to provide pop culture fans with a wide range of high-quality officially licensed collectibles without stressing their budgets or available display space.
Our first wave of KUZOS™ will include iconic metal miniatures from fan favorite titles like Shazam!, Aquaman, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and more! Future waves of KUZOS™ will feature Harry Potter, The Beatles, Lord Of The Rings and many more!
To celebrate the introduction of KUZOS™, we’re thrilled to offer 3 extra special 2019 Convention Exclusives KUZOS™ collectibles (each sold separately) from Game Of Thrones, Star Trek and Wonder Woman.
Every KUZO™ comes in a collector quality clam shell package. For a museum style impact, collectors can display their KUZOS™ collection in a custom-designed, multi-tiered glass and acrylic display case, available to purchase here on our website.
The miniature phaser replica will be on sale at Factory Entertainment’s booth at San Diego Comic Con (booth #2743) from July 17-21… but for those of you who can’t make it to SDCC this year, the company has also launched online preorders for the tiny Type II, where you can reserve one of these Discovery KUZO sculpts for only $10 each for shipment right to your home after the convention is over.
We’re not sure yet when to expect any of Factory Entertainment’s other planned Star Trek products, but we’ll keep watch for their additional product announcements as the year continues.
This marks the third SDCC-exclusive Star Trek product so far announced for 2019, following Icon Heroes’ replica of Emperor Georgiou’s dagger, and Hallmark’s ISS Enterprise ornament — with its low price point and online ordering, will Factory Entertainment’s golden phaser find a place in your collection?
This year is the 10th anniversary of the Chris Pine-led Star Trek film series, which earned the now-familiar ‘Kelvin Timeline’ label about three years ago when the team at CBS Consumer Products needed a way to identify entries from the Bad Robot films in the then-new revision of The Star Trek Encyclopedia.
This contest has ended and all winners have been notified.
Since then, there have been a number of books released about the films which have included the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ moniker in their titling, but the films themselves haven’t been seen with that branding on them — until this month, as Paramount Home Entertainment has released a new Blu-ray trilogy set officially branded as the Star Trek Trilogy: The Kelvin Timeline.
While the new set does not, unfortunately, contain any new on-disc material, the Blu-ray release does feature a brand new, fold-out poster detailing the chronology of the Kelvin Timeline films — Star Trek ’09, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond — with slick graphics that also include Ambassador Spock’s journey across dimensions from the future of the Shatner-led ‘Prime Timeline’ which created the trilogy’s standalone universe to begin with.
Thanks to our friends at Paramount Home Entertainment, we have two copies of this new Blu-ray set to give away to lucky TrekCore readers!
To enter, you’ll simply need to join us on social media and answer this question:
You have until midnight (Eastern time) on Saturday, June 22 to get your entry in — we’ll reach out to the winners after the contest closes to arrange for fulfillment.
Good luck to all!
Please note this contest is limited to entrants from the United States only.
The comments section of this article will not be considered for contest entries.
It’s been a quiet week or two in the Star Trek news world, so thankfully we’ve got franchise boss Alex Kurtzman out today with a new interview in which he touches on every known Trek project currently in production, from the currently-filming Star Trek: Picard to the far off animated shows, and even offers up a hint or two to future potential projects along the way.
Speaking with Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, released Monday evening, a lengthy discussion with Kurtzman led from topics such as his time directing “Brother” — the Season 2 premiere — to things we’ve heard before about new Star Trek shows taking an extremely long time to properly make their way through development, pre-production, and post-production before fans get to see any of the new output.
The hot topic of the franchise right now is Star Trek: Picard, the now-filming series featuring the return of Patrick Stewart as legendary — now former — Starfleet officer Jean-Luc Picard, finally seen on camera in last month’s first teaser trailer for the upcoming show.
Notably, Star Trek: Picard is the first Trek spin-off not to be titled after the ship (or station) housing the Starfleet crew at the center of each show — so how, Kurtzman was asked, do you build a ‘family’ of characters in a show with a one-character title?
ALEX KURTZMAN: It’s a great and necessary question, and it’s something that has been baked into the DNA of Picard — yes, obviously Patrick, it’s Patrick — [but] we have an unbelievable cast. And you know, the thing that I loved about the Next Gen cast is that you really could have focused any episode on any of them.
I would say the same about our cast now, that it’s such an incredibly brilliant group of actors [that are] given such amazing things to do. Without spoiling anything, I think that you will feel that.
