To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Q-Continuum expansion set.

PICTURE: Ho-hum. The tree's too close up for my taste. We don't see its full foliage and can't really tell what's going on in the background. Heck, it took me a long time to realize the picture came from "The Inner Light" instead of some poorly remembered episode like "The Ensigns of Command"! As it is a Drought Tree, why not show it in the middle of an arid expanse, or with people celebrating quietly around it? Far from being a favorite: 1.5.

LORE: A great quote which works better than some dry (pun not intended) dictionary definition. You can see how the game text figures into the card. A very good 4.2.

TREK SENSE: Thanks to the great lore, the card makes a lot of sense. While this could have been an Interrupt (hopefully with a "not cumulative" on it), the planting of such a tree is indeed and Event. The AU icon is there to remind us it came from the Ressikan "illusion", but why couldn't you plant one with no AU door in play? I've said it before, Trek Sense dictates that Points = Accomplishment. The way the lore is phrased makes the planting exactly that. And the symbol of survival only lasts as long as the planet is conceptually "yours". When another Away Team arrives, it rips out the tree I suppose, killing the points. (This part's iffy, so it won't be a perfect score.) Why 7 points? Lucky 7? More life-affirming than 13? Finally, it would be easy and nonsensical to plant a drought tree on a fertile planet, and pretty arrogant to do so on a civilized world other than your home planet. Good work, but some bugs. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: It's another Particle Fountain with different difficulties. It doesn't require the presence of specific skills, but does count as your card play. It's worth slightly more, but can be nullified. You can play both on the same planet mind you, since the mission is completed and you don't have to worry about Altonian Brain Teaser (unless it's already there), netting yourself an extra 12 points in the process. I don't like the fact that an unopposed Mot the Barber can nullify your event just like that (and 7 points to boot). So you have to guard it I guess, but that also has its problems. I'd put Spot out in the sandbox to protect her territory. She's the best "opposer" because she won't die and will pounce on any lone tree killer. A 3.1.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Pretty average, but oh, so ecological.

PICTURE: Not great. The problem with this pic for me is that, long ago, an old girlfriend made me watch one of those boring thrillers, "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle". In it, John DeLancie played a perverted gynecologist. That's the character I see every time I look at the card. Unpleasant at best. A 2.

LORE: The quote is pretty straightforward, but the name of the card itself is clever. For those not in the know, it is a reference to "Dr. Quinn, Medecine Woman". The Q connection is immediately obvious, even if there's no relation real between Trek and that particular show (except some casting similarities). Extra points too for putting a Diagnosis and Treatment in the game text. I count it as lore because it's all part of the card's flavor. Cute (Qt?). A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: None really. As I've said before, Q can do whatever he wants, so all cards starring the Q-Continuum can have any effect, whether it's from the show or not. But strictly speaking, the ability mentioned here has nothing to do with the scene pictured and quoted. The designers just dreamed up the diagnosis. Still a 1.5, as we know Q can do this.

STOCKABILITY: Well, it's no Kevin Uxbridge, but then it's only a tiny part of your Q-Flash. Should it be included? It depends. Does your opponent play a lot of Events on the spaceline? Is she a polluter perhaps? A spy? This card having no conditions, it works right away at insuring your safety from your opponent's Events. With it, you can move that Distortion Field to her homeworld, let her spy a low point mission instead of a high one (one where she put some nasty dilemma combo perhaps), move Subspace Warp Rifts, Gaps in Normal Space and the like to more strategicly avantageous locations, etc. Watch out, it has to be an APPROPRIATE location, so you can't just invalidate a card by playing it somewhere it couldn't exist. It's more defensive than anything else, and really depends on your opponent's deck, but since there's no limit to the number of cards you can put in your Q-Continuum... why not put one in? A 2.9.

TOTAL: 9.8 (49%) The doctor is... OUT!

PICTURE: The "screen saver" of Star Trek terminals, it's not much to look at. I don't see what else could have been used, but it's a little Federation-centric. Only a 2.3 I'm afraid.

LORE: Fancy way to say somebody's hung up on you. Not much else. A 2.2.

TREK SENSE: For starters, the game text doesn't match up to the lore. Maybe if you could play it on your opponent (in effect, hanging up on him) or nullify incomimg messages, but none of that here. The rest works. Kinda. Think of it this way: you ask for new resources (the end of turn card draw), communication gets cut off. You only get your resources much later, after you've called the outpost back. Of course, you can't apply tht logic to everything. A Coalescent Organism's probably not in the habit of hanging up the phone just as it's about to kill you. Mixed review here - a 2.9.

STOCKABILITY: This is one of those cards that appears useless at first glance, but really takes some work to find uses for. What happens at the end of your turn that you'd want to delay? End-of-turn card draws could be postponed to keep a nice probe card on top, or get a chance to shuffle a card you don't want through next turn's download by not drawing it now. End Transmission only delays the inevitable if played on those dilemmas and other effects that have end-of-turn effects, but you might need that special personnel for just one more turn. Dominion players take heed: cards count down at the end of a turn, so keep that Ketracel White from doing so at the most importune of moments. It's at least a failsafe, eh? If you think up enough uses for it, it could become worthwhile to stock it. You might not be willing to use it because it's a mostly reactive card, but it's a very malleable one. Experienced players should try test driving it armed with all their knowledge of the game. Still, not very powerful: a 3.4.

