To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Voyager expansion set.

PICTURE: An ok bust shot of this Vidiian, it offers one of the better looks at the affiliation's costuming, but is otherwise nondescript. The tufts of hair are kinda kooky (a good kooky). A 3.1.

LORE: The lore is pretty much centered around Vidiian customs, and that's fine. Though it makes Dereth fairly one-dimensional, the information is of interest. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: Many Vidiians are trained in the Medical arts, quite naturally, and making Dereth Medical isn't a stretch by any means. At the end of "Phage", he grafted Kes' Ocampan lung onto Neelix's Talaxian respiratory system. That's where the Exobiology comes in. He piloted a Scout Vessel and managed to evade Voyager for a while, so maybe the double Navigation is warranted. Seems disproportiate though, as does the Command icon seeing as that ship only requires Staff (I know he "commands" that ship, but it didn't have much of a crew). Geology is no doubt for his use of an emptied-out asteroid as a hideout. So are you telling me he dug it out himself? And perhaps the "mirrored ships" trick requires Engineer. There are a lot of maybes on this one. Not maybes are the two potential special downloads. He was very much involved in organ harvesting (Organ Theft) and did use a Havester to collect replacement parts for his buddy Motura. I don't know if that should have informed his Integrity, because it's pretty low for a guy who's trying to do good by his friend. Of course, the ends do not justify the means, and I won't argue with the low attribute or the lack of Honor. Judging by his stats, Motura was the tempering influence on Dereth that made him agree to help Neelix at the end. Cunning and Strength seem about right (smart surgeon/decaying body). Trying to cram too much into these characters has a tendency to backfire in this category: a simple 3.1 that could have been much more.

STOCKABILITY: Most Vidiians are pretty loaded (on skills), but Dereth is one of the major players. He's MEDICAL, so he may report for free through The Vidiian Sodality, and his partner Motura can suspend play to download him if you don't want to wait around. From there, you can leave play suspended to either get a weapon into his hands (one that adds another MEDICAL as well as boosts STRENGTH) or Organ Theft. His downloads kind of work with one another, so that a seeded Organ Theft (or one already downloaded by Nadirum) might need the Harvester, or if he already has the Harvester, Organ Theft might broaden its uses. We know those cards are key to Vidiian success, so that alone makes Dereth a key player. Add to that not only the excellent, if common for Vidiians, MEDICAL, but an extra ENGINEER as well. All that plus a skill in each "field", Geology and Exobiology, both very useful. And then there's the Navigation x2, a skill that's best in multiples. There are no Badlands to navigate through in the Delta Quadrant, but there are Gravimetric Distortions to worry about (and it'll help with Stellar Flares, Navigational Hazards, etc.). He's also a matching commander for the Vidiian Scout Vessel, a ship he can boost to 10-10-10 level just with Plaque and Log. The Vidiians are such a tight affiliation that I doubt you'll avoid him in your deck. He's a strong and versatile 4.3.

TOTAL: 13.7 (68.5%) Unbearably average before Stockability came in.

PICTURE: The Distortion is a visual of a Krenim ship going from advanced to primitive as the timeline is changed by Annorax. If you've never seen the espisode, you might be at a loss though, because without movement, it's hard to tell what's happening. To top that off, while a better Distortion than the Premiere card, it fits the game text even less. 2.4 for this expensive special effect.

LORE: The original version had a brief one-liner and was terrible. This one fills out the box nicely, but is it any better? Of course it is. It's a good description of the pic and all that. Unfortunately, it again does not shed light on the game text. As an explanation of timeline disruption, fine. Here, 2.7.

TREK SENSE: Again, we have to forget about the picture and just look at title and game text. Even with revised game text (much easier to interpret, thanks), the card hasn't changed since the original was reviewed. It postulates a Distortion in Space/Time that a ship may seek out and encounter (if a natural phenomenon) or create by itself using its warp core. I'm not too worried about the exact means, though as you'll see, there's no method that doesn't create problems. The Distortion is more temporal than spatial in that it allows a ship to do twice as much as another in any given period of time. Should we imagine a bubble around the ship (not unlike a warp field) in which time passes more slowly? We could, but the problem springs from the unstopped Away Teams. The conjectural bubble extends to an Away Team on a planet, but not to another ship's Away Team on that same planet (such as an opposing team). On an opposing ship or a Nor, why would a Distortion affect some personnel, but not the vessel, station or opposing personnel? If such a Distortion can affect an Away Team on a planet, why can't it do so without a ship being present? All of that amounts to the same 3.6 it got first time around.

STOCKABILITY: Again, no real change since the original review. The situation is a familiar one: you've been stopped before you could do something you wanted to. Solution: Distortion of Space/Time Continuum. It will allow you to finish a mission now rather than later (beating Mission Debriefing in the process); re-attack a ship or Away Team, especially when you're on the winning side already; in effect double your RANGE when that lucrative mission is too far away; escape The Sheliak as it bears down on you; really tone down those dilemmas that stop you for more than a turn; and tons more (see original review). Quite versatile and may just save your butt one day. A Temporal Vortex played on table will keep you from using the card, which can be very, very annoying, but since it affects both players, I doubt many players would give up this backdoor defense this way. They don't really have to with Q the Referee's recycling ability, so this remains a thorn in the card's side. Still a high 4.8.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) 2% less than the original. A slight distortion.

PICTURE: Is this the best they could do? B'Elanna in what looks to be a pretty calm situation, her fingers not even on the console? Bah. While such an operation would be conducted in engineering, and it is a crisp and clean picture of Torres, it couldv'e been used for most anything. Only a 2.

