To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Trouble with Tribbles expansion set.

PICTURE: Too blurry to really be THE pic for this. After all, Picard has said this phrase many, many times. I can't believe they didn't have something better to use instead. Other than that flaw (which sort of makes Picard look like he's about to slide out of his chair), it's not a bad pose. The gray color palette in the background, and unbalancing presence of Geordi there, don't help either. A disappointing 2.4.

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

TREK SENSE: Not a Captain's Order, just thought I'd mention this right off the bat, but it does have a relationship with those cards, so I'll let it go. It's basically an "order giving" card, giving matching commanders a host of orders they can give, which are then promptly obeyed (by the crew, which is why it has to be a staffed ship... of course, you're still obeying your own orders on a shuttle, but anyway). First, there's a generic order that unstops the ship (go there, re-attempt mission, attack, etc.), though you can't tax your crew too much, so it's only once per game per ship. The idea that it only works on each ship TITLE is wrong-headed though. Why can't I push the crew of my other Bajoran Interceptor anyway? You can also give any of the Captain's Orders in the game, via a downloaded Ready Room Door. Interesting. It doesn't just keep Ready Room Door from being obsolete, it makes such Orders require more thought. The captain gives it only after a moment of reflection or consultation, when coming out of his Ready Room. You can also order a certain Tactic be used in combat. Again, the limit seems artificial, but otherwise the effect is excellent. As for not discarding the card if the matching commander has an E-E icon, well, that's just Picard anyway, and he's the one that uses the phrase most commonly. Hey, it's a cute hommage which can be chalked up to his being an extremely respected ship commander. His crew just looks forward to obeying his orders, I guess. The FC Data on the Sutherland is another matter however, cuz he got a lot of flack from the crew (Hobson, at any rate). Hey, the problems are few and far between, and I'm willing to give the card an excellent 4.8.

STOCKABILITY: Not since Captain's Log has there been a card so useful to matching commander strategies. Seedable and everything, you can use it in combination with any of your matching commanders on their staffed ships for any of three possible effects. The first allows you to unstop the ship to make another move, bypassing easily Mission Debriefing, or going back on the attack to finally destroy that pesky opposing ship. It can also be used to call up Captain's Orders, so long as you still have a Ready Room Door to download. It's a possibly tedious two-step, but with all the relevant Captain's Orders in your Q's Tent (for example), you can download any which one fits the present situation best. Could be an easy way to get Captain's Log or Defiant Dedication Plaque into play, since you're using matching commanders anyway. Tactical Console, Divert Power and Mission Debriefing are also nice, and in the "just in case" category, you've got Deactivation. In the case of events, you're using Ready Room Door, so have the option of also protecting the Order from nullifcation. Ready Room Door can instead be "discarded" to the top of the draw deck to be immediately drawn again, eliminating the need for multiple Doors, or else being used to get those necessary matching commanders into play. The third option turns up in battles and allows you to download a specific Tactic from your Battle-Bridge. This is great for those cards you don't want to stock many of (because the damage marker doesn't stack up, for example) or can't because of what resources you have in your collection, so you can grab that Maximum Firepower at the optimum time. Two personnel actually download the card, saving you a seed slot, and that's Jean-Luc Picard (FC), naturally, and Regent Worf. Worf will like the the unstopping option in battle situations, while Picard has two ships to possibly do it with (Stargazer and Enterprise-E). With Picard, you also have a personnel with an E-E icon, which means Make It So doesn't even discard after use. This is great! Unstopping is limited to once per ship title, but the rest keeps working. If you've got lots of Ready Room Doors, you can easily download one Captain's Order per turn until all the ones you want are out on the table. Note that FC Data can also do this from the USS Sutherland. A great card, which is very useful, while still being balanced with reasonable limits, and especially good for a couple of E-E commanders. My hat off to its 4.7.

TOTAL: 15.87 (79.33%) Was worth the wait for this broken link to be fixed.

PICTURE: Ugly, but that's necessary. Blurry, that's too bad. What I like is that a number of doo-dads stick out of the ship frame, which should be all those enhancements they stole from other species. A good model all things considered, and is that alien writing on its side? More than a small and fuzzy shape in the middle of the pic, but it's that too. A 3.3.

LORE: It's got a matching commander, which is always worth some points. The lore is then split into English and pidgin Pakled, which gives us a modicum of real information as well as adds that Pakled flavor found on the other related cards (including Make Us Go). It's always fun to see the Jarada mentioned (it was always too bad they couldn't make an episode out of the "Imbalance" novel), and Geordi LaForge in the same sentence, almost as an afterthought. Quote's relevant to the special equipment. Yes, I like it and give it a strong 4.5.

TREK SENSE: We don't rightly know that the Pakleds had ALL that special equipment, but it's fun to think they did. After all, if they didn't have the Tamarian Particle Scattering Field in "Samaritan Snare", maybe they got it later. I also doubt they had a Cloaking Device - it's borne from the Romulan reference - though they might just have been too stupid to use it. Holodeck? Maybe, though there's not that much room on that ship (holo-projectors are considered Holodeck technology anyway). Tractor Beam is the most believable. The triple-8 attributes are part of the overall modifications, and believable ones. And the staffing forces players to actually put Pakleds aboard this Pakled ship. That works fine. Of course, most of the card is a big joke (as are all Pakleds in a sense) about their "salvaging" operations. As such, still gets us to 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Hey, 8-8-8 and all the good special equipment, and all it costs you is one personnel staffing it. It shouldn't be hard to get the necessary Pakled aboard either: Grebnedlog can come aboard via Ready Room Door (Plaquing and Logging the ship to 10-11-11 proportions) and Danderdag is a universal support personnel (a competent back-up). As for Reginod, you'll have to pick him up somewhere, but that Plasmadyne Relay of his will give the Mondor an extra +2 in RANGE and SHIELDS. Speaking of downloads, Grebnedlog grabs We Look For Things, which can only be played on a staffed Pakled ship (i.e. the Mondor). It allows you to steal a ship-enhancing card from your opponent (they lose it and you gain it). That Kurlan Naiskos should make the Mondor strong now. Whatever its final attributes, the ship can also cloak (excellent), host holograms (could be fun), take care of Garbage Scows (useful) and trap opposing Away Teams on planets (inefficient, but if you're like me, you've got two dozen Particle Scattering Fields in a box somewhere). The Mondor and crew is real nasty on a spaceline, stealing equipment and enhancers, capturing ENGINEERs, etc., and anybody can pull it off. A good 4.3.

TOTAL: 16 (80%) We look for things to make us score.

PICTURE: The gray color palette isn't bad per se, but the card is so blurry as to make it so. I do like the furs, but can't give the image a passing grade based on that. Only 2.4.

LORE: Pretty short, it covers his classification, but not his skill. No mention of universality. Only one of the Ferengi named could actually make use of the 6th Rule. And they've given him a name that sounds too much like a certain Federation personnel of long standing. No more than a 1.5. Poor.

TREK SENSE: Pretty non-descript, I'll agree with the universal icon even if it gets no support from the lore. What I won't agree with, however, is the skill. He's an Astrophysics mission specialist? Then why send him down to Portal 63's planet? And where did a Security guy pick up this difficult scientific skill? At least he was given the Cunning to understand the subject matter, but the way he was acting on the show, I think he'd be hard-pressed to prove it. Integrity's a bit low for a cronny (they're usually loyal to their leaders, at least). Strength's on the high end for TNG Ferengi, which is fine. Seeing as I don't find much to agree with, I won't go over 1.2.

