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#783-Alien Parasites & REM Fatigue, Combo Dilemma, space/planet, Premium
-Alien Parasites: Unless INTEGRITY>32, Away Team (if any) beams back and opponent immediately controls ship and crew until "stopped".
-REM Fatigue Hallucinations: Crew or Away Team dies at the end of your third full turn unless cured by 3 MEDICAL OR docking at outpost.

PICTURE: Let it be known here and now that I consider the split pictures on the Combo Dilemmas to be real cop-outs. They really don't add anything new to the concepts, and in this era of CGI, they could have been much more interesting. Imagine parasites coming out of the mouths of the people in the body bags, for example. In this particular case, you might remember the Alien Paraistes picture got a relatively low score due to the silliness of the effect (2.6 to be exact), though the as-yet unrated REM Fatigue Hallucinations has a much better and spookier design. Here, both are truncated, but that doesn't change Parasites' composition and simply harms that of REM Fatigue. On the plus side, the body bags sitting up do mesh well with the "Bluegill Queen"'s sitting position, but that's not enough to stop me from giving the card a very poor 1.1.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: On of the things I like about the Enhanced Premiere Combo Dilemmas is that Decipher's repaired some of the Trek Sense inherent in the classification of some of their Premiere dilemmas. Case in point, I mentioned in my original review of Alien Paraistes that it was a mistake to make it a planet-only dilemma, especially since we saw infections being "conducted" aboard ships. That's at last been fixed. The new problem though is that I don't particularly think the dilemmas that have been put together actually GO together. In this case, it's not that bad, though the two are unrelated on the show, maybe we could say a side-effect of fighting the Parasites is sleep deprivation. After all, you only encounter the second dilemma once you've fought off the Parasites (either by passing the dilemma or after its effects have disappeared. That doesn't cover the Bluegilled personnel encountering the dilemma themselves however, but they can't be used to our bodies yet, and THAT might explain it. Which really leaves us with the Trek Sense of the individual dilemmas. Alien Parasites had gotten a 0.5 the first time around, and for good reason: Integrity just doesn't seem to be the controlling factor, nor is the idea that a lone infected redshirt can then infect all your other personnel in the blink of an eye by beaming back. Plus, the question of how the crew gets rid of the Parasites in a single turn is never answered. I don't want to spoil the review of REM Fatigue Hallucinations, but I will make some cursory comments: It works to make the crew die in the long rather than the short run, given their condition. That condition IS medical in nature, so the cure coming from that classification likewise makes sense. Maybe Empathy could have helped though (well, didn't help the Brattain's resident Betazoid). Returning (now docking) at an outpost also seems to help... Large medical facilities? Could be, but it's too bad the card has to descriminate against Infirmiries and Headquarters which are no doubt likewise equipped. All things considered, the card would get a 2.1 (it's the Parasites that kill it).

SEEDABILITY: Two dilemmas for the price of one seed slot is a marked advantage, but are the two dilemmas worth seeding in the first place? I think so. With a 2 in 1, you can afford to seed fewer cards under a mission, perhaps luring your opponent into thinking a smaller crew or Away Team can get through the dilemmas alone. That'll allow Alien Parasites to hit more easily (its main problem is that INTEGRITY>32 isn't that hard to muster). Once you have control of the crew, you should get rid of the MEDICAL, perhaps by dropping them in your nest of Jem'Hadar killers on the next planet, then reattempt the mission, sure to hit REM Fatigue Hallucinations, then any dilemma beyond that (REM doesn't stop you) which should be something that keeps the ship (or Away Team) from returning to outpost, say Cytherians in space or Duonetic Field Generator on a planet. Either way, the personnel are stranded and will die at the end of their third full turn. Nice and effective. Beyond these kinds of combos, there's no real advantage to being able to seed Alien Parasites in space, since the INTEGRITY is more easily mustered up there, but flexibility in combo building is the key. Takes two already competent dilemmas and makes them nastier than ever. A 4.1.

TOTAL: 9.73 (48.67%) I'm just not delighted with the overall design of these Combo monstrosities.

PICTURE: Another Combo cop-out! In this age of CGI, I don't see why they couldn't combine images in a smoother way, provided the images can go together. Here, they would have had difficulty since the two "characters" are vastly out of scale with one another, which should have been a tip not to attempt it as a card (more on that later). There is some design relationship between the two parts of the image since both are faces, and also something in the colors - purple appears in the lower background of each. Both are sadly crowded in their little frames though. I can't go high than 1.4.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: First off, while I have no problem with an Anaphasic Organism existing in space (they are made of energy, and the candle can be brought aboard), it does infer that the personnel that resigns has a way off the ship that is invisible in the game. Not a big problem, but not as elegant as the planet-only version. Nagilum however has little business being encountered on a planet. I have difficulty imagining something that lives in a "hole in space" actually live on a planet surface. And since both dilemmas in the combo are entities of a sort, I find it unlikely they would be encountered in the same "episode". I mean, players can load up missions with any kind of dilemmas they want, but putting these two together on the same card really creates such an episode. As for the Trek Sense of each, well, Anaphasic Organism did well in the original review as it tells the episode's story rather well, with sensible requirements, but the concerns mentioned above hurt it a little. I don't want to give everything away when it comes to Nagilum, but I will say this: Nagilum's penalty works, but the requirements leave a little to be desired. The Diplomacy is okay without being spot-on (though I'm not sure what would be), but the Strength? You can't fight a godlike entity. Even if it represents an ability to endure pain, I don't see how it would make Nagilum really let you go. I suppose either requirement could make him bored to that point. I also don't agree that the dilemma should be discarded. He seemed more persistent than that. And of course, the planet-side potiential hurts the card even more. One highly-rated part, one middling and a few mistakes added? That's a 2.9 all in all.

SEEDABILITY: That's two seed slots in one, and that can't be all bad. Anaphasic Organism is a fair, but unimpressive dilemma (easy requirements, not always a good target), and remains unimpressive at the start of a combo, but Nagilum turns into a rare mass killer for planet missions. Of course, his requirements aren't that tough either. In a combo with other dilemmas, you have a few more possibilities, including following up with Diplomacy killers or redshirt hosers (the dilemma weeds out a large proportion of personnel present) or leading with female-related dilemmas (to make sure you get a target). Bottom line though, even if both parts of the dilemma are cool killers, you'll usually have problems with those rather easy requirements. It's too bad too, because if the first dilemma stops your opponent, he might make a redshirting mistake by sending a smaller group through Nagilum. That's a big "if" however. Lastly, the fact that both parts are discarded after hitting (or non-repeating, whatever) is another disadvantage. Good if it hits, but by no means a sure thing. A 3.5 here.

TOTAL: 10.4 (52%) Still not impressed with the idea of these.

PICTURE: I remind you that I consider these Combo split-screens to be cop-outs (especially when the image of the alien could have been replaced by that of the virus in a CGI masterstroke), so let's move on. There's at least a thematic link between the combined cards' pics in that both feature a computer screen. One being at the reverse angle of the other makes some kind of compositional sense. Unfortunately, the card's really no more attractive than a broken mirror despite all this. I tell you, those split-screens do not work. A 1.3.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: In my review of Ancient Computer, I had mentioned how the card made enough sense, with the technical people on a ship making sense of the Computer through either of the required skills (Science perhaps using Archaeology). I didn't think it was inspired or anything, but it worked. Everything but the Space icon that is! I saw no reason why the Ancient Computer in question couldn't be on a planet! In fact, it was a lot easier to explain the Computer that way, even if its episode placed it on a derelict ship. The Combo fixes this. As for the Microvirus, there was also no reason why it could be encountered in space. After all, it's just another version of Yuta and SHE's space/planet. The virus' game text is quite all right, if again, not very inspired. As a virus, it requires Medical to detect. As a security risk, it requires Security. And since you can engineer the virus to strike a specific person, it's opponent's choice. I'll go into more detail in the Microvirus review eventually, bit for now, this really isn't bad. As for a link between the two, well, there isn't really one, but it's not impossible either. That Ancient Computer may be housed where the virus remains dormant. Of course, it's not much of an opponent's choice in that case. So okay, not much of a connection at all. Good dilemmas, an icon fix, but no real link: a 3.7.

SEEDABILITY: In my opinion, this dilemma should have been reversed. The wall at the beginning of the combo does nothing to send the wrong people into the second dilemma (or killer). In fact, it even helps you get the right people to stop the kill. What a way to hurt an opponent's choice dilemma. Sure, you can make the thing tougher by including cards like Access Denied and DNA Clues to possibly boost the number of Computer Skill and MEDICAL personnel required from the dilemma, but that's nothing you couldn't do to make the original dilemmas more difficult. So in essense, the only real advantages to using the Combo is the fact that it's a two-for-one seedling, and it's more flexible thanks to its space/planet icon. Since your opponent might have the chance to build the right away team to pass Microvirus following after being stopped by the Computer, I recommend MEDICAL/SECURITY hosers right after this card. Hippocratic Oath will hit, I guarantee you. So some interesting possibilities if you're sneaky, but otherwise, rather underpowered as far as these things go. A 3.

