Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. And the final card whose image was pulled from The Galileo Seven:
PICTURE: A somewhat grainy photo of an OS ship, right? Well, it IS saved by a very subtle piece of CGI work, namely the 1700 on the side of the nacelle, changed from the Enterprise's 1701. Very small, but I appreciate the attention to detail. It's enough to bring the score up to 3.5.
LORE: "Class ship" may be what you call the initial non-NX model of a starship line, but it reads very abruptly here, like there's something missing. The rest is just as stiff, if more readable. I do like the idea of putting "Starship" in front of OS ship names to differentiate them from later models, but the lore is a dull 2.
TREK SENSE: The Constitution baseline ship was never seen, of course, but we saw the OS Enterprise for 3 years, and sometimes other Constitution-class ships, so we do know what this ship would be like. It has a Tractor Beam, certainly, and requires OS personnel to staff it. This encourages players to have the right kind of personnel aboard the ship, though OS personnel without a regular staffing icon are less than appropriate as staffers of any ship. The only real oddity is Nilz Baris, so that's not too bad. The special download is a good one since Starships are supposedly full of Ensign Bobs, so they need only step into the spotlight. The anomaly here is that Mirror personnel can show up this way. As far as attributes go, the emphasis is on peaceful exploration, with Range and Shields being much higher than Weapons. Can't really argue with that. Note that there is another version of this ship's persona, the Classic Films Starship Constitution, which I mention because persona-switching allows for an extremely fast refit, or an improbable downgrade. Overall, pretty standard stuff, the nitpicks chop it down to 2.9.
STOCKABILITY: Though it's not the Starship Enterprise, it makes for an adequate backup to that ship in an OS deck. It staffs just as easily, with Crew Reassignment promising reinforcements outside the native time location, Sherman's Peak, where Deep Space Station K-7 may allow it to report for free. Similarly, the Columbus can report and launch from it. Its got very low WEAPONS, but your Feds aren't meant to attack passing ships (Kirk definitely belongs on the Enterprise instead). Mr. Scott can boost it just like any other Constitution-class, to 8-6-8, incidentally. Its download can get you Lieutenants Grant and Palmer, but you can also legally download the Mirror horribles, Wilson, Davis and Gaffney. One of them anyway. If you have the CF Constitution in hand early on, you can even switch ships and download a universal CF personnel in addition, no doubt before turning the ship into one of the Enterprises (4 to choose from) with Dom Perignon and downloading yet another, this time unique, personnel. It may in fact be a good choice to Spacedoor, using the champagne to get the ship you want, including a Mirror ISS Enterprise to get that affiliation into play in the Alpha Quadrant, or the OS Starship in the present. Otherwise not very impressive, and no real alternative for Kirk's ship, which gets so many boosts, it's insane. Mostly as a step toward downloading a Starship Enterprise, hits 3.4.
TOTAL: 11.8 (59%) Sadly scores low among Federation ships.
Comments
"You want to get assigned to the Constitution?"
"Aye. I hear she's a class ship and no mistake."