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. The mission from The Schizoid Man...
PICTURE: One of the few saturnine planets in the game (while waiting for the one in TNG's opening sequence), it's rather badly painted. The colors are terrible and the nebulous purple cloud in the background just looks dirty. Distinctive planet, but badly executed. A 1.8.
LORE: The title isn't inspired, is it? I mean, I'd rather have a mission called Gravesworld than one called Vilmor II, but still breaks the game's naming conventions. The lore itself is the usual. A 2.8.
TREK SENSE: The best thing about this mission is its Span. Ira Graves was a recluse, so he built his lab as far away as he could (5 span away). That's why I think affiliations other than the Federation could have answered his distress call. Not the truly evil ones, but friendlier neighbors. Unless Ira's on the border between the Federation and the edge of the galaxy? My comment is also based on the fact that Ira Graves is Non-Aligned. MEDICAL is obviously there in case the distress call was made due to a medical emergency (as it was). OFFICER? You'll need their authority to attempt the mission because of the sensitive nature of the lab's experiments (I may be reaching). And Physics, what, in case the distress call was due to an experiment gone wrong? The mission does well not to mention Ira Graves' presence on the planet (in case he's in play somewhere out there), but it really doesn't focus the card's requirements in any one area. We don't know WHAT the Away Team is supposed to do there. The points are a bit high, too, for those requirements. 2.4 here.
SEEDABILITY: One affiliation, but the most espionageable. 30 points for easy requirements, never bad. Span that may be long, but could work to the Federation's advantage since they have some really fast ships. You won't find all three skills on the same Federation personnel, though. Toby Russell can do it with an accompanying OFFICER. Or Keogh, Jace Micheals and a couple of others can do it with any MEDICAL, but no one has all three. It's also too bad that AMS won't bring in more than +5 here (for Physics). Too fuzzy to really be included with any regularity. A 2.9.
TOTAL: 9.9 (49.9%) Sure, it's fine in the 2-player game, but this is the *real* world.
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