TOTAL: 10.67 (53.33%) Overall, still one of the better Combo Dilemmas.

PICTURE: Very, very nice. The colors are incredibly rich, right down to the well shaft behind the two. The perspective with Beverly standing in front has something classic and wistful about it. Love the costuming too, with our only real link to Trek being the tricorder. Excellent texturing worth a 4.5.

LORE: Once we get through with personae and true species, we're left with not much at all. The backstory is there, but the prose isn't very interesting, and even a little rocky in spots (not unlike mine). A plain 2.9.

TREK SENSE: The biggest question raised by this card is on the matter of affiliation. Like Galen, these Starfleet officers are making believe that they are Non-Aligned. But aren't they still working for the Federation? Barkonians don't ever go offworld (they are not advanced enough) so it would be very strange to see two of them working alongside Romulans, Klingons or Bajorans. I mean, what would be the rationale for keeping that disguise in any shipboard scenario? The skills pretty much tell us that the role-playing isn't airtight. While they ARE posing as Civilians, one of them has a Tricroder on her person. You also wouldn't expect Barkonians to have Medical x2 or the kind of Navigation (and staffing icons!) listed here. But that's okay. Civilian is not a set of skills, it's a status, much like Riker's lost Officer here. Everything that IS a skill or skill package can be attributed to the personnel itself, and not its disguise. So how were the two transposed? Without their suits, they apparently drop to Staff personnel. The Command icon is part and parcel of rank, but Staff is all ability. You can only strip someone of the former. Beverly only loses Exobiology which is dead wrong as far as I'm concerned. Will's Anthropology is all about having researched the Barkonians to imitate them well; Bev should have kept Exobiology to deal with their foreign biology. Biology is for your own species, and it's not like Data was THAT either. She has a tricorder in the pic, so her download may seem natural, but it's too wide. ANY tricorder? What's she doing with an Engineering Tricorder, for example? And the fact she can't use any of them with her classification really handicaps her both here and in Stockability. She also takes a one-point drop in every attribute. Less Integrity because she's deceiving people, less Cunning because she's not in her element, less Strength because she seems to be relying on Will for protection (and I guess the dress hurts your chances in combat). As for Will, he keeps Diplomacy (to deal with Barkonians) and Navigation (perhaps to help find Data and move around in the countryside). Anthropology, we've talked about already. Attribute-wise, he's got one point less in Integrity (same reason as Bev) and one more in Cunning (Anthropology's fault, no doubt). Scrunching personnel together has its dangers... a 2.7.

STOCKABILITY: Since Beverly doesn't lose too much in the transition from single personnel to dual, and William T. (especially the Premiere version) wasn't that hot to begin with, you stand to gain from using the combined version. The skill base is quite varied, with an always strong double-MEDICAL, very useful Navigation and Diplomacy, Biology to fight off those Aphasia Devices (among others) and a CIVILIAN/Anthropology combo for Primitive Culture. And since they are Non-Aligned, you can use them with any non-Borg affiliation to supplement your dilemma-passing and mission-solving power. I wouldn't even split them up as separate personae later on (hard to do unless Federation anyway). For those still clinging to Colony strategies, this one card is worth 4 points per turn at yours. The tricorder download would be more appreciated if those CIVILIANs could use any of them to add to their skills, but they can't. Okay for the rest of your Away Team or crew, but it's too bad it can't be put to more immediate use. There's still use for tricorders against dilemmas, Tribble Bombs, etc., of course. So to recap, an excellent Non-Aligned source of many useful skills (especially MEDICAL), and a personnel with the equivalent of 14 INTEGRITY, 15 CUNNING and 11 STRENGTH. An excellent 4.2.

TOTAL: 14.3 (71.5%) The dual-personnel bridge crew gang in Enhanced Premiere are total indulgence, but look so gooooood.

PICTURE: Like I always say, I don't think these combo dilemma pics are anything but a cop-out. Ok, it would be pretty difficult to create an image with both these concepts (since they are quite removed from one another), but it could be done. Take another shot of Dr. Pulaski, one in profile, and put her in front of a large viewscreen on which is the Iconian Computer Weapon image. I've seen CGI which was more impressive than this. Instead we get a truncated Computer Weapon (the better of the two images) and a really plain replay of Hyper-Aging. The two images don't speak to one another, nothing hums at all. A 0.9.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: First, some quick thoughts on the dilemmas as they were (split up). Iconian Computer Weapon had a conceptual flair that wasn't all that bad. Though Computer Skill would have been a better requirement, the idea of losing non-Personnel cards in hand as if they were files was pretty cool. Many interrupts and events could be called up on the computer. Many couldn't, ships especially, but this is why the card remained conceptual (that and the lack of a ship going boom). As for Hyper-Aging, it took a more standard route, with pretty easy to accept requirements and our first case of quarantine. This is very much in line with its episode (Transporter Skill, though absent in Premiere, would also have been a good requirement). Two things have changed: 1) they've been joined at the hip, and 2) they are now space/planet. For the first part, I have a lot of difficulty placing the two dilemmas in the same episode. They have virtually nothing to do with each other. I mean, maybe the Iconian facility that launched the Weapon probe also carried a Hyper-Aging virus, but that seems a little convoluted to me and not at all similar to either episode. The fact that they've become space/planet works for Hyper-Aging, for which there was no real reason to be restricted to planets, but not Computer Weapon. In the case of THAT dilemma, though no ship is required from the game text, it nonetheless would require, in Trek Sense at least, a computer such as that found on a ship (never with an Away Team unless you count Data). The dilemmas separately go from fair to good, but combined, they tend to suffer. A 2.

SEEDABILITY: Obviously, there's an advantage to seeding one card that contains two dilemmas, but are these two a good enough "combo"? Well, they just might be. Alone, Computer Weapon is more of an annoyance than anything (either that, or a self-seed used to replenish your hand); Hyper-Aging is more dangerous, but its requirements are easily met. The real innovation here is that this card creates another ship-quarantine for you to exploit. Remember how useful Aphasia Device is? Oh, trapping an Away Team on a planet can be useful if you follow up with Harvester Virus or Horta, but there's nothing to stop your opponent from bringing the cure to the planet. No, for this kind of strategy, better to use Duonetic Field Generator. When a ship is quarantined however, it becomes prey to Cytherians, Conundrums and the like. When the ship and crew must only do something and nothing else, they have a harder time connecting with that cure. So what about that Computer Weapon lead? Well, it's a stopper in a rare case where SCIENCE wouldn't be present, but if it does stop an Away Team or crew, Hyper-Aging is revealed to be the next dilemma. That means you can follow it up with a MEDICAL or SCIENCE hoser since you know they'll be present (No Loose Ends is tough on Meds, Unscientific Method still good on SCIENCE). To make sure your opponent makes that choice, attempt yourself without the SCIENCE, using the Weapon as a self-seeded hand replenisher and basically "tell" your opponent what's coming up next. Fair Play won't stop you from ATTEMPTING a mission, only solving it. Act innocent as if you only wanted to fix your hand and let your opponent do the rest. There's some wiley strategizing that can be done with this card. It really depends on your finesse. Good possibilities for a 3.6.

TOTAL: 8.67 (43.33%) Not sure these things were a good idea. As far as design goes anyway.

#915-Covert Installation II, Mission, planet, Cardassian/Romulan, Premium
Neutral Zone Region*Devora: Build station.
-ENGINEER + Leadership + Treachery
-Span: 3; 30 points; Front: [Wormhole] You may move your staffed ship between here and any other location if that location is a [Wormhole] mission OR by playing one Wormhole interrupt there. Then flip this mission over; Back: If you have a staffed ship here, you may play Long-Range Scan here to "detect Wormhole" (flip mission over).

PICTURE: The original version got a low 1.5 for being a bright pink beacon in space yet still holding a secret facility. This one's a little better framed because of the extra game text however, so I'll be generous with my 1.7.

LORE: Ok, so they fixed the region as per current rules, but "Build station"? Yuck! That one was amputated 'til there was nothing left. Oh, and I STILL can't find Devora on the star charts. Man, how can I give it more than a 1?