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

TREK SENSE: What took you so long? Diverting power from one system to supplement another has been a regular feature of Star Trek in its every incarnation, and seems simple enough to implement from what we see here. I'm not sure it should be an Objective though, because it isn't an end in itself, but a Captain's Order, it definitely is. Playing on the table is conceptually odd because it somehow says that your side has found a way to do this that isn't available to everyone, but it's more palatable as a blanket effect than it would be as a "per ship". The limit of one transfer per turn is ridiculous when you consider the needs of an entire fleet however. Of course, as an Interrupt, it would have worked even better. Diverting Power requires an Engineer, sure enough, or a Navigation drone, which can be considered to take care of a ship's engines, and thus its power. The card allows you to drain power from 2 attributes to supplement another. Take away from Weapons and Shields to boost the engines, for example, or from Weapons and engines to boost Shields (a common occurence on the show). Unfortunately, the permutations are pretty limited. Why can't your Engineer drain just one attribute to get a simple +1 boost elsewhere, etc.? The other effect does play on a ship, and has a time limit, but it represents more extreme power diversion. Here, you require both Engineer (or a Defense drone since the diversion is more concerned with battle attributes) and Computer Skill to boost the ship's Weapons and Shields by +4 without having to drop Range. Presumably, you're taking power from life support, transporters, tractor beams, etc., things not represented by an attribute. It requires more skill because it's tougher to safely do so, and resource management on that scale would require fast fingers on the console. Very well, though the lack of consequences isn't too satisfying. To recap, a card that has been too long coming, but perhaps handled a little too broadly. Still a 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: A good card to make your ships a little more flexible. You can transfer power from bloated attributes to bring your weaker one up to par, or whatever you need according to the situation. When under Cytherians' influence, you can't do anything but reach the end of the spaceline anyway, so dump points into RANGE to get there sooner. When attacked by a big DQ ship, boost SHIELDS to survive. Basically, it allows you to boost RANGE when on mission attempts, and the other two attributes when you're in (or expecting) battle. You're limited to one transfer per turn no matter the number of ships you have, but you can use in-fallhand Divert Powers to temporarily boost attributes at no cost to another with the second function. +4 to both WEAPONS and SHIELDS is a massive boost (especially when one of those might already be up +2). Either way, the cost of either effect is pretty slim - who doesn't use ENGINEER and Computer Skill? Both are common and very useful. For the Borg, it's possibly easier since subcommands are more common than skills. Speaking of the Borg, they can download the Objective using A Change of Plans, or use Second's special download (for either use). Non-Borg can do the same kind of thing with Ready Room Door, Commander's Office, James T. Kirk and Mr. Scott (TMP). Oh yeah, and by completing Maintenance Overhaul, which requires ENGINEER and Computer Skill anyway. I'd say this was a great mix of boosting and flexibility and worth its 4.

TOTAL: 12.67 (63.33%) Borderline because of its less-than-appropriate pic.

PICTURE: Pale and powdery, I'm not giving this one high marks. First, the colors are all over the place, with the main palette consisting of powder blue and pink, colors with little or no dramatic punch. Then there's Arridor's head, which seems too small for his body and has a stupid expression on its face. Finally, the focus of the card is divided because of the handmaiden to Arridor's left. Decipher's proven itself more than capable of removing background chararacters digitally, so the only reason she's there is probably to show one of the ways he exploited the Takarians. Bah, I'm not going over 2.4 on this one.

LORE: We get the story from Voyager, but details from his TNG appearance are sketchy. In fact, we never learn what kind of doctor he is exactly. At least the mention of Goss is useful for 6th Rule purposes. A 3.

TREK SENSE: Though a Medical doctor, Arridor used his skills for evil, being responsible for poisoning the Federation ambassador in "The Price". That certainly accounts for Treachery even if he'd been a choir boy after that. It also accounts for Exobiology since his poison had to work on a non-Ferengi. When he got to the Takarian world, he used Anthropology to mimick the population's myths, and his knowledge of the rules of Acquisition to exploit them and change their society to follow those rules. Between him and Kol, he was certainly the boss, so Leadership works well enough. The Command star may be a bit much however, as he only "commanded" a shuttle. That leaves Physics, which probably has something to do with the Barzan Wormhole and his investigation of it. As for attributes, the low Integrity goes hand in hand with the Treachery, his Cunning's high enough to pull all of this off, and the Strength is a tough Ferengi's. I'm fine with all of this, but can't help but wonder why, if it's a Voyager pic and lore, he wasn't give a DQ icon. I mean, he was in the DQ a lot longer than someone like Stadi! Still a 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: One of the Ferengi's weaknesses is MEDICAL and its related skills, like Exobiology. In comes Dr. Arridor to help with both skills. Excellent, but it doesn't stop there. He's got Treachery to help out at the appropriate Wormhole Negotiations (with Goss in tow, of course). His Anthropology helps out at an increasing number of the dilemmas. Physics is starting to see some action too, and has always been on a good number of Ferengi missions. Leadership allows him to initiate battles, besides being a useful skill in and of itself. And Acquisition allows him to use a number of Rules effectively. Speaking of Rules, whether you use his Treachery or Goss' Greed, you can use the 6th Rule with these connected guys. Sending Goss to the bottom of the draw deck through Arridor, for example, can get you card draws or download either Equipment or a ship. A ship? How about the Ferengi Shuttle, which Arridor commands? It's a modest vessel, but he can boost the thing up to 8-6-7 with Plaque & Log. Respectable. To sum up, there isn't a turkey in his skill list, and he has other advantages besides. He gets 4.3 here.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) A necessary addition to the game, but not great on all design fronts.

PICTURE: You know, I never look at Fitzie here and think of Roga Danar, even if it's the same actor. That's good, I guess. The pic is a standard bust shot, with some blur (not just the stars either), but an appropriate disapproving expression. Some CGI: Harry used to be in the foreground. Hey, somewhere around average at 3.1.

LORE: The lore does a good job of telling us why this is a universal, and then dovetails into specifics with the justification for his disapproval of Tom Paris. Pretty good at 3.2.

TREK SENSE: A mission specialist in the real sense of the term, he would only be assigned to short tours of duty, except that I don't think they gave him the right skill for that! Long-term exploration would require Exobiology, since you don't know how many planets you might encounter, and what kind of varied life. On a short mission, however, wouldn't Biology, principally used to treat your crewmates, be more useful? Being a mission specialist causes problems when it comes to his Delta Quadrant icon as well. It makes him a typical CMO stranded in the DQ. How many of those ARE there? (Not many judging from the number of EMHs used on Voyager instead.) That said, he was one of the characters who died in the trip over to the DQ, so he never actually lived there (not for more than a few seconds). He shouldn't sport the icon. The Staff icon isn't great for a CMO who is in command of sickbay, but his Lt. Commander pips may warrant it (don't look at Geordi or Data too closely though). As for attributes, we've got semi-low Integrity for his dismissal of Paris based on a long-time grudge (he was right to be outraged, so it doesn't drop too low), and Cunning and Strength that seem to fit his abilities and build. I've got a lot of problems with this one: a 1.3.

