The Wand Company, makers of high end Star Trek prop replicas with practical functions, are back in action, with both the return of a classic product, and a new working tricorder on the way. Continue below to check them out.

So far The Wand Company have produced a TOS phaser remote control(ad), a TOS communicator Bluetooth handset, and a type-1 phaser remote controlled mood light rock(ad). The phaser and communicator have been out of production for some time, and as a result are typically garnering very inflated prices on the secondary market. Well that price bubble just burst, as communicator is going back into production for a 55th anniversary release, and is available to order now on the Star Trek Shop (due to ship just next month).

With any luck the phaser will also come back into production at some point too!

Both items will soon be joined by a brand new tricorder. This product has been in development for some time now, and isn't expected to go up for order until the first half of 2022. But to keep up interest The Wand Company have been posting incredibly detailed blogs looking at aspects of their creation, giving a rare insight into all practical realities of bring to life what is both a highly authentic prop reproduction and a complex modern gadget. 

One of the more recent blogs includes several photos of their first test shot sample, a built up version of the tricorder from the first tests of the part molds. Doesn't it look splendid:

The previous Wand Company props feel almost simply in their functionality (Bluetooth handset, remote controls), compared to the myriad of functions of tricorder will offer. The tricorder will feature a working screen, controlled by the buttons on the hood (one of which is actually a little joystick!), with each of the functions selected by physically switching the data discs inside around, so their different colours can be read by an internal sensor.

The functions include:

• Logs (grey) - A catalogue of episodic captain's logs.
• Planetary (blue) - Images and information about planets in our solar system.
• Audio (brown) - Sound recording functions.
• Atmosphere (beige) - A range of sensors including barometric, humidity, and temperature, with real time recording and displays of graphs for review.
• Radiation (green) - FM radio and "EM field sensor"
• Orientation (red) - Accelerometer and magnetometer to provide compass and orientation readings.
• Status (yellow) - Providing updates on the status of both the tricorder itself, and the USS Enterprise.
• Archive (black) - A selection of historical images and data.

So if you really boil it down, it's a radio, sound recorder, and environment sensor set, with some fun Star Trek information available to look and listen through.

One of those fun Star Trek features is aiming to recreation key tricorder moments from the show, including the historical records seen in The City on the Edge of Forever. The Wand Company team painstaking recreated the newspaper seen onscreen to offer this moment in higher detail than a simple screencap would allow.

Here we have the framing of their newspaper recreations for the tricorder screen:

And the final clipped images:

Some of the other development blogs include showing how an original production prop was scanned to provide the template for this recreation:

Early 3D printed prototype:

And details of the creation of the final product:

Eaglemoss: Hero Collector have launched a new Star Trek collectable range, the Star Trek 3D Chess Collection(ad), which combines the classic game in it's tridimensional Star Trek form, with figurines of characters from across the Trekverse. Continue below to check out details of this new series.

The board is a full sized replica of the classic TOS design, which makes it an imposing 27 inches tall! There have been other tridemsional chess sets before of course, from The Noble Collection(ad) and Franklin Mint(ad), but both were half scaled, so this is the first official chance to get a full sized version of the board.

Season two of Lower Decks came to its conclusion a couple of weeks ago, and of course Paramount+ released a bunch of behind the scenes stuff and fun extra content to mark the release of the final episode, and the season as a whole. Continue below to catch up on all those little extras.

First up, we got an end-of-season episode of The Ready Room, where cast and crew joined Will Wheaton to discuss the season's adventures, plus a fun little art moment (you can also watch this on StarTrek.com if you prefer to Instagram below):

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While Tendi's final selfie of the season takes us to cetacean ops:

That's also the subject of the final of Titmouse Stuff's episode T-shirts for the season:

And that's not all for cetacean ops fans, the Star Trek Shop has also launched quite an extensive collective of merchandise featuring the cetacean ops logo and Matt and Kimolu the beluga whales!

The whales are also among the additional stills released for First First Contact once the episode had aired:

Reflecting on the series at large, this fun social media graphic shows off some of the alternate looks for the main characters across the season:

And StarTrek.com has released another batch of desktop/conference call background with various new locations. These are just some of the ones you can download:

Lower Decks can be found on Paramount+(ad) in the US and Latin America, Bell Media services in Canada, and Amazon Prime Video(ad) most of everywhere else in the world. The first season is also available on bluray(ad). For more Lower Decks coverage check back through my Lower Decks tag.

