What a Card: Nurse Chapel

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. We were due for a name character...

EXPANSION: Mirror, Mirror

PICTURE: Though not from a heavy Chapel episode ("The Enterprise Incident"), it's got good color definition, she's in some sort of well-balanced spotlight, etc. Well-done for a total of 3.4.

LORE: Full name, ship assignment, some information on her skills pulled from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" I think, and of course, her "hopeless" relationship with Spock. Another good effort banks another 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Medical, Biology and Exobiology are pretty much standard for this type of personnel (though Exobiology may be a bit much for a nurse at this point in Star Trek, when few aliens serve on starships - Strange New Worlds now makes it more believable), but what is this "medical archaeology" the Archaeology skill is derived from? Well, puzzling as the combination of words may at first seem, this is pretty much what Richard Galen was into. As a nurse, she's only Staff, that's fine, as are the other icons. Now, the reporting skill works in the sense that she worked for McCoy and was in love with Spock, but the buck stops there. I'd believe she was around one or the other, but she simply reports for free, not to their location. Chances are she WOULD report to their location thanks to Crew Reassignment or Sherman's Peak, but as written, Chapel really doesn't have to. Finally, I see nothing wrong with the attributes, with Integrity being slightly lower than a top Fed Medical's because of impure thoughts unbecoming an (admittedly, by Season 3, no longer) engaged woman, and TOS females' era-specific lack of courage sometimes. No comment on the rest. Not quite doing it for me, I can spare 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: The Federation's missions focus strongly on a couple of skills, including MEDICAL and Archaeology, and Nurse Chapel will certainly fit it in those decks. Plague Planet, in particular, can be solved by her alone (Evaluate Terraforming too, but many Meds can do that one) thanks to her offbeat Archaeology. She would also come in handy at Hunt for DNA Program. In OS decks, she becomes much more invaluable, since they have fewer MEDICALs to choose from. She also has access to extra skills thanks to the Classic Medical Tricorder, and can report for free besides if either Dr. McCoy or Mr. Spock are in play already (no matter where they are). Both those personnel are excellent and will be showing up in your deck if you have them in your collection (which is not a given). They might even have reported for free themselves at Deep Space Station K-7. The other example of her persona is Dr. Chapel, which gives up the free reporting and Exobiology for an extra MEDICAL and Computer Skill. That could be useful, depending on your strategy, and reporting Nurse Chapel for free in a CF (Classic Films) deck really isn't difficult since The Motion Pictures expansion also has a Dr. McCoy card (one that isn't ultrarare to boot). She just can't use her OS icon with Crew Reassignment, that's all. Use the AU icon somewhere else instead. 3.5 from me.

TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) Nothing spectacular.

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