TOTAL: 10.8 (54%) What else was I about to say? Oh yeah, score demonstra--

PICTURE: Popsickle Tasha (think they'll ever make an action figure version?) is a cool, if not chilling, picture (couldn't resist), whose easter egg is fairly clever. Above par: 3.3.

LORE: An odd title, almost sounds like it's a little joke about our non-Tsiolkovskyed Tasha, and to keep this article rated PG, I'll let the double-entendres speak for themselves. Kind of in bad taste if it is. The lore itself is pretty darn short. À propos, but not particularly inventive. Under par: a 2.5.

TREK SENSE: There's no actual Trek sense in having Q "threaten" to use his powers in this fashion (he just does things impulsively), but the effect itself, had it been interrupt speed, is dead on. Q chooses a Security who's making a fuss (like Tasha) and places it in suspended animation. At the next Q-Flash (i.e. Q gets bored, either of the trick or of Picard's nagging). This is one stasis where Dead in Bed makes sense actually. One could die while frozen. And I won't come down hard on the "threat" aspect (sits on table until interrupt played), because it works well. The interrupt is the Security's move against Q, and the threat is the one always present when Q's on your bridge. The Fire Sculptor's cure is a cute one, as heat melts the ice, but remains unsupported by the show. All in all, a 4.2.

STOCKABILITY: Stasis until the next Q-Flash? Is it worth it? Sure. For one thing, it's only one of many Q-cards encountered in a Q-Flash. It immediately "hits" by going to the table. It acts as insurance. Next time your opponent plays an Interrupt, you disable your choice of any (usually valuable) SECURITY personnel. You might never get the chance to use it, but it still holds some power. And not many people stock Fire Sculptor I'd wager, since it mostly takes care of low powered cards like this one, that are rarely expected. At least an annoyance to you opponent and a 3.5 here.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) I knew there was a reason it was uncommon.

PICTURE: Picard looks a little slight in this picture, maybe because his costume blends in with the background. The expression on his face is almost the same as on his regular card. And it's too bad you can't really tell he's holding a gun. I would have preferred seeing him test some artifact piece I think. Not a bad pic, just not an excellent one. A 3.

LORE: Short and sweet because of the restriction box. Makes him a persona of Jean-Luc Picard, that's very important. The backstory may be brief, but it hits the right marks. A 3.1.

TREK SENSE: The problem I have with short-term personae is that I can't believe a character would change all that much even if he or she was posing as someone else. The difference between a premiere personnel and his FC persona is time. Sometimes, as with Sisko/The Emissary, different attributes are highlighted. Picard/Galen though... Sure, "Galen" hated the Federation, but that's all a lie. Why couldn't he work with the Feds? Possibly because if he were, he would have to revert to Picard. But how do his skills and attributes change? He trades OFFICER for SCIENCE and Diplomacy for Treachery. For the second part, I agree. His Galen personality isn't very diplomatic, and he IS there to eventually betray the mercenaries. The classifications though are more difficult. I guess he could lose OFFICER because he doesn't have all that much authority on Non-Aligned vessels, and by concentrating on his Archeology skill, he joins the SCIENCE staff. Ok, still works. Too bad they couldn't throw Smuggling in there, as per the lore. (Yes, I know the skill didn't exist yet.) But what about the drop in INTEGRITY from 9 to 5? Does that mean that you can fake INTEGRITY? Because Picard "acts" a 5, he isn't a 9 anymore? Ludicrous as his motives become apparent in the show. Passes a lot of my tests, but not this last one. A 4.

STOCKABILITY: The only 6-skilled Non-Aligned personnel, he's great in Romulan Archeology decks for one thing. He's also one of the better SCIENCE personnel in the game. Stats are good, skills are a bit common, but all useful. The real drawback is that the Federation can't use him, so he's not as flexible as other personnel. (Not that the Feds need another good personnel.) This last fact makes the persona "ability" less than useful. You're probably not using other Picards if you're using Galen since they are not compatible. Could be a way to snafu the Borg's attempt at Counterparting Jean-Luc and assimilating Earth, but not much more. A 4 in this category as well.

TOTAL: 14.1 (70.5%) A cool card, all things considered.

PICTURE: Yuck. It's always dull to find a character at the helm. They're all pretty much the same and very static. A yawner of a 2.

LORE: Again, specialist status is mentioned (see Atul) which makes me believe the idea was already in the works before First Contact came out. No idea why it wasn't implemented then though. What were they waiting for? (It would probably have been an event with no downloading function.) Nothing really interesting aside from that - gives clues to which show she was on, but doesn't acknowledge her universality. A 1.5.

TREK SENSE: A once-seen helm officer... what else is she going to look like? Makes sense for her to be a specialist in Navigation. Maybe it's a stretch to give her twice the regular amount of the skill. If she's so good, why isn't she on the bridge more often? I have my reservations, so I'll give it a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: When I first saw the Q-Continuum expansion, I asked myself a number of questions regarding the inclusion of such a weak personnel. Was she really needed? Thanks to Assign Mission Specialists however she becomes unique in the Federation. She's the only specialist in Navigation. There are currently 9 missions attemptable by the Feds that require the skill, 2 of which require a double dose. These missions are great in ENGINEER decks (Explore Dyson Sphere, Reported Activity). And she does have that big x2 there, which will help against Badland decks, with FGC-47 and move swiftly through a number of dilemmas. Made useful despite her atrocious stats... a 3.4.