Prodigy it into it's third episode this week - Though it feels more like the second after the extended two-part start to the series, which you can, for a while, watch for free (more on that below).  Paramount+(ad) have of course been enthusiastically promoting the series, both looking ahead, and reflecting back on the first episodes. Plus several of the production team have shared some really cool behind the scenes artwork. Continue below to check out all the latest from the series.

First up, director and executive producer Ben Hibon shared some great images of the USS Protostar, giving us a chance to really examine the shaping and details of this shiny new starship design. In his tweets he credited designer John Eaves for the "early ideation", the final design to himself and the Nuen Studio team, and the textures to look development designer Nikie Monteleone.

Another piece of concept art, shared by concept artist Morgan Yon, shows us the outside of the Tars Lamora mining colony:

Yon also worked on the opening titles, and has posted some samples from the visual development of that sequence too:

Looking ahead, an interview in The Hollywood Reporter with lead Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman and Nickelodeon's Brian Robbins (who also happens to be CEO of Paramount Pictures) suggests the idea of a Prodigy movie is already very much in mind, with Robbins noting:

Alex and I have talked about what the theatrical film version of this show is and the likes of that. We’re really excited. Ramsey and our Nick team could not be more thrilled to explore more.

With Kurtzman expanding:

The villains don't get the little summary cards, but do also have some new images, giving us some clear images of each of them:

Finally, if you're not already a Paramount+ subscriber, they've giving you the chance to watch the first episode for free via YouTube. When they've done this before it's been a time limited opportunity. Alas it is geolocked, so you'll probably not have much luck trying to watch outside of the US:

If you can't watch the episode yet, you can at least enjoy some of the select stills from the episode which have been released:

In the coming hours and days two different auctioneers are offering up quite a variety of interesting props, costumes, starship miniatures, artwork and more from across numerous Star Trek TV and film productions, including a lot of items from TOS and The Motion Picture, and more spanning right up to Into Darkness. Continue below to check out some of the highlights.

The most notable item is probably the iconic TOS phaser rifle from Where No Man Has Gone Before, which is coming up for sale later today from Hertitage Auctions in their Hollywood and Entertainment Signature Auction. This large one-of-a-kind prop remains in remarkable condition 55 years on from its creation.

Also offered by Heritage Auctions is one of the few Starship miniatures from TOS, the Tholian starship; the elegant simple original version from The Tholian Web.

In a separate lot, but an obvious companion piece, is a set of concept sketches by Matt Jefferies for the same ship.

Meanwhile over at PropStore, their Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction in a few days includes another TOS treasure, an original tribble from The Trouble With Tribbles. Given their numbers across several series now, original production tribbles are not much of a rarity, but this one is a bit special, as it has a built in bladder and hose

As it happens, Heritage Auctions have another of the more unique tribbles, a walking version!

Another notable TOS prop, again from Heritage, is an original bridge chair too:

Both auctions have a wide range of items from The Motion Picture. This includes one of the distinctive wrist communicators, and tricorder from Heritage:

Both auctions have numerous Motion Picture costumes available, the most eye-catching to me are Spock's orange-trimmed sickbay outfit and Uhura's uniform, both via PropStore:

PropStore also have some really cool storyboard art by David J Negron. Four different lotsinclude somekey moments fromthe EV suit sequence:

Also from PropStore there are some nice concept art pieces from The Voyage Home, including a Ralph McQuarrie concept for futuristic San Francisco:

And Chris Evans' matte painting concept showing the Klingon Bird of Prey on Vulcan:

Coming much more up to date in movie production, check out this very impressive Klingon costume from Into Darkness:

My final pick from these two auctions is another phaser rifle, this time a hero version with working electronics from Nemesis:

You can find all these items and many more via Hertitage Auctions' Hollywood and Entertainment Signature Auction, which starts bidding later today, and PropStore's Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction, which goes live in a few days.

The latest issue in IDW's The Mirror War(ad) year-long comic event is available now; with issue two(ad) of the main series within the event released last week. Continue below to check out lots of covers, a five-page preview, and behind the scenes artwork.

While this story is focused mostly on TNG characters, the TNG title was dropped off before the series launched, and this issue might point to why, as it brings in Regent Worf from DS9 along with several other DS9 characters, not to mention more TNG cameos, and event a little love for Enterprise!