STOCKABILITY: Mordoc finds his niche quite easily. Ferengi aren't exactly overflowing with SECURITY personnel, especially universal ones, so there's that. They also only have a handful of Astrophysics personnel, and it's a skill that's often required of space dilemmas and missions. And his attributes aren't a problem. Add to that his being a mission specialist, downloadable through Assign Mission Specialists, and you've got something. Again, the Ferengi have very few mission specialists, so using the strategy is practically gonna require you to use all of them with very specific missions. Missions that require Astrophysics? Purchase Moon is a seminal one. A couple of others are universal, so are great for redundancy (Collect Sample and Explore Interstellar Matter, for example). All that, plus Letek can play the 6th Rule shuffle with him. Patching more than one hole, he deserves his 3.7.

TOTAL: 8.8 (44%) Stockability couldn't save him.

PICTURE: The restriction that all OS mains come from "The Trouble with Tribbles" isn't such a bad thing for Scotty, since his moment (facing off a Klingon) is a memorable one, but there might have been possibilities in others. "By Any Other Name" comes to mind, I dunno. Anyway, good pic, with an interesting deco background. 3.5 should do.

LORE: Shortened for extra game text, we do get that last sentence that's from the episode itself, fairly funny given that he *couldn't* take an insult, not about the Enterprise anyway. The rest establishes him as a "Scotty" more clearly than Montgommery Scott, and of course, his post on the Enterprise, that's pretty routine. Enough for a 3.6.

TREK SENSE: No Miracle Worker, but that label wasn't introduced until the movies. He's still the chief engineer, accounting for his 2 Engineer. Not just the chief there, but also cleared to command the ship (3rd in command), so Leadership and the Command icon are there too. He's run the transporter room, and they didn't forget Transporter Skill. Astrophysics looks right, but I've got to think a little more about when he used it. I believe the Dyson sphere incident established it somewhat for his older self, Montgommery Scott, so it's carried over to the past. No real use of the bagpipes in the original series, though they were perhaps seen in his quarters, so no Music. It might have been a good thing though. The special download may be due to his acting as a sort of security detail leader in many episodes, but it's not like he pulled one on the Klingons during "Trouble". The special skill has him boost (through engineering feats, no doubt) not just the Enterprise, but any Constitution-class ship. Boosting the Enterprise alone would have been a close fit, since it's his baby. However, we're told in "Relics" that he served on 11 ships throughout his career. The early days must've had more than one Constitution class - it was just about the only class of starship in service for a while there. He would know enough to boost any ship of the line. Integrity makes him a good guy still capable of "cowboy diplomacy" (if we can call the bar brawl that). Fighting OS Klingons hand to hand requires 7 Strength? Fair enough. Cunning's high enough for him to live up to his miracle worker label. A couple of oddities keeps the score at 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: ENGINEER remains one of the better skills/classifications, but the Feds already have a number of good ENGINEER x2 personnel. Well, OS personnel can add to their skills relatively easily thanks to Classic equipment, making Scotty more than viable. A Classic Tricorder will add a third ENGINEER to his resumé (or SCIENCE or Geology or Physics), while his Leadership enables the Phaser he downloads, giving him an extra SECURITY in addition to a +2 STRENGTH boost (total 9 at this point). Astrophysics and Transporter Skill are both excellent skills too, whether you're going after missions, dilemmas or even tribbles. To make the Starship Enterprise a better ship, he adds +2 to each of its attributes. Along with other OS personnel's bonuses, that little ship can really hold its own. But wait a minute! He can boost ANY Constitution-class ship, making him as useful to a Spacedoored Starship Constitution, a Mirror ISS vessel, or the movie versions of the Enterprise (Starship and E-A). He can be switched with his Classic Films self, which could be useful to at least download Divert Power, or staff an unusual ship or something. Not much call for it overall though. No, better to use his OS icon to pile on the skills and make him a mission-solving machine. In addition to everything he can do, he'll pass Blended, though be stopped by it. Watch out for that. Good for a 4.1.

TOTAL: 14.6 (73%) Weighs more than his "Relics" self. Somehow. ;-)

PICTURE: Sure, Mr. Spock has the perfect expression, with the arched eyebrow, and the CGI is pretty seamless (Kirk and his shadow were removed from the image), but that background has got to go. Purple or fushia or whatever you call this is terrible, and the giant knob looks bad too. Another example of the concequences of foolishly sticking to the tribble episode for image pulls. Gonna cost Spock: a 3.3 and no more.

LORE: We don't get as much as we deserve thanks to the line cut for game text purposes. We do get a riff on logic (though that's a given with his species), the fact he was the first Vulcan in Starfleet, a personality trait (not bad), and then the catch word "Fascinating". I know he found everything around him fascinating, but was he considered facinating by his peers? Nurse Chapel, I guess. It almost reads like a comment on the rest of the lore. Be that as it may, it's a fair hommage to the oft-cited word. They packed in a lot of stuff in those two lines, so a 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Wearing the Science blues, it's clear that he was Science first and first Officer second (if you can read that without getting confused). And he was QUITE the Scientist, so x2. He was always programming stuff into the Enterprise computer, so Computer Skill fits. Exobiology is a natural scientific skill to give him, since he was always in contact with new life-forms. Unfortunately, he probably deserves a lot more science-related skills, but there's no room, and I agree Exo was his most often used specialty. He plays the Vulcan harp, and needs Music to do so. He gave us the first Vulcan Nerve Pinch, and often did so, making the special download a natural. He was also quite adept with Mindmeld. heck, he could meld through walls, with machines, do almost anything with that skill (does it cover cross-the-room hypnotic suggestion?). Because he and Kirk were best friends, and worked best together, complementing each other perfectly, they both get a bonus to their attributes when together. They kept each other on the straight and narrow (Integrity), bounced ideas off each other (Cunning), and fought well together (Strength). One of the best done attribute boosts in this style. Despite being "inhuman" in McCoy's words, he was still quite moral, and followed Starfleet directives to the letter. High Integrity makes a lot of sense for him. Cunning has to be really high, what with his mental clock, perfect memory and computer mind. And then there's that super-Strength that's always in evidence on the show. Really, Mr. Spock only suffers from being necessarily incomplete. They just did too much with the character on the show! For what's here, he deserves a 4.5.

STOCKABILITY: Mr. Spock has a lot going for him. 6 standard skills in addition to his classification, a special download, and a special skill on top of that, not to mention the very high attributes and helpful icons. Being SCIENCE before OFFICER allows him to add even more skills to his profile, because it allows him to use both Classic Tricorders, but lets him be a leader for purposes of the Classic Phaser. 3 extra skills (and +2 STRENGTH) by my count. Pick the classifications and you've got a personnel with SCIENCE x2, OFFICER, SECURITY, MEDICAL and ENGINEER, able to have a Senior Staff Meeting all by his lonesome, and well on your way to staffing a Kurlaned ship. Computer Skill is always a useful skill. Exobiology likewise, especially against dilemmas. Music has the usual uses, not many, but you never know (Ressikan Flute, Ooby Dooby, etc.). OFFICER + high STRENGTH certainly helps pass Maglock. Super-SCIENCE personnel are rare, but very useful. Mindmeld at x2 is a great help against the Horta (plus has the usual perks, like sharing all those wonderful skills using the Vulcan Mindmeld interrupt). Speaking of those perks, he downloads Vulcan Nerve Pinch, so in a battle you might lose, he can place opposing personnel in stasis before personnel pair up. If you have more Vulcans present, he allows each one to do so. It can also nullify I Hate You. If with Captain Kirk - another great personnel, though mission solving isn't his thing... hey, Spock's is! - they are both +2 to attributes. Spock's already high stats rocket to 10-12-11 before any hand weapon bonuses. Kirk's are an appreciable 10-11-10. Mr. Spock can solve a lot of missions, but the very first out of the Sherman's Time Location is Agricultural Assessment, which asks for him by name. Very efficient. He also allows Nurse Chapel to report for free, for an extra dose of MEDICAL skills. Amanda Grayson conversely allows him to report to her location for free. The OS icon allows him to download to the Starship Enterprise, or report there (or to the Consitution) with Crew Reassignment, so he gets into play early and easily. Being a Vulcan is also a plus in this game, whether you report them to the Vulcan Lander or Vulcan itself, solve Observe Ritual (admittedly strange in this case), pass Primitive Culture, save them with Live Long and Prosper, or save others with the Death Grip. Using persona replacement to turn him into Captain Spock is doable, but not particularly helpful. Different mix of skills, but less useful I think. Though if you see death coming (I dunno, Anti-Time Anomaly? Black Hole?), you switch to the CF version who can return from the dead anyway. Mr. Spock would remain in your hand safe and sound at the moment of impact. But that's a long shot. An über-Vulcan who'll work great in any Federation deck, not just OS, though exact strategies may decide just how great. A 4.7.