TOTAL: 10.7 (53.5%) Can't I be kind and give her a passing grade? Apparently not ;-)

PICTURE: Zuh? Q on Q's Planet with its twin moons in the background. While the line used for lore may have been uttered here, the picture lacks both drama and relevence to the card's effect. Since the Gift is turning Riker into a Q, why not a shot of him, or of one of HIS gifts? Lamer thanks to a setting that reminds me of the Original series... a 1.3.

LORE: Fairly appropriate. A gift beyond all other gifts? A 100 points? Yeah, you could say that. :-) Inspired title, by the way. Big gift, but easily taken away. A real tease. 3.8.

TREK SENSE: In the show, Q gave Riker the power of the Q. I don't think that translates as 100 points though. Where there are points, Trek sense demands some sort of goal-accomplishment. Maybe Q can subvert that. In any case, Q only makes you win the game if you hadn't really started it yet. And why can Countermanda nullify it, but not Amanda Rogers? No Trek sense there either. The card could have conferred Q status to a personnel, perhaps giving it control over the Q-Continuum, I don't know, but as it is, it scores a 0.5 due to some conceptual considerations.

STOCKABILITY: I often hear, "Why would I use this if it's going to make my opponent win the game?" Well, you wouldn't. You would use it to make YOURSELF win the game. How? Through a little used strategy (little used because it probably won't work) that requires you to stock plenty of copies of both Gift of the Tormentor and Are These Truly Your Friends, Brother? Gifts go into your opponent's discard pile and Your Friends makes you pull one out, scoring the 100 points yourself. Just make sure your opponent never goes into a Flash with zero points by seeding The Higher... the Fewer in front of them. Of course, you could waste a Q-Continuum slot on a copy of each of these cards just in case. Would be a hoot too if you won by sheer luck. A strange one responsible fo very few victories... a 1.7.

TOTAL: 7.3 (36.5%) Who's the Tormentor now? ;-)

PICTURE: One of the boring things about Q-cards is that Q is very often standing at that same (beige) spot. What's nice about this one however, is that his black costume goes hand in hand with the card's black itself. The period garments work well with the card's title and have enough glitter to keep the eye interested. And before Fightin' Words, it was the top card of my collection (Q-cards first, Dilemmas-Events-Interrupts) and coincidently Q's first appearance in the pilot. Sharp. A cool 3.8.

LORE: Very nice. Q's first words are in Shakesperian, either as a hommage to Trelaine (from which he conceptually issues) or to show how time has no meaning for him. I like the idea of humanity "infiltrating" the galaxy too. This is interesting lore at 4.1.

TREK SENSE: While Q asks that the ship turn back, here he loses patience and simply relocates it to its home system. Not true because you're outpost can't be at your homeworld. Also, while crew A may meet Q and get the ultimatum, crew B could find itself sent away. I guess they'd be pretty mystified. You can convince Q otherwise though if your total Integrity is between 11 and 49. Why? Okay, one guy or gal can't do it alone. But high 50+ Integrity won't work? Maybe it's the number of personnel that represents. Q did say there were too many of us already (the rate of "infiltration"). Great ideas, but the game doesn't permit them to go the full length. A 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: It's a very nice Q-card. First off, it works against redshirting and mega-Away Teams alike, being overcome only by middle-of-the-road teams. Relocation isn't that powerful an effect, but it can make an opponent lose a lot of time. That Dominion player being sent all the way back to the Gamma Quadrant can attest to that. Even better, Borg always redshirt. Send the scout's Borg Cube back to the Delta Quad where it's a real pain to bring back. Of course, you'll have to be lucky enough to draw that one Q-card from the Flash. But wait, it's a Q-Dilemma! With Beware of Q, it can be seeded just like a regular dilemma. Place it under a really big mission where mega-Away Teams are practically required (say, Betazed Invasion), and it's sure to hit. No random Q-Flash there. More fun, as a "real" dilemma, it becomes a wall. If Q or maybe Conundrum (if you put personnel removers/filters in between) is encountered after it, the Away Team will have decreased its total INTEGRITY allowing those other dilemmas to smack your opponent upside the head. I would certainly keep a few of these in my Q-Continuum, and would even seed it separately - a 4.1.

TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) It doth pretty good.

PICTURE: Not the best profiles in Star Trek history, Picard here looks like he's Pinnochio, and Q like he should join The Cure, but not a bad face-off all in all. The picture fits the moment, with Picard not giving away any ground. Guilty, sure, but only provisionally. The people in the background actually hurt the photo by looking way too distracted. The face at the bottom definitely looks like its looking away. A middling 3.4.

LORE: A great moment here immortalized. I like it when they give Q more than a few words. The second sentence actually makes the game text make more sense. A 4.

TREK SENSE: Lovely how Q is actually mentioned in the game text. He's only a random selector, but then, when has he been anything but? Also fun how you get to really participate in the scene by uttering dialog. Now for the actual effects: one personnel gets shot unless it claims to be only provisionally guilty. If that is your claim, Q holds you to it and you cannot battle. (Not savage, remember?) Of couse, Klingons ARE savage, but that's neither here nor there. I'd like to see a Nausicaan say "guilty-provisionally" with a straight face. While I do appreciate a lot of the work here, some things don't hold water. For example, the personnel shouldn't really be random... a commanding officer should represent his people at the very least. It also seems to me that if a race is not savage, then it won't attack another. The whole thing's a little backwards. Maybe if the personnel died if a battle was ever initiated. The threat would make more sense that way. Some good, some bad... a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: Not the best Q-card. I dare say most people will choose to say the magic words. If the victim is playing Feds or using a non-battle strategy, he or she has got nothing to lose. If not, then it's not so bad, he or she can initiate a battle as fast as possible, then attack again once the dilemma is no longer in effect. Either you don't cancel the battle, and you lose your chance at canceling one, or you do and your opponent can then attack you for real next turn or with another ship. Not even much of a delaying tactic. Sure, as a Q-Dilemma, it's seedable in a prepared combo thanks to Beware of Q, but I'm hard pressed to find a combo that would be worth the trouble. Turn Conundrum into a field trip and protect your targeted ship, but that's it. If you're scared of being attacked, my advice is to stock cards that will increase your defensive power permanently, not a one-off job like this. A 2.2, mostly because, as part of a Q-Flash, every little bit helps.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) A lot of Q-cards are fun, but few are very useful.