The book and series is written by Scott and David Tipton, with art by Gavin Smith, and colour from Charlie Kirchoff. Like the previous issue it's available in no less than four different covers! The A cover(ad) is painted by J.K. Woodward, and prominently features Worf, framed by several of the TNG crew. The B cover(ad) is by Amanda Madriaga and features Sisko and Ro. There's also a rarer retail incentive cover(ad) by Mark Alvarado and also features Ro. And on top of that there's also a really cool Worf cover by Zach Howard with colour by Nelson Dániel, which is an online exclusive - I'm not sure exclusive to where though; the similar issue-one cover was associated with a convention, so maybe we can expect similar.

EXO-6, makers of high end Star Trek action figures currently have their second Voyager character ready for pre-order, and have also recently announced more new characters on the way. Continue below to check out The Doctor, and for news of those forthcoming releases.

Voyager's EMH will join the Captain Janeway figure(ad) offered earlier in the year, and like her and EXO-6's other figures is at 1/6th scale, making him about 30cm tall. The highly articulated figure features a realistic head sculpt, and intricately tailored miniature uniform.

In other news from the Universe Collection, the two prints that have been offered as specials so far to subscribers are now available individually to everyone via the UK webshop (and presumably will turn up in other markets shortly). Both prints feature artwork by Discovery concept artist Ryan Dening. #1 is titled simply USS Discovery NCC-1031-A, and features that ship, while #2 is Starfleet 3189 and features a cool armada of most of the different Starfleet ships of the era.

In other corners of the Eaglemoss starships world, there are some new preview images of the first Lower Decks ship, the XL edition of the USS Cerritos(ad). Eaglemoss have now noted this as special/XL #1 in the fully separate Lower Decks collection (rather than it being part of the catch-all XL series). 

The XL Cerritos is another expected January release. So far no other ships have been announced for the Lower Decks series, so it's not yet know what regular model size will be, what frequency of release we can look forward to, or if there might be a subscription option.

From the original Starships Collection, the 29th larger special in that series will be Eaglemoss' first Klingon starbase, DS9's Ty'Gokor Station, which (as revealed in images released by TrekCore) looks like rather an imposing model! Not sure on the release window for this one just yet.

The original run has also been sort of reborn in recent months with the resumption of bonus issues given us regular extra ships at the smaller scale. Bonus #32, another January release, will be Nomad(ad), which must be the smallest in-universe thing to have earned a place in this starship(?) collection! We have lots of preview images of this now:

Then in February bonus #33 will be one of the more distinctive alien designs, TNG's Talarian Observation Craft(ad). Which alas looks like a terribly tiny model, but a welcome bit of alien variety none-the-less. 

There's also some news of a couple more forthcoming bonus issues thanks to the latest packaging previews. On the way in the coming months are the delightfully odd Hierarchy Survey Ship from Voyager, and a Klingon variant, the D5 class tanker from Enterprise.

Meanwhile subscribers to the Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D model kit part work(ad) have got a nice treat in the form of the first special issues in that series. They have been able to get a new shuttle set, featuring the type 6 shuttlecraft and type 15 shuttlepod, in new larger models, similar to regular starships collection ships - A notable upgrade from the previous teeny-tiny shuttlesets that Eaglemoss have used for most shuttlecraft models before.

It's not known if these will also be offered on the webshop to everyone, but I certainly hope so! Build the Enterprise subscribers will expect to see more designs from the D's shuttlebay in further special releases as the series continues.

I'm not building the Enterprise myself, so have been keeping track of the series via the in depth build videos from the World of Wayne YouTube channel. Here are the latest few since I last updated on the series, including an increasingly well built out saucer, and some work on a nacelle at last:

Finally, there's news of a sort of new collection from Eaglemoss, although it's actually a reissue series. Recently launched is the Star Trek: Starfleet Starships Collection(ad), which will offer again all the Starfleet ships from the original starships collection to new subscribers (so far US only). The subscription is on the basis of two ships per month, and will run for 62 issues. 

They also plan to include the Starfleet ships form Discovery, Picard, and future series, although how those larger models fit into the subscription model priced on the smaller ships is not very clear - This is a strictly reissue series, no rescales or anything like that. For anyone that hasn't collected the ships so far, and isn't into alien ships, this should be a neat way to jump in anyway.