TOTAL: 16 (80%) Rounds out the current top 10 Feds nicely.

PICTURE: Some blur on this card, but I don't dislike the pastel color palette or striped background. Basically a dull bust shot though. A 3 and no more.

LORE: The last sentence is the fun one, but at least his title is an interesting and original one. The rest remains in the realm of facts. Alliteration aside, a 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Agricultural Affairs... Biology and Law. I'll buy that. Though only an undersecretary, he played the big shot and could be a considered a VIP. From the way he was treated by Kirk, I'd say one without the Command icon. He can change that Law to Diplomacy at any time, being in disputed terrain, Diplomacy would be a useful skill. The episode didn't really show it though, cuz he was always thumping that lawbook at Kirk, annoying him a great deal. So if one, not the other. And while we never really saw Diplomacy, it makes sense as part of his skill package. As for the download of Incoming Message, it's good that it doesn't have to play at his location (since he called a ship TO him), but it doesn't help that the ship then doesn't have to come to him, nor is K-7 an Outpost for purposes of this card. His Integrity and Cunning present a man who doesn't see the big picture, appropriate, but the Strength is too high. He was high-strung, yes, and worked on the frontier, but he's just a pencil pusher. That single flaw doesn't detract much from the pretty high 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: Lukewarm attributes, a less useful classification (no interaction with Classic Equipment), download of a lame interrupt... What's he got going for him? Well, Biology and Diplomacy are good, but he's one of only two OS Law personnel, the other being Wyatt Earp. Thematic deck builders will be interested. The download of Incoming Message makes that card a bit better, but it still relies on your opponent playing with the Feds. Not impossible given the wide variety of strategies that affiliation (and its sub-affiliations) can use, and it doesn't have to be at Baris' location or anything. Using the Message and Nilz Baris is still at best a gamble. His skills aren't bad, and he'll always get your Arne Darvin a card draw at K-7, download to the Starship Enterprise, stuff like that. A 3.

TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) Average, just like the guy.

PICTURE: The companion to Victory Is Life shares its dingy color palette, but is a little more interesting. You've got a jaded Weyoun dispensing White, plenty of recognizable Jem'Hadar, and there's something pretty humorous about the shirt Jemmie in the back trying to see over the pack's collective shoulder. Not too appropriate, but that's not Decipher's fault. Keep those extras in line! Now, the composition is, at best, non-existent, but the elements are at least fun: a 3.7.

LORE: The title is a quote, and so it follows that the lore is a quote too. Even more appropriate, since its sister card, Victory Is  Life, does the same. Very, very cool stuff too, especially when you do the voices. The same 4.5 I gave the other one.

TREK SENSE: What is Obedience? Your Vorta "rations" (i.e. distributes) Ketracel-White, and basically asks the Jem'Hadar to do something. It's not a reward, it's more of a way to keep the soldiers strong for the hardships to come. In the episode, after all, the Jem'Hadar only went on a mission AFTER this scene. Now, the card draws are resources made available to or by the Jem'Hadar. They work extra hard to get that ship built, or they're supplied with Disruptor Rifles for the coming mission, stuff like that. As with all card draws like this, they won't all make sense, of course, but specific downloads may replace one of the draws to add more storytelling to the effect. One is having the Vorta tell them to Subjugate Planet. The other is what logically followed Obedience Brings Victory, and that's Victory Is Life. I think we can call it a 4.

STOCKABILITY: The recipe calls for a Jem'Hadar, a Vorta, and 2 Ketracel-White cards (rationing means one of them is kept from counting down), which may seem like a lot of cards, but they can all be brought in early and easily using Defend Howeworld (the Vorta), Assign Support Personnel (the Jem'Hadar) and a Supply Depot (the White). A couple of card draws for something that's gonna happen anyway (if using Jem'Hadar) is always a good thing, but the Interrupt format is a little more difficult to use than an Event or Incident. Better is that one of the draws can be converted to something you're sure to be able to use. Ready to solve a mission? Download Subjugate Planet, a "mission" that requires the Vorta and Jem'Hadar you've got there anyway. About to attempt some other mission or initiate personnel battle? Download Victory Is Life to hand instead in preparation for an Equipment download and 5 bonus points. Good, good, but it's biggest flaw is that you might not have it ready when you actually need it. Game for a 4.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) Indeed it does.

PICTURE: The clear table and perspective game with the potted plant always make me see a large, man-sized Obelisk, but the object is actually in line with the fishbowl, as the episode will confirm.So they skimped on the styrofoam after all. Dinky, but memorable, I give it a 2.8.

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

TREK SENSE: Another of those thematic, conceptual cards, and I'm not sure it would have done any better as an Artitact. At least, there would have been less game text to rummage through. Now, it's really difficult to make sense of OoM, except for the more obvious last effect. The Obelisk IS a Masaka Transformation, so its appearance can signal more (the download), unless your opponent counters Masaka with Korgano (by means of his Mask). It's thematic, yes, but hardly relevant to a real world situation, mostly because Masaka Transformations isn't a Trek Sensical card to begin with. The rest is even more opaque. If the Obelisk is all about transformations, why does it limit the transformation of card draws into downloads? Well, one might suppose that the card draws are more random/less useful than the downloads, so those downloads are converted BACK into card draws. As for the reasoning behind requiring 2 crew members aboard any medium-and-up-sized ship (plus Interceptors, which have a more K'Vort-like function than a shuttle's) to move or initiate battle, I can only surmise that the transformations wracking your ships are interfering with their smooth running. You need more people just to handle the Masaka damage. But again, this is entirely conceptual in nature, with Masaka invading ships indescriminately without rhyme nor reason. The Hidden Agenda mimics how Masaka surprised the Enterprise crew, coming out of nowhere as it were. In fact, the Obelisk did appear behind the crew's backs. Still conceptual though. The Referee icon doesn't have Trek Sense per se, but I like it to actually counter abusive strategies. In this case, it limits cheap armadas made up of easy-to-staff ships (they're built way to fast for an opponent to defend against in time), and also card draws-to-downloads abilities featured on some cards (Borg, we're looking at you!) that can be abused in combination with massive card draws, like Ooby Dooby's or Masaka Transformations (ah, there's a link at least). The last ability, though, isn't very Referee-like. No, I can't go higher than 0.8.

STOCKABILITY: This Incident counters a couple of abusive strategies/effects, but in case your opponent doesn't go those routes, it can still have a useful effect. That effect lets you turn a bad hand into a potentially better one with Masaka Transformations. You can also force an opponent to lose his hand the same way. There's no real stopping it, as The Mask of Korgano is one of the least useful cards in the game and is highly unlikely to be found on your opponent's side. The strategies it limits? For one thing, there's the idea of turning card draws into downloads, which can be abused by the likes of the Borg. Many of them can download some useful bit of business in place of "one card draw". What if they have more than one card draw? Well, that entitles each relevant drone to replace one of those draws with its download. Now send lots of Interlinked Borg through Ooby Dooby, or let them use Masaka Transformations for a new downloaded hand, or even Kivas Fajo's goodies, and the Collective could get way ahead of you. Or how about those dreaded armadas? Let your Klingon or Bajoran or other opponent build his cheap armada, and flip over the Obelisk (or suspend play to download it with Q the Referee). Your opponent'll find himself a sitting duck just before his attack as none of his K'Vorts or Interceptors can move or battle with that lone warrior at the helm. From then on, he'll have to work to get more personnel out if he wants his total WEAPONS to be as high as planned, giving you time to fight back or get to 100 points. There are other armada counters, but this one can be a nasty kick in the teeth. The number of opponents this is good against is limited, but with Q the Ref, who cares? A good 4.3.