TREK SENSE: Most of what was good about the card has been watered down, and all the new stuff may actually cause problems. There's also a persisting problem - that of the Neutral Zone region not being a real region, not if you're going to give Interceptor bonuses here, for example. The Bajoran, Cardassian and Sol systems, yes, but the RNZ contains multiple systems. It's a whole border! They should have left this one alone. What used to be good was that it was clearly a Romulan mission and well worth the 35 points to them. Now we have the Cardassians going into the Romulan Neutral Zone to do the same. What? I would believe that such a mission was right up their alley, but going into the buffer territory between the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation is more than a little brazen. Maybe they're spying on the Romulans, but that's still a stretch. And the points have gone down too... ah well. The requirements are still top notch though, with an Engineer to build the station, Leadership to oversee things and Treachery to keep the facility a secret one. No facility actually built here? That's a bit of a downer. Now, about that wormhole... It's the common kind of Wormhole so I can believe one will open just about anywhere (here included). What is less likely is that it could be reused over and over again, simply by re-discovering it with a Long-Range Scan (more on that in a second). Well, I'm not really against it since the Wormhole is an unstable one (with various possible exits), but I do frown at the network existing between the Enhanced Premiere missions. There was no such network at these planets on the show. The Scan idea to detect the Wormhole is a nice piece of business and perhaps allows us to believe the Wormhole isn't that close to the planet (but still within the same Span). That's fine, and it validates the LONG-Range Scan. Highly artificial changes drops version II from I's 3.7 to a 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: Well, version I did quite well here thanks to a number of things. First, it was very easy for the Romulans (including solving it with a lone Sirol) and had some nice points attached. Second, it was a planet in the Neutral Zone, allowing you to run a PNZ deck that could withstand Balancing Act and The Big Picture, while still keeping all your missions together. The mission has lost very little in the "Enhancement" and gained lots. It loses 5 points which is really too bad, and for the Romulans at least, gains a rival affiliation. The mission does become more useful when you do consider it as a Cardassian alternative however, since it's just as easy for them (though no single solver [get Lore, it pays] or mission specialists for them). The Romulans are the real winners though because they can use the built-in Wormholes (no cards to stock!) to run from one Enhanced Premiere planet mission to another, no matter the distance between them. Excavation II is another easy one and Relief Mission even easier. Not much on points though. You can also use a single Wormhole card to leave the Neutral Zone at the appropriate time, even to another spaceline. By building an outpost here, not only do you make yourself elligible for Parallax Arguers, but you can create a sort of spaceport for various Wormhole destinations. Of course, those Long-Range Scans you'll have to stock are going to be a pain, but that's the price you'd have to pay. Some interesting innovations, they may be enough to stock this one instead of the other, but they're relatively close. A 4.4.

TOTAL: 10.4 (52%) Came out poorer than its older twin.

PICTURE: Odd poses for our two friends, no? The lore will explain the specific moment shown here, but that makes it seem more like a verb card than a personnel card. The two aren't really working together, but one on the other (indeed, Geordi holding a tool up to Data's head is a little offputting). And the engineering environment is a bit oppressive as a framework, though some of the lines are good. I generally like action shots, but for dual personnel, these can be tricky, I guess. Just a 2.9.

LORE: Like I said under Picture, the lore explains the pic, but really doesn't sound like personnel lore. The way it's put, it sounds like the two characters are pulled from a very very specific scene which they may not leave. These guys were best friends, and this was deemed necessary to put them together on a card? Lame with barely a 1.7.

TREK SENSE: Data alone is an über-personnel. Geordi alone is a great mission solver. Together however, they don't quite pool their skills. This may be due to the card's source: the episode(s) "Descent". In this episode, Data is somewhat inhibited by the effects of Lore's fingernail. Preoccupied as he is, and admittedly dangerous to his crewmates, he demotes himself from Command to Staff. He also doesn't make use of his Exobiology or Astrophysics, and his Computer mind (Skill) is more muddled (drops to x1). His Integrity and Cunning naturally take a big (2 point) drop. I'm not sure he should have kept Music, but it may be due to the emotional effects of the fingernail and the emotional nature of music. I'll buy it, especially the Nemesis icon which is pretty much taken from this episode even when it occurs elsewhere. Geordi, for his part, is so preoccupied with Data's problems that he too forgets some of his skills. He'll still need to be a great Engineer of course, but Navigation isn't required. Removing Computer Skill rather than Physics is just wrong though. There he is, puttering in Data's computer brain without really knowing what he's doing. The Tricorder download is fine and dandy for performing diagnostics, but here was a great opportunity to give Geordi the Cybernetics he deserves. If not him, then Data! No attribute changes, that's fine, but I fail to see why he should drop from Command to Staff. He's still chief engineer and certainly doesn't have the crisis Data does. One thing which isn't a problem is that he's affected by the Nemesis icon. He's certainly capable of disabling and disassembling Lore, and Lore did torture him (or make Data torture him) with potentially fatal results. Though there's reasoning behind the cuts imposed on Data, none are really offered for Geordi's and that hurts the card. Down to a 2.9, I'm afraid.

STOCKABILITY: Dual-personnel cards are generally useful because they're both economical (2 personnel to one card play) and powerful (twice the attributes, staffing icons and classifications, plus distinct dilemma-passing power). Data and Geordi, for their part, feature triple ENGINEER power, which fits very easily in Federation Engineer decks, fulfilling the requirements of many cards and boosting SHIELDS by +6 with Nutationals. They also have an OFFICER able to help pass Maglock, and with the downloaded Tricorder, SCIENCE as well (and to any other ENGINEERs present). The other skills aren't nearly as interesting, Music only being used with a few strategies, Computer Skill being very common (but useful because of it) and Physics only now starting to appear on dilemmas. Of course, the duo can split up using one of a couple single versions of their personae. This multiplies their skills, but can also be used to use the FC personnel's special download before reverting once more to dual. Ok, Fractal Encryption Code is limited in usefulness, but the Ocular Implants will remain on Data and Geordi when you switch them back. Don't forget that the card is a Soong-type android, has two staffing icons, and attributes equivalent to 14-18-18 before any enhancements. Puts the hurt even on Jem'Hadar (especially since Android Headlock may be used here). The Achilles' heel may be the Nemesis icon which gives Lore yet another target to destroy, though you could persona switch to get out of it, and of course, the icon may be used the other way around. A 3.8, I think.

TOTAL: 11.3 (56.5%) Enhanced Premiere has a gift for over-reaching.

PICTURE: Shown in the same order as their title would need them to be, I don't think these two make the best-looking Romulans, but that's hardly Decipher's fault ;-). Was it Garak who once called everything about Romulus "gray"? Well, he wasn't far from the truth; he just forgot to mention there was beige too. Composition's okay. In fact, everything here is okay, but it just doesn't have the oomph to go further. A 3.

LORE: Very subtle. The entire lore is "Unification"-specific and very straight, but they started it off with the words "search for Spock". That, and very precise mention of both their species which'll make the card more useful, is what makes me give it a 3.8.

TREK SENSE: Okay, back to the issue of this kind of personnel lacking an infiltration icon. Decipher's current policy is just based too much on Federation ethics. Just because Data and Picard are the good guys doesn't mean they aren't out to hurt the Romulans in this episode. They certainly mess with their plans. A guy like Jodmos, who's really helping the affiliation he's "infiltrating" even if they don't know it, fine. These guys are working against Romulan interests though. Sure, I don't think they'd pull a Dial Martok, but Inside Operation, Counterintelligence and Homefront seem quite possible. While I'm okay with their being Federation (their true origin) on top of Romulan, this actually makes them better Federation mission thieves than anything else. Et tu, soup eaters? As dual-personnel, I think they work well since they did everything together during this mission, though it may be a failed opportunity for two good single Romulan personnel. As for their transformation into Romulan citizens, they would indeed lose Officer status and turn into what they were posing as: Civilians. Not Officers? Then they may not Command ships, but would still be able to Staff them. Data retains his Engineer, Astrophysics and Computer Skill though he didn't really use any of them while wearing the costume. His Computer Skill is usually x2, I thought because of his computer mind, and it's one skill he did use during the mission (if never AS a Romulan), so I'm kinda miffed it didn't stay high. Astrophysics also seems misplaced since the operation had absolutely nothing to do with that (Exobiology or Anthropology would have been better choices). As for Picard, he's better handled. He did have to use Diplomacy here, and his Archaeology branches off into the Anthropology required to make a convincing alien. The Diplomacy drops from a x2 to a x1, but that can be ascribed to his being less effective in the face make-up (who would trust a Romulan anyway?). As for the attributes, they remain unchanged except for Picard's Integrity which takes a -1 hit. That's of course due to his deceiving the Romulans, but still being a good guy. Some unfortunate decisions, especially regarding Data, bring us to a 2.7.