For more Eaglemoss updates, check back through my Eaglemoss tag, or for starships coverage in general see my ships or model ships tags.

In an infuriating last minute announcement, CBS have revealed Star Trek Discovery season 4 will not be launching on Netflix alongside the US release on Paramount+(ad) as expected, but instead will only be available in the US on Paramount+ and Canada on Bell Media services, with the rest of the world having to wait until Paramount+ launches in local markets. Past seasons of Discovery have also been pulled from Netflix with immediate effect. Here's the message to fans:

Paramount+ is already available in most Latin America countries, Nordic countries, and Australia, and oddly the new announcement does not seem to suggest those countries will immediately benefit from being able to watch the new season either. Most of Europe will be able to get it from spring 2022, so can expect to watch Discovery new and old, and Prodigy, when that happens. The situation for the rest of the world is even more frustrating, with fans in Asia and Africa left in indefinite limbo - Paramount+ is aiming to launch into about 45 markets in the next year so (in contrast to Netflix which covers very nearly every country in the world), so many countries may find themselves in a Star Trek desert for a long time to come. 

As a UK fan, and a friend of fans across this globe, this is pretty shit to say the least. The new arrangement with Netflix has, accordingly to Deadline, only just been agreed - Presumably buying back whatever rights Netflix held so that CBS can fully utilise their content as they please - But the timing could not be any worse, just two days before fans across the globe were expecting to join our North American friends in enjoying a new season. This clearly wasn't the plan in the near term, as the launch of season four has been promoted as coming to Netflix internationally right up until this new announcement. Makes you wonder if either party didn't quite hope for the new agreement to play out exactly as it has done...

On behalf of the cast and crew, actor Anthony Rapp (Stamets) made a statement sharing the frustration at the situation:

I hereby reach out to our many international #StarTrekDiscovery fans, who are understandably upset at the last-minute news that you won’t get to experience Season 4 until 2022. We cast members just found out about this as well, & we share your disappointment & frustration.

I don’t pretend to understand how these sorts of deals for international rights are made (or unmade). I will say I wish we all had been told that this was coming, so we could have braced ourselves, & then we could have helped spread the word to all of you.

Having just been to Germany for FedCon, having traveled twice to DST in Birmingham, & having interacted with countless international fans on social media over the past 4 years, I am keenly aware of how much love & support our show receives from many folks from all over the world.

We remain deeply grateful to you all. We hope that when the show makes its way to you, you will continue to support the hard work that we all have done to bring Discovery to life. We are all of us saddened that you will have to wait months longer to experience Season 4.

Thank you to those of you who’ve been tweeting out your honest and passionate and heartfelt responses. We see you, we hear you, and we are committed to doing our utmost to honor you with our work. #LLAP

The silver lining of this is that CBS is obviously trying to keep their content inhouse now and avoid the current rather annoying situation of selling off each new Star Trek series to different international services; resulting in Discovery being on Netfix, Picard and Lower Decks on Amazon, and Prodigy not available at all. In future we can expect to find all new Trek on Paramount+, which is much simpler (even if it does mean signing up to another service if you have Netflix and Amazon for anything other than Star Trek), and should mean fully simultaneous international releases are possible - This has of course been the case anyway so far with Discovery and Picard, but thanks to the licensing arrangements taking too long did mean international fans had to wait a long time to catch up with the first season of Lower Decks. In future we will not have to rely on CBS and international partners working out agreements, it will all just be under CBS' control.

For the time being Picard and Lower Decks do remain on Amazon for the world outside of the US and Canada (and Latin America for Lower Decks), and all the classic Trek series are still on Netflix too outside the US - One would assume CBS would like to bring them all back under the Paramount+ international roof too, but that may depend on the particulars on the agreements they have and how much CBS are willing to pay to reverse them; it's notable that despite Parmount+ being available in Canada for some time, all new Trek keeps being secured by Bell Media in that market, so it makes one wonder if Picard and Lower Decks might also be ensnared by Amazon for some time yet, and the older Treks might have a while to play still on Netflix.

For Discovery fans outside of North America, this is an extremely annoying and frustrating week, and months to come as season four spoilers spill across the web. But at least in future we can look forward to not having wait for news of new licensing agreements when each of the new Star Trek series in development is ready for launch.