STOCKABILITY: Mission specialists might as well be non-DQ because they can report/download to any quadrant really, using Assign Mission Specialists, but did the Feds need another Exobiology specialist? Well, it all depends on your needs. The other one is Dr. LaForge and he's SCIENCE. So if you need MEDICAL more, you might use Fitz instead. If you have lots of Exobiology on your missions, you might download both on your first turn. If you need lots of first-turn MEDICAL, Alyssa Ogawa can add to Dr. Fitzgerald, or Calloway (though her skill is far less useful). So, do the Feds have enough Exobiology x2+ missions to accomodate both specialists? Cuz that's where the points are. And the answer is: not really. We've got Expose Plot and Cure Deadly Virus (both DQ), and with NA help, Research Phage (also DQ). Changeling Research, in the Gamma Quadrant, is the only other mission that requires more than one Exobiology, and it ain't Fed. You'll need a Treaty or something. So how much does he score? Well, the classification and skill are useful, and in a Voyager-only environment, he's alone... a 3.1.

TOTAL: 10.7 (53.5%) Imagine Voyager with this doctor as a main... bleh.

PICTURE: A rather simple and sober headshot from "Jetrel" (where else?). The gray tones go with the mood of the character, but it's otherwise non-descript. A 3.3.

LORE: All the facts are pretty much there. What he did, how he felt about it, and the condition he suffers from. Nothing very Voyager-specific, but ok. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: A Scientist who developed a weapon that decomposes living matter, he would have needed Physics to pull it off, as well as high Cunning, and possibly Exobiology if the enemy was from an other species (which it was). The Medical and Exobiology may just have come in later, however, during his efforts to bring the Talaxians back from the dead. It's an odd (and extreme) use of Medical skill, but no doubt why it's here. The Honor and high Integrity were developped as a result of his deep regret. I'll buy it. Apparently, there were never plans for a Metreon Cascade card, because a special download would have appeared here. The only other thing missing might be Transporter Skill because I thought he got his head around the technology very quickly for someone who never had access to it before. Transporter tech was the key to his successfully reviving the Talaxians, remember (even if it didn't work all the way). Finally, one note on Strength: It may be a bit too high for a man of science of a certain age, and dying from a disease. That's all. Nothing strikes me as perfect (no relationship to Talax for example,except providing a couple skills for it), but no outright mistakes either. A 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: DQ affiliations often supplement their ranks with NA personnel, and Jetrel has the great SCIENCE/MEDICAL combo to offer. His skills run the same way with Physics being primarily a space skill, and Exobiology a planetary one (traditionally, because the Delta Quadrant has a few space ones). Throw in Honor for good measure and some decent attributes (watch out for Unscientific Method though). Physics, in fact, shows up a LOT on DQ missions. Heck, even Honor makes a fair showing (more than Exo, if I'm not mistaken). So we have a SCI/MED everyone can use, with a good bunch of skills. How about a 3.9?

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) -5 if you're Neelix.

PICTURE: The background is rich and interesting, though its main color somewhat matches the border color, and it's a clear head shot. No problems and generally interesting for the eyes. How about 3.3?

LORE: Now that's an interesting title! I mean "thanatologist". I'm glad they included the deathly science. The second sentence tells the story of "Emanations". It's the third that's the most fun, even if it's not particularly subtle. "The truth is out there" is a clear reference to the X-Files, and the actor who played Neria also played Deep Throat on that show (he played Radu in TNG's "When the Bough Breaks" and Samuel Clemens in "Time's Arrow", but who cares, right?). Points for being appropriate for this here character, of course, but for more subtle X-Files references, check out Lucsly and Dulmer. A good 3.9 here.

TREK SENSE: We never really got to know if the Vhnori were from our own universe, or a parallel one, or another time, or another galaxy, did we? Well, Decipher's decided to make them from the Delta Quadrant. I don't even know if the Vhnori were a space-faring culture, which makes Neria's presence aboard your ship (and his Staff icon) rather suspect. Ok, aside from that, how's he doing? He studied the process through which his people's bodies went through spatial/spectral ruptures to the afterlife. On his world, that's a branch of medicine, so he gets Medical and the attendant Biology. Science might have been more appropriate for research though (as a Med, he's more likely to SAVE lives). Those ruptures require Physics to be studied properly. And because the whole process is steeped in traditions and such, Anthropology also has to play a part. Attribute-wise, the Integrity allows him to basically kill people, but for the greater good (and thinking there's a wonderful afterlife on the other end of that trip). Cunning's about right, and Strength must hinge on his build, because older science-types don't usually have very good Strength. The big problem remains his origin though. Just a 1.7 given that.

STOCKABILITY: The DQ has its share of cheap background personnel you'd include to cover holes in your skill pool, or just plain help out with dilemmas and missions. Dr. Neria is such a personnel. MEDICAL, Biology, Anthropology and Physics all help with Voyager-environment dilemmas and missions. Particularly appropriate is Heal Life-Form, but Physics appears on an unusually large number of missions. The dilemmas can target ENGINEERs all they want at those locations, he's a MEDICAL. A good cheap backup to your mains of any DQ affiliation, I give him a 3.6.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) The truth has come out...

PICTURE: Does Decipher have access to footage shot then burned into other shots? I ask because all we ever saw of Drenol was his face on a small computer screen, skewed because of the angle no less. It's this shot in fact, but we're seeing him dead on like Kes must've. It's good work, with an especially creepy empty eye socket, some cool Vidiian symbols in the back, and interesting plaid lighting. The dusty color palette is kind of even, but nuanced enough to be a positive. I'm giving it a 3.7.

LORE: We don't kow much about him, but his story takes up the whole box without the need for filler material. It's good, though a short title at the beginning might have been nice, perhaps including some sense of his universality. We jump in the plot stuff a bit too soon. That's still a 3.