STOCKABILITY: Dual-personnel cards certainly have their uses, including a lot of dilemma-passing and even mission-solving power (with those huge total attributes), and this is the Romulans' second one (the Feds, who have plenty of everything, now have quite a few). No junk skills on these two either, expcept for the CIVILIANs which actually make them great for Colonies (4 points a turn for just one card!) and also makes them reportable to Promenade Shops which are just a hop, a skip and a jump from Ops where they can commandeer the station with Data's Computer Skill. ENGINEER and Diplomacy are always useful too, and the other 3 skills certainly fit in Romulan mission-solving strategies, but will be equally useful to the Feds. The split affiliations gives the Romulans one more personnel to help them steal Federation missions without requiring an Espionage card, but gives the Feds another one too, giving the "good guys" a sort of Espionage on Romulans strategy after all (and these skills will really help). In personnel battle, they'll wield impressive 18 STRENGTH which'll protect them whatever you set them to do. And then there's the matter of their respective species! Data's an android, always a powerful tool, and the Romulans can even play Lore's Fingernail to make them Non-Aligned, providing a means to persona-swap the dual-personnel with any version of Data plus Galen and not have them be under house arrest. This procedure will nearly double available skills and turn those CIVILIANs into more useful classifications. Ocular Implants, Android Headlocks, Vulan Nerve Pinches, these are just a couple of the cards your android can use as well as his passing a number of dilemmas. With Telak as Cyberneticist (one downloadable at the start of the game with Defend Homeworld), you can report Data and Picard for free too. And Picard's humanity should not be overlooked either. A little Reflection Therapy is all it takes to give him the ENGINEER required to Visit Cochrane Memorial (what? you were using Stefan DeSeve? shame), and with that mega-STRENGTH, he and his android friend will remain relatively safe. A strong showing, but then these are the two best Premiere personnel smushed into one. A 4.6.

TOTAL: 14.1 (70.5%) Proves that Trek Sense is often sacrificed for added Stockability.

PICTURE: The Hulk-colored planet originally got a 3, and it's basically the same as it always was though now more tightly framed. I think that has a positive effect on planet shots, centralizing the composition some. A 3.1 then.

LORE: No change whatsoever. It is still very brief, but makes no mistakes. Still an adequate 3.

TREK SENSE: Though quite far from innovative, the original Excavation was given a 4 as the standard Archaeology mission. The Cunning option wasn't even a problem because the lore did say "aid", so that sufficiently smart people could follow the directions of an onsite archaeologist. The mission should no doubt have a longer span as it is far from Federation space, but this does allow for other interested affiliations to attempt it. The Romulans and Feds have always been represented as being interested in Archaeology, so they were perfect for this one. Now, we add the Ferengi to that mix, which isn't a problem since they're always out to loot archaeological sites, but "aid" may be quite a euphemism in their case. It's too bad they didn't pick the Cardassians instead, since they at least were involved in events from "The Chase" from which this mission was pulled. The whole Wormhole network from Enhanced Premiere has its ups and downs too as discussed in Covert Installation's review. On the positive side, the fact they are basically extentions of the Wormhole interrupt helps explain their presence, the Long-Range Scan idea is a good one and may indicate the Wormhole is far from the planet but within the same Span which is also good. On the negative side, the network this creates seems more permanent, and certainly wasn't something that existed on the show. The 5-point loss on mission points is rather arbitrary. The mission probably loses more than it gains in this translation. Drop it to 3.8.

SEEDABILITY: Still one of the easiest missions to solve, Excavation II can now be attempted by the Ferengi who have most to gain 1) because they have so few missions to start with and 2) because the Wormhole may give them a boost to the Gamma or Delta Quadrants. Why is that important? Well, the 75th Rule rewards Ferengi handsomely for solving missions in another quadrant. Tulaberry Wine Negotiations, for example, becomes a 55-point mission. Quest for the Sword, a 50-point one. That may certainly offset the low 20 points on Excavation II (not that you have to solve it to use a Wormhole here). The Wormhole network (no interrupts required, though Long-Range Scan kinda replaces it in your deck) is most useful to the Romulans who can attempt all three missions, though outside the Warp Speed format (where affiliation is moot anyway), those three missions certainly won't get you the points required to win. Still, the network is a good way in and out of the Neutral Zone. To recap: Still easy, but the lower points do hurt, in regular play, it's mostly a win for the Ferengi. Giving it a 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) A 0.1 (0.5%) drop from the original.

PICTURE: The original got very close to just being a purple blotch with some interesting dark matter in the center of it. Part II has much deeper colors, visible proto-stars and a CGI outpost. One thing the new version corrects is what seems to be a black wipe on next to the word "Explore" on the original card. Here the higher game text boxes eliminate that problem. As for the outpost, it's taken from the game Armada. It's not bad, adequately Klingon in feel I suppose, and in the forefront enough to give the card even more dimension. Let's just say this one's better than its ancestor at 3.5.

LORE: What's cut from the lackluster original is the words "enomous cluster of". Sure, that's just color, but the new lore doesn't fix the basic problem I originally had with the lore, namely that it doesn't do justice to the danger inherent in this location. No matter, I suppose, since the game text doesn't either. A still lame (and I guess a little lamer) 2.7.

TREK SENSE: This one was a disaster to start with, and instead of getting better, it gets worse. First, there's the low Span when the location is labled as an entire Sector. Minor, but noticeable. Mostly however, there's the fact they totally ignored this location's dangerous properties. If you'll remember, this is the gas cloud in "Hero Worship" that had fronts of energy damaging a ship based on how powerful its shields were. None of that here. There are shades of it in the requirements, such as the Leadership and the Cunning option, which seem more geared towards escaping the puzzling predicament than actually dealing with the Stellar Cartography mission. Astrophysics really should have been included to boot. The affiliations assigned and point box, no problem. Now, that originally got the card a 1.4, but they went and added a built-in Outpost. Let me say that I don't really have a problem with the concept of built-in Outposts. They work just like real Outposts except for the card cost which has mechanically been turned into a lost card draw in case it is rebuilt. At the right location, you see, they make perfect sense. Decipher could have put Outposts where they actually existed as opposed to letting us big goofy players build 'em wherever we liked, even in hostile environments, so long as our icon of choice was there. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned energy fronts, this is one of the WORST places to build an Outpost, ever! Those 32 Shields would wipe out the facility in seconds. Down, down, down to a 0.5.

SEEDABILITY: The Premiere version did pretty well, since it was a relatively easy mission for 35 points. The points have gone down a little, but the mission is no less easy. There are plenty of personnel up to the task (though only Morgan Bateson and mirror Telok have both skills). Don't have the skills? Use the CUNNING option instead. Everybody's got CUNNING, right? Even the Targ. Now, add a built-in Outpost and Seedability increases for the Klingons. First, it's much more efficient as it costs you one seed card less. Actually more if you're afraid of having it destroyed by an armada. In such cases, you no longer have to draw another Outpost (or retrieve the old one) to rebuild your facility. As long as you have a surviving ENGINEER, you can do it right here (just don't lose the mission to a Black Hole). And if you MUST choose between Explore Black Cluster II and the other built-in Outpost at Secret Salvage II, you would probably choose this one. I'm basing that on the easiness of the mission as well as its points. Gets this one to 4.

TOTAL: 10.7 (53.5%) Believe it or not, that's the exact same total as last time.

PICTURE: I thought the original was daring in its use of a featureless starfield, though of course, quite dull. Adding a Romulan outpost from the Armada PC game gives it a feature, and that's fine (we still have the original image on the back). We've never seen a Romulan space facility on the show, but the one used here looks ok. It's green, for one thing, and well matted onto the background. Kinda like the first shot of Deep Space 9 in the show's opening credits, y'know? Ups the score from 3.1 to 3.4.

LORE: First off, there's the correction of Premiere's "Typhone" to the actual spelling "Typhon", oddly placing this card alphabetically BEFORE the original. That's a nice fix. The lore itself is shortened interestingly (they didn't just cut part of it, they shuffled the word "reported" to the front of the phrase). They have done well to remove the words "desolate region" since there's now an outpost here. What was at best average before is a little better now. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: The original disappointed me in much the same way Explore Black Cluster did. Both these missions make a comeback in Enhanced Premiere, but they fail to fix their inherent problem. Which was? Both locations have hidden dilemmas which do not show up on the card, yet are acknowledged in the requirements in some way. You can't generally have it both ways. This is the mission from "Cause and Effect", so some kind of temporal displacement, way to report AU ships, causality loop mechanic, anything, would have been way cool. Missed opportunities. What's more, though the Stellar Cartography could be used to map out the location of the time distortions, I would rather have seen Physics than Astrophysics here. The Expanse by definition has no stellar pehnomena, and Physics could be more tightly associated with temporal mechanics. The Cunning option, to me, spoke more about the crew's attempt to get out of the causality loop than in solving the mission. This is what I was talking about earlier. It's less blatant than on Black Cluser, but it's there. Points were fine and still are despite the small drop, and Span is very good as 5 really is an Expanse. The affiliations mentioned are okay (the Expanse is no doubt big enough for everyone), but incomplete since we know the Federation has access to it. As for the added Outpost, I have no problems with the concept of built-in facilities (all the mechanics of it check out), and they would make perfect sense at missions where there ARE outposts as per the show, but I do question the choice of outpost sites in Enhanced Premiere. This is another dangerous location for a facility! It's a good thing they weren't hit by a temporal distortion while building it, or else they might still be installing the consoles... over and over again. A permanent outpost for studying this phenomenon isn't impossible, but I'd be more comfortable with it if the Expanse hadn't been billed as desolate in the past (firstly), and if it had been more tightly anchored to the Romulan Empire in any source but the card game (secondly). 2.4 before, now it's a straight 2.

