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. Another new review from The Naked Now...
PICTURE: A frozen crew member after the virus made them open the hatch out to space (or whatever happened) and it's rather misleading. This isn't some ultimate symptom of the disease, it just looks like one. But kind of creepy. I remember people saying she looked like a Roseanne cameo, but I'm not sure that hurts or helps the card. It does have that purplish tint that Premiere got whenever the image was supposed to be blueish though. Split the difference: A 3.
LORE: I dislike this title. Yes, the TNG crew got it from the crew of the Tsiolkovsky, but Kirk's Enterprise had already succumbed to it in The Naked Time, which is where the virus got its actual designation. It's there in the lore (Psi 2000), but the card nevertheless makes it sound like you encountered a very specific ship to have gotten infected. It should probably be called Polywater. Maybe we're more aware of epidemiology today, but the language is just generally clunky here. A 2.5.
TREK SENSE: The TNG focus (necessary back in the day as this was the ST:TNG CCG, no other show was on the license yet) makes this a space dilemma, but on TOS, they got infected on a planet (which apparently originated the offending molecule). In any case, it spread quickly and the ship is immediately infected. And therefore anyone aboard. But note: If you get off the ship, you're fine! Transporter bio-filters? Sure, but then how did you carry it back from the Tsiolkovsky? The intoxication's effect is to make everyone lose their first-listed skill, which is a rather random choice. There ARE patterns, like DipHoLes (your generic Officer) starting their list with Diplomacy, or personnel with dual classifications starting their list with that extra Engineer or Medical, but you can't count on that first skill to be their "thing", really. Usually, they CAN be impaired by intoxication, so it's fine, though losing something like Youth might be a bit weird. It's a tough ask. The cure is 3 Medical, which at least makes complete sense. That leaves us with a 3.2.
SEEDABILITY: Tsiolkovsky will ALWAYS hit. Look at the order of operations. You place it on the ship. Bam, you're infected well before you can attempt to "cure" it. And can you? 2 MEDICAL is definitely doable, but I'm looking at Premiere Beverly Crusher as an example. She counts as 2 MEDICAL, ahh, but not with this aboard. Are you drained of just enough MEDICAL to make this impossible? Depends. The Federation has an advantage, but other affiliations might have more trouble. Drunk Borg could be hardest hit since they don't have classifications except as skills (but Four of Nine has his MEDICAL at the last listed skill). A good combo is to seed a MEDICAL hoser just before this one, like Tarellian Plague Ship. So say you don't cure it immediately. There's no typical "overcoming", so you barrel along to the next dilemma without your full skill base. Good for missions that require a lot of skills, or a skill-heavy dilemma strategy to stop the crew in its tracks. With so many ships that can report personnel directly, this card has lost a lot of power since the old days, but if your opponent struggles with bringing that key MEDICAL into play, it stymie them for one too many turns. Still a 3.8.
TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) Or am I a little tipsy?
Comments