TOTAL: 10.53 (52.65%) There's no helping those big conceptual magic bullets.

PICTURE: Good, if a bit eclectic. On the one hand, the lighting and the background are OS all the way, and Odo is holding the very piece of equipment he can download. On the other, the shadows on his face don't compliment him at all, and the blue, stripped turtleneck is laughable. I mostly like it though, so a 3.4.

LORE: One important thing here is to give us a human Odo, and the concept of redoing the DS9 mains in "Tribbles" gives Decipher that chance. Of course, with no mention of time travel, the first sentence is a bit lacking in details. And I don't much care for the mention of civilian clothes as a way of explaining his new classification. The story IS told with humor though, so he gets as much as 3.2.

TREK SENSE: Send Odo back to the past AND make him human, and you've got this version of Odo. The OS icon thus becomes a necessity, but I've never really liked it. Since it doesn't actually report him to the past (where the version should belong, as in the future, he's the other Odo), it makes him viable staff for OS ships and gives him proficiency with OS equipment. It's again a matter of actually becoming what you're posing as. Same for the Non-Aligned affiliation, but in this case, with the Bajorans not being players in the 23rd century, they would probably be considered NA too. In the past, he has no one to command, so a Staff icon is a better choice. He's still the master investigator, so Security x2 stands. Computer Skill and Honor both take a drop to x1, but in both cases, there's a sensible reason. For Computer Skill, it's being in the past, where the systems aren't quite the same (of course, all the action happens in the present, so it shouldn't really be an issue). For Honor, we have a very bitter Odo here, one less willing to do his job, or else distracted from it, by his recent humanization. I think his Integrity should have taken a dip too. Certainly, he's not as Strong: 10 is a little more than human after all. Cunning remains the same. Where's his Law? Wasn't used in this show. The download is inspired by the image, and yes, he did carry one around, but so did everyone else. Why is it the quintessential equipment card for Odo? No real reason. Speaking of equipment, he can now use hand weapons. Sure, he doesn't have the advantage of shape-shifting anymore, but I'm trying to remember a "human" episode where he used a phaser, and I can't think of one. While I think OS versions of DS9 personnel have a lot of obstacles to overcome, and while some things work (mostly having to do with being human), a lot doesn't. I'm gonna have to give Odo a 2 this time.

STOCKABILITY: This Odo can't use shape-shifting or changeling cards, but he does have a useful OS icon. With an NA border and 2 SECURITY to himself, it boosts any OS crew's SECURITY total considerably. That's also because he can download the Classic Communicator to share that skill with others that have the icon. As a Non-Aligned, he'll fit in with anyone's Captured strategy to give them lots of SECURITY, especially if sharing skills. Computer Skill is useful besides, if common, especially since you could use it to report to a Nor's Promenade Shops and commandeer it from Ops. Less useful on a Non-Aligned, but switching him to the Bajoran Odo would be a way to turn Terok Nor into Deep Space 9. Honor may be less useful, but still shows up here and there. It may be especially useful to Honor-deficient OS Klingons that have to live with the same mission selection as their more modern counterparts. He's got great INTEGRITY to boot, and the other two attributes aren't bad at all. He's still an Odo, which downloads him to a solved Runabout Search, has him nullify Ferengi Bug (with a tricorder, so he has a use for a Classic one even if he doesn't get skills from them) and Install Autonomic Parasite, and he can help a lot with Investigate Rumors. Switching back and forth between Odos, apart from the the above-mentioned trick, isn't recommended, because the OS Odo won't help the Bajorans. What's there scores a 3.6. anyway.

TOTAL: 12.2 (61%) Certainly not as well designed as the original.

PICTURE: When you think of tribbles, this is one of the scenes you remember. I like Kirk's expression, I like the "apple jacks" color palette... My only criticism is that we don't see more tribbles on the bridge. The "trouble" is silly as it is, they could have put in a few more to add to it. Still a classic moment worth a 4.

LORE: Cheeky and simply put, the expression "tribble distractions" sounds like an early dilemma idea for this set. A competent 3.4.

TREK SENSE: If you've got tons of Tribbles on your ship's bridge, what happens? Well, when you hit 100, your ship's captain is entirely too distracted to get maximum output from the ship and its crew. Made a fool of, he or she doesn't command the same respect, and of course, you've got the bridge crew distracted by pettings and feedings. In game terms, this suspends Captain's Log and Defiant Dedication Plaque's attribute boosts. Not bad, but what if there IS no matching commander? Couldn't there be disarray there too? Ok, at 1000 Tribbles, it somehow limits mission attempts to 10 personnel. In this case, the card has an effect on Tribbles on a planet as well as on a ship. But, but... where's the Bridge in that situation? As for the effect, it basically states that the crew would be so distracted by 1000 Tribbles that only 10 could ever possibly concentrate on the mission at hand. Without a Bridge being necessary, the card gets conceptual on us - the link is that the "bridge" is the command center for mission coordination. And what if there are less than 10 personnel in the mission attempt? No effect? Just ensign Bobs sweeping the tribble droppings? Being so unfocused brings the score down to 2.7.

STOCKABILITY: Obviously, an effects here are mitigated by the fact you need to set up a Tribble side-deck, but Trouble on the Bridge does have some good stuff. When on a group of 100 Tribbles, it's not that great I agree. Some decks do use a lot of matching commanders to boost ships to high levels, but sometimes, like with OS decks, to simply reasonable levels. So taking out those attribute enhancements could mean easy destruction by one of your ships. I say it's not so great because the 100 Tribbles' own effects don't really work with the Trouble card. Played on a group of 1000 Tribbles, it's a whole other matter. Not only do 1000 Tribbles suspend each personnel's first-listed skill, but Trouble on the Bridge limits the number of personnel attempting a mission to 10. I've always hated mega-Away Team strategies where a player hoards personnel, then attempts missions with so huge a number, that even losing one means little (though usually, they've got massive attribute totals and all the skills in the book to cope with dilemmas). So now, they've got fewer skills AND must make a choice as to which personnel go on the mission. This won't do anything if mega-Away Teams/crews aren't used, so the use is limited. And even if they are, I think a limit of 10 is too high. 10 is still a large number. In the final analysis, it's just too much set-up to counter only a couple of possible strategies. No more than your average 3.

TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) The Tribble stuff had fun ideas, but implementation is key.

PICTURE: The lesson here is never to open a store of grain from a downward-facing door. What if there had been tons of quadrotriticale behind there? Between such a death and the one he got in Generations, I don't know which is worse. ;-) But to get to the pic, it's got motion, lots of color, and each figure is in its own position. I don't like the stiff redshirt on the right (looks like a cardboard cut-out), but the rest is fun. A 3.4.

LORE: Dax and Spock's estimated number of bred tribbles appears here (too bad it never got its own card), with the rest explaining the game text adequately (or at least some of it). Another good 3.4.