SEEDABILITY: What used to be a very easy mission for the Romulans is now made even easier by the addition of a Romulan Outpost. Now, Dr. Telek R'Mor can report directly to a mission he can solve alone, or two mission specialists can be downloaded there at the start of the game (since Tomek would require a Holodeck, think of Spacedooring a Darmok or Husnock Ship there too, or else using Non-Aligned Ayala instead). Tomek along with Tarus will make the point drop on the mission less important, boosting them to 40. If you're stuck with the CUNNING option, the smart Romulans will usually been a good position to solve it that way too. Klingons would do well to use the original version instead, since they can't use the Outpost, and would benefit from 5 extra points. They too, have 2 mission specialists (again, including a hologram or Ayala), but their CUNNING isn't as good. That said, a Klingon/Romulan Treaty could benefit from this card anyway, but the skill selection just doesn't support joint Klingon and Romulan operations. The boost is almost uniquely the Romulans', bringing this one to a 3.9.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) Up by 2½ percent since last we saw it.

PICTURE: You all know my take on the Combo Dilemmas by now, namely that the split screen repeats of the original cards are boring and uninspired. CGI would often have offered solutions to combining two images, but here, it's kind of hard to see how that could have been done. Put the guy against a sky background with the Scow entering the atmosphere? Anyway, the card "as is" has the guy I originally called "a pretty boring love interest" (certainly not the most charismatic lover in Trek history) looking at an out of focus half-Scow in the other window. At least they have a spatial connection through his gaze. Not very good at all at 1.8.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: On the one hand, we have Female's Love Interest, just the kind of ultra-common dilemma in Star Trek episodes (not as common as Male's Love Interest though!), and at least one thing has been fixed from the Premiere version. Indeed, now you can meet someone aboard your ship (i.e. in space), not just on planet surfaces. Unfortunately, there is no forthcoming fix on the whole relocation issue. After all, how many times has a female lead been whisked away to the ends of the spaceline on the show? Never, really. Romance dilemmas do a better job of simulating the situation. The Garbage Scow also gets a seeding fix, because "Final Mission" had the Scow endangering a - you guessed it - planet! (And it could always be moved to a planet anyway.) Otherwise, the dilemma is structured well enough. The requirement of a Tractor Beam is natural, as is the Engineering to work that Beam through a mess of radiation. The lovely idea of keeping the Scow intact, turning it into an object on the spaceline, is great. Its stopping all mission attempts at its location is due to the immense radiation endangering all personnel present. I might have included a little Medical or death condition in there, but I guess there wasn't any room for it. That the Borg are essentially unaffected (it doesn't stop scouting attempts) is fine since the Borg are less affected by radiation (they adapt). Combining the two dilemmas doesn't really cause a problem because Love Interests are so innocuous. I mean, they happen all the time, either as the A- or B-plot of an episode, with the Scow here providing the "action". Does pretty well for itself by hitting 3.8. (Love Interest supplies most of the minuses.)

STOCKABILITY: A two-for-one seed? It already starts ahead of the pack. Female's Love Interest has always been a good dilemma because it always hits (unless no females present of course), thus sending away a personnel from the rarer gender. Dilemmas that require females, such as Matriarchal Society, are great in combo with this one. The fact it has no requirements sends the crew or Away Team headlong into Radioactive Garbage Scow which also hits (gets placed on spaceline location) no matter what. Something that weeds out ENGINEERs could also be part of the combo here. So that they can't, when the mission attempt suddenly ends, tow the Scow away. Maybe the Love Interest will have taken care of one, maybe a bigger killer/capturer can take out a number of them. A neat trick with Garbage Scow was to somehow trap an Away Team on a planet, tow the Scow there and blow it up with Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow (DRGS). It wasn't always easy to coordinate all that (with Mission Debriefing perhaps), so you sometimes wound up blowing up the Scow simply to drop a mission's points. But now, that trick has become quite deadly. The Scow STARTS at a planet. If you have the DRGS in hand, you can simply blow up the entire Away Team as soon as the attempt ends (right after the dilemma hits in fact). You have the opportunity right there to play an interrupt, even before your opponent can do anything else with the personnel. You can't be sure you'll have the DRGS in hand? Include something that traps the Away Team like Duonetic Field Generator until you can get your hands on it. This is one strategy that had the playing community screaming for a counter until Containment Field came out, so watch out for that particular Incident which'll cost you points. Even so, the Scow will remain a staple of pollution decks, and in this form, is better by virtue of 1) its being combined with another dilemma and 2) its being space/planet. It's also a fine dilemma for the Borg which are totally unaffected by it (either half). You can easily set it off yourself to put a mission-attempt stopper or 6 on the spaceline. Since the Borg don't attempt missions, they'll never be bothered, which is something you have to think about when using other affiliations. You don't want a Scow towed in YOUR way. Affiliations that get a lot of points from special objectives (such as those available to the DQ affiliations) are also less affected. A very, very strong 4.6.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) A strong showing for these quickly slapped together cards.

PICTURE: We move into the undiscovered country here, since this is the first Enhanced Premiere mission that I haven't done the Premiere review of. No matter, let's forge on ahead. Here's the problem with this image. Gamma Arigulon is a patch of space where the USS LaSalle detected radiation anomalies in the episode "Reunion". The image is actually that of Gomtuu's hurling effect in "Tin Man". Anomalous, sure. Actually at Gamma Arigulon? Nope. It's a nice effect to put on a mission and all, but just isn't appropriate. The Federation outpost pulled from Armada looks nice and Federation-ish, though that exact design was never seen on a show or movie. It's something of a cross between K-7, those big 'shroom stations (like the one on Spacedoor) and the Armagosa Observatory. Adds a little something to the baseline score, but that's still just a 2.4.

LORE: The end part of the original lore has been severed, but it still confirms that this is meant to be the mission mentioned in "Reunion". The II in the title now mirrored in the II of the mission location is cute, but I've gotta ask why the planet number is required for a space mission. We're not at the planet. If it were the second star, it'd be a "B". Not much there to begin with so a 2.2.

TREK SENSE: Here, we hit a snag or two. We're meant to track radiation, right? So why do we need Exobiology? That seems to go with Gomtuu's presence, but we already proved beyond a doubt the living ship wasn't actually here. If we were somehow studying the radiation's effects on living tissue (or having to deal with its effects regardless), I could understand the need for Biology, but EXObiology deals with alien life-forms. Trying to justifiy it by saying your non-root type crewmembers are more affected won't work either. The Romulans keep their ships pretty close to Romulans-only, for example. It should require Physics, and that's final. The Strength as a means to resist the radiation, that I'll buy. The presence of all three affiliations doesn't bother me (could be an unclaimed part of space), but in combination with a built-in outpost is a little unsettling. So is this part of space claimed by the Feds or what? At least, the region isn't as bad for an outpost as some of the others from EP (I don't think that dangerous radiation pervades the entire system - you have to "trace" it). We never actually saw Gamma Arigulon, remember, but I still doubt an outpost was located here. Why? Because then it would have been a station rather than the LaSalle that would have reported the anomaly. Otherwise, the idea of built-in outposts is fine, since they basically work like an otherwise-balanced Outpost card. Points at 25 work as well as 30 for what seems like a non-pressing mission. Span is okay too. Anomalous requirements really hurt it most. Barely hits 1.9.

SEEDABILITY: Given the amount of great Federation MEDICAL personnel with Exobiology, it should be very easy to solve this mission right out of the gate with their outpost permanently here. You have to build up the STRENGTH anyway, so Exo'll come out soon enough. An Exobiology mission specialist (Dr. LaForge, Takket, Loreva or Dr. Fitzgerald) will up those 25 points back to 30 as they were meant to be. Of course, the lack of any other skills among the requirements limits the point boost possible. Any better than Test Mission II as a site for the Outpost? Depends. Test Mission has 5 fewer points which is bad, but ENGINEER decks will find plenty of opportunity to slap down their Physics personnel there. That, plus the INTEGRITY requirement is way easier for the Feds than Anomaly's STRENGTH needs. Either way, for the Feds, it's a seed card slot saved by including the outpost in the mission, and much easier to rebuild after its destruction than having to draw another outpost from the draw deck. It's unfortunately a little easy to steal (Fair Play protects it). The Romulans and Klingons have better STRENGTH, so this could be an easy mission for them too, though they can't use the facility. This is worth a 3.6.

TOTAL: 10.1 (50.5%) If you're gonna redo flawed cards, how about fixing them for real?

