We’ve been talking all week about EW’s most recent cover story, which featured Star Trek XI stars Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine as Spock and Kirk.

The full cover story is now online (8 pages!) at EW and it’s definitely worth a full read. It contains several tidbits about the film, as well as a few spoilers, some of which we’ve covered already, but below are a few more items we’ve yet to mention.

Also, new images from the upcoming J.J. Abrams Trek prequel were also released, some of which we were able to snag some hi-res versions (all new images are here below).

Earlier this week, twelve new images from J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek XI were released online. One of them shows Chris Pine as the young James Kirk climbing out of what seems to be an escape pod from the USS Enterprise which landed within an icy crater.

At first I didn’t think anything of this scene, of which producer Damon Lindelof confirmed occurs midway through the film. Lindelof also alluded that this does not take place on Earth — not so surprising for the Trek universe.

But then pictures taken of this film set in Los Angeles appeared online, namely one that shows a cardboard stand-in of a creature (which most likely will be inserted with CGI later) that looks suspiciously like the Wampa Ice Creature. (A cropped, tiny watermarked version of the image is here at right, but you get the picture.)

It’s been a big week for Star Trek XI, with the release of a bunch of new images from the film, as well as a lengthy EW cover story.

Two of the images released were of the new Trek ship USS Kelvin, which is the focus of the opening scene of the film. EW’s caption for the image at right is “Before Kirk is even born, this ship comes under Romulan attack, launching the plot for the new movie.” The photo here below shows the ship under attack by Romulans, led by Eric Bana‘s character Nero. (Click on each photos for the hi-res version.)

The folks over at TrekMovie spoke with Star Trek XI writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who offered up some info on the USS Kelvin, named so after director J.J. Abrams‘ grandfather.

The writers revealed that the ship, registered as NCC-0514, will be a “significant” part of the story and that it is very different from the USS Enterprise. They also said that the ship “should be the first clue that saucer and nacelle technology are still quite prevalent in our Starfleet.”

Looks like this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly will feature Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in their Star Trek XI uniforms as Mr. Spock and James T. Kirk, respectively.

The issue is set to go on sale this Friday, but the cover story might go up on EW’s website as soon as tomorrow [cover image via JustJared].

According to TrekMovie, the cover image shows the characters in their new two-piece bridge uniform shirts, which consists of a gray/black undershirt and a second v-neck shirt over that in red, blue or gold. It was also recently announced that the film, which will be a prequel to the original Star Trek television series and subsequent movies, will have a two-hour running time.

Aside from the EW cover, a bunch of new Star Trek XI images are now online at various websites. Check them out, along with descriptions, here below.

AMC’s SciFi Scanner recently spoke with JJ Abrams, who finally admitted that a scene has been written for William Shatner in his upcoming Star Trek prequel.

For months now, Abrams and his team have denied that Shatner would appear in Star Trek XI and in return, Shatner — who played the iconic role of Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television series and its subsequent films — has been very vocal about his disappointment in not being a part of the new film.

Abrams said that although a “flashback” scene was scripted for Shatner, Abrams felt that “it didn’t quite feel right.” Because Shatner had said from the beginning that he did not want merely a cameo in the film, the filmmakers found it difficult to find a suitable part for him.