PICTURE: A simple prop shot is well handled composition-wise to make it better than it might have been. The cylinder of a transporter is visible in peach tones to the left, playing well with the shape of the compensators. Various lines and colors vie for attention resulting in a strangely dynamic pic, and that black background on the right sets off the object of the card rather sharply. A 3.6.

LORE: A great techie explanation of what allows transporters to work. The mention of the "uncertainty principle" (first elaborated by physicist Heisenberg) is important here as it helps us make Trek Sense of the card. Great stuff for science buffs: a 3.9.

TREK SENSE: None, if we're talking about the Compensators themselves. Nope, the card has absolutely nothing to do with transporters whatsoever. What redeems the card is that it plays on eliminating the "uncertainty principle". Turning all draw decks face up certainly undercuts the uncertainty of which card you'll get next. And I could see Heisenberg compensator technology being used to manipulate probability much like the Alien Gambling Device does (only, in reverse I suppose). Justifications aside though, problems do exist. Like, if the draw deck is reversed, then so is the flow of time (but maybe not since we're forever "shuffling" time thanks to downloads). And if uncertainty is eliminated by exposing draw decks, nullifying Alien Probe restores some uncertainty. Why? And how do Compensators do this? There is also no reason why one Compensator should nullify another. Just comes to a 0.5.

STOCKABILITY: All depends on your strategy. I wouldn't use it defensively to kill an opponent's Alien Probe (who's to say if he's using it?), nor would I use it to nullify his own Compensators (same reason). Why I would use it? I'd certainly think about doing so if I were playing Borg, or using any other strategy that requires probing (like Visit Cochrane Memorial). With this card in play, your collective will always know when the right probe is on hand. Even better, Borg have plenty of opportunities to download cards, letting them shuffle their decks if they don't like the next probe card. With a little luck, decks can be managed effectively this way. You also get to see what your opponent has stocked and coming next, which is a better advantage that he's getting if you are Borg. Borg decks are pretty much all the same, lots of drones, etc. Not much to hide in any case. Can your opponent say the same? For non-Borg strategies, you might want to stock two Compensators. When you're done with your probing, just eliminate your own event with the other copy. Also works great in combination with Subspace Schism, as you can make informed decisions about what card you'll get your opponent to discard. Telepathic Alien Kidnappers also get a boost here (though not as much as with Alien Probe). Great for Borg, less useful for other affiliations. A 3.9.

TOTAL: 11.9 (59.5%) If it wasn't for that Trek Sense score...

PICTURE: Great stuff. Q's clothes are rich in color and texture, and the picture generally clear. What I really like though is the luminous sky. Don't you feel like this Sherwood forest is in the Q-Continuum somewhere, in a place of energy, not of blue skies? My only complaints: Q's less than menacing expression and his spray-painted beard. A 4.4.

LORE: That's the longest title for any STCCG card right there. Like Q has any Honor... Great quote that goes with the game text, and a tangible link with I Am Not a Merry Man! which can negate this card. "Yes, but what about your merry men?" "I am NOT a merry man!" Excellently played at 4.5.

TREK SENSE: The "Qpid" episode does have dungeons and jails and people being thrown into them, but this scenario never really happens. That's okay, since the threat was implied and nothing's really beyond Q's powers. Basically, the card goes like this: If your personnel is being held captive, it may be returned to this place. If it isn't, points are lost, seemingly as the price a leader pays for protecting his of her crew. If he or she escapes, the crew may be placed in jeopardy (the leader leads the Sheriff to the crew.) Once the former captive gets to the Away Team or crew, conceptual Security (Q's guards, who here take the form of personnel as yet to be reported) may find the captive and capture two people (possibly including the escapee once again). Of course, it raises a question as to whose captive captives really are. This card would indicate that they are Q's. Some cards, like Interrogation, would seem to say they are the player's who might as well be Q (point-related), unless Madred in play, in which case, it is the Cardassians'. Any personnel caught by Cardassian Trap is the Cardassians' captive, right? But what if none are in play? And Brainwashed personnel are captives of whatever affiliation that personnel is working with. It would have been much simpler if Prison facilities had been created for this purpose. Then you would know. Blaze of Glory to the rescue? We'll see. Other points of contention: Why is the dilemma immune to Q-Flash and Q2? I like that it can be explained in a way. The episode featured very little in the way of flashes (as opposed to other Q episodes) and the even ground offered by Q's more distant involvement might very well keep Q2 out of it. Great effort to blend picture, lore and storyline. A 4.5.