PICTURE: When comparing pics of Gomtuu, this is the superior card. The "sleep mode" colors are more interesting than the ship card's golden glow, more mysterious too. Looks hot to the touch. Now, the differences between this and the Premiere original are 1) a crisper black printing, and 2) a Romulan outpost pulled from Armada inserted in the corner. I welcome the sharper printing, but the outpost is a little offputting. Given the size, it has to be in the background a ways, yet it's more sharply in focus than Tin Man. The perspective effect is far from flawless. The angle is different on the facility than that of Explore Typhon Expanse, and I applaud that, but the superimposition of the two images doesn't quite work here. A 2.5.

LORE: What's been removed is the explanation of what "Gomtuu" is. Too bad, it was interesting, and this here sounds like Gomtuu is some kind of space-Elvis that is commonly sighted around the galaxy. The repeat of the words "invesigate sighting" from the title was very strong from the beginning. No higher than a 2.5 here too.

TREK SENSE: This is one mission that both the Federation and the Romulans actually tried to complete at the same time, and that is well acknowledged here. Both affiliations are mentioned, and the two sets of requirements are also affiliation-specific in nature. The Feds will try to contact Gomtuu with telepathy, specifically Empathy x3. I, for one, believe Tam Elbrun should have had Empathy x3 given the extreme range of his powers, so I see nothing wrong here, though the x3 are probably meant to represent both him and Deanna. The Romulans, for their part, would seek to dissect the poor creature, which would indeed require both Exobiology and Treachery, with Cunning thrown in to actually understand something from the experiment. The episode featured a race to get to a far system, so the 4 Span is perfectly acceptable, as are the points, whether they be 35 or 30. What is irreconciliable about the mission is the fact Gomtuu is also a ship card, so you can have the craft at one location on the spaceline while an other is investigating its presence somewhere else (or Gomtuu investigating itself). And now, there's the Romulan outpost to consider. If it were actually there, there wouldn't have been a race to get to Beta Stromgren, the Romulans would have just taken Tin Man right away. Furthermore, the star was about to go supernova, so I can't believe the Romulans would set up shop at such a place. It's ludicrous, and once again, Enhanced Premiere gives us an outpost at an impossible site. A problem that drops the card to 1.9, even if the mechanics of a built-in outpost are fine.

SEEDABILITY: For the Feds, the original card is the better deal, since they can't get an outpost out of this one and could use the 5 extra points instead. Of course, there are enough Rom/Fed dual-aligned cards to warrant its inclusion anyway, perhaps as a second outpost (it's not like it costs you a seed slot). Major Rakal has one of the Empathies required, but the rest would have to come from Non-Aligned personnel if they were all to report to this facility. Or you could go for the second set of requirements and use Koval with a CUNNING complement. Koval'll also work for your Romulans, who don't have much of a chance with Empathy anyway. You can add the support personnel Mendak to Koval as a backup for the mission. If your Romulans must choose between this built-in outpost and that of Explore Typhon Expanse though, the Typhon location wins by virtue of its easier requirements for the Romulans. The extra seed slot is nice, don't get me wrong, and it's easier to rebuild an outpost than having to fish another facility out of your deck, but there's a better option from the same Premium set. Still a 3.5.

TOTAL: 10.4 (52%) I see a lot of mission IIs in the bottom tier of the card type.

PICTURE: A nice picture of the couple, and you can't tell they're sweating profusely unless you look closely. The various blues complement Beverly's red shock of hair, and the background isn't distracting or too mundane. Looks like Bev is caught in an utterance though, and that's not so good. Overall, it's about a 3.7.

LORE: It's one contextualizing sentence, with no mistakes. And I do agree with Decipher's decision to title the card Jean-Luc rather than Picard, since these two had a more intimate relationship that Picard has with Data. A plain, but competent 3.2.

TREK SENSE: Taken from a very specific part of a single episode, the reduced skill lists for each are to be expected, but have those skills been wisely chosen? JP retains one level of Diplomacy, a skill he exhibited in the episode, though he spends most of it in the wilderness with few people to be diplomatic with. Archaeology struck me as wrong at first, but since part of the episode is spent running an Indiana Jones-like gauntlet through caves and spouts of fire, it can be justified a little. But only a little, since Geology would have been more à propos in that environment. The Honor is no doubt due to his respecting his best friend even in death and not showing his feelings for the man's widow. As for Bev, she remains ever the doctor, with a bent towards Exobiology since they were on an alien planet (which could be interpreted as wrong since she has the most contact with a fellow human). The Hypospray is the real mistake because though it is very standard medical equipment, I don't believe she had one on her person in this episode, especially escaping from a prison like she was. As for attributes, their respective Integrities take drops because they showed the most disrespect for Jack Crusher's memory since "The Naked Now", I guess. Cunning remains the same, sure. And Strength is also lowered because they were limited to staying within a few feet of each other by the implants. In fact, this was a great dual-personnel card to make since the two characters are essentially joined at the hip. Of course, some kind of Empathy-like ability might have been thematically nice, but they could only read each other's thoughts, so it can't be likened to an empath or telepath's skill. The two Staff icons are something of an anomaly since both are usually Command personnel. If their being stranded in the wilderness with no one to command is the reason, then I'll point out that the wilderness has few ships to staff. If Picard remains an Officer, I believe his authority should not be downplayed. A few jibs and jabs bring this one only to 2.9.

STOCKABILITY: One of the interesting things about the Enhanced Premiere dual-personnel is that they can enhance a bridge crew deck by allowing for various permutations of personae you are using. Getting Jean-Luc and Beverly out first could allow you to switch them with the more skilled single-personnel versions (Premiere, FC or, in the case of Picard, other). Of course, aside from the special download, you get all those skills and more on the regular versions of the personnel, but here you get them on the same card. They report at once, they fight together (with STRENGTH 9 and doubled hand weapons bonuses for this one card), and they face dilemmas together (as a 13-16-9 personnel). Two classifications are represented, one of which, the extremely useful MEDICAL, at the x2 level. The other skills can all be used in a Federation deck as well. Bev also brings a special download to the table which allows the pair to stun a foe and not have to put themselves on the block with their relatively lowly STRENGTH of 9 (which isn't always enough against powerful assault teams). It's hard to make the cut in a Federation deck because there are so many choices when it comes to personnel, so it all depends on your needs. You may have plenty of the represented skills on other personnel, may not want to use any other versions of their personae which might be difficult to all bring into play, or may not be that interested in the download. That said, there's still a good collection of skills here, and that's worth a 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) We might have hoped for more for these two.

PICTURE: The last of these split-screen fiascos (I hope!) had a golden opportunity. As we'll see under Trek Sense, they could have combined the two concepts with a specific NEW image (I won't give it away here, just read a little further). As is, well, you have the pretty girl on Risa who never did anything but lie there (that is, wasn't actually a love interest) and the strange bubble-instead-of-nacelles ship of the Tarellians. Cut as they are, they don't look any better or worse, that is, good enough. But like I said, I think these combo pics are something of a jip. A still colorful 1.8.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: This combo has the virtue of existing in Star Trek! The reason a Medical (Wyatt Miller) transported over to the Plague Ship WAS a Love Interest, a girl called Ariana. Might have had her picture on the card, but at least it's a more natural combination than the other Love Interest with a Garbage Scow. Unfortunately, they are not superimposed, they are sequenced. So now one personnel leaves with a Love Interest to the furthest location, and then another (a Medical) joins the crew of the Plague Ship. And the Love Interest can't even be FROM that ship, since no one aboard can leave it (it's under quarantine). I can't even go to the episode and claim that Miller is the Love Interest who would have made Deanna leave because he's, well, a FEMALE's Love Interest. The dilemmas, seen separately, got a little better since their Premiere days. The Love Interest can now be seeded at a space location (plenty of space romances), but it's still less believable than a Romance dilemma. Characters on the show are frequently "stopped" by Romance, but rarely do they elope and leave their posts. Various affiliations have reasons not to go off. The Federation's duty, the Klingons' more important lust for battle, the Dominion's non-sexual breeding... Love Interests as described would be exceedingly rare (not to even mention the rather arbitrary nature of the "honeymoon" - have fun on Halee [A Good Place to Die]!). The Plague Ship is a classic space dilemma, but still happened in the vicinity of a planet (Haven). Since it requires transport to the Ship, that transport could occur from a planet surface. The mechanics themselves are interesting, with a selfless Medical transporting over to take care of the Plague victims. One thing missing is an Integrity condition, since it takes a pretty noble Medic to actually give its life to this cause. There's also no reason the Ship would cause the death of everyone aboard ship. Would the crew of the Plague Ship beam over to ship or planet force a Medical's hand by purposely infecting a population? Yes, the Tarellians wanted haven, but such a move would be insane. There's also little indication that the disease would spread this quickly, even among androids and such. The points, at least, are understandable, since this feels like a mission goal in itself, and forces a sacrifice on the part of your personnel. The dilemmas actually did (or will do) a little better as singles, since they don't mesh very well. But some repair work done on the seeding icon still keeps this at 3.