TREK SENSE: For there to be Trouble on a Station, you need a lot of Tribbles. At least a 1000 to really cover that kind of area. When there are a 1000, a single site cannot hold them, and they spill over into adjacent sites, carried ships, docked ships and landed ships (for ground facilities and Docking Pads). They can also spill FROM a ship into a facility the same way. This works for me. After all, 100 Tribbles isn't that much of a spillover when you consider that there are no demarkations between 1000 and 10,000 Tribbles. There are plenty of Tribble Bobs that you can have "spread". The mechanics are questionable: plays on Tribbles that aren't on a station to begin with, and the Trouble ends when the spreading occurs (it should be starting). When a station has 10,000 Tribbles, there are too many to "conduct services" at a Shrine. Um, ok. This I'm not too happy with. First, I think the Bajorans could find a way to pray anyway. And second, it's entirely too specific. No services, but ore processing ok? (I know it's another card's effect.) How about playing Dabo? Or just reporting guests? It should maybe suspend a site's game text entirely. That'll hurt an otherwise good card, sending it down to a 3.

STOCKABILITY: For spreading your Tribble cards around, Trouble on the Station is excellent, though the fact it discards means you'll need to stock and play a number of them. You also need to breed to 1000 Tribbles, but that's not so bad since spreading creates groups of 100 Tribbles ready to breed into 1000. So you drop 10 Tribbles on any ship or station, breed, and then spread to any facility or vessel that comes in intimate contact (docks, enters or lands on) with it. On a Nor, the spreading will get Tribbles to senstive areas like the Ore Processing Unit (for Trouble in the Engine Room) or breeding to 10,000 Tribbles, to the Bajoran Shrine to counter the Bajorans' own "ore processing" card manipulation deal (you need another Trouble on the Station to play on this group though). More of a just-in-case effect. Spreading'll work against any deck however, and 100 Tribbles spread to a ship means immediate trouble with mission attempts (1000 too, for that matter), and a quick Trouble in the Engine Room'll sink the ship's attributes a little. 100 Tribbles can also be spread with Trouble in the Transporters (as 10 Tribbles), but you need personnel to carry them along. Will your opponent stop docking with your facilities to stop the invasion? Damaged ships need to dock to get repairs, so they might not have a choice. Similarly, you can't normally beam personnel to and from a Nor, so Nor users won't have much of a choice. As for carried ships, I'm sure a Dominion Battleship or Kazon Warship won't appreciate you infecting every Fighter or Attack Ship aboard. Quite good when using a Tribble side-deck, I'll give it a 3.9.

TOTAL: 13.7 (68.5%) No Trouble really made a splash.

PICTURE: A fun one with all the Magnificent Ferengi all staring down at the dead Keevan. Rom's expression is especially good. What isn't is the distortion brought on by the otherwise original-looking lights, making some of them less recognizable (in particular, Gaila, Nog and even Brunt). But the fun wins out in the end, and the card gets 3.7.

LORE: I don't care for the date that starts things off, but the rest is good. The Ferengi go from "ill-prepared" to having a "profound lack of competence" in the span of only a few words. Kind of pays hommage to the two parts of the game text. Who else thinks Too Many Cooks would still have been a better name for the card (that's what it was called at the DecipherCon 99 card design seminar)? I do, though perhaps the lack of a "number of personnel" component would have been a prerequisite. Good for a 3.4

TREK SENSE: What is Oops!? It's meant to represent an abstract problem, we don't know what. The only thing that's important is that the characters are in over their heads. Well, they're not if they have a Leadership personnel with them. Without a leader type (an Officer doesn't count, just to weed out the Wesleys and Giustis), the characters commit a grievous error and someone dies (everyone stops what they're doing for sure). Even with a Leader, the situation is a tough one to get out of. I should say with or without, because personnel without Leadership still have to get their act together after the random death. Nog seems well suited to this second scenario because he rallied the troops on the show, but I could see him be the perfect little ensign for his Leader too. Barring Nog, most affiliations'll need 3 Staff personnel. If there's a Leader, they're the expertise the Leader coordinates to get out of trouble. If not, they sort of pool their experience together to approximate Command. The flaw is that Command icons don't count for anything here, which seems wrong since they would when staffing a ship. For the Borg, 3 Defense drones are what's required. Nothing a little violence can't cure, eh? It's an interesting one all right, one that doesn't have an actual context in the story, but these abstractions better fit the storyline created by a dilemma stack. You just have to work a little harder to tell it. A 3.8.

SEEDABILITY: I don't know if Gorn Encounter, Punishment Box and Trabe Grenade will get rid of all the Leadership personnel in an Away Team in time for this dilemma to hit, but I'm thinking not. After a massive killer (Denevan Neural Parasites maybe?), Oops! could have a chance of cause a further death, and then staying as a wall against the too-small group of personnel. Otherwise, 3 Staff icons isn't too hard to get, though many of the best personnel are Command icon and irrelevant here. For the Borg, they may indeed go in without Leadership, but 3 Defense drones isn't much of a requirement (they aren't limited to one beam-down per turn anymore). Ferengi and Federation players have an off-chance of having Nog. The fact it can seed under Empok Nor is the hidden advantage here. Other dilemmas that could eliminate Leadership personnel here include Garak Has Some Issues (which includes an opponent's choice kill each turn) and the two that download personnel there, which can then be used to attack the offending Away Team (Ferengi Infestation and Sleeper Trap). Meanwhile, the wall will slow down the commandeering attempt. Since the requirements aren't very difficult, you can easily bypass the dilemma on your own attempt. Definitely better on Empok Nor, winds up at 3.4 when taken in its entirety.

TOTAL: 14.3 (71.5%) Any errors?

PICTURE: This is the dullest of the Orbs. The background is almost non-existent, the grail is a dull silver and even blurry, and the shot on the pedestal compares to the stiffest of prop shots. A yawn followed by a 1.5.

LORE: "Bajoran Orb", yes, I gathered that. The rest is fine, reminding us of both of its appearances. We tend to forget the second, so that's a good thing. How about 3.3?

TREK SENSE: Orbs are carriable artifacts, so they act as Equipment. The Orb of Time can make ships (as in "Trials and Tribble-ations") and shipless personnel (as in "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night") time travel. Now, the Orb must be present, so it would travel with the ship or Away Team, which goes with Trials, but contradicts Wrongs a little (though technically, you need a way back). In any case, you need an Orb-icon personnel present, which is a reverse way of thinking. Time-traveling with the Orb should give you an Orb icon right then and there, but here we have to look for an icon to prove the personnel is having the Orb Experience as the next action. Talk about paradoxes! Another limit is that you can't time travel to a location where you would become an intruder. After all, Kira traveled to Bajor and had to make her way to Terok Nor during the episode. A couple of points keep this otherwise reasonable card at 3.5.

SEEDABILITY: Temporal Vortex and similar time travel cards are one-shot deals, requiring a number of card slots and the danger of not having them at the opportune time. The Guardian of Forever allows for back and forth travel, but not for ships. For lots of time travel, you're better off with the Orb of Time. You'll need at least one Orb-icon personnel, which won't be hard for the Bajorans, though Barry Waddle and Orb Experience can give most anyone a way to use this artifact (though the Feds, Ferengi, and Cardassians have at least one of their own). As an Orb Artifact, it can be acquired easily with Return Orb to Bajor (and you can make it give up points and card draws to boot) or as a "use as Equipment" card with Starry Night. Once you have it though, your ship or Away Team can time travel with abandon. This is useful to CF and OS ships that need to return to their old hunting grounds to pick up more personnel (though it's still a two-turn detour). A ship so equipped can time travel to a Time Location and then back out at any point on the spaceline(s). Easy way out of any quadrant if you ask me. Or clear across the spaceline, though again, I question the delay. Is it really faster than just flying there? A full 12-mission spaceline? It actually is faster. A very focused Orb, it nonetheless offers possibilities. A 3.7.

TOTAL: 12 (60%) Made it to passing grade... in a nick of time.

PICTURE: I love this. Treaty cards are rather dull, but using the old affiliation symbols from the Original Series was a stroke of genius. The old UFP pennant is probably the most dated, but the Klingon multi-colored "dagger" is fun too. Recognizable, but off. A nostalgic and fun 4.3.

