Continuing their recent tradition of tying Star Trek television in with print media, CBS announced this week that Star Trek: Picard will be getting its own prequel novel and comic book series.

The Hollywood Reporter brings us the recently-announced timeline of publications that will lead us into the now “Early 2020” release of the new series. First up is the comic series “Star Trek: Picard - Countdown”, whose three issues will be written by Mike Johnson and Kirsten Beyer, and which will focus around a single mission that will “change the life of Picard”. Eagle-eared listeners will note that the prequel series mirrors the title of “Star Trek: Countdown”, the series prequel to Star Trek (2009), which was also written by Johnson, and current Star Trek overlord Alex Kurtzman. “Star Trek: Picard - Countdown” will be available starting in November.

Then in February of 2020, the novel “The Last Best Hope” will be available, by veteran Star Trek author Una McCormack.

Veronica Hart, the executive vice president of global franchise management for CBS Television Studios, said of the upcoming publications: “From the moment we announced this series we’ve seen a groundswell of support from our fan base who are thrilled to have Jean-Luc Picard back on their screens. [...] Having this brand new original backstory play out through both comic book and novel formats will set the stage for the new series in an exciting way while also showcasing the work of our talented partners at Simon & Schuster and IDW.”