STOCKABILITY: This really depends on your strategy. Do you plan on doing any capturing? If so, you could net yourself twice the captives or a 5 point "lead". You could wait for it to turn up at random in a Q-Flash, but it works much better as a straight-seeded dilemma under Beware of Q. Have it follow Cardassian Trap and bang! A hit. All you need is to keep SECURITY in your hand at all times. Show the same one again and again! Make it a lowly Kle'eg to make sure you don't get the urge to use it before you're done. Of course, capture strategies are more fun than useful at this point, but that's about to change. On the upside, this dilemma is a little more resistant to nullifiers. You'll only have to worry about I Am Not a Merry Man! and Guinan. Not too bad. A strategy-specific 3.7.

TOTAL: 17.1 (85.5%) When a Q-card is uncommon, it's usually more than just an annoyance.

PICTURE: It's not so much the expression (which is hard to see) as it is the posture that tells us Worf ain't too happy about this situation. Add to that the Will Scarlet costume which is somewhat clown-like (nice hat!) and you've got a picture that works hand in hand with its title. I also like the composition which isn't centered, but has Worf slightly to the side. It accentuates the tipping of his head, makes the card more dynamic and gives a better color scheme. I'd have to spring for a 4.3.

LORE: A quote to compliment the quote in the title. Adds, embelishes and adds the Q element in there. Also note that Q-cards all have a quote for lore. How appropriate then that their nullifier has the same. Great stuff at 4.8.

TREK SENSE: Klingons are, as a rule, not the type of people that enjoy pranks and hijinks. As a whole, they probably aren't endeared to Q. They make good targets for this card, but aren't we leaving other cantankerous beings behind? Would Jem'Hadar put up with Q's foolishness? How about certain very serious individuals? In any case, not liking Q, and not wanting to play the fool for his amusement, doesn't make a person able to nullify his pranks, does it? Well, in a way, it does. Q has shown a tendency to give up when a victim hasn't reacted like he wanted. He gets bored easily. Of course, Worf wasn't released from Q's Sherwood Forest upon saying the magic words. Opens up too many questions. A 2.9.

STOCKABILITY: Only usable by Klingons and those who have access to them (namely, the Federation and Romulans), the usefulness of this event really depends on your opponent's using a Q-Continuum side-deck or Beware of Q. Your Klingon would then be able, Guinan-like, to nullify one Q-card per Q-Flash (well, per turn). Not so useful most of the time, but against Q-Dilemmas in particular, a bit better. You might think of this one as a renewable Amanda Rogers/Kevin Uxbridge. Killing a dilemma or dilemma-like card on every mission attempt isn't bad, but again, you're never sure Q will meddle in the Empire's affairs. A still Tentable 3.2.

TOTAL: 15.2 (76%) Probably underrated by most, its rise in power is due to design more than usefulness.

PICTURE: If you don't have this card, just check the Toh'Kaht from the DS9 expansion. It's the same picture only this one's bigger and mirrored. And actually, it's the best Vor'Cha picture of all. The angle (an excellent three quarters view) really shows off the ship's teeth. No other Vor'Cha depicts the top turret as clearly. Just cool at 4.5.

LORE: Pretty basic lore, it's only redeeming value is that it names a matching commander. I tried to find an English translation of the ship's name, and the closest I came to it was matHa', it means "gunner". The IKC, by the way, means Imperial Klingon Cruiser. The newest encyclopedia uses the letters IKS instead of IKC, exchanging Cruiser for Starship, but I like the old appelation better. In any case, this one comes to about a 3.

TREK SENSE: Like all Vor'Cha cruisers, which are very much the Klingon equivalents to Starfleet's Galaxy class starships, they require mucho staffing. It also has the standard Tractor Beam and Cloaking Device of the Klingon fleet. No problem there. The attributes can be compared to the basic Vor'Cha model (9/8/7) thus: Its Range is lower, but Weapons and Shields higher. Why? The race to find the DNA Program would have warranted greater speed, while it could have been inferred by Nu'Daq's archeological vocation that his ship's battle stats be cut. Instead, the opposite gives it a thin 3.1.

STOCKABILITY: Vor'Cha class cruisers will be forever disadvantaged compared to K'Vort birds-of-prey because of the huge staffing difference. To boot, birds-of-prey have pretty high stats for their staffing requirement and thus are the makings of the famous Klingon armadas. Vor'Chas on the other hand, don't offer that much more. You might have one you use to solve missions or to supplement your armada, but they aren't used as much. At least the Maht-H'a can be captain's logged to 12/11 which is good. How does it compare to the other cruisers in the fleet? Well, only the Bortas has better overall attributes, and it's one of only two who currently have matching commanders. Add a cloak and a tractor beam, and you score yourself a 3.6.

TOTAL: 14.2 (71%) A pretty good ship, with a very nice picture.

PICTURE: The K't'Inga class cruiser is a bit small, but fits the T'Ong's backstory. For one thing, it's coming towards us as if coming out of a "spaceline end". Also, the purples and blues are very cold colors, making this ship less alive than other Klingon ships (greens and reds). It's asleep. A cool 4.1.

LORE: Interesting little story, with more anthropological detail than we're used to on ship cards. It's given a matching commander, one that hasn't been released yet. A better than average 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Surprised that is isn't AU? Well, like the Bozeman, it exists in "our" time even if it is an antique. Ships in that time had a Cloaking Device and lower overall stats. The low Range matches the Bozeman's and the other attributes are slightly under or equal to a standard K'Vort bird-of-prey's. What, no Tractor Beam? I thought those were available in the 23rd century. But we gotta have room for the special reporting ability. Since the ship has slept for a century, it comes out of nowhere (presumably cloaked during its sleep) already staffed. Problem: those sleeping Klingons won't be from the 23rd century. Like, what's Kurn doing aboard? The end of the spaceline trick also causes problems, mainly that you can report the T'Ong in the Gamma Quadrant. That's quite a distance to be drifting. (Ran into the Wormhole?) A different mechanic which would have made even more sense would have been to seed the T'Ong, Cryosatellite-like, with 3 personnel inside. Okay on the surface, dig deeper and you get a 2.9.