The producer also spoke about the importance of having Patrick Stewart in the writer’s room, as one of the voices driving the story behind the series.
KURTZMAN: It was essential. We spent a lot of time with Patrick, and you know what? He’s incredibly brilliant just as a human, and very warm, and obviously he knows Jean-Luc Picard better than anybody — and you know, he was really the one who from the outset said, “I don’t want to do this unless we’re breaking new ground. I don’t want to just play the character I played, why come back to that? We did that already.”
So it’s been a really wonderful give-and-take in our collaboration with Patrick where he very quickly came to trust that we were both going to do exactly what he said in taking Picard to a new place, but also — and he doesn’t look at himself this way — we’re reverent of him, you know? He’s Patrick Stewart! When we’re in a room with him, his opinion really matters to us, and his happiness really matters to us, and ultimately, we couldn’t do this show the way we’re doing it if he wasn’t excited about it and excited to play it.
I think we’ve found a story that honors everything that people love about the character, but in ways that are not what you expect — and yet, become more and more familiar as the show goes. And that’s what’s exciting. A lot has happened to Jean-Luc Picard in the intervening years [since Nemesis]. There’s been a lot going on and he’s had to deal with some new things, he’s had to deal with some old things, and both of those things kind of come colliding together.
He’s made choices that he’s not necessarily feeling great about — and yet I think the audience will understand exactly why he made them.
The USS Discovery may have shot off to the far future at the end of Season 2, but the writers are moving at warp speed to prepare for the launch of production on Season 3, expected to kick off in a month or two — and Kurtzman noted that compared to this point in Season 2’s development, the team is farther ahead in their prep on Season 3.
KURTZMAN: ‘Picard’ is in the middle of shooting, we’ve broken the season and I am so happy with the scripts. We are on episode five of Season 3 of ‘Discovery.’ We’re far along. ‘Picard’ is [filming] here in Los Angeles and ‘Discovery’ is in Toronto, and future Trek shows I believe will be in Toronto.
He also popped in a quick update regarding the Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 show, reiterating a timeline we’ve heard before:
KURTZMAN: Erika [Lippoldt] and Boey [Kim], who are two of our writers on ‘Discovery,’ are breaking story on [‘Section 31’] right now, and the plan is to shoot that the second we’re done with [‘Discovery’] Season 3.
Star Trek: Discovery is now just the first of many Trek projects in the works for CBS and CBS All Access — as the header image of this news update illustrates! — but it also served to (hopefully) stimulate new growth as the franchise continues to expand — and in an interesting set of remarks, Kurtzman notes that this seems to be working… and that he’s got potential plans to keep things growing for the next “five or ten years.”
KURTZMAN: I went to CBS and I said, “I think you have a universe here that is very under-utilized, and a fan base that I think is hungry for a lot more.” And I walked them through the plan of what I saw for the next five to ten years of ‘Trek.’
Part of it was, kind of, premised on the idea that it was going to take time. What I said was, “Don’t expect us to put the first thing out, and suddenly, you know, you’re have 100 million new fans. That’s not gonna happen.” ‘Trek’ has been around for too long for that to happen — but but what we do have is new generations, and what I can tell you is that ‘Trek,’ in general, finds people when they’re about between nine and twelve.
It’s never reached younger than that; it’s never tried to, and to me that’s a hugely missed opportunity, especially because what you’re really trying to do is influence hearts and minds with really positive messages — messages about who we can be as a species and as people and what our future is. So why not start young, you know? And not for a cynical reason. Not because you know, hey, let some more toys, but because if you really want ‘Star Trek’ to reach people, then you’ve got to start young.
And this is where I guess the ‘Star Wars’ influence on me really mattered, because as a kid at four years old, I could imagine myself starting up with a twin suns of Tattooine and wondering what my life was. ‘Trek’ didn’t give me that same thing — it gave me Wesley Crusher, it gave me different characters, but again, those are older characters.
But we are definitely seeing just metric proof that the fan base is growing, and it’s growing younger — and yet, we’re keeping our current fans, and that’s great.
And speaking of reaching out to new generations of Trek fans, we also got a few new thoughts on the two planned animated Star Trek series, starting with Mike McMahon’s Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is set to center around the crew of one of Starfleet’s least important ships.