TREK SENSE: He obviously commanded a ship, which accounts for his Officer and Command icon. He was on the side of the devils to be sure, so Treachery and low Integrity fit. Dealing with Kes seems to have given him Diplomacy. He at least had the openness to ally with her. Finally, we have no proof he knew much of anything about the vacuoles, so no Astrophysics or whatever, but he did know were they were and how he could exploit that, which confirms Stellar Cartography. No problem with any of the attributes, but universality is an issue. It's only an issue because the lore is unclear about what he is typical of. Typical of Vidiians who ambushed ships for organs? Yeah, ok, I'll buy it. Everything does work out, but of course, the lack of originality keeps it from attaining higher than 4.

STOCKABILITY: Drenol is the universal matching commander of a universal ship. And it's the biggest one the Vidiians have to boot. The Vidiian Cruisers are 9-10-10 behemoths, which can all be boosted (Plaque/Log) to 11-13-13 very easily using any number of Drenols. Sure, they're big ships, a little unmanageable, but your Vidiians can report aboard any one of them with The Vidiian Sodality played on it. Makes it easy for Drenol, or any replacement Drenol, doesn't it? It's also the ship that has a Boarding Claw. As for his skills, Treachery and Stellar Cartography, both useful to the affiliation, are fairly well represented on other Vidiians, but there are only 2 OFFICERs and only 2 Diplomacy personnel. That's one skill hole I'd want to plug given how common a requirement it is (and needed on Revive Settlers, one of the Vidiians' few missions), and Drenol is only universal source. Very useful then, at 4.3.

TOTAL: 15 (75%) When your affiliation is small, there ARE no small parts.

PICTURE: Even though it's actually pulled from an episode source instead of a prop shot, this image doesn't beat the original card's in any way. The original had a more appropriate background, was in sharper focus, and geenrally more interesting tools. This version features a number of tricorder-like devices in the same gray foam we use in tool kits today, the colors are too bright and hokey, and the resolution is just plain bad. I'm giving it a 1.5 here.

LORE: Much better than the lame original, it actually has a description instead of the repetitive "developed by many races" stuff. Though while the second sentence is really cute, it totally flies in the face of the game text, drawing major attention to terrible Trek Sense problems. Still, that's not really this section's problem, so a good 3.4.

TREK SENSE: What's wrong with this concept? Let me count the ways. First, it has no bonus for personnel who should actually be using it, i.e. Engineers. Officers are arbitrarily chosen to gain Engineer as a skill, but I don't see why their engineering extention courses are any better than other personnel's. Then, there's always the matter of of how many pieces of equipment are actually represented by each Equipment card because the one card covers every Officer in the group. Yet if an Officer goes somewhere else, no Kit can go with him (or else one does, and all the others are left in a lurch). Ok, a Kit contains many tools and could be shared, so it's not as bad as sharing a PADD or Tricorder. Still, I can't go above 2.1.

STOCKABILITY: It's always been a good Equipment card because there are usually plenty of OFFICERs laying about, but ENGINEER is a much better skill to have on mission attempts. ENGINEER is in fact often required in large multiples (3-6 isn't uncommon). There are plenty of tricks this would enable your OFFICERs to pull off: Process Ore, build Outposts, Construct Starship (a great addition since my Premiere review), Divert Power, Visit Cochrane Memorial, Ultimatum (the Dominion has more OFFICERs than ENGINEERs, certainly), Defense System Upgrade, Nutational Shields, and more (I'm not even going into what the skill nullifies). In the Delta Quadrant, you'll find a LOT of ENGINEER-related missions too. 3.9 at this point.

TOTAL: 10.9 (54.5%) Compared to the original's 11.5.

PICTURE: Aesthetically, this one's worse than the original in DS9. The linework in the background isn't bad, but the Tricorder itself is just too colorful: blues, greenish yellows and - egads! - pink. The blocky design used in Voyager also fails to impress me. For the choice of pic, however, I think they did a good job. That's not the hand of a Medical or anything, but the Tricorder is scanning the cryo machines in "The Thaw", so acted as both engineering (the machines) and medical (the people inside) expert for the crew. Brings the score back up to 3.2.

LORE: As with Voyager's Engineering Kit, they dropped the usual "developped by many races" stuff that used to bore me so. The information given in the second sentence gives us a sense of personnel in one field being able to use equipment set for another thanks to a standardized design. I like it, and it scores 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Again, while I'm quite happy to believe engineering equipment should help with the Engineer skill, I don't believe Engineers could NOT use these at all. It's ridiculous. It strikes me that if these had been called, say, Cybernetics Tricorders, and given Medical to Engineers and Engineer to Medicals, it would have worked much better. As for the effect itself, well, it's the same old thing where a single piece of equipment can be shared by any number of personnel, yet never split up into a number of Tricorders when the group is divided (indicating that there IS only one). Medicals are pretty far from Engineers on the classification scale, so you also have to wonder why Science and Officers, for example, can't also use these. There's no justification. No move from DS9's 0.6.

STOCKABILITY: Giving MEDICALs the second classification of ENGINEER is an excellent effect, since the two are the very best classifications in the game. Looking at the Delta Quadrant, I see that it has tons of ENGINEER-related missions, so the classification won't go unused. The Feds don't have very many MEDICALs, but a relatively high number of ENGINEERs in the DQ, so again, this won't be the best equipment for them. The Vidiians, on the other hand, are full of MEDICAL, and have few ENGINEERs. The Tricorder will even the odds and reports easily thanks to The Vidiian Sodality. The Hirogen and Kazon each have only one non-holo MEDICAL, so forget it (it might help your NAs however). That's its biggest problem in the Voyager environment: few MEDICAL-classification personnel make for a difficult to use Equipment card, and fewer cards make use of "any Tricorder" here (Kazon Bomb in the Voyager environment). In the Alpha Quadrant, it's no different than its DS9 cousin. A 3.

TOTAL: 10.1 (50.5%) Thanks to better lore, among other things, this one did better than the original.

PICTURE: Finally, some appropriate Starfleet action. The original Premiere card has an Angosian pod, for Pete's sake. Now, the surface of Voyager is a bit jumbly, but you can clearly see the doors opening, and a number of pods coming out. Looks cool, if understated, as Abandon Ship's little brother. A 3.5.

LORE: Sounds like a boring old Equipment card, doesn't it? I don't mind the Voyager-appropriate techno-babble, but was the last line really necessary? Plus, lots of wasted space. Only a 2.8.