STOCKABILITY: This ship won't be winning many battles, especially without an available matching commander, but it's reporting ability can be very useful. After all, a ship and three personnel in one stroke is an advantage. Okay, it can be done with Red Alert much more effectively, but Red Alert won't let you report elsewhere than at your facility. For quick decks, the T'Ong will get you some Klingon back-up for your ship already far away in the Gamma Quadrant. It also doesn't say you have to report Klingon personnel only. Work around an Outpost's restrictions to report Gi'ral, Tokath and Ba'el to a safe spot for a Colony and score 7 points per turn unmolested. The kind of ship you abandon as soon as it's reported. A 3.

TOTAL: 13.3 (66.5%) Should go up when its matching commander comes out, but not by much.

PICTURE: A lot of cool elements in an otherwise dark picture. First, there's the tiny Calamarain at Q's mercy which is delightful. Then there's Q2's head sticking out of a bulkhead. While you can tell this is special effects trickery, there's still an odd three-dimensionality to the image. The expressions on the two guys are priceless. Q's face is nicely illuminated by the gaseous community he's holding in his hand. All great stuff, and you can just tell how Q's feeling about finding his immortality. A 4.8.

LORE: Some nice stuff here as well, with the words "selfless act" in quotation marks indicating more than a little sarcasm. This is also one of the more focused lores in the game, as the second sentence directly relates the instant the picture was taken. Very nice at 4.2.

TREK SENSE: Rarely does a card nullify a personnel, but if one should, this is it. While Mortal Q has his own Trek sense problems which are carried over to this one, making him Immortal Again would get him discarded and the Q-Continuum re-opened. One might say that it was never really closed if the Continuum can give him back his powers. Truth is, the Q-Continuum is actually better called Q's Continuum. He's the master interferer, the rest of the gang are not affected by the side-deck's presence or absence. When Q becomes immortal, he immediately gets rid of any Calamarain. Either that, or they stop chasing him (too dangerous now) and go their merry way. This effect is immune to Kevin Uxbridge probably because the Continuum supercedes him in power. And since the harbinger of this good news was a "nice" member of the Continuum, you can make Q2 or even Amanda Rogers enter play. If this had been designed in the post-downloading days, it would have been a download rather than a rescue from the discard pile. The rescue makes less sense, but the effect itself is fine as Q2 took his little time among us to stop Q's cruelty. It just doesn't fit the title of the card anymore, though it goes right in hand with the picture. A good 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: This card's design fits within an epic, strong on storytelling, weak on usefulness. It's part of a The Naked Truth-Mortal Q-Immortal Again sequence. To make it work for you, you have to presuppose a number of things about your opponent's deck and strategy. Naked Truthing Mortal Q is difficult enough, but your opponent has to figure you'll use a Q-Continuum side-deck. If he thinks you will, and you think he will too and to boot, that he's planning on Naked Truthing Q over, by all means, stock this one. Since it's one of the only ways to nullify Calamarain (but only if Mortal Q is nullified first), and you're scared your opponent will play that event (now more dangerous with the new ship damaging rules), you might want to play Mortal Q yourself (especially if you hav no Q-Continuum side-deck) just so you can nullify him. Again, seems convoluted. The second function, I understand to be a back-up if none of the other stuff happens. Ultimately though, it's just a specific Palor Toff that plays at event speed. Bleh. It's Binderific! Only 2.

TOTAL: 14.9 (74.5%) Still comes out very good, proving that usefulness isn't king in Siskoid land.

PICTURE: Strangely off-centered, the Q-shadow is fun nonetheless, and Q is noticeably destabilized. The viewscreen of other Incoming Message cards is subverted by a shape somewhat like a viewscreen - that of the corridor frame. Dragged down by uninspiring colors and difficult to discern detail, worth 4.

LORE: The message and the answer, the lore doesn't interest me as much as the title. While the designers could have gone for something like "Progress Report", they paralleled the Incoming Message format. I like it. It makes Q a sort of affiliation in a way. A bit better than average at 3.2.

TREK SENSE: It follows the internal logic of Incoming Messages, that of forcing an affiliated entity to move to another location. With normal Messages, a ship returns to an outpost. Here, Q (in the form of a Q-Flash encounter) is moved to another planet. But does the card follow the logic of Trek Sense? Let's see. A Q-Flash is in progress (i.e. Q is harassing personnel) and the Continuum gives a call to see how it's going. Q asks for more time. Yes, another Q-Flash later on would be equivalent to more time as more Q-cards would be revealed this way. But if Q needs more time on his "mission" (Q-Flash), why give up to return another day? So no, it doesn't make sense. A good try still wins the card a 2.

