IDW December 2016 Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for December 2016. Three comics and two trades are coming that month. The new ongoing introduces the Borg to the Kelvin Timeline around ~100 years early. Besides the Borg, the movie crew of the Enterprise will also cross paths with the Green Lantern Corps for another crossover miniseries. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, Ghostbusters, TMNT, Transformers, and more click here.

Star Trek Beyond Home Video Release Date

The official release date of Star Trek Beyond for home video has been announced. The movie will come out in the usual array of combo packs and special additions on November 1, 2016. You can also buy it early digitally on October 4 but considering the price of a digital copy is the same as the hard copy that comes with a digital code, you get more bang for your buck by waiting (and can sell off the hard copy to recoup some cost if so desire).

The special features include deleted scenes, gag reel, behind the scenes featurettes on aspects of the movie including the characters, sets, special effects and more. There is also a look back at 50 years of Trek along with the unfortunate passing of Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin. The full details can be found here.

To pre-order: Amazon Exclusive Set | Combo Pack | DVD | 4K UHD Combo

Star Trek Discovery Premiere Moved to May

Star Trek: Discovery premiere has been bumped from January 2017 to May 2017. The press release says the new date " is driven by the belief of the creative team that this gives the show the appropriate time for delivery of the highest quality, premium edition of the first new “Star Trek” TV series in over a decade." Considering the special effects heavy show would need to have completed filming its first episode by at least the end of October to make a January premiere, the news comes as no surprise since casting has not even started. That estimate probably would cut things too close as whatever lead time would be eliminated by time include about three to four weeks of Holiday time off that most shows take. Net result there was no way they could have maintained a weekly release for 13 weeks if they had not even completed casting by this point as scheduling then becomes an issue due to lack of lead time.

While it will never be said, I suspect what really happened is Bryan Fuller's plate simply got too full. While prepping Discovery, he was also completing the first season of American Gods so the divided attention probably slowed down prep since his approval would be heavily needed for concept designs, set designs, casting choices, script rewrites, and a thousand other daily decisions that a new show requires. A new show is like a new born baby, every aspect of its care have to go through the parent (show runner), no matter how small. As the "baby" gets older, the parent doesn't necessarily have to be involved in every single little decision as others (in this case on set producers, writers, etc.) now have the guidelines and approval to make those decisions but getting that in place requires to building it and that is where they are at right now.

While fans may be disappointed, this may prove to benefit the show. The January to March schedule would have had the show competing against network and cable television as they not only started to premiere their second half of 2016-2017 shows but also be at the height of "sweeps" in February to goose ratings for the end of season in May. By waiting until May to premiere it on CBS, the network can more fully advertise the show and it will enjoy a mostly competition free summer to advertise and build an audience. It also means the first half season of cancellations will have concluded which would free up actors that might be perfect for the roles Fuller and company are creating. This does seem like a very old school way of thinking vs how streaming ratings work but keep in mind that CBS is holding the purse strings. The practically invented the old way of thinking so wrapping their heads around new approaches is going to take time and likely lessons learned the hard way. The hope is Discovery doesn't become an object lesson via an early cancellation due to their inexperience.

Happy 50th Anniversary Star Trek

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

September 8, 1966. The premiere date of Star Trek. Today officially marks the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. The franchise has spawned five series (Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise), and soon a sixth (Star Trek: Discovery) for a total of 726 episodes of television. Add to that 13 movies, hundreds of books, dozens of video games, and thousands of different type of merchandise as you have a juggernaut unlike any other. The Paramount and CBS it is simply a billion dollar franchise. For fans, it is a future to strive for.

For [half] a century, they have thrilled us with their adventures, amazed us with their discoveries, and inspired us with their courage. Their ship has journeyed beyond imagination; her name has become legend; her crew, the finest ever assembled. We have traveled beside them from one corner of the galaxy to the other. They have been our guides, our protectors, and our friends. - Star Trek VI Teaser

Thank you to all those that helped build Star Trek into this wonderful universe that will continue to inspire generations to come. Here is to lost friends and the message of hope Star Trek brings to all of us.

LLP


Others tributes:
100 Greatest Episodes - A run down of 100 best from the total 726 eps

How to Stream Star Trek - Where to find the various series and movies which are oddly fractured across the main streaming platforms

50 Star Trek Moments - A little tongue in cheek look at the franchise

Things Bones Is Not - Video and list of McCoy's "I'm a doctor, not a..." and variations of.

AICN - A brief but pleasant look at Star Trek's very beginning to today.

NASA - staff from different NASA facilities wishing a happy 50th

5 Star Trek Novel Spin-Offs to Explore - An overview of Star Trek novel series from the last 25 years or so that is worth reading

7 Things That Wouldn't Have Happened Without Star Trek - 7 accomplishments of the series

Leadership Lessons from Star Trek - Using episode examples, an overview of leadership qualities displayed by the show

Facebook Star Trek Emojis - New icons to celebrate the icon

Star Trek Timelines - trailer for new game

USPS Star Trek Stamps - newly issued by postal service

First Look At Star Trek Discovery Uniforms, Reason Behind Name

Over the weekend the Star Trek convention Mission: New York was held. With that came some tidbits of news about Star Trek: Discovery including publishing plans, origin of the name and the uniforms.

As the image tweeted by show runner Bryan Fuller indicate the uniforms will fit nicely in "The Cage" era the series is set (click here to compare with TOS era uniforms). In addition Fuller also explained why the ship and the show is called Discovery:

One of the biggest responsibilities of a Star Trek series is to christen the ship, and this ship is called the Discovery for a few reasons, not the least of which is Stanley Kubrick’s contribution to the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey, NASA’s vessel, the Discovery, and also the sense of discovery and what the word discovery means to Star Trek audiences who have been promised a future by Gene Roddenberry where we come together as a planet and seek brand new worlds and new alien races to explore and understand and collaborate with.

He also explained why the series' main character is the first officer:

We needed to look at life on a Starfleet vessel from a different perspective so we introduced a character who is not a captain, but is going to be interacting with the crew in a whole new dynamic which gives us an opportunity to tell a story about life on a Starfleet vessel.

Star Trek books, currently averaging around 6 per year (use to be 1 to 2 per month) has been a constant for nearly 30+ years so it doesn't really come as a surprise that a new series of novels are planned to tie into the series. The first will be written by David Mack who has written a number of Trek Books over the years. Long time Voyager book writer (and Discovery writer's room member) Kirsten Beyer will be overseeing the books to make sure they don't step over any TV show toes. She will also be over seeing a comic book series with IDW that will be published in January. The team for the Discovery comic was not announced.