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 just saw the captain, now here's the ship, which was a "broken link" for the longest time...
PICTURE: A nice, soft pic, with the Genesis Planet in the background, and the ship's registry number showing clearly. Not too keen on the monochrome color palette however. Settles at 3.4.
LORE: The first sentence is your basic history of the ship. The last phrase is a nice homage to Virgil "Gus" Grissom, one the three astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 fire (he was a Mercury astronaut too, making him a very early space explorer). As an Apollo nut, I love this little bit of business, though overall, the lore's a little flat. A 3.3.
TREK SENSE: A science ship with the actual skill of Science? Excellent. Same reasoning as the Pasteur's Medical: It's a combination of a specially-trained crew (of Ensign Bobs) and ship equipment tuned to this mission, the big sensor package at the bottom of the ship replacing the Pasteur's expansive sickbays. The Oberth class has been around a long time, and the Grissom is its earliest chronological example. I guess that's why its Shields are much lower than the non-AU universal Oberth. That and getting blown up rather easily by Kruge. It's a little ridiculous that it would be faster, however, and indeed faster than a cruiser of the same era like the Enterprise-A! Weapons are the same, which is a bias of its mission. The standard Oberth's Staff icon has been replaced by a CF icon, and that's a little unfortunate. On the one hand, yes, it forces you to use personnel of the right era aboard. On the other, it allows some Civilians to staff it, like Martia and Amanda Grayson. The high Range remains the main point of contention. Score? 2.1.
STOCKABILITY: A reason to use the lacklustre J.T. Esteban? Plaqued and Logged, the ship's attributes get set at the more tolerable level of 9-7-9. Still no warship, but this is more of a mission-solving vessel anyway. After all, it's got its own skill! This is a SCIENCE that cannot be weeded out by dilemma combos. Esteban, who may download or report aboard by a variety of means, has 3 scientific skills that will help at the same missions, but no SCIENCE, so he can't be weeded out by dilemmas that target SCIENCE either. It also means: An automatic +2 with Metaphasic Shields, a little help with Senior Staff Meeting and Wormhole Navigation, it saves the ship if going through the Mirror Wormhole, and more. SCIENCE-related decks could do worse. A 3.5.
TOTAL: 12.3 (61.5%) If only it didn't rely on the lame captain Esteban ;-).
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