LORE: Well told, even though the syntax can be murky if read too quickly. No problems: a 3.2.

TREK SENSE: I've been a frequent opponent of Treaty cards in my Trek Sense sections, and I must be one again. See, despite the opportunity to make an offbeat Treaty by focusing strictly on OS cards, this card is pretty much just like the others. Despite the Organian Treaty, we never really saw OS Feds and OS Klingons cooperate, did we? You're counting "Day of the Dove"? I wouldn't. They certainly "mix" in "Tribbles", but not without a fight breaking out. The Organian Treaty wasn't about cooperation, it was about non-agression. If the card simply kept Klingons from attacking Feds, and vice-versa, I'd be happy with it. The only real difference with normal Treaty cards is that it is immune to The Devil, showing that the Organians are keeping an eye on things. They won't let petty temptations (i.e. The Devil) start a war again. Of course, you have to wonder where these guys went to after "Errand of Mercy", cuz the two sides were quite able to fight each other after that episode. Barely hits 1.2.

STOCKABILITY: I'd say this was basically a card for theme decks. After all, OS Feds and Klingons are covered by the standard Fed-Klingon Treaty already. The only real bonus is that it is immune to The Devil. Well, that's something at least. Being seedable is also good, and the fact you can save that seed slot by downloading it with Sherman's Peak. So it's uniquely suited to OS decks that use Deep Space Station K-7. How else are you going to make use of Arne Darvin's useful special skill? OS Klingons aren't enough to sustain a deck by themselves, so marrying them to the OS Feds like this makes sense. The Romulans are fewer still, but aren't covered by this Treaty unfortunately. If you wanted to use them, the tri-Treaty would probably be called for instead. The Treaty DOES cover Mirror OS personnel however, and they're actually closer to OS Klingons even if you can't report them to same way. Decks that use support from non-OS sources shouldn't use this Treaty, because such support would come under house arrest fairly frequently. The tight focus keeps it a still good 3.4.

TOTAL: 12.1 (60.5%) It started off so well...

PICTURE: The giant spider (no, Dax, that's not a dog) is surrounded by cobwebs, appropriately enough, but the lighting is centred too much on then, and not enough on the animal itself (no doubt this was intentional so we wouldn't notice how fake it was). The colors on the Palukoo are screwed up as a result, and there's a strange rainbow effect at work. A messy 1.1.

LORE: Good stuff, though being this specific about their habitat raises questions as to their appropriateness as dilemmas. That the Resistance ate them isn't overlooked, and neither is Dax's reaction to them. Good info worth its 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Palukoos shouldn't be seeded outside the Bajoran Region, and that's only if you admit the possibility of their existing off the actual moons of Bajor. Of course, we should see this dilemma as representing any kind of large insect or arachnid that might pose a danger to an Away Team. In that sense it works better. Ok, so the Resistance was used to hunting them and eating them. They wouldn't be scared (Kira wasn't) and wouldn't get bitten. They'd kill the thing and move on. Palukoo could also represent a feast for more natural predators, so Animals are included. Ok, but they're not all Targs. A cat might beat a Palukoo, but it wouldn't be easy. Whales... how would that work exactly. The Animal classification just covers too broad a section of the animal kingdom to make sense as a specific requirement. If the Palukoo (or other giant insect) isn't killed, it may bite someone. If it bites a joined Trill, it kills them because it interferes with their symbiont's biochemistry. Other Trill aren't affected the same way, well done. Anyone else gets poisoned and is out of commission for a couple turns (except androids, but somehow, holograms can be). That's not canon per se, but not outside the realm of possibility. That's one big mosquito bite, after all. Effects are fine, but it's the requirements that are lacking. Fun, but hard to swallow, and I don't just mean the Animal part. I'm just wondering if Exobiology or Security coudn't get you out of this jam. Won't go higher than a 3.4. Still good.

SEEDABILITY: The requirements are so fussy, it'll probably hit anyone but the Bajorans, who are close to immune to it. The Dominion, Cardassians and Federation have a Resistance personnel each (the last two share Kira), and the Borg Queen can adopt the skill, but otherwise, the Palukoo bites. Everyone has access to some kind of ANIMAL, but they're excessively rare. The Klingons might have a Targ (or two?) to boost their STRENGTH, but Spot is a pricey card and the whales are basically just for their little Star Trek IV emulation strategy. An ANIMAL presence is doubtful at best. If it's a matter of removing either of these requirements in non-Bajoran decks, a specific killer coming in would do the trick, or Hate Crime even. When it does hit, it'll usually filter out a non-android personnel for this turn and another. The Away Team can't just pack up and leave even if they've solved the mission (or find it impossible to solve and want to move on). If you somehow manage to hit a joined Trill, unlikely as that is, it is killed. You can find joined Trill among the Feds, Klingons and Bajorans (mostly Dax), but getting one of them on a random selection requires a lot of luck. The Palukoo should probably be seeded at Symbiont Diagnosis to increase suspense, but the mission has so many requirements, the Trill will be hidden among many other personnel. If you're a Cardassian, Elim would certainly help kill one of these usually very useful personnel. A 4.2.

TOTAL: 12.1 (60.5%) Couldn't quite rise above being gross.

PICTURE: Some fairly poor electrical special effects from TNG's first season episode "Lonely Among Us". I always found it strange that some parts of the panel became gray when electrified in that one (upper left corner). The colors also do nothing for me. A boring 1.7.

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

TREK SENSE: The Hidden Agenda icon suggests that the Panel Overload is caused by something your affiliation did to its opponent, or at least that some kind of conscious intelligence is behind it. I don't know about that. While the source episode for the script did have an alien intelligence roaming the panels and causing havoc, the effects don't require it. I guess it's a mechanical (in the sense of game mechanics) matter, and can be seen in the idea that you never expect it when your Panel Overloads. So what could happen? Well, while scanning a mission location for dilemmas, some energy picked up by sensors could make the panel blow, killing a Computer Skill personnel using it and/or causing Scanner Interference. Hey, not bad, and quite complex and detailed an effect. Other overloaded panels include the one that opens Spacedoors. This panel may be repaired by 4 Engineers, as it takes lots of manpower to open those massive doors. Or it could just be the Bynars Weapon Enhancements or Genetronic Replicator that explode, but in that case, the two cards' Event nature makes this unlikely. See, both of them represent an advance in technology that is carried on every ship or in every Away Team. They ALL blow? I don't think so. The only real black mark on an otherwise good bunch of effects, but it could be explained by saying one Overload takes the technology back to the drawing board for safety reasons. The Referee icon has no Trek Sense per se, but I like it to be on cards that actually do fight cheesy tactics. In this case, it tries to curb the overuse of Spacedoors to download armadas, Genetronic Replicator to run through killer dilemmas like a hot knife through butter, Bynars that create one-ship armadas (or simply smaller armadas with lots of firepower), and scanning to invalidate dilemma seeds. Yeah, ok. So totaling it all up, we get a straight 4.

