Siskoid's Rolodex #128 ... Siskoid ... [3/23/99 08:15]

[Siskoid's Rolodex offers spot reviews of all the cards judging them by their less tangible qualities, searching for the elusive perfect card: their picture/graphics, lore, Trek sense and stockability. Each on 5 points (so on a total of 20). Mondays, I do Premiere. Tuesdays, AU. Wednesdays, Q-Continuum. Thursdays, First Contact. Fridays, DS9. Saturdays, The Dominion. And Sundays, Premium cards. Comments always welcome.]

#128-Cryosatellite, Artifact, AU
"An ancient sublight vessel. Designed to carry and store cryogenically frozen humanoids until a cure for their death could be found and used to regenerate them."
-Seed at a space location. May seed one additional artifact and up to 3 AU icon personnel here. Those personnel come aboard your ship when mission completed.

PICTURE: A nice shot of the satellite, with the markings very clear on there. Note the visible numbers: 04, 03, 02... and how many cards can you seed in combination with Cryosat? 4! It's almost like each numbered compartment contains one of the seeds. Good color too. A 4.1.

LORE: Well, I sort of buck at having an object called both a satellite and a vessel, but other than that, it's pretty clear. The choice to extend the use of the Cryosat to "humanoids" is a good one that gives all the affiliations use of the card. A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: It seeds in space rather than on a planet, of course. Inside you'll find personnel, yes. And they join the crew when you unfreeze them, fine. Then it gets rough. For on thing, I'm not sure the AU icon is all that much relevant here. AU icons may be given to people and things that come from the past, but I would say these are only AU if they couldn't exist in present day Trek unless some kind of time traveling were involved. For example, Montgommery Scott comes from the past, but is in the "present" because he somehow survived until that time. same for the Cryosatellite in my opinion. It's worn and ancient and was found in the present (unlike the ancient maching gun which never made it to the 24th century). It's not AU. As for its abilities, they are too wide-ranging. So you can seed 3 AU personnel and an artifact in there. Let's look at that, shall we? There are 4 reasons a personnel could be AU. 1) It's from the past. 2) It's from a possible future. 3) It's from a parallel universe. And 4) It's from some sort of dream sequence. So unless personnel are of the first type, why would they be in an ancient cryosatellite? Even if we accept that the Cryosat is AU exactly because it might come from a parallel universe or even the far future, things don't match up to the show's events. The artifact similarly should be from the past for it to belong there. There's no reason, for example, that an Interphase Generator should have any place aboard the satellite. Since we have to justify too many things: a 2.2.

SEEDABILITY: Why waste four seed slots when you can just stock the personnel and seed the other artifact on a planet somewhere? Well, there are plenty of good reasons to do this. One is speed: getting three personnel after solving a mission let's you go after another one without the need for going back to an outpost. That's three personnel on the table without using up your card play after all. And many AU personnel have a wide range of skills and abilities. The Klingons in particular have most of their super-personnel from alternate universes (Governor Worf, Mogh and Grandpa Duras). The Romulans have Dr. telek R'Mor. The Borg have their shiny new counterparts. And everybody can use Zefram Cochrane. Another reason to use Cryosat is that you no longer have to seed an AU Door just to play a couple of good AU personnel. You can seed a Space-Time Portal, your satellite and its contents, and then use the STP for some other function. Your AU personnel are in play without you having to keep an open doorway for them to report through. Much more efficient and makes AU stuff more viable. For those who are afraid of mission (and artifact) theft, note that unless your AU personnel's affiliations are compatble with your opponent's, they'll be placed on house arrest and will be retrievable later. Your guys are still in play. A lot of good things: 3.9.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) Has a lot of holes, but still can hold an atmosphere.

COMPARISON CHART

Adapt: Negate Obstruction - 18.4 (92%)
[...]
Altovar - 13.7 (68.5%)
Assassin's Blade - 13.7 (68.5%)
Vulcan Mindmeld - 13.7 (68.5%)
Acquire Illicit Explosives - 13.6 (68%)
Angry Mob - 13.6 (68%)
Data's Body - 13.6 (68%)
Cryosatellite - 13.5 (67.5%)
Data's Medals - 13.5 (67.5%)
Alyssa Ogawa (FC) - 13.3 (66.5%)
Cardassian Trap - 13.3 (66.5%)
Wormhole Negociations - 13.2 (66%)
Bendii Syndrome - 13.1 (65.5%)
Berlingoff Rasmussen - 13.1 (65.5%)
Conundrum - 13.1 (65.5%)
Wind Dancer - 13.1 (65.5%)
[...]
Zibalian Transport - 7.1 (35.5%)

Siskoid (brrrrrrrr)