KURTZMAN: The spirit of each of these shows has to feel very different… Mike’s show [for CBS All Access] is really for kids, I would say, from 11 to 70. [Laughs]
What I love so much about the way Mike is doing is planning things. What you would typically be the ‘A’ story on any [normal] Star Trek episode is happening in the background — like huge, crazy, crazy shit is going on in the background [on Lower Decks], and that’s super peripheral to the story that you’re actually focusing on. No [Trek] show has ever really done that before.
In addition, Kurtzman also touched on the still-untitled — at least, to the public — animated Nickelodeon show being developed by the Hageman brothers, said to focus on “a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation.”
KURTZMAN: The Hageman brothers are doing [an animated] show for Nickelodeon, and that will be entirely different from ‘Lower Decks’… I won’t announce the name of the Nickelodeon show, but that’s a really different show.
That’s a show that’s for kids, younger. Full CG animation. It’s going to be incredibly cinematic. We just started seeing [storyboards] this week. It looks like, wow. It’s on par with Love, Death, and Robots in terms of beauty and lighting and cinema, so it’s a a really different feel, and Nickelodeon has been wildly supportive and I think very excited to bring a new energy to TV, you know, in animation.
While we don’t know anything about the vocal talents expected to be part of either of these two animated shows just yet, Kurtzman did not rule out if we’ll hear any familiar Star Trek voices returning to the franchise when Lower Decks and the Nickelodeon series finally arrives.
In fact, he seemed to indicate that while the main characters will be “mostly new” to Trek, there still “may be some” voice that we’ll recognize.
KURTZMAN: It’s mostly new. There may be some that you know, but it’s mostly new.
Animation is in an incredible, glorious renaissance right now. Between [Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse] which just blew everything open and everything Pixar’s been doing for so very long, I think what I’m excited about in the world of animation is to try all these different things to see what feels ‘Trek.’
Not to leave any corner of Trek untouched, Kurtzman didn’t stop after just talking about the main series that are in the Secret Hideout pipeline, but he also looped back to the next round of Short Treks, the short-format minisodes that will be returning ahead of Discovery Season 3.
We’ve known since January that there were at least two more Short Treks on the way, a pair of animated entries, but in this new interview Kurtzman confirmed that there are a total of six more coming, with the additional four likely to arrive in the lead-up to Discovery Season 3, much how last year’s releases were structured.
KURTZMAN: That’s the other thing. It’s not just the shows, we have the Short Treks too. We’re doing six more of them. Two of them are animated [and they are] unlike the two animated shows. What I love about the Short Treks is that they are an experimental training ground, a place to experiment with different things. Directors who we’ve never worked with before, tones we’ve never tried before.
Michael Giacchino is doing one of the animated shorts; Olatunde Osunsanmi is doing another one in the animated shorts and he’s our main director on Discovery — and again, different animation styles, totally different tones. Aimed at kids, I would say, more than adults, those two.
After all that, what else could there be to talk about? Well, how about the crew the Enterprise, last seen hiding the truth about Discovery’s journey to the far future in April’s season finale?
Since the end of Discovery Season 2, there has been a clamoring of fan sentiment to see Captain Pike and his Enterprise crew return in some form, with nearly 30,000 people signing on to a Change.org petition to show their support.
While nothing definite was offered by the producer, Kurtzman hasn’t forgotten about the Federation flagship, her captain, or its half-Vulcan science officer.
KURTZMAN: I would be remiss in saying you’re going to see Spock again on Discovery because we’ve obviously jumped so far into the future that it wouldn’t make sense…. but the the idea of bringing Ethan [Peck] back, and Anson [Mount] and Rebecca [Romijn] and the Enterprise, I mean, we loved it so much, and to find a way to do that is definitely something we’re thinking about.
Set phasers to fingers-crossed.
Well, talk about a data-dump — what do you think about all of Kurtzman’s comments on the future of the Trek franchise? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Announced by Hallmark this morning, the company will be reserving a limited-edition, Constitution-class I.S.S. Enterprise ornament — from the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror” — for attendees of San Diego Comic Con in July, the annual Creation Star Trek Convention in August, and New York Comic Con this October.
The I.S.S. Enterprise ornament, which is a repaint of 2016’s “The Cage”-era Enterprise starship ornament, will be limited to a run of 3,475 pieces and is set to be priced at $40 USD at the three events this summer.