STOCKABILITY: A Referee card that can be used against a number of abusive strategies, it'll also cause headaches for players simply using the stated cards without abusing them. Take the first effect, for example. Your poor adversary is playing by the rules of your already seeded Scanner Interference. He's got his 2 Computer Skill and is present at the location he scans. Bam! You kill one of those Computer Skill personnel! See, scanning is broken any which way you look at it, so no fate is bad enough for offenders. If Scanner Interference isn't in play already, you can download the card for the next scan attempt. It's too bad that the card doesn't suspend play while it does these things. That would probably keep the scan from having any beneficial effect at all. In any case, you may always discard Scanner Interference to seed a card under the scan mission to reestablish its uncertainty factor. Of course, if Scanner Interference isn't in play, chances are there's no ship at the scanned location for your kill to occur, so it's more of an "or" than an "and". It may provide a good excuse for discarding one Scanner Interference to download an anti-beaming card, with a download of another Scanner Interference coming up. What's fun is that the card remains in play to kill and download again if need be, or to have another of its effects. Its second potential effect is to close Spacedoors at an outpost until 4 ENGINEER can nullify Panel Overload. They can't keep reporting ships every time the doorway opens, but then again, 4 ENGINEER won't be that hard to come up with, especially for the Feds. Speaking of Feds, they would be the most affected by the destruction of a Genetronic Replicator, since they have lots of super-MEDICAL personnel. It's just way too easy for them to keep their Away Teams alive with Meds. No more! Bynars Weapon Enhancements, which give a flat +2 bonus to all your WEAPONS in play (cumulative!), is also a bit too strong, especially in armadas. Both of these are events that can be Kevined or Quinned, but those silver bullets have their shortcomings (a Referee card targeting it, point fees). With Q the Referee, Panel Overload can be brought to bear or recycled away in the blink of an eye if any of the mentioned cards and strategies show up. As a Hidden Agenda, it can be seeded face down to surprise your opponent a bit in the same way, but Ref-Q remains the more flexible choice. A very good 4.5.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) Well, you can't pull your picture from the first season of TNG and come out unscathed.

PICTURE: The fork's not too clear, but you can tell it's there, and it's always fun to see Q in pain. The bar provides some interesting lightning, though the green line in the background may be a bit flashy for the rest of the palette. Still, can't help but wonder how fun an actual shot of a fork going through a hand would have been. A 3.4.

LORE: Fun stuff! It's the story as shown on tv, but the scene just worked so well, it translates well into lore. Great title too! A 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Umm... I'm just not sure what this is about. What's the dilemma exactly? Yes, Mortal Q helped the Enterprise with their problem, but is that really it? He didn't really do so with Treachery, yet a double dose is required in his stead. If it was just a matter of hosing (forking) a disreputable character (Q or a Treachery personnel), it doesn't explain why they would be needed. The title doesn't really help either. One very abstract way to look at it is that the dilemma can only be overcome by someone of dubious character. The Treacherous personnel have the right idea, but there's a price to pay (detained, forked, whatever). Any Guinan would like to fork Mortal Q, but she might be temped to do the same to a Treacherous character. The problem here, is that she only need be "in play", not present with the forked personnel. How's she doing it then? If the crew's own Guinan is in play, the offending personnel has already learned his lesson, it is assumed, and the dilemma is discarded. Oh, I like the "forked"/"stopped" thing, but how we get there is something of a mess. Can't go above 1.9.

SEEDABILITY: A Treachery wall isn't a bad idea, and thanks to the stopping element, it's not really a risky affair. Against a Klingon Honor deck or the non-Mirror Feds, 2 Treachery may be hard to come up with. The Feds might even be using a Non-Aligned Treachery personnel to supplement their Away Team or crew. In such cases, filtering out the Fed and following up with In the Pale Moonlight, may stop the entire crew right then and there. The more Treacherous affiliations (and there are plenty) will pass the dilemma, but you get to choose which Treachery personnel is "forked" (or "stopped") going into the next dilemma. Of course, you'll need a Guinan to get that filtering power, and she can safely be anywhere in play (of course, it's important to get her out quickly). The Feds have the true Guinan, great in Enterprise decks, but all other can make use of Madam Guinan. Both have some good nullification power anyway, and indeed, if she meets up with your opponent's Q Gets the Point, she'll nullify it. At the same time, it's not that probable that a Guinan will be in any given crew to nullfiy the dilemma. It can also be nullified by Q2, which is a bit more dangerous. The Borg can't Adapt to Q dilemmas, so they'll HAVE to get some Treachery somehow (Interlink with the Queen, a Counterpart or First), so it could cause them complications. Unusual because of its requirements, it's also more than just a wall. A good 4.

TOTAL: 12.8 (64%) Trek Sense took a bite out of this one.

PICTURE: What's this? Well, it's from the unreleased sequel to the Klingon Challenge VCR game. You won't see this anywhere else, kids! The old tape shows some deterioration, explaining the murky background and blurry Q perhaps, but the novelty does get us to 3.3.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly) No lore score, but I did want to mention the missed opportunity for a title. This really should have been called Ref-Q. Who's with me?

TREK SENSE: Now usually, the Referee icon is a most mechanical feature, having no Trek Sense of its own, but Q the Referee tries to give it one. See, in the universe of the game, Q acts as omnipotent referee over what happens in the series/episode/game. There's no canonical source for this, especially since Q's known for creating a FAIR playing field, but the trickster god is nothing if not unpredictable. He's set up the rules to his little game, and he means to enforce them by creating (suspending play to download, cycling or just playing for free) conditions that alter the world around our heroes. It's a mite conceptual in that Q has no real connection with the Obelisk of Masaka or Wormhole Relays, but there's really nothing he can't do, so... And in true Q fashion, by the time you notice he's around, he's already made the changes. In that sense, the card is a Hidden Agenda. When looking at it through that lense, I have no trouble believing Ref-Q's effects, even though they are quite mechanical. Whenever I see a Referee icon card, however, I'm not mentally transported back to this state of mind. In and of themselves, Ref icon cards are not related to Q. They really never are (there's an exception I'll get to in a second). Speaking of which, this incident retro-fits a few cards with Referee icons themselves. The only test I can really administer is: Are they really cards that curb abusive strategies? Intermix Ratio keeps players from racking up bonus points while leaving missions (and carefully prepared dilemma combos) alone. Mirror Image puts a cost on using a couple cards that have a little too much card drawing or reporting power. Oof! punishes the big magic bullets that nullify every effect you try to get in the game (it's also the one exception, being related to Q, though you have to wonder why Q would actually let himself by punched like that, though of course, he did). Intruder Alert! puts pressure on intruder strategies that, for a time, were especially dangerous to the Borg, though with the new rules on the subject, their ships are as hard to get on as any. Still, smackdown being what it is, it makes sense to include this here. Temporal Vortex has many functions, not all of which should be Referee-icon, but the stuff about keeping The Sheliak and the Borg Ship dilemma at bay certainly are. Distortion of the Space/Time Continuum can also be broken, so a limit on it works too. Scorched Hand limits card drawing strategies by not allowing you to keep them all in hand. And finally, The Juggler attacks probe-rigging, which can get out of hand. Not a bad lot to retroactively give a Ref icon to. And Q the Referee itself? It deserves its icon by being the uber-lord of cheese hosers. So no mistakes, and it lends some Trek Sense to an icon which had none before, but it's still a bit far-fetched. Generously, I give it a 2.4.

STOCKABILITY: Who DOESN'T use this? With so many potential abusive strategies out there, Q the Referee costs you one seed slot, but is practically equivalent to seeding ALL the Referee icon cards in one go. After all, you can discard this one to download (suspending play no less) another Ref card. Already in hand? Simply play it for free. Not useful after all (or anymore)? Cycle it under your draw deck for an impromptu card draw (it's not discarded, so can return). Many Ref icon cards have effects that will work regardless of whether a player is abusing cards or not. The simple sight of a Ref-Q card on the table will have players running through the meta-game in their heads, checking off what they can and cannot do. Or if you like nasty surprises, Q can stay face down until needed, but once he's out, he can be very dangerous. Suspending play to download a card is major, as it can even interrupt an action mid-swing, during anyone's turn. Q has a large number of cards to choose from, but you don't want to clog your deck with all the Ref icon cards, so stock (or Tent) the ones you think will be relevant, and let the meta-game do the rest. Cycling these cards can be especially useful for those that have countdown icons, since they can be sent to the bottom of the draw deck before the countdown expires, saving them for later replay, rather than discarding them. I don't want to rehash (or preview) reviews for all the Referee icon cards (including the list of additions listed on Ref-Q itself), but they all gained stockability when Q the Referee came out because they are so often specific in their function. Good card management is key in these cases, and Ref-Q is too versatile and too important to be left out of your deck. Multiple copies may well be in order if you want some downloads out of it. A 5.

