New stuff by Ian McLean, on Flickr This week: New issue (#3) of "The Orville" comic (Dark Horse) and the latest Titan "Star Trek" magazine (#77) turned up. Also b/w photos of John Watt's Andorian and Billy Van Zandt's Rhaandarite, alien crewmembers from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (in an airmail parcel that was lost in limbo for two months between US and Australia - and which spent a whole month somewhere in Hong Kong).
New Trek comics by Ian McLean, on Flickr IDW's "Star Trek: Year Five" #16 and "Deep Space Nine: Too Long a Sacrifice" #4. The Andoria tourist poster is an alternate cover for "Year Five". It contains a typo in the promo, but it is corrected in the final copy. And, found by a friend in an antique/second hand collectibles store: Spock in a vintage issue of Australia's "TV Week" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
New this week: "Quibbles With Tribbles" in the Eaglemoss/Hero Collector hardcover "Nerd Search" series (2020); IDW's "Voyager: Seven's Reckoning" comic #1 and the second "Year Five" trade reprint omnibus; and "The Artistry of Dan Curry: VFX, Weapons and Wonders from 'TNG' to 'Enterprise'" in hardcover by Dan Curry & Ben Robinson (Titan, 2020). New Trek by Ian McLean, on Flickr
New Trek stuff by Ian McLean, on Flickr Christopher L Bennett's "Ex Machina", the January 2005 sequel to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", is now available in trade paperback format (Gallery Books), making a great companion volume to both the 2019 40th anniversary trade reprint of Gene Roddenberry's novelisation and Bennett's more recent continuation of his post-TMP saga, "The Higher Frontier" (March 2020), which is set on Andor. Interestingly, the "Ex Machina" trade paperback is quite nice. The cover is matte-coated this time and the gutters don't appear too wide. (Earlier versions of the MMPB-to-trade Trek novels' layout seemed carried over from the MMPB files unchanged.) My Mego 8" Saru figures also arrived, as did Billy Van Zandt's memoir "Get in the Car, Jane!: Adventures in the TV Wasteland". I've only skimmed ST:TMP alumni Billy's book so far. Some great pics inside, too, but nothing from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". The focus is his prolific TV screenwriting work with the late Jane Milmore. Coincidentally, Billy's Rhaandarite Ensign from TMP features in "Ex Machina"!
I know his hands are on some kind of "science" setup, but it almost looks like he is holding one of the Nimbus III guns from Star Trek V.
Is the Ex Machina copy one of the print on demand books, or did they actually do a full reprint of it?
As I said, it appears to be a much higher-quality reprint than the print-on-demand trades of a few years ago. A US penpal bought it for me from Amazon US because Amazon had stopped most international mailings due to Covid. (The last few print-on-demand trades I saw in bookshops had wide, blank gutters, like MMPB pages printed onto trade-size pages.) The printing info in this one shows a "first printing" of 2005, which would be identical info as the very first MMPB edition. (I know I've seen later printings in MMPB.) This trade has the Pocket indicia and kangaroo logo on the spine, not Gallery and its "G" logo.
Sounds like a print-on-demand copy. Also on Amazon the Trade for “Ex Machina” is around $35, and Amazon lists it as being from Gallery , and since trades have been issued by Gallery with that logo for 10 years now, not the Pocket logo, it sounds like you have a print-on-demand. So is the cover image (and even the text) blurry at all, like they just scanned a copy an original MMPB and enlarged it?
Looks better than the original. The MMPB was shiny and silver. This is matte varnish instead, and tones of grey. Font on cover and photos look sharp.
New arrivals: "Voyager: To Lose the Earth" (Gallery, 2020) by Kirsten Beyer; and the "Delta Quadrant" sourcebook for the "Star Trek Adventures" RPG (Modiphius, 2020). New Voyager stuff by Ian McLean, on Flickr
I just got the second TNG: Domion War novel, Tunnel Through the Stars by John Vornholt. Technically it's #3, but it's the second half of the TNG story which started in #1, #2 is a novelization of the beginning of Season 6 of DS9.
Latest Trek stuff by Ian McLean, on Flickr I already have the trade paperback edition of the "Star Trek: Enterprise" novel, "The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing", but I decided I also needed the MMPB version (to accompany Book 2). Also because the Tellarite on the cover is actually wearing the costume I once won in Paramount Studios' "It's a Wrap!" eBay auctions. Out this week are Titan's "Star Trek" magazine #78 and IDW's "Voyager" comic, "Seven's Reckoning" #2.
IDW's "Star Trek: Year Five", #17 by Ian McLean, on Flickr Continuing the story arc with Gary Seven, a highlight for me with this issue was spotting an Aegis-raised Andorian agent with her pet hybor. We first saw Andorian hybors in the Starfleet Academy comic way back in 1997: Kiffis the hybor, "Starfleet Academy" comics by Ian McLean, on Flickr
New arrivals: New Trek arrivals by Ian McLean, on Flickr IDW's "Star Trek: Year Five" comic issue #18, just one week after the previous issue!; "The Wisdom of Picard" quote book edited by Chip Carter; and Mego Q and Locutus "Star Trek: The Next Generation" 8" action figures, with my custom Ryn the Andorian of "Star Trek: Discovery".