While not specifically mentioned in today’s announcement, it is likely that the ornament may feature audio from “Mirror, Mirror” as part of its functionality, but we’ll confirm once we have a unit in hand.
Be sure to watch for our review of all of Hallmark’s 2019 Star Trek ornaments when they arrive later this summer!
We’re just a few weeks away from the July kick off of San Diego Comic Con 2019, and today we have our first announcement of the annual Star Trek event exclusive products — this time, the personal sidearm of the Terran Emperor!
Available only as a San Diego Comic Con 2019 exclusive, Icon Heroes has revealed their new Terran Empire Dagger Letter Opener replica, a metal reproduction of Emperor Georgiou’s knife as see in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery.
While clearly not a true fighting weapon like the original (seen below), the letter opener is still set to be somewhat hefty measuring in at 7″ in length and weighing approximately 5 ounces.
The original Terran Empire dagger prop.
Icon Heroes will have the Star Trek: Discovery dagger available for purchase a their Booth #3345 during San Diego Comic Con, but also has said a very limited amount of online ordering will be open between June 17-21 at their website, only for shipment within the United States:
If you are unable to attend this year’s San Diego Comic Con, we will have an extremely limited quantity of our show exclusives available for pre-order online June 17-21, 2019!
There will be a limited quantity available for pre-order each day. Pre-orders will be charged immediately but we will not begin shipping pre-orders until July 22, 2019. We will only ship to the United States (physical addresses only – NO P.O. BOXES).
The Discovery dagger will sell for $30 online and at Comic Con in July.
I’ve really been looking forward to Issue #2 of Star Trek: Year Five, the new Original Series ongoing comic set during the final year of Captain Kirk’s original tour aboard the Enterprise.
The first one really captured my attention with its emotional resonance and intensity of the original show. In fact, the intensity started to hit me as soon as I turned to page … and the pace didn’t let up.
Last we left, after the completion of a vital mission, preventing a stellar catastrophe, the crew of the Enterprise discover the remains of a Tholian colony. After rescuing a surviving child, the Enterprise is approached by a hailed by an approaching Tholian starship, its captain accusing the Enterprise of destroying the colony and abducting one of its citizens. This book has an intensive start as the USS Enterprise prepares for battle.
Like I said, the pace of this story that really stands out. Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly really have the cadence of the best episodes in their writing. The minor plot of establishing the Einstein-Rosen Ouroboros device in the first issue gives way to the mystery of the Tholian colony in the first issue, but returns to play a major role in the encounter with the attacking ship in the second issue in an unexpected way. The conceit of the plot has a rhythm to itself that takes skill in displaying, and Lanzing and Kelly clearly have it.
It’s that rhythm that is reassuringly familiar to Trek fans but is also consistent with the emotionality of the characters. I absolutely love how Kirk asks for McCoy and Spock to join him the briefing room for their counsel, for instance. While Kirk is the daring tactician, it is also the loyalty he has for his friends that is one of his most striking virtues and the combination of these two attributes help to set up that familiar rhythm for readers who are used to it.
The interaction among Kirk, Spock and McCoy is the foundational emotional layer to this series and, at times, I think has been undervalued as a storytelling tool. Lanzing and Kelly haven’t forgotten this, I’m happy to say.
As much as things are supposed to be enlightened in the 23rd century, there’s no escaping the human need for the advice of those closest to them. I have told my students that Shakespeare matters because even though his works were written in the 17th century, people don’t change! It’s the same in the 23rd, 24th or — with the new Picard show coming up — even the 25th century. Humanity will always be governed by loves, hates, prejudices, and the basic emotions that guide us.
They, unlike us, are eternal and even though Star Trek espouses that people will be better, they are still guided by these basic drives. Friendship matters, even in the 23rd century, and I like how Kelly and Lanzing pay heed to that notion in this story.
As a personal aside, I have to say that I even liked the thought to include Cyrillic in Chekov’s suggestion in how to combat Tholian weapons. I studied Russian for two years and can read it Cyrillic! What a cool surprise to be able to actually make sense of a foreign language in something I love!
In any event, while they capture the right spirit of Kirk’s “cowboy diplomacy”, they also capture that need to secure the counsel of the people who are closest to him. But they also recognize Uhura’s gifted linguistic genius and the that the experience and that the talents of the bridge crew of the Enterprise manage to methodically come up with a solution to pacify the Tholians through the combination of resolve and Starfleet protocols. It’s entirely Star Trek, in my eyes.