SEEDABILITY: Male's Love Interest has always been good since it eliminates one male personnel (always in large supply) from an Away Team (and now a crew), no questions asked. Tarellian Plague Ship has always been a mega-dilemma at the very least removing one MEDICAL for good, and at most, killing an entire crew (now also Away Team). In combined form, their power has just grown. For one seed slot, you pretty much remove 2 personnel (minimum) from a crew or Away Team. First they meet the Love Interest, and then immediately (no stopping to adapt to the situation) jumping into a nasty part 2. Getting a crew/Away Team to die entirely is the real trick, which you can try to achieve getting rid of MEDICALs beforehand (such as with Hippocratic Oath), or if you're lucky to get one with the Love Interest even. Barclay Transporter Phobia can perhaps stop a lone MEDICAL from beaming over. Certainly, you don't want your opponent to score the 5 points for their sacrifice. And you can now fit the Love Interest in space combos, and vice-versa with the Plague Ship. That's certainly increased flexibility. It also makes Love Interest less of a wasted card when facing the Borg. It's just too easy to bump off personnel with this one, so it's at least a 4.5 (be ready to give away 5 bonus points though).

TOTAL: 12.4 (62%) Since it's not just up to Seedability...

PICTURE: A simple enough planet, but the gas disturbance on it (created by an asteroid impact) is well presented. The white glow at the bottom intimates ice and snow even it's not necessarily that. A 3.5.

LORE: Abridged in such a way as to appear abridged, there's a real chunk of data missing here, and even the syntax seems to be lacking. Can give it no more than 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Penthara IV is the mission from "A Matter of Time" (observed by Rasmussen), a Federation mission, even according to the history books. There's nothing to indicate that the planet was near Klingon or Romulan space, and the mission of mercy seems totally outside those affiliations' interests anyway. The addition of the Bajorans make little sense as well since they're not as technologically advanced as the others, or as outwardly focused. And the requirements... laughable. On the show, the Enterprise had to safely crack open the planet's crust using its phasers, with Geordi and some scientists keeping an eye on things on the planet surface. Sounds like a planet/space planet to me! Unfortunately, they didn't exist in Premiere. They do exist now, so as long as they're remaking cards... Anyway, Geology and Physics are both related skills, but just one of them trivializes what seemed to be a difficult mission (things initially went wrong even!). The low low points only make sense in relation to the easy requirements, but not in comparison to the importance of the mission. Doing this saves an entire planet's population from relocation! It should be harder, and more lucrative. The 5-point loss from the original is more than a little arbitrary anyway. As for the Wormhole, as previously mentioned in other EP previews, it's a neat little mechanic which works as an extention of the Wormhole interrupt, with the Long-Range Scan requirement making it a detectable phenomenon probably a ways from the planet itself (in-system), but the Enhanced Premiere "network" is an artificial construct which didn't exist on the show. Additions to this mission haven't helped it, and I can only give it a 1.

SEEDABILITY: Sure, it's real easy, but outside of Warp Speed play (where points don't necessarily matter, it's more the number of missions solved), it's barely worth it for the points available. Even with Assign Mission Specialists, you can't bring this one higher than 20 points (ok, 25 with Hero of the Empire). At 15, it's barely worth mentioning, except as an end-of-game finishing move, perhaps as back-up if you lose points to dilemmas along your normal route. Or else in space deck when you simply MUST respect The Big Picture (it's a cheap solve). Since it's not worth much, maybe your opponent won't guard it that well. The Geology also makes it compatible with Forced-Labor Camp (not much STRENGTH needed) if you're playing Cardies or Ferengi instead. The Wormhole network can help you move around the spaceline with ease (though you'll need Long-Range Scan to be really flexible with it), but the 3 Wormholed missions together do not amount to 100 points. The addition of the Bajorans doesn't really make it any more appealing, for all the reasons given above. The short Span might allow it to fit in a Bajoran region deck more easily, but without mission specialists, they'll have to settle for 15 points. Its uses are mostly along the vein of those couple mission slots you weren't really gonna solve anyway, but they do exist. Better than its first impression at 3.7.

TOTAL: 9.7 (48.5%) Couldn't actually save it.

PICTURE: Always been a fun card with all those ship hulks floating around, but none of them are especially in focus, and the new version, while a little clearer in spots (better printing) has that tightly focused outpost in the corner which doesn't really seem to belong in the picture. Seems? Nay, really doesn't. Because of the various elements floating about, the tighter frame looks cramped as well. A mish-mashed 1.9.

LORE: A bit of text has been shaved off the original, the superfluous "attempt", for one, and the wreckage's affiliation. The expression "Borg massacre site" is still a poor one, and sadly wasn't changed or removed. It's a 2.9.

TREK SENSE: Well, let's see what we had to start with. Secret Salvage is a mission inferred from events on the show. That is to say, we don't know that the Romulans or Klingons did this, but given the Federation's vulnerability at the time, and the two affiliations' ready access to cloaks, it's not impossible, or in the case if the Romulans, even unlikely. I'm more surprised to find the Klingons here, but since they can be played as the bad guys (depending on personnel choices or exact time period), I'll buy into it. Span and points seem reasonable enough. Requirements? Well, the true Romulan way would be to use a lot of spy skill, I mean, Treachery, to get to the site and do the deed. Seems incomplete because I'm sure an Engineer or two would have been useful as well. The toned-down (perhaps Klingon) option is a bit better, though here we lose the Treachery which seemed primordial to the mission (it's a secret), with a healthy dose of Navigation to get there undetected and not ram into a space hulk once there, and Computer Skill, acting as the Engineering I was talking about earlier. Maybe we're just downloading databases, maybe that's all that's salvageable. I know those two affiliations almost always use ships with Cloaking Devices, but that would have made a good requirement too. So it started off as merely ok, and then went south fast. The addition of a Klingon outpost is ludicrous at such a historical location. The mission's presence implies that the facility was built before the Borg attack, but if it was present at the attack, why is it still in one piece? It's also doubtful the Klingons have an outpost right on our doorstep like this. Now, if they'd made the thing cloakable, we might have something. Pure invention, but something. As is, we don't. Drop this one to 1.8.

SEEDABILITY: Secret Salvage is normally of use to 2 affiliations - the Romulans and Klingons. The Romulans will find it very easy to solve using a lot of Treachery they'd already have used on Wormhole Negotiations and other missions. Or else, they could use the more Klingon alternative of ultra-common skills. For the Borg, if its suits their fancy, Locutus' Borg Cube has extra WEAPONS and SHIELDS there (bye bye Outpost). But only the Klingons would really use this version of the card because of that built-in facility. With these easy requirements, they could have a couple of Navigation mission specialists out on the first turn, and Computer Skill not far behind (Quark's Isolinear Rods for Quark Son of Keldar). It's also easier to rebuild than a regular Outpost, since you don't have to fish for it in your draw deck. In case of heavy rettaliation against your facility, just bring an ENGINEER over and fix things up, plus it saves you a seed card. With less than 30 points, it's also a fine place to play Council of Warriors. You'll make those 5 missing points back in no time. The Romulans will want to keep the original for its 5 extra points though. The Borg have unfortunately been forbidden to use the missions IIs with built-in outposts (they're affiliated cards), so they can't seed it. It's the original for them. A sturdy little mission, which has gotten a bit better for one affiliation, if not yet replaced for everyone. A 3.8.

TOTAL: 10.4 (52%) Mission IIs aren't twice as good.

PICTURE: An interesting choice when you consider that most other dual-personnel are standing side by side. The Sons are almost face to face. The choice has the advantage of not showing Worf's Starfleet uniform, so you sort of assume, despite those ugly beige walls, that he's wearing the same uniform as Kurn. In fact, the pic is taken from before Worf even knew Kurn was his brother. He's being insulted by him. So you could argue the pic's not that appropriate (compared to other sources on DS9, for example). Throw in a lame color palette and lots of blur and you stick around a score of 3.2.

LORE: Ah, the civil war. Like we really need to be told its dates once again (it doesn't even match events from the pic). At least, there's a little more spice to the text, with the brothers' role or goal in that war. I also like the title, which is leagues above "Kurn and Worf". It's a 3.4.