TREK SENSE: Still as good as it ever was, but also has the same problems. Your personnel escape in a bunch of Escape Pods (represented by a single card), and may be picked up by another ship later. Seems fine. The two problems are that 1) a shuttle probably shouldn't be able to pick up the Enterprise's entire crew complement (though it's easy to say that all the ensign Bobs were killed... whatever happened to the captain sinking with the ship?), and 2) an enemy ship should be able to swoop in and capture or destroy the Pod, as this was done on the show on a number of occasions. No change from the original's 4.

STOCKABILITY: Again, this hasn't changed much from the original review, though the environment has a little. As battle strategies and stronger dilemmas proliferate, it may become important for affiliations with less powerful ships to carry this interrupt as a back-up. In the Delta Quadrant in particular, you've got a couple of aggressive affiliations that can cause you problems. Kazon, Vidiian and Hirogen ships are uncommonly strong, but they're likely to board your ship to take trophies, organs or technology. Escape Pod can then be used in combination with Auto-Destruct Sequence to sacrifice the ship to save the personnel from fates worse than death, and take out some opposing personnel at the same time. Thanks to Emergency Evacuation and Launch Portal, you can download the Pod when you need it, which is a great help, but not one available in the Voyager-only environment. Evac even extends the Pod's powers to destroyed facilities and is protected from Computer Crash. A bit better than it was at 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) 0.5 better than the original.

PICTURE: Likeable mostly because it's unlike any other planet we've gotten. That big lake really makes a splash, but it isn't the only water. The whole look is of an Earth-like planet, but more frosty (I know it's just cloud cover, but that's the look of it). And where there's a Plot to Expose, there better be shadows, and they're there all right. I'd say 3.6.

LORE: The mission is two-fold, and both folds are well written. I can see the Trek Sense trouble on the horizon, but here, it's a fine 3.1.

TREK SENSE: First off, let me say that this is an odd one. You don't come here for the mission, you evidently come for another reason. And only THEN is one of your crewmen framed, and only after that do you look to reveal the conspiracy. It's not clear why you would beam down the required Away Team when there is no mission, and this certainly plays havoc with a card like Lack of Preparation. Now, if we accept that you get here, look around with ensign Bobs, one gets framed, and then your Away Team is beamed down, we can go on with the review. There are two ways to achieve the mission objectives. First, there's the "normal" way, which requires convincing the Baneans with Diplomacy, looking at those braintapes with Computer Skill, and digging into either your crewman's skull or going CSI on the murder scene with Exobiology x2 (alien autopsy indeed!). There's also the Tuvok way, which requires a working knowledge of Banean Law (Law allows you to research their legal system) and a Mindmeld to do the aforementioned head-digging. Withe the conspiracy uncovered, the mission turns out to be more important than that lone crewmember, so 35 points is fine. As one of the first DQ missions reached by Voyager, I think it's cute to have given it a low Span. As for the affiliations listed on the card, I've got some problems. Sure, the Feds were here, and there are enough Non-Aligned agendas to cover them too. But Romulans and Cardassians? Aside froom how unlikely they are to be in the Delta Quadrant, they're more likely to be committing the scientific espionage! It's an odd choice, though perhaps they're well suited to being sleuths. Overall, I think the basic elements work well, but a couple of things make me wonder... No more than a 3.3 then.

SEEDABILITY: There are very few Mindmeld personnel in the Delta Quadrant, but thankfully Tuvok also has the required Law, so he can do in the quick way. For the slow way, well, it's not that slow either. Crell Moset will certainly cover the double Exobiology if your lost Cardies are here with a Mobile/Holo-Emitter (Harath has the Computer Skill for that matter). Feds without Tuvok will still do well with Janeway and either the Doctor or Samantha Wildman, or Ransom and the Equi-Doc. If using mission specialists, it's one of the few places you can use Taurik, but that's not where the points are. The first set of requirements can net you an extra +20 points. The Romulans are far less likely to be in the area, though being there with mission specialists could be worth as much as +10. As for DQ Non-Aligned personnel, they mix in well with Kazon and Exobiology-rich Vidiians, but they can do it alone too, though with more personnel. Basically, the Voyager environment needed a lot of new missions, and this is one of those. Fairly unremarkable, but definitely solvable. A 3.5 even.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) Like I said, average.

PICTURE: A good idea. In Voyager, we've seen plenty of games and sports, and the pool table at Sandrine's is as good a place as any to cheat or play fairly. The corner of the table is our principal patch of color here, and then our eyes fly right off the card through the vertical figures and architecture of the bistrot. So while I enjoy the many characters assembled around the table, the shot is a little too busy. I'll go for 3.3.

LORE: Unfortunately, the lore isn't about playing fair, but about illegal gambling (it's not even about the pool game). Yes, the original version had Quark taking wagers, but the card was about O'Brien not wanting to take advantage of the amazing luck afforded him by the alien gambling devices. There's nothing like that here, or is the skimming off the top considered unfair play? It's a cute story with a good punchline, but it's off the mark. As such, I can't give it more than a 2.5.

TREK SENSE: A conceptual magic bullet, it suffers more than the original from that estimation because the pic and lore aren't as relevant to Fair Play as O'Brien's ethics. The concept is that you, the player/affiliation/personnel gestalt, are playing as fair as O'Brien... or I suppose, as Chakotay would like Paris to play (though, again, gambling and playing are two different things). The Hidden Agenda icon irks me still, since you wouldn't normally hide the fact that you're playing fair, nor would it be fair to lead your opponent into thinking you're cheating when in fact you are not. The Referee icon works fine however, not only because mission theft can be abusive, but because there's a thematic link with playing games (though there's usually no referee in pool). Some missions, your opponent can still go after, like universals ("Oh, I thought you were going to that OTHER Edge of known space!"), 40+ points (either the mission is too important to let your opponent go instead, or morals go out the airlock when lots of points are involved, i.e. latinum/glory/incentive) and those you also designated as objectives (your own missions which are exactly like opponent's). It's perhaps believable that the Feds would recognize another affiliation's sovereignty over a mission (they're not exactly the Espionage type in any case), but are Kazon and Vidiians so scrupulous? They're really not. If Treachery/Honor had a hand in governing this card, maybe it'd be more believable. Because the concept is behavior, it's plausible in many situations. Manages 2.3.