Stephen Thompson has become a fast favourite of Trek art for me. I am loving his work. Not only is it straightforward and easy to understand, but the positioning of the characters – as well as the background characters – is perfect. I love his sense of dynamism as well as the way that he manages to capture the emotional intensity that is so key to the plot of this book. In that sense alone, he has managed to add to the storytelling and has found a fan in me.
The covers for this book are few in number, but when has quality ever been an impediment to quantity?
Cover ‘A’ is a wonderful collaboration between Stephen Thompson and Charlie Kirchoff, the colorist on this book. It’s a great stylistic piece that represents the emotional mood of the story rather than an episodic one. I’d love to have this on my wall.
Cover ‘B’ is a retailer-incentive edition by J.J. Lendl. It’s a mock travel advertisement poster and while I have to admire the boldly stark interpretation of the work, I also have to accept a mild “tongue-in-cheek” style of humour behind it. It doesn’t halt my enjoyment of it in any way, but it’s a type of irreverence that I think most Trek fans would enjoy.
Remember: this is a Kirk who is at the end of his five-year stint. I think that’s the way we need to appreciate this book. Of course, as a Kirk fan, that’s easy for me to do so. I think Kirk is integral to any story within the Original Series continuum. It makes sense as Kirk was the focal point and his decisions accelerated the plot.
Given the relatively short, near three-year lifespan of classic Trek, it’s absolutely amazing how much has been extrapolated out of it, including novels, comics and six motion pictures; I thoroughly endorse and enjoy how much has been distilled into this series.
Again: it’s the pace. When you read this, I think that’s what comes to mind. It’s a subtle thing, but integral and undervalued – but it’s there, and any reader and Trek-fan will love it, just the same.
Once again, TrekCore is partnering up with our friends at Star Trek Online to launch a new giveaway!
This contest has ended and winners have been notified.
To celebrate the launch of the new PC update “Rise of Discovery,” we’re giving away 10 codes for a Command Dreadnought Cruiser Bundle, plus 50 codes for the Discovery Starter Pack.
Star Trek Online - Rise of Discovery
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The Command Dreadnought Cruiser Bundle contains:
Buran Command Dreadnought Cruiser [T6]
Qoj Command Dreadnought Cruiser [T6]
Plus a fleet ship module and 5 master keys!
The Discovery Starter Pack is filled with:
Walker-class Prototype Light Exploration Cruiser
12 Additional Inventory Slots
1x Large (150,000) Experience Bonus Pool
Discovery-era Phaser Sniper Rifle
Discovery-era Phaser Stun Bolt Pistol
Tardigrade Vanity Pet
To enter the contest, just email us your name by June 18 — and on June 19, we’ll select 10 random winners from all entrants to win a Command Dreadnought Cruiser Bundle, plus another 50 names will be randomly selected to win a Discovery Starter Pack.
All winners will be emailed the in-game code and instructions how to add the ship/starter pack to your Star Trek Online account. Good luck to all!
An all-new Star Trek adventure set during The Original Series era and featuring James T. Kirk!
The saga of James T. Kirk’s historic command of the U.S.S. Enterprise is known throughout the galaxy.
But one part of the legend has barely been touched upon until now: the story of Kirk’s first starship command and the remarkable achievements by which Starfleet’s youngest captain earned the right to succeed Christopher Pike as the commander of the famous Enterprise.
From his early battles with the Klingons to the rescue of endangered civilizations, Kirk grapples with difficult questions: Is he a warrior or a peacemaker?
Should he obey regulations or trust his instincts? This thrilling novel illustrates the events and choices that would shape James T. Kirk into one of the most renowned captains in Starfleet history.
The Captain’s Oath, the new classic Star Trek novel by Christopher L. Bennett released last week, returns us to Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the original Enterprise for the first time in almost two and a half years!
Why such a long wait for Kirk content? There are two factors at play; firstly, the same factors that held up non-Discovery novels as a whole, the renegotiation of Simon & Schuster’s license with CBS. But the extra-long wait for Original Series books seems to have been caused by an additional factor — Star Trek: Discovery itself.
With no clear idea what the show or its stories would be, Simon & Schuster made a strategic decision to avoid the 23rd century during 2017, lest they publish anything that could be blatantly contradicted by the new flagship show for the franchise set close to the same timeframe.