TOTAL: 14.27 (71.33%) One of those cards that changed the game a lot.

PICTURE: That's a distinctive color scheme, you don't often get apple green in this game, not in such quantities. Since Q colored himself in this transformation, it's cool that the entire card would "color" itself too. It's also a rare look at what another actor would have looked like as Data. A creepy and fun 3.6.

LORE: A bit of a quicky, which only seems to refer to the Riker connection in the game text, but the idea that androids "think fast" is hidden in there (though not picked up on in the game text). Reaches 3.4 with very few words.

TREK SENSE: The first possible effect on a personnel has little to do with the time Q took Data's place, but nothing here is above Q's powers, quite the contrary. In the same episode, "Hide and Q", Q did "threaten" to make Data human. What if he had? According to this card, Data's Strength would have been a more normal 8. That's fine, as it normalizes him with humans. Mechanical Strength appears to be a +4 bonus once you determine physical strength and fighting ability. Anyway, if Q can turn and android into flesh and blood, he can certainly turn a humanoid into an android (simply reverse-engineer the change). I'm a tad surprised Cunning remains the same after the change, because it seems like computing power is a function of Cunning, but maybe Q-type androids (yeah, you're no Soong-type) keep their minds fairly intact. The second choice of consequence models what happened in the pic, but it's most obvious problem is not targeting an android by necessity. It's not a big one since Q could impersonate anyone in your crew this way. What happens is, Q shows up, and you're left wondering where the real personnel has gone. Answer: it's metaphorically at Q's Planet until solved. Ok, though not as satisfying as if you had had to encounter the dilemma there. And is Q uninterested in the Borg? I don't know why Q2 doesn't get involved in this one, to tell you the truth, though the 2 other nullifiers make sense. If Q is Mortal, then the omnipotent Q can't be torturing your crew, and since in the relevant episode, it was Riker who dispelled the effect, he gets to do so here. We'll just have to imagine he's been given Q powers for the duration, and that this dilemma is part and parcel of his "testing". Some very interesting stuff that gets a 4.

STOCKABILITY: This is an excellent one, well worth the wait for more Q cards. As with most Q-dilemmas, it's actually better seeded as part of a combo thanks to Beware of Q than randomized into a Q-Continuum side-deck. The card has 3 distinct effects. First, you can reduce an opposing android's effectiveness drastically by making it human. The target's STRENGTH drops by 4, stifling its battling abilities, and it's no longer considered an android, so this is a good one in a combo to protect any dilemma nullified by an android. It also kills decks that use an immense amount of universal Soong-Type Androids, since all copies of the card would become human, anywhere in play. STRENGTH 6 personnel with Youth and Computer Skill? Yuck. Cravic and Pralor Units in the DQ are also covered, as are Exocomps (should be worth a Parallax Arguers rating of "cool"). Of course, all your opponent needs to do is allow that target (former) android to be killed to dispell the whole thing, but that won't help as they run headlong into the next dilemma. You could also turn a personnel INTO an android. Why would you want to give your opponent extra STRENGTH? Well, how about to make sure an android-targeting dilemma hits? The best is Android Nightmares which will kill a personnel right then and there (3 if you also seeded Interphasic Plasma Creatures), but Shot in the Back, Chinese Finger Puzzle and System-Wide Cascade Failure will also be effective. If you happen to also be using a copy of the new android card, you gain an android! You could also self-seed Q-Type Android to make your OWN android. Send down a universal (or batch of universals) on the mission attempt, forcing your opponent to select one of them, and of course all copies of that card become androids. Your opponent just gave you an army of androids. Pick a universal with high STRENGTH, and it could be quite the assault team. Just make sure Q's Planet isn't on the table and unsolved, or your opponent will probably be leaning in that direction. Finally, you could use the card to send a personnel to the underside of Q's Planet, which must be solved in order to release it. If you're the one that does so, you can still capture the personnel. Q2 won't help here, but there are a couple of ways to counter the dilemma. One is Mortal Q which certainly shouldn't happen unless you actually gave your opponent the personnel. Another is any version of Riker, which is a possibility (there's even a Non-Aligned version). And of course, the Borg are immune to this (even with the first couple effects, species is irrelevant to them). Lots of flexibility, makes some dilemmas more useful in combos, useful as a self-seed (but not covered by Writ)... an excellent and fun 4.5.

TOTAL: 15.5 (77.5%) It pays to be witty when designing cards.

PICTURE: The personable Pakled, by the looks of it, Reginod's pic is marred by an oppressive color palette that seems to eat away at him. Not on the level of Danderdag or anything, but he is lost in all the brown. Pipe on the left puts us a little more in the engineering mood, but it looks cut off by a brown stripe. It's just too hard to make things out, so only 2.4.

LORE: Pakleds all have the dumbed-down Pakled English. This quote is from another Pakled describing Reginod. It's ok, though not all that interesting. There's also the matter of official sources calling him "Reginold" not Reginod. A small mistake here? A 2.7 for the style, but he's duller than other Pakleds.

TREK SENSE: Reginod WAS the Pakled ship's Engineer, but he's no leader and is lucky to get a Staff icon from this. (Actually, he certainly deserves it for making disparate pieces of technology work together.) The Pakleds as a group were motivated by Greed. Physics and Geology are two Engineer-related skills, but I'm wondering where exactly they were used. Not at all, I'm guessing. Physics works best since we've got a guy who integrated holo-technology and a cloaking device into the Mondor (at least, according to that ship's card). Geology though... The whole episode took place in space, so no evidence of the skill. Nor is there any evidence of a Plasmadyne Relay in there anywhere. It goes with the "make us go" theme, but if they'd have one, they wouldn't have been making that request to Geordi. On the show, I believe he did steal Geordi's phaser, so the special skill makes sense. I'd like to see him try that on a Klingon, but the fact of the matter is, the Pakleds are thieves, and a thieving skill makes a lot of sense. An opportunist who got lucky, the skill can only be used once per game though. The attributes are a little better done with Integrity presenting a thief, but not a terribly rotten guy. Cunning is way low, since the Pakleds were unimaginative and had linguistic difficulties. He rates second smartest on his ship, which sounds about right. Burly and able to take a phaser away from LaForge, the Strength is also good. Overall, I think they took too many liberties, which reduces him to a 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: The Pakleds are a small group of Non-Aligneds that can add some annoying strategies to your deck. The Mondor with at least one Pakled aboard is required to play We Look for Things, which can steal an opponent's artifact, event or equipment that's boosting a ship (either copying it or outright taking it away), but that only starts things off. Grebnedlog can capture an ENGINEER present, and if that ENGINEER had a hand weapon, Reginod can take hold of it too. Or in reverse order, he can steal a hand weapon so that the capture can go more smoothly. The Mondor is a fine ship loaded with extras, and Reginod can download more to it in the form of a Plasmadyne Relay, adding 2 to both RANGE and SHIELDS. Throw in Plaque and Log and Grebnedlog, and this is now a 12-11-13 ship. More if We Look for Things got some more for it. Of course, other ships would also benefit (outposts too). Skillwise, Reginod fits in well with the Ferengi because of Greed, and with anyone really thanks to his skills. Physics is good for space missions, Geology for planet missions, and ENGINEER excellent for both. Attributes are on the low side, but that can be useful sometimes (he certainly passes Chula: The Dice and The Drink), and his STRENGTH is likely to be between 8 and 10 once he's stolen a hand weapon. I'd say he's not as potent as Grebnedlog (can't believe I can spell this without looking it up), but as long as you're getting a backup to drive the Mondor, he would be the one. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 11.9 (59.5%) Sorry Reginod, I guess life IS like a box of chocolates...

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