STOCKABILITY: A pretty strong defensive card, it affects the meta-game in a substantial way. Here's the deal: Some players seed your missions with dilemmas their personnel can easily fly through if prepared (or artifacts, or nothing at all) and then swoop in stealing that mission from you, often with nary an Espionage card. Fair Play protects most missions from this fate. Universals are still at risk, but they tend to have lower points anyway. 40+-pointers are also exempt, but they tend to be more difficult to solve anyway. Of course, it won't handicap a player who seeded the same mission his or her opponent did. Delta Quadrant affiliations have no Espionage cards, but there are fewer of them, making it more probable they'll match an attemptability icon on your missions, and they can often ally easily with other affiliations, making many of them a 2-for-1. Thankfully, most DQ missions range between 30 and 35 points, and can be protected from theft. Note that the card says "solve" not "attempt", so you can theoretically let your opponent attempt your mission, clear out its dilemmas, and then flip that Hidden Agenda over just before the personnel would solve it. Real easy for you after that. It'll only work once, of course, but it could be worth it. You might even force your opponent's hand by making opposing missions real difficult to attempt (pollution, Garrisons, whatever) to get this result. Maybe you only have one "Any may attempt" mission on the spaceline which could make an attractive target, especially if stocked with self-seeded Artifacts. Those Artifacts are only acquired when the mission is solved you know. Since the original was reviewed, the Referee icon has come into its own, so you can even download and cycle it now using Q the Referee, which boosts its already great stockability. A 4.5.

TOTAL: 12.6 (63%) From the original's total 13 (65%). It wasn't because of the Stockability anyway.

PICTURE: I didn't think it was possible for the Voyager expansion to come up with a less appropriate subject for Female's Love Interest than Premiere did, but that's what happened. Taymon wasn't a love interest for ANY of the female characters in Voyager! In fact, he was a victim of the Taresian women, being gobbled up before Harry Kim was meant to be served for lunch. To make matters worse, the pic's a boring bust shot, with an uncomplimentary color palette and some serious shoulder pad trouble. That's the second milktoast Love Interest, I guess because better characters become personnel cards. Whatever the reason, I'm only forking over a 1.

LORE: And they're always genetically manipulated for some reason! I see how paralleling Taymon and Aaron Conor could be interesting, and they do their best to make this guy "desirable", but it doesn't really excuse anything. Ok for a 3.

TREK SENSE: Pretty much the same as the original card, with us wondering why you can't meet someone at a space location (it's happened often), or why your personnel runs off to the furthest planet on the spaceline (we might as well say she was kidnapped). It's believable, for once, that a dilemma could occur multiple times on a spaceline, because this was a common Star Trek device, but not so believable that she be instantly relocated to somewhere so far. Cute, flavorful lore, but it doesn't heighten the score to more than 2.3, like the original.

SEEDABILITY: With so few female Kazon, Vidiians and Hirogen, a Voyager-only version of this card makes a lot of sense. As ever, this is the perfect lead into other genre-related dilemmas, particularly Matriarchal Society (for which there also is a Voyager-only version). The dilemma works efficiently, relocating a random female personnel without fail. No requirements can overcome the effect. The only way it could fail would be to have no females, in which case Matriarchal Society still works, or to have no other planet missions on the entire spaceline. While that could happen when using multiple quadrants (and not in Voyager-only) - The Big Picture and Balancing Act make both players usually seed another - you'd have to be pretty dumb not to seed another planet mission yourself when you KNOW you need the Love Interest to work. Once the personnel has run off, it's vulnerable to capture (Thine Own Self will do the job) or battle. Qualor II at the end of the spaceline might put her in stasis. The downside is that the Borg are unaffected (and big Delta Quadrant players), and that the card is still overshadowed by the Combo version of the dilemma. Now, the Combo still can't be used in Voyager-only, so there is that. No real change from the original, so another 3.6.

TOTAL: 9.9 (49.5%) Less than the original, but that's basically the choice of picture.

PICTURE: The clouds are a nasty brown, and the weather system is framed by branches and leaves to give the image depth. I like it, even if some of the greenery looks splotchy. What happened there? A 3.4.

LORE: While this is a fair description of the episode "Resolutions", it only cursorily make mention of the card's object. Well-written, but not focused enough for more than a 3.1.

TREK SENSE: I don't know what kind of weather this is, but it's akin to those Firestorms that kill evil people so easily, and so Thermal Deflectors could save you here. In this case, if you don't have either the Strength to survive (I really like that they don't let you fire phasers into the clouds!) or the Cunning to take appropriate cover, you're dead. If you're not strong enough, in other words, you better be real smart (9 or more) because these things are both quick and massively powerful. Hey, if I were critiquing the scientific sense of this techno-babble meteorology, the card would be in trouble. But in this case, it does pretty well. Of course, I do question the strength of the storm from the episode's events: I don't think those monkeys were either smart or strong, so why weren't there dead monkeys strewn all over the place? Hits 3.9.

SEEDABILITY: Unless you have Thermal Deflectors in play (not that frequent, and an impossibility in the Voyager-only environment), all personnel with STRENGTH 5 or less and CUNNING 8 or less are dead. This mostly targets low-STRENGTH personnel, because CUNNING 8 is already a pretty high threshold, but also because hand weapons simply don't help here! That really hurts the Feds and Ferengi who are most likely to be dependent on equipment for their STRENGTH. Universals are especially at risk, and so are, almost by extension, mission specialists. Lower Decks helps the universals, but it's bye-bye Nora Satie. That could cost a player "predicted" points (as opposed to a mission's actual point value) and throw a real wrench in the works. It's a good killer for the back-up personnel, so that you can then attack the bigger mission solvers. A 4.2 from me.

TOTAL: 14.6 (73%) In the upper strata of dilemmas.

PICTURE: Peachy! The 8472 anomaly is unusual both in shape and color, and the tiny bio-ships coming out of it are certainly interesting elements. A 3.7.

LORE: The original went for vague generics, but this one actually gives us a cause for the phenomenon. It's too bad it had to mention Species 8472, leading Borg Nanoprobes to exclude this card from its nullification list (which would have caused the original to be more useful than this one, when in fact, Decipher wanted them identical in play). Of course, this new-found specificity is gonna cost points under Trek Sense, but here, I'm happy to call it a 3.1.