But now, with a clear idea of what Discovery is and the story it is trying to tell, it appears that a return to the 23rd century is on the cards. The Captain’s Oath is the first of two announced The Original Series books that will be published this year, and I am sure more will be on the way soon.
The Captain’s Oath tells the story of Captain Kirk’s first starship command before the Enterprise, intercut with the story of his first few days and weeks aboard the Enterprise with the original crew configuration in the series’ second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
This is not Christopher Bennett’s first rodeo when it comes to filling in gaps in Star Trek history. He previously provided the same service for Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Next Generation novel The Buried Age, which filled in Picard’s history with the story of his transition from commanding the USS Stargazer to the Enterprise. This is also not Bennett’s first time telling a story of transition for Kirk-era crew. His first novel, Ex Machina, picked up after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and started to point the characters back towards the more comfortable point they found themselves in by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
It is great to have Bennett back writing Star Trek novels. He is almost certainly the best Star Trek novelist at deploying real science in a way that works with the Star Trek mythos, and he has such a solid command of the Star Trek canon that his books always feel totally grounded in the Star Trek universe. In the hands of some authors, throwing in so many references to episodes, movies, and published works and cameos from characters therein might feel overwrought, but Bennett skillfully balances showing us things we’ve seen before with inventing new aliens, planets, and concepts.
That is no less true in The Captain’s Oath, a book that takes us on a whirlwind tour of Kirk’s first command, the USS Sacagawea. We meet his first crew, get to witness the birth of his relationships with key figures in Star Trek like Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy and Lt. Commander Spock, all while taking in the sites of the Star Trek universe – both the familiar and the decidedly alien.
The book is filled with little side stories and episodes, a necessary structure given the plot spans multiple years, but each is engaging and different. The two main stories that underpin the narrative – a perceived invasion into Federation space by an unknown alien (while Kirk commands the USS Sacagawea), and a need to rescue a Federation archaeological team from a planet under threat – feel like fresh, cool stories.
The aliens in the Sacagawea plot, the Agni, are just that – very alien. Star Trek has often struggled to show us much more than human analogues with makeup appliances (for obvious reasons), but Bennett can always be relied upon to use the literary medium to develop truly alien extraterrestrials.
There are a lot of interesting characters in this novel – both original to the book or from the Star Trek canon – including crew members from earlier in Kirk’s career who mirror or shade his later relationships with the characters we know much better. For example, his science officer aboard the Sacagawea is a passionate Andorian, quite the mirror for the logical Mister Spock, and how Kirk learns to adapt to that relationship provides us important lessons about how he develops his own relationship with Spock in the Original Series.
But the most interesting character in the novel, as he should be, is Captain Kirk. In the acknowledgements to the book, Bennett points out that the Kirk in his novel is not the same Kirk as has permeated popular myth – the shoot ‘em up, love ‘em up adventurer who has been copied and parodied more times than can be counted. Instead, the Kirk that Bennett builds up is the actual Kirk we’re introduced to in the first season of the Original Series. He’s a lot more aloof than the Kirk of popular culture, a lot more reserved, and even a little overly serious.
Though Bennett is clearly fascinated by that Kirk, it’s not difficult to see this character as the same one that was depicted later in the Original Series as the characterization developed and the legend of Captain Kirk was born. Indeed, the Kirk as he appears in the early portion of the novel at the start of his first command is much more brash, much younger, and much more inexperienced. In those early pages, it’s easy to see both Shatner’s and Pine’s take on the character pull through, given that we’ve seen an inexperienced Captain Kirk on screen in the Kelvin Timeline.
Another highlight of Bennett’s work is on full display in this novel – he is often able to provide cogent explanations to inconsistencies or outright absurdities in the Star Trek canon that still make sense within the universe but add a layer of realism to the work. I won’t spoil it, because these are always things that I look forward to discovering in his novels on my own, but I really liked his explanations for the events of “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” that minimize some of the absurdities of that episode – and also fix an issue with the 2009 Star Trek film in the process. You’ll have to read it and find out what those are, though!
Unfortunately, even Bennett cannot find many redeeming qualities for the character of Gary Mitchell, who is as unlikable in this novel as he was in “Where No Man…” I certainly don’t like the character very much, and I don’t think Bennett does either. If there’s one area I wish the book had spent a little more time on, it’s fleshing out that relationship to show why Kirk relies on the boorish (and a tad misogynistic) Mitchell in a way that could deepen the sense of loss he feels in “Where No Man…” when he is forced to end Mitchell’s life.