This week brings us the fourth episode of Prodigy, and will there doesn't seem to be a new episode specific trailer for it, there are plenty of other Prodigy updates to enjoy. Continue below for the latest behind the scenes art, extra content based on last week's episode, and more.

First up this big news is that Prodigy has been officially renewed for a second season. They've also detailed the release plans for the rest of the first season, which are not as straightforward as we might have expected, now split into three blobs of episodes:

• The current run will only be continuing for five episodes, with next week's fifth episode being the the last to release this year. 
• A second block of five episodes will then return from the 6th of January onwards. 
• Another pause will follow, with the end half of the season, a further ten episodes, coming at some point later in 2022!

But with a lack of previews that's all I've got to share about that, so onward to behind the scenes... 

Where thanks once more to director and executive producer Ben Hibon we have a cool bit of behind the scenes imagery of the bridge set. Here's how he describes the design:

We had many ideas when we started designing our USS Protostar bridge, but three factors kept coming up; all stations should be facing forward, internal lighting should always indicate its structure, and most importantly - for our kids - it should feel like an open window into space…

Looking back to last week's episode, Starstruck, Paramount+ have released the usual suite of extra content. Including this animatics comparison video:

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Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk) covering the Star Trek Explained video, to explain replicators:

 

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And "Set Course with Kate Mulgrew" discussing the episode's theme:

 

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As ever there's also a selection of nice episode still released to highlight key moments from the episode:

And to tempt those of us who can't watch the whole episode yet, here are some new clips too:

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Eaglemoss: Hero Collector have this week added some new listings to their web-shops for both some variant designs from Picard, and the XL edition of the Discovery-A. Continue below to check them out.

First up, you might recall the fleet of near identical Starfleet ships seen at the end of Picard season one was in fact made up of our distinct variants, featuring a mix of two different nacelle shapes (rounder ones and more squared-off ones) with bussard collectors in two different colours (more reddish or orangey). Until now Eaglemoss had released two of different looks for the ship, the USS Zheng He(ad), as issue two of the Star Trek Universe starships collection, and the USS Toussaint, which so far has only been available to subscribers of the series(ad) as an extra for maintaining the subscription. Well now the full Inquiry class fleet can be completed, as Eaglemoss have released the final two variants as bonus models on their European web-shops (no news on a US release just yet, but hopefully they will come there).

The red square-nacelled ship is the USS Varian Fry:

 

Note the nacelles are not the only difference, here's a comparison of the Zheng He and Varian Fry, highlighting the different panelling patterns across the hull, and different impulse engine colours too.

Eaglemoss are describing these are limited edition variants (although how limited who knows), so if you're keen to get them you'll probably want to get orders in sooner than later.

The XL Discovery-A is currently up for pre-order, with an expected January release, right alongside its smaller regular issue sibling. There is a reasonable size difference between the two, with the regular edition 7.8 inches long, compared to the XL's 11.5.

For more Eaglemoss updates, check back through my Eaglemoss tag, or for starships coverage in general see my ships or model ships tags.

This week has delivered the fifth episode of Prodigy, which will now be taking a break until January, so the last for the time being. Continue below to check out previews for the new episode, some cool behind the scenes art from across the series, and extra content reflecting on last week's episode.

There isn't an episode specific trailer for this week's new episode, but there is a new general trailer. This mostly features familiar shots, but does include one tantalisingly brief new scene on a Galaxy class bridge!

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Marooned on a deadly planet, the crew must work together with their captive Gwyn to stay alive…except the planet isn’t the only thing in pursuit.

And this gorgeous planet artwork by Philippe Lim:

Dipping back an episode, concept artist Morgan Yon shared somestunning artwork for the "river of fire" sequence in Starstruck:

And going right back to the start of the series Jorge Barrero shared his artworkof Tars Lamora:

As did Hibon again, with this design by Gus Mendonca for the mines:

From more official channels there's the usual assortment of extra content reflecting on last week's Dream Catcher. Including this animatic comparison, which interestingly shows the Protostar in the nacelles-down configuration in the earlier iteration of the scene.

 

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This week's Star Trek Explained is from Angus Imrie (Zero), talking through M-class planets:

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And "Set a Course with Kate Mulgrew" once more set's out the episodes lesson:

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As usual Paramount+ have also released a selection of images from the episode:

And some clips to tease those yet to watch, including this rather stunning first one when arriving at the planet featured in the episode:

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