So, today’s Sunday Mirror (a newspaper I would ordinarily go nowhere near) had a free special edition of Star Trek Magazine from Titan Magazines. A 16-page “taster” issue, including what I imagine are interviews from the real issue 145, the Movie Souvenir Special.

However, the major surprise came on the back cover. As well as the advertisment for Star Trek Magazine, the back cover includes the first announcement of Star Trek Comic, a new release from Titan! This is the first I’ve heard of this release – and it is a bit of a surprise.

The bumper first issue is apparently out now (although I didn’t spot it anywhere after looking around for Trek merchandise on Friday afternoon after the film), and is 68 pages (I presume future issues will be 32 pages or similar). The issue features the first two issues of the film prequel Countdown, as well as various other features, and film stickers. Obviously, it is intended for a younger audience, but I shall be picking it up as soon as I locate it!

This appears to be a UK-only release, as Titan’s US website has no comics section.

More information can be found at Titan’s official website here.

Bloody hell, that was good.

Near-instant reaction (i.e. having returned home afterwards) – with SPOILERS – below the cut.

Bloody hell, that was good!

Exciting, heartwarming, heartbreaking, epic, personal, and just outstanding.

The end of the first act had me nearly in tears.

I accepted everyone as the “new” versions of the characters.  I hope that the next film gives Cho, Yelchin and Simon Pegg more stuff to do – Pegg needs to be more than comic relief (although he did get a few “engineering genius” moments, particularly with the climax).

I’m quite happy with the Spock/Uhura romance – I think it’s a nice twist to the universe. I am less convinced about the destruction of Vulcan and the virtual wiping out of the Vulcan species.

The new Enterprise looks brilliant – there’s only one angle where she really looks poor. Sadly, that’s actually the angle we see her at for the very first time (when completed).

I am very tempted to go and see it again tomorrow…

Having considered through the making of (which definitely felt far too short), I’m more at ease with part 3 than the immediate reaction I had.

It is something more of a mixed bag, this one. Some good moments, some weak moments. The fakeout with the chase sequence was fun, and there were some good character moments, particularly for Craig (both as Lister, and as himself). The Kabin scene and Kryten’s “interrogation” were a big minus, though, and almost spoiled the rest of the episode for me.

I felt a bit too lost with the Blade Runner references – last night, I enjoyed them without knowing what they were; tonight, knowing that they’re Blade Runner references, it feels rather different. The fact that I was told that there were references actually impacted how I saw them in this part.

The ending seemed a little bit too pat (oh, it was the despair squid, oh, Lister’s staying for Kochanski, oh, Lister’s going back, oh, everything back the way it was), but I’m still, overall, quite pleased with the episode. There were some good moments of humour, some good moments of pathos and emotion, and it didn’t quite disappear up its own arse, as I might have feared.

The writing out of Katerina in part two seems even more abrupt and silly after all three, though.

But, they kept the secret of Chloe Annett’s appearance incredibly well, considering the press interest in the series, and the extensive pre-release publicity. And that resulted in a genuine surprise which I really enjoyed.

I look forward to the DVD release, and hope we get to see Back to Earth in a feature-length form there.

As I mentioned above, the making of that followed was good, although rather too short (we’ve been a bit spoiled by the documentaries on the DVDs – this really needed to be 90 minutes long!).

The first half, I pretty much laughed hysterically for nine minutes non-stop. Utter magnificence. The second half, not quite as much, but there was a huge grin on my face even when I wasn’t giggling madly.

This was, quite frankly, superb. And that’s about all the reaction I can manage this evening.

Red Dwarf is back, after quite an absence – film deals falling through and the BBC completely abandoning the series made it feel like we’d seen the last of The Boys from the Dwarf. But now, on what is, quite frankly, a fairly minor channel (for which this is one of their first original commissions), we have a trilogy of episodes airing over this Easter weekend. And part one just finished.

It’s hard to judge the thing based solely on this first episode – as the first part in a trilogy, it’s largely a lot of plot setup. It’s not bad - although it felt rather too short, and the jumps to/from commercial break and the “To Be Continued” were rather abrupt. There were some humourous moments, some good bits of character interaction, and some intriguing plot developments. The use of special effects is good, and rarely intrudes into the reality of the situation.

It’s clear that the sitcom aspect has pretty much been jettisoned for this trilogy, and the setting is far more of a comedy-drama. This is fine, as it feels like a natural evolution for the series (which was already underway in series VI and VII [the slide back in VIII is best left forgotten - and the complete ignoring of the "cliffhanger" we had at the end of that series is very welcome]), and the cast don’t seem to be troubled by the shift in tone. It’s almost like they’ve never been away, as each has settled straight back into their character.

Part two tomorrow, along with new Doctor Who!

Anyway, today I discovered that the page for the Star Trek soundtrack at UK retailer Play.com has a copy of the cover, and what looks to be the proper track list. Read more behind the cut.

UPDATE: It turns out that none of this is official. Hopefully, that means “completely wrong”. The cover is “definitely not” the official cover.

FURTHER UPDATE: Only the cover is wrong.

Track list:

1. Star Trek
2. Nailin’ The Kelvin
3. Labor Of Love
4. Hella Bar Talk
5. Enterprising Young Men
6. Nero Sighted
7. Nice To Meld You
8. Run And Shoot Offense
9. Does It Still McFly?
10. Nero Death Experience
11. Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns
12. Back From Black
13. That New Car Smell
14. To Boldly Go
15. End Credits

The cover, as I pretty much expected, is a simple use of one of the promotional images – although, I was hoping that one of the new posters would be used in some way. These track titles are, quite frankly, horrific. A bunch of daft word gags? “Hella”? Please. The fake ones that appeared last month were far superior to these silly little things. I can only hope that the score itself is actually decent.

Yeah… to be honest with you, I’m not enormously impressed. The continual sidelining of McCoy in favour of Uhura isn’t encouraging, and the floating heads dominate a bit too much.

Although, the other poster /film revealed (at the bottom, with this one) looks a lot better. I assume that’s real too, although it hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Soundtrack preorder

So, my usual trawl through Amazon listings to see if anything new has popped up has paid off, for a change.

The soundtrack to Star Trek, music by Michael Giacchino, is now available to pre-order at Amazon.com. It will be released on May 5th – that’s the Tuesday before the film is released.

EDIT: Little bit more info from TrekMovie – the release will be on one CD. Which pretty much blows the track listing I mentioned last week out of the water. A shame, really.

Posters

A couple of new posters have appeared on the Forbidden Planet website to pre-order – they’re not bad, but that orange nebula is more than a little distracting…

The premiere of Star Trek will take place at the Empire, Leicester Square on Monday, April 20th, and there are tickets available!

These are a limited number, and cost £70 each (which, I’ve got to be honest, is a hell of a lot of money, even for something like this). The official announcement notes that JJ Abrams and cast will be present.

For more info, and contact details for the tickets, visit Paramount Pictures UK at http://www.paramountpictures.co.uk/news/star_trek_news_5.asp

I was tempted, I will be honest. But, the cost, on top of the fact that I would also need to pay for transport and an overnight stay, sadly renders it beyond my reach.

Still, not too long to go now…