If you’ve been itching for a Captain Kirk novel that lets you spend considerable time with the character in a previously unexplored part of his life, and in the process see Captain Kirk do what he does best, then The Captain’s Oath is the book for you.
Though not quite a traditional Star Trek: The Original Series novel with the full crew in their typical positions, this novel tells a great story and let’s us see some really important moments from these characters’ histories that have never before been explored.
As we reported earlier this month, What We Left Behind, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine retrospective documentary which hit theaters on May 13 will be coming to home media this August, and now we’ve got the first details of what special features will be part of the multiple Blu-ray releases of the film when it beams down this summer.
Officially announced today by distributor Shout! Studios, What We Left Behind will be available on both Blu-ray and DVD this August 6, accompanied by nearly ninety minutes of behind the scenes and special content along with the documentary itself, which we reviewed at the beginning of May.
We have learned that Shout! Studios will be releasing two different versions of the film, along with a third version of What We Left Behind being prepared for backers of the Indiegogo fundraising campaign which took off back in 2017.
The STANDARD release of the documentary — the general Blu-ray and DVD release available through Amazon.com and other retailers — will come with six special features, set to include “over a dozen deleted scenes,” additional featurettes with the cast and crew, a discussion about the HD remastering process, and more, totaling nearly ninety minutes.
An Intro from Ira
A Brief History of Deep Space Nine featurette
What We Left Out – Deleted Scenes
Behind the Scenes at the Variety photoshoot featurette
HD Remaster Discussion with the filmmakers
More from the Fans featurette
Theatrical Trailer
The SPECIAL EDITION release of the documentary — a limited-run, two-disc Blu-ray set available only at the Shout! web shop — will come with all the material found on the standard Blu-ray, along with two more exclusive features. (Only 1,500 copies will be produced).
A Musical Reunion with Composers Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner
A Roundtable Look at The Making of the Documentary
A 50-minute discussion with co-director and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showrunner Ira Steven Behr, co-director David Zappone, producer Kai de Mello-Folsom, producer/editor Joseph Kornbrodt and producer/editor Luke Snailham
Unfortunately, the two Shout! Studios exclusive features are NOT going to be part of the Indiegogo backer campaign version of the documentary Blu-ray, as that material has been produced specifically by Shout! for their special release — and was not put together by the documentary team itself.
Hi Eric, Shout’s special bonus disk will include content produced by them (not the film team directly) so is not the same as the backer disks. Anything our film team produced will be included on Indiegogo rewards. Details on bonus features are yet to be announced, so stay tuned!
In addition, Shout! Studios noted on Twitter earlier this month that sales of their special edition of What We Left Behind is only available in the United States — it is coded Region A for North America players only — as they do not support international shipment.
UPDATE: Since this article was published, new details on the backer release have been announced!
The film production team has statedthat the backer discs are expected to have more content than the standard release, as well as being the only region-free edition of the Blu-ray set expected to be made available:
As promised, our Indiegogo backer disk sets are made specially by our team for eligible backers and will include cover artwork exclusive to the campaign. The sets are the only region-free release currently planned, and will include one Blu-Ray disk and one standard DVD in a single combo-case.
Indiegogo contributors should also plan on seeing their version of What We Left Behind arrive before the August 6 wide release of the other editions, as backer shipments are set to ship in the beginning of July, for both domestic and international campaign donors.
This evening, the documentary team announced the extra content coming to their Indiegogo backer release, which includes:
A Musical Reunion with Composers Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner
Indiegogo Campaign Videos & Video Vault
Technical Trivia Track: A special subtitle text track with detailed technical info and listing of our HD Hero sponsors
It’s good to see the composer segment making its way to the backer release as well, and as for the roundtable special that’s exclusive to the Shout! Studios release, here’s what the documentary team had to say in their announcement:
For those curious about the differences, your backer disk sets already include our Musical Reunion bonus feature and a shortened excerpt of Shout’s roundtable (in the HD Remaster featurette).
However, because the extended full-length roundtable discussion is produced separately by Shout! Factory, it is only available on their limited edition disk.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest news on What We Left Behind— as soon as we know where the film will be available to stream digitally, we’ll be sure to let you know!
