What a Card: Daval

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. Because there's a need for TOS-era Klingons, a few cards do come from Errand of Mercy, but don't celebrate yet!

EXPANSION: The Trouble with Tribbles

PICTURE:
An OS Klingon that looks very little like a Klingon (his only make-up is a little grease paint). The green and sunny surroundings of Organia are likewise not very Klingon. Beggars can't be choosers though, and since few Klingons were actually featured in the Original Series, we'll take what stuntmen we can. The barrel-chested scientist gets a 2.5 from me thanks to a potable composition.

LORE: I like the idea of "field scientists" for the Klingons who aren't the most scientific of peoples, but it's sheer invention here since all of the Klingons in "Errand of Mercy" seemed to be guards (i.e. Security). Universality is definitely not established here. I'll give it a 3.1 anyway.

TREK SENSE: Taking the lore at its word, I'm not sure he was given the right skills. The "field" in a science-fiction setting may well be outer space, but with his efforts on Organia, the field should probably have been planetside. Anthropology, Biology, Geology, Exobiology... any of these would have been more believable than Astrophysics. Or was Kor so poor at selecting personnel that fit mission profiles? Computer Skill may well be useful in establishing a command center, so I'll leave that one alone. OS Klingons being a little more ruthless, I might not have given him Integrity that high. Cunning 6 is always a little out of place on an Astrophysics personnel (or is that as easy as 5th grade calculus?). I'll buy the Strength though. Not too appropriate an effort at 1.5.

STOCKABILITY:
Though you can of course use him in an OS deck, reporting him for free to K-7, or downloading him to an OS ship (Crew Reassignment would work on certain ships under the Organian Peace Treaty), you can also play Assign Support Personnel to use him in any Klingon deck. Computer Skill is always useful, and Astrophysics is a bit rarer, but still useful for dilemma-passing. And Daval can be more than a 2-skill personnel. Add Classic Tricorder and Classic Medical Tricorder for 2 extra skills (which can be switched around), all thanks to an easily gotten support personnel. That SCIENCE classification is useful in its own right, of course. Fairly good attributes for a universal as well, as since he IS universal, he's a good source of any of the skills he has. He's in fact the only OS Klingon with either skill. A stronger than expected 3.5.

TOTAL: 10.6 (53%) Why not give us some of Kang's men for these skills instead?

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