TREK SENSE: If these are the brothers when they served aboard the IKC Hegh'ta (and according to the lore, they are), then some mention of Kurn's captaincy should have been provided for, but let's see how the rest of the card fares. Kurn is the Officer and Worf his tactical (Security) officer. The 2 retain Command icons, and they should. One is a captain, the other, head of that captain's family/House. Kurn keeps three of his original skills, with Diplomacy falling by the wayside. Worf has that, so you could say he lets his older brother do the talking. Leadership is still missing however, which is kinda odd on a captain. The skills he does have do work, with Navigation necessary to pull off that flyby-the-sun trick. Computer Skill was proven in tracking down his brother, and his knowing various codes and computer protocols right up to his last DS9 episode. Honor, I think, is obvious on both Klingons. Worf, indeed, deserves the double dose as the Klingon more Klingon than a Klingon. Worf also keeps his Navigation and Diplomacy, which means he gets all the skills he had on his Premiere card. I guess that's fair, though if you evaluate what he actually did on the Hegh'ta, it doesn't amount to all of those. All attributes are as per their Premiere cards, which basically means both are not Cunning enough for my tastes (they were good strategists, and besides, 6 is a paltry score for a main character). Good idea to combine the two, but the effort can't be considered more than a 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: Dual-personnel cards can be powerful, and one you can download with Defend Homeworld is sure to be interesting. You get Honor x3, which is great for Klingon missions (especially Wormhole Negotiations), Navigation x2 (should breeze through some dilemmas), a dose of Computer Skill and Diplomacy (both highly useful skills), 2 classifications, and the equivalent of 16 INTEGRITY, 12 CUNNING and a whopping 18 STRENGTH. The card comes in an Enhanced Premiere pack, and should offer an easy way to solve Salvage Mission II once reported to its built-in outpost. The brothers are also versions of a couple personae, so you can add flexibility in your deck by substituting them for a stand-alone Kurn (matching commander of the Hegh'ta) and Worf (4 to choose from, though only 2 that work with the Klingons without a Treaty). That last personnel's verisons can be cycled for a number of special downloads, and a couple different skills. You never know, but you should be able to survive with just the one combined card. A strong mission solver which should hold its own in battle too. I'll say 4.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Comes out to 33.5% apiece ;-).

PICTURE: The flaring star is a classic of the Premiere set, and a nice planet-like sphere on a space mission. The addition of an outpost in the corner respects perspective, I think, though those Armada facilities don't look entirely like facilities we've seen on the show (those docking arms in particular). One note on the "classic", looking at a star this close, we probably shouldn't be seeing other stars around. Anyone know the physics involved? A still strong 3.5.

LORE: Certainly condensed the original's lore, but not by sacrificing anything that was necessary to the overall sense of the mission. One of the better abridged mission objectives, so a 3.

TREK SENSE: We know the Feds originally did this, but they were giving aid to a Non-Aligned people. Would the Klingons also have participated if their section of space was nearby? I'm not sure. It doesn't seem like their kind of thing. However, Timicin's people, the Kaelonians, and their honorable death ritual at 60 might have instilled the Klingons with respect, enough for them to lend a hand where possible. The Enterprise didn't journey that far during "Half a Life", so the Span of 3 is fine. Same for the low points (lower here), since the project didn't yield the best results (plenty of useful data though). The requirements leave a little something to be desired though. If there ever was a mission that begged for Astrophysics instead of Physics, this would be it. As for the Integrity, I get the distinct feeling that it's there to resolve the Timicin dilemma (his 60-year limit) even if it gets a pass because you would need Integrity to help the Kaelonians. The key may be the word "aid" in the lore. Since Timicin was the outside expert, he (or someone like him) may be conceptually present. That would mean the Physics required here is only meant to assist an already proficient Astrophysicist. Mmm, okay. And finally, we have the addition of a built-in outpost at this location. It follows the trend of other Mission IIs featuring dangerous locations. Once again, this isn't a place to build an outpost. The Test Mission was specifically done at a star without any planets or inhabitants because of possible consequences. So if a facility is here, the mission cannot be attempted. It would endanger valuable Federation property and personnel. A lot of thinking has to go into justifying the mission as it was originally, but we can't even do that with the Outpost. A 1.7.

SEEDABILITY: Missions with built-in outposts are great because they save you a seed slot and provide facilities that are much easier to rebuild in case of destruction (no need to fish one back out of the draw deck, for example). For the Feds, the choice falls between Investigate Anomaly and Test Mission. So... which is the better spot to park your outpost? Well, Test Mission actually. Both missions require a single skill and an attribute total, but the attribute in this case is much easier to get in high concentrations for the Federation (29+ INTEGRITY as opposed to 36+ STRENGTH). It focuses on their strength rather than weakness (note the lower case spelling). Physics is featured on a number of their mission specialists, including a holographic one, so you could bring the points back up to 25 and download those specialists directly to that outpost. Throw Timicin in there to add another 10 points (though few people use him because of his point-limit). The mission is also safer than Investigate Anomaly because it allows one less affiliation to attempt it without an Espionage card. For the Klingons, well, they can't use the outpost unless a Treaty is in play, but they have Kromm as a mission specialist, and may use Timicin too. Of course, for 5 extra points, they really should use the original in those cases. Mission's worth a 4.

TOTAL: 12.2 (61%) A good score for this type of thing.

PICTURE: You may object if you want, but I think it's pretty funny that both of Lwaxana's pics show her in the buff. Great theme on her, and a guarantee we won't see a DS9 version (thank you). And remember when the Ferengi expansion came out? We all thought there couldn't be female personnel because the naked clause kept them mostly off-screen. At least we got a couple, and NOT Ishka (thank you again). On the side of the show's creators, the girls look too heavily made-up, and are badly coiffed. Back to Decipher's selection, great background with real texture and a spotlight on the characters. A strong, thematic 4.1.

LORE: Their nude condition is explained in cheeky fashion, and there's enough context here to see how they could be considered Ferengi personnel. Very round-about and natural way to mention their species too. A likeable 3.6.

TREK SENSE: The dual affiliation works for me since they are basically Federation citizens being used/employed by the Ferengi. And as we've seen with dabo girls, being an employee of the Ferengi makes you part of their affiliation (it's all about who signs your paycheck). As long as they seemed to go along with Tog, they were Ferengi. This version of the Lwaxana persona actually repairs some of the substandard work done on the Premiere card, which just gave her Empathy x2. As an ambassador, she really did deserve Diplomacy and gets it here. Sure, she's a bit overwhelming, but that seems to charm enough people, and she did twist Tog around her finger. And with the advances since Premiere, they also give her a special download, the Lwaxana-related Wolf. She wouldn't use it for a couple seasons (it's too bad Oo-mox couldn't have been out by then), but that card was HER defense mechanism. She keeps the VIP where Deanna becomes Civilian, but that's to be expected. As a prisoner/slave, Deanna can't possibly be an Officer, but as the main target of Tog's affection, Lwaxana would remain a prize, a Very Important Prize. Deanna gets all her Premiere skills again, plus a special download for Plexing, a technique she taught Barclay and others. As for their attributes, they each lose a point from their original Integrities and Cunnings, but keep the same Strength. Working with the Ferengi bends their straight arrows a little (Lwaxana was oo-moxing Tog to manipulate him, for example). Their lower Cunning can be attributed to their not knowing how things work on a Ferengi ship (they're also not rated to staff such a ship). Being pulled from silly episodes tends to humiliate the characters and dumb them down a little too. I'd have to say these are improvements on the Premiere cards, and worth a good 4.5.

STOCKABILITY: Empathy just isn't given to everyone, so some affiliations have a natural weakness there, and such are the Ferengi. Before The Trois they had to do like everybody else and stick to the NAs. But how many NAs have Empathy x3? (I.e., enough to pass any Empathy requirements anywhere.) None of course. How many can report for free to the Tower of Commerce? None, since they would not be Ferengi. You can likewise use Deanna's CIVILIAN to download the pair to Ferengi Conference, so they're easy and quick to report. That quick play gets you 2 females in one (Matriarchal Societies need not apply), Empathy x3, Diplomacy x2 (Q-Nets no more), stats at a combined 13/13/7 and 2 special downloads. The first, Wolf, protects your triple-Empath from death or capture, so they STAY in the game once reported, while the second, Plexing, is just the kind of card you want to download. It nullifies a bunch of cards, some dilemmas, some interrupts, incidents, etc. It's a just-in-case kind of card, and you can bury it in your Q's Tent or wherever, pulling it out with The Trois at the appropriate moment. The Federation stands less to gain since they have Empathy and Diplomacy coming out the wazoo, but since they have access to other versions of the two personae, they can use it to their advantage. Combine or separate The Trois as need be, getting a full range of abilities out of the various Deannas, from special downloads to once-per-game unstopping, all "disposable" abilities. Once used up, move on to the next version of the persona. If the Feds want to get the ladies out quickly, they'll have to use the Premiere versions first, downloading Lwaxana as a mission specialist, then reporting Deanna as a support personnel, but that still leaves the problem of getting The Trois itself into hand. So mosly for the Ferengi, and worth a 4.1 to them.

TOTAL: 16.3 (81.5%) And not because of the kinky element. I mean, it's Lwaxana Troi for pete's sake.

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