TREK SENSE: There have been a number of phenomena that produce a Gravimetric Distortion on the show, from the wavefronts in "Hero Worship" to the Cosmic String Fragment of Premiere fame, but the way they specifically made this one about Species 8472, it's gonna cause problems. Generically speaking, this kind of gravitational shearing causes stress on the hull of a ship, damaging it. Fair enough, though I don't remember these quantum singularities actually doing that, they were just detectable because the the distortion. Anyway, 4 Engineers can keep your ship together, 2 Astrophysics can suggest shield modifications to protect it, and a super-pilot (with 2 Navigation or more) can steer you clear of the effect. I was never convinced Guinan should be a requirement here, and on a Voyager card, that's even more true. I'm guessing she shows up here due to events in "Yesterday's Enterprise", but there, the distortion was also temporal. Why would she know how to evade a purely Gravimetric Distortion? Or is it from Generations, since the Nexus produced Gravimetric Distortions. I still don't see how she's doing it at all. In this case, is she able to "feel" Species 8472 across space-time to fluidic space, or what? And that brings us to the elusive aliens: Now that the dilemma deals with them, where are they? They actually leave you ship alone after they've come out of the singularity? This dilemma suddenly seems a little too tame! The original, by going the generic route, scored itself a 3.6. This version, only 3.

SEEDABILITY: Ship-damaging dilemma in the early days were so easy to pass, they were ridiculous. Gravimetric Distortion has more teeth however. Oh, crews are still likely to have a large number of ENGINEERs, Astrophysics, or even a personnel with lots of Navigation, but you might be able to weed enough of them out in prior dilemmas to make this one really hit (though that should be quite a combo given the many alternatives offered up). In the Voyager-only environment, all the required skills can be found in relative abundance (save Guinan, of course), but the smaller affiliations might be carrying the exact limit, so if they lost but one... This is somewhat balanced by the fact there's no Battle Bridge side-deck in the Voyager-only environment, so damage is damage, with no special effects. DQ ships often have high SHIELDS, so damaging them without resorting to attack is always good. Unlike some other damagers though, it IS a wall. Not toothless, but not always easy to implement: still 3.4.

TOTAL: 13.2 (66%) Down 2% from Blaze of Glory's version.

PICTURE: Haliz is high contrast, but the background is lacking, practically hazy. That green wash over everything (what looks like an old Atari 2600 game) is just terrible. Good thing Haliz isn't so bad himself. That'll keep his score at 2.3 though.

LORE: Making him an Ogla is done with style. We also get who his maje is, and how he earned his Ogla name, as well as his relationship to Karden. Well done without being amazing (I still don't quite get why "Jal" wasn't added to at least some of these Kazon, since they were known as such on the show, and he did earn that name, but I guess they would almost all redundantly be Jals), I'll go for 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Haliz is ranked high in Razik's sect, so Officer, Command and Leadership are natural enough. In fact, he'll become maje when Karden kills Razik. The other skills are harder to justify from the show. Biology could be used to torture Chakotay, fair enough. Finding Kor/Karden on the planetoid might have required Stellar Cartography (though not necessarily from Haliz), and that's a Science skill. Though not all proven, nothing seems out of place. His Integrity is that of a bad guy and a cold-blooded killer, but one that would still follow his maje loyally. He's got the high Cunning associated with his scientific skills, though the Kazon rarely look that smart. And the high Strength befits one of the greatest Kazon warriors alive. I'm game for 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: A 4-skill Kazon with good attributes, how does he stack up? Or does he even need to stack up, when the number of personnel in the affiliation is relatively low? Won't most uniques be used? Possibly. He's got that excellent SCIENCE in addition his his OFFICER. Leadership, Biology and Stellar Cartography are all very good skills when dealing with dilemmas. Leadership's all too common in the affiliation though. Biology's pretty common too. The Kazon have a Stellar Cartography deficit though, same for SCIENCE in general. That's his niche. A good mission for him is Corner Enemy Ship, but he's better against dilemmas. The Ogla are one of the bigger sects (half a dozen personnel), so using The Kazon Collective to report him for free is a natural. You can use either Razik or Jabin to do so, both are listed as majes for the Ogla. Not a major player, but quite useable. A 3.7.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Still too early to compare him to the rest of his affiliation.

PICTURE: An odd pose, but rich colors and interesting shadows on this Engineer-related Kazon who's actually working in his field on the card. The Equipment he might download is even in his hands. One of the more distinctive Kazon, I give him a 3.5.

LORE: Does a good job of giving him universality without sacrificing his Nistrim-hood, and also tries to explain his Biology skill, usually atypical of an Engineer. 3.3 should do.

TREK SENSE: Engineer/Biology is the perfect combo for a technician who's worked on bio-neural technology, and I don't begrudge him that at all. It's a bit odd on a universal though, since I imagine relatively few Kazon were on the commandeered Voyager, the only ship with that kind of tech. Astrophysics wasn't really in evidence during the show. It's a plausible Engineer skill, but not much more than that. The Kazon are good at hiding in nebulas, etc., so I'll buy it. The Kazon also being technology scavengers (not to say pirates), the Equipment download is a sound one. He might have picked up a tool here and there, though you gotta wonder at any OS technology he might've found in the Delta Quadrant. Integrity makes him a pirate without sacrifing loyalty to his maje, and the rest of the stats make sense as far as his post and species go. I think the universal icon is perhaps the least likely aspect of Halok, so that takes him to 3.6.

STOCKABILITY: You might have noticed how often ENGINEER crops up in Delta Quadrant missions and Voyager dilemmas. Well, Halok remains one of the few Kazon ENGINEERs, and the only universal. You need him not just because of his ENGINEER, but because his special download can get you more. Engineering Kit, for example, would make your many OFFICERs ENGINEERs too. Probably the best download, the Kazon aren't loaded on SCIENCE (Engineering PADD), MEDICAL (Engineering Tricorder) or ENGINEERs (all that Equipment that gives ENGINEERs extra skills), though of course, they're all options. Another option is the Transporter Control Module to remove the no-transporters limit the Kazon have. I haven't forgotten about his other skills: Astrophysics and Biology are great for dilemmas as well as missions, and that Bio can't be filtered out by attacking MEDICALs in this case. He's a Nistrim too, the best of the sects, and can report for free if Culluh is in play. He's universal, so he can report for free over and over and over again. Of course, universal or not, the download can only be used once per game, not once per copy of Halok. That's a bit of a bummer, but for the Kazon's ENGINEERing needs, there's no one better. A 4.4.

TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) High Stockability for a universal stooge.

PICTURE: I don't get what the controversy is all about here. Some people were actually offended by this one. Why? Do they equate Nixon with some of the other so-called "offensive" matieral on cards (like Nazism)? Or do they think Starling's presence sullies a former president's reputation? Clue me in please. I personally think it's fine. Sure, they could have gone and taken any of probably a hundred handshakes in Star Trek, but it wouldn't have been very memorable. This is distinctive and shows off a little photographic sleight of hand on the part of Star Trek's people. I could do without the gold frame, but there you have it. Enough for a 3.5.

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

TREK SENSE: All about card manipulation, the pun being on shaking up your hand of cards, though the middle effect doesn't even involve your hand. Is this an entirely too mechanical 0? Well, let's give them the benefit of the doubt, shall we? Let's think about Handshakes. What are they for, what do they symbolize? Answer: Meetings and agreements. It's a simple enough gesture, so that's why it plays for free in the first instance, but I think if agreements about resource manipulation on this scale are to be finalized, there would be a lot more negotiation. After all, the deal you've made somehow forces your opponent to possibly select 3 cards to be discarded. That first effect works on a fair play principle that I don't think most affiliations would share. "Hey, I've got fewer resources than you do - see, I didn't put anything in play this turn - so why don't you discard down to my level, or let me gather more resources before we go on?" The second effect let's you look at your future or past and place new priorities on new building/training or salvage operations. The third effect is a back to the drawing board-type deal, switching all your resources around. I don't know with what third party these agreements are made with, or if the Handshake is between members of your own ruling body. Quick and dirty, and still pretty conceptual, I can't go above a 1, which is still good for something like this.

STOCKABILITY: A very strong card manipulation card, you can use it for one of three very distinct uses. Stuck with a depleted hand due to massive free plays? Get some card draws on the spot, for free, unless your opponent would rather discard 3 cards from her hand (fat chance). Personnel, like some Borg, who can convert card draws to specific downloads would find this especially useful. Of course, the cost is not having yet played a card this turn, but nothing stops you from playing cards AFTER the card draws. In other words, you have to do this first. Hey, this is the Kivas Fajo of the Voyager-only environment and it plays for free. The second effect can easily rig your Borg's probes, so it can be of immense value to the Collective. For others, it's still a good way to get the right cards in play at the right time by deciding the order of their being drawn. Any card that rescues the top card(s) of the discard pile would benefit from a previous Handshake. Same for a draw deck pick-up. A good partner for Mutation, Nanoprobe Resuscitation, etc. You can also use this to destroy an opponent's probe, rescue or pick-up. The first of these three will see the most use. The third effect is the Voyager equivalent of Masaka Transformations (though quite different in many ways): In a pinch, you can discard your hand (at least 3 cards) to draw another (of 7). This is a fallback plan, but sometimes you do get a bad hand, and recycling strategies being what they are, you can always get those discards back. And best of all, you get a choice of effects, they aren't on three separate events. A strong 4.7.

TOTAL: 12.27 (61.33%) Saved by the Stockability!

PICTURE: Lots of elements here. The background has a truly alien landscape, complete with volcanic eruptions. It has a landed Voyager and the unwary crew. And of course it has the Eel, sadly without its trademark "fingers" too visible. Lots of detail, but the emphasis could have been on the predator more than the prey. To be fair, 3.5.

LORE: Grossly funny, the lore makes a crack about how poor Hogan was killed, but doesn't neglect giving us a context for the Voyager crew's presence. Fun, but not very subtle, it gets a 3.6.

TREK SENSE: It's always odd to see something so specific to one planet (even going so far as to name the species' origin in the title) being seeded just about anywhere. Who's exporting these monsters? And to the Alpha Quadrant, no less. I guess we have to imagine similar hazards on other planets. After all, even Earth has its... Tyrannosaurus Rex? Ok, I dunno. In the show, the entire crew faced the dilemma, but a personnel was eaten anyway, so why supply a way to overcome it? You'd think the inflated Voyager personnel could have found a way around it. Or did Hogan's defiance of Janeway earlier in the series make her look the other way for a second? Hmm... Anyway, in the game, Security and Strength help protect your Away Team from the beast, and Science helps avoiding it altogether by understanding its habitat. Fair enough. If you can't fight it off or avoid it, it grabs the dumbest personnel there, whether you calculate that using Cunning or the number of skills that personnel's been able to assimilate. Of course, then you have someone with lots of skills but few skill dots, like Juliana Tainer, at risk. The opponent's choice between the targeting methods points to an intelligence behind the Eel's actions. Doesn't sound right either. I don't see why a mission specialist would necessarily let himself be caught more than a panicking Targ anyway. Note that despite the lore, the Eel doesn't actually go for ENGINEERs. Wouldn't have really made sense, but would at least have been cute. Not passing this one, I'm sorry. A 1.4.

SEEDABILITY: Lots of requirements so as to insure as best they can a kill, these are still pretty common. SECURITY and SCIENCE are classifications after all, and everyone has STRENGTH (easily boostable with hand weapons). If a kill does result, it's either the personnel with the lowest CUNNING or the one with the fewest skill dot icons. And that's your choice as the opponent. Low CUNNING personnel might have the skills to complete the mission or overcome the next dilemma. Few skill dots might indicate a mission specialist going after bonus points, or a vital special skill taking up room in the game text. If not overcome, the dilemma thankfully goes back under the mission, ready to strike again, though in actuality now more of a wall. Driving down the Away Team's STRENGTH before this dilemma hits should be fairly easy (steal the hand weapons for starters), and other dilemmas can attack the required classifications. Though a limited opponent's choice, those are the best kind of kills. Here's to a 4.1.

TOTAL: 12.6 (63%) For the one of the worst deaths in all of Star Trek.

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