STOCKABILITY: Basically, it's a seed card saver. Why seed 6 Q-Flashes when you could just have a couple and have them dance around the spaceline? The new Q-Continuum rules (that the cards go back under the side-deck after use) gives this card an interesting dimension. Think about it: stock only the Q-cards you want (the most deadly), keeping the number of cards in the side-deck to about the potential size of a crew or Away Team (maybe 8 or less). Also stock this card. You now have a fair chance of flipping over Penalty Box (and such) every Flash. You don't need duplication because the cards are recycled so no duplicates need be discarded de facto, and even if they are, they're recycled too. An Incoming Message will make your side-deck more useful by giving you the option to re-seed a Flash each time, and you need only stock one that can come up every time. The downside is that you could be unlucky and hit the Message first or too early. Also, if you're going to limit the number of Flashes you seed, you better choose well where you put the ones you do seed. Your opponent could just pass by. Maybe seed them in-game with Beware of Q to have the advantage of hindsight? Mostly for players with no confidence in their Q-strategy. Oh, and I wouldn't worry about somebody using a Subspace Interference to nullify it. A 3.

TOTAL: 12.2 (61%) Middle of the road, like a lot of Q-cards.

PICTURE: Amanda Rogers stopping a warp core breach with her hands should be a little more dramatic, don't you think? The smoke looks far away from her, in an adjoining room. The colors are pretty plain too, and the room looks to big and bare, leaving the real focus of the picture a little small. A disappointing 2.7.

LORE: What lore? Sure, it's the only dialog spoken in this scene. But doesn't Q make a nice speech to her about her developping abilities, referring to this event here, that could have been used? This makes Amanda sound stupid and really undramatizes the entire event. I understand that to a Q, a warp core breach is about the same as breaking a fingernail, but still. The title of the card saves it a little bit, as it's a parody of Shakespeare's line in Henry V, "Once more, unto the breach dear friends." The play is on warp core BREACH, and "unto" has been changed to "into" to fit with the card's picture. Star Trek has a great Shakespearian tradition, so I'm gald to see it pursued here. Brings up one of the worse lores in the game to a 1.2 (hey, it was VERY low before).

TREK SENSE: How to read this card. For the duration between Q-episodes, Amanda Rogers is on your side stopping, if need be, any Warp Core Breach that may turn up. When she comes into play, she signals her Q-ness by fixing every ship in the "universe". It's a bit much! We could take the card as game text only, leaving the pic and context behind, and that would make this Q creating an "even playing field" for you and your opponent. But that's not how it's been built up. So so at 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: As Q-Events go, it's not the cream of the crop. For one thing, when it comes into play, it repairs all ships. On the one hand, you lose all those shiny new damage markers that have been dropped on you (damage being nastier, this card brings more relief). On the other, your opponent gets the same benefit, unless he's Borg. It's what I call a "loser card", a card designed for players who actually expect to get their butts kicked and are looking to just survive a game. Against the Borg, it'll only repair your ships, so you need only survive any attacks and you'll be alright in battle with the Collective. But this all depends in your opponent hitting the Q-Flash and then hitting this card. The second function nullifies a card NO ONE USES. Warp Core Breach is so easy to nullify that it's ineffective in the vast majority of cases. And if you're running an effective Q-Continuum strategy, "until any Q-Flash" shouldn't take that much time. Your opponent would be able to play his Breach soon enough. Like I said, a loser card. I give it a 1.8.

TOTAL: 8.5 (42.4%) One of the cards that made me write this series of articles when I looked at the lore one day and thought: "This sucks!"

PICTURE: Always found it odd that a Jupiter-like planet wasn't a gas giant, but actually habitable, but of course the mission is lacking scale here. What's nice (aside from the great colors) is that this planet isn't in eclipse. The shadows covering half of it aren't on a curve, they meander like shadows. Is that the planet cloaking? Great effect lands it a 4.3.

LORE: Mission lore is never all that great. Here, it's adequate, and maybe gives a little too much away. Talk of cloaking devices detracts from the word "Legend". A plain jane 3.

TREK SENSE: I have no problems with the basic design. Not being part of any aligned space, it would be attemptable by all the existing affiliations (at card's release). The Span of 4 actually makes it a little out of the way. And 40 points is good for a discovery of this importance. The cloak is extremely cool, but doesn't follow Trek Sense very well. Sure, the planet can disappear, trapping personnel there. Problem: the trigger for the cloak is totally arbitrary. It would have made more sense for the cloak to be run by the owner of the mission (perhaps protecting the mission from thieves until you were ready for the Aldeans to contact your guys), or whenever the Youth requirement was present. In any case, the requirements actually run this mission like a dilemma. Are you really setting out to "verify the existence of a fabled planet" here? Judging from the requirements, it looks like it's the Aldeans who think you have the requirements for "solving" the mission. The 3 Youths are the kids they want to kidnap. Then, you either negociate for their release (with an able diplomat) or they take two of them (why not all three?) as they hoped (the discard). Is this your mission, or the Aldeans'? Other case in point, I'm not sure why they would choose to abduct some Youth personnel. A lot of them are in their early 20s! Do they really think B'Etor can be brought up with their values? Imagination only gets you so far here. A 2.5.

SEEDABILITY: Good points for easy requirements. There are plenty of double diplomats, and Youth is a common enough skill. Add Assign Mission Specialists to the mix and you can solve it for mucho points using Riva, Simon Tarses, Calloway et al.  You're even given an out in case your Diplomat meets his maker at the hands of a dilemma. Simply discard the lame Youths and keep going. The cloak isn't even a liability. Well, not to you. A fun strategy to try to pull off is to make Investigate Legend thief-worthy by self-seeding what looks like your artifacts. Wait til your opponent goes there (maybe arrange it with a strong wall which might make him drop a Mega-Away Team on the next turn), and then make sure the planet is always cloaked on his turn. Particle Fountains, Drought Trees and the like are a great way to do this. Just balance any mission points with bonus points to make certain the planet will always be "dark" when it's his turn. Fun, but only if your opponent is playing a thief-deck. I wouldn't bring this one to a tournament ;-). A pretty good 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) A creative mission card, way more fun than its Premiere cousins.

PICTURE: "I'm a bad widdle boy," Ira seems to say. The sorry look, slighlty mad. I think it works, and the background ain't half-bad either, managing to be a nice amber and black combo as well as looking slightly technological at the same time. A 3.7.

LORE: I wonder if, when a "Family" card is introduced (and all the familial relationships mentioned in everyone's lore tells me it will come), he'll really be "grandfather" to Data (and not to Lore?). The rest has nice flavor and ties in with his attributes, but unfortunately not much about his mind switch with Data (although that would have meant mentioning his death, and we can't have that). A good 3.6.

TREK SENSE: Okay, his status as a hermit makes him non-aligned and technological skills make him able to staff a ship. In fact, he did take Data's place on the show, so he had to have an idea of what to do with his new life. I would probably have gone straight to SCIENCE and foregone CIVILIAN, since he is a scientist first. CIVILIAN seems to be more of a default classification, but it can be justified here. He's obviously a Cyberneticist, and Computer Skill is a related skill. His Integrity is low enough for him to steal Data's life. His Cunning is a respectable 12 (one of the greatest minds of the age). And his Strength is low at 2, but he is old and ill. I wonder why Soong is older and frailer when this guy was his mentor. Apprenticed under a younger man? The weird part is the bonus skills afforded by Kareen Brianon's presence. Treachery, I can see, because he would have done a lot of bad things for her love. She made his a jealous and dangerous man. And Biology? No idea. Is this supposed to be a joke? He's checking out her anatomy or something? Or more seriously, he learned about how to cure his disease to stay with her? That's gonna cost points. I think Decipher missed the boat a little on this one. I would have liked to see him able to download himself into an android body. An even 3.

STOCKABILITY: Only the Romulans and Klingons have two Cyberneticists, all other affiliations having one, except the Bajorans who have none. That means that affiliations wanting to a) report free Soong-Type Androids and b) looking to protect themselves from Borg Servos, might want to use the two Non-Aligned experts. And Dr. Soong being a little expensive (and incompatible with a non-aligned biggie like Lore), Ira makes as much sense as anyone. He's no Soong, but he'll do. His Computer Skill is a useful addition to any deck, and two classifications is never bad (though CIVILIAN isn't used as much). His Cunning is sky high for missions requiring large amounts of the attribute, but don't send him into a fight. He won't survive. And watch out for Firestorms as well. The extra skills he gains when Kareen is present are fairly useful, but having to count on another personnel's presence isn't cost effective. You either figure you need the skills or you don't. If you do, you'll be stocking personnel who have them outright. You don't want to wait for the second personnel currently at the bottom of your draw deck. A poor man's Dr. Soong at 3.1.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Unlucky in love, unlucky in the Rolodex.

PICTURE: Probably Amanda's best picture, she's in classic Star Trek diffuse lighting (that's how you used to know if they were pretty or not) with Riker nibbling at her neckline. I good image, a great expression on her face and a unique background. I won't really take into account the atrocious Easter Egg hidden within the confines of her checkered "belt". Why atrocious? Because it just can't be seen at this printing resolution. There's supposed to be a "love potion number 9" on there, and I wish Decipher would just drop that section from their Easter Egg page. I screwed up my eyes real bad trying to see it. Worse than a magic eye. Okay, maybe I will take it into account. A 4.1.

LORE: Not much here. Q's quotes are often witty, but Amanda's are things like "Ooh!" Not of the same caliber at all. This one lands in the 2.2 pile.

TREK SENSE: What happened on the show was that Riker was about to initiate his usual mating dance with some crewwoman and Jealous Amanda took him for a trip to la-la land to have a romantic interlude with her instead. This Q-Event tries really hard to do the same. Amanda is apparently in love with the Riker or Taibak or Targ that falls prey to a romantic obstacle (glad to see Alien Groupie in there), and she jealously whisks him away to a far away retreat, subverting the normal honeymoon destination. Okay, strictly speaking, Amanda's setting would be in the Q-Continuum, not on Kurl or whatever, but you never know. And since Parallel Romance affects two personnel (one of each gender), what is she relocating them for? Jealous and doesn't want to see them together? Some plot holes (as evidenced by my usual sarcastic tone), but fun nonetheless. A 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: Doesn't seem like there's a lot to do here, but we have to dig a little deeper to get to the juicy part. On the surface, you could redirect your opponent's personnel to a more dangerous location than whatever's on the end of the spaceline (in the case of a Love Interest) or at least cut them off from their Away Team or ship (for the other two). Activate a Harvester Virus or other "on-planet" dilemma and do a little damage, or to Qualor II for immediate stasis, for example. Dig deeper, and you find that you could finally give a use to Alien Groupie. All this card says is "any Away Team". That could mean yours. So, once this Q-card is in play, use Alien Groupie on your man alone to immediately transport him to any location. A sort of mini-Devidian Door or Iconian Gateway. Self-seeded dilemmas will do the same, in pairs for Parallel Romance. A surprising, if minor, ability. Overall, not the best of Q-Continuum stuffers at 3.4.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) That's the second Amanda to get that exact score.

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