Siskoid's Rolodex #154 ... Siskoid ... [4/18/99 11:24]

[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.]

#154-Bareil of Borg, Personnel, Borg, AU, Premium
"Assimilated counterpart who spoke to the Bajorans in a parallel universe. 'The knowledge and experience of the Bajoran - Bareil Antos - is part of us now.'"
-Communications/Navigation/Defense; VIP, Anthropology, Diplomacy x2, Honor, SCIENCE, Biology; While on your ship, WEAPONS and SHIELDS +4 against [Baj]
-INTEGRITY: 8, CUNNING: 7, STRENGTH: 8

PICTURE: First a couple words about Borg design, since this is my first review of that affiliation. What can I say, it's great. Really distinctive with its metallic gray background and white-on-black lore. The best thing about Borg design though is the way Decipher made the subcommand icons. First, they correspond to the same three colors we are used to -blue, green and red - and on all drones, the icon they have matches the one 7 they have in their attributes. Plus, remember who gets which icon when they are assimilated. Command icon personnel get the Communication subcommand. Both those icons have 6 points, the subcommand icon as electricity. Staff icon personnel become Navigation drones, 4 points. No icon? Defense subcommand which just has a line passing though it. All wonderful. Now about Bareil. There was a fair amount of commotion when the prefabricated counterparts came out. Computer-manipulated images? We can't have that! Well, Decipher's been manipulating images since Premiere with its Easter Eggs, but also with such things as Impassable Door and, in the warp pack, Countermanda. So how well is Bareil manipulated? Fairly well. These counterparts strike us as slightly ridiculous don't they? But they are all built on Locutus' model, with a laser beam and no eye prosthetic. Bareil should probably has no hair, since Borg don't (maybe Locutus kept his), the laser is much too pink to be believable, and the body they gave him looks like it's missing an arm. He's just a bust. Plus I hate the gray background on these guys. They look pasted on, where a nice alcove would have strengthened the illusion. Borg design apart, the picture gets a 2.8, mostly for effort.

LORE: I won't keep on lore as long as I did on picture (yow!) It's pretty straight out of Locutus' with the Federation replaced with the Bajorans, the parallel universe thrown in and the Persona bold-facing thrown out. All the elements are there, but these have never been interesting. The name of the personnel is kinda boring too. I'll remind you it wasn't Picard of Borg, it was Locutus. The Star Trek novels did this better when the made personnel from other affiliations into counterparts. The Romulan one from The Return was called Vox for example. So why no cool Bajoran-centered name? Pooh. A 2.8.

TREK SENSE: Well there's no instance of this character in Star Trek, but I'm ready to believe in the story that the parallel universe overrun by the Borg from "Parallels" housed all these guys. Nothing major here. It's Bareil (who I'll get to in its own good time) as if he had been assimilated, with the Strength boost (for cyber parts) and the little extra, first seen on Locutus, of boosting his ship's battling ability against his own affiliation. After all, he has the knowledge of his entire culture. Waitaminnit! Bareil? Vedek Bareil? Gardener Bareil? He has the technical and strategic information to undermine the Bajoran fleet? I don't think so, somehow. Drops to 3.

STOCKABILITY: He's been called the least useful pre-fab counterpart. Is he? Three icons, good stats and the ability to play Assimilate Homeworld right away, he shares with the others. And aside from Locutus, they all share the limitation brought by the AU icon. You'll have to spend an extra seed to be able to report them. Of course, you could spend that seed and play as many Counterparts as you wished, assimilating all those homeworlds you put on the spaceline one after the other, just so long as you reduced them to drones right after. Bareil's skills are some the Collective doesn't have handy: VIP, Diplomacy (double dose) and Honor in particular. Unfortunately, except for Diplomacy, they are not much good at passing dilemmas. And while both Cardassian and Bajoran players have a good chance of seeding Alter Records (Bajor), I wouldn't stock Bareil just in case. That would mean that you were playing him for his skill selection, which is inferior to the other pre-fabs. A 3.4.

TOTAL: 10 (50%) Yowch! Lots of effort went into these I know, and here I come and demolish the whole thing.

COMPARISON CHART

Adapt: Negate Obstruction - 18.4 (92%)
Blended - 17.4 (87%)
[...]
Adapt: Modulate Shields - 10.5 (52.5%)
Alien Labyrinth - 10.5 (52.5%)
Ancient Computer - 10.5 (52.5%)
Door-Net - 10.5 (52.5%)
Are These Truly Your Friends, Brother? - 10.2 (51%)
Atmospheric Ionization - 10.1 (50.5%)
Discommendation - 10.1 (50.5%)
Alien Probe - 10 (50%)
Bareil of Borg - 10 (50%)
Arms Deal - 9.9 (49.5%)
Dr. Q, Medecine Entity - 9.8 (49%)
Alynna Nechayev - 9.7 (48.5%)Good Place to Die - 9.4 (47%)
Alyssa Ogawa - 9.4 (47%)
Blade of Tkon - 9.4 (47%)
[...]
Zibalian Transport - 7.1 (35.5%)
Door to the Fajo Collection - 3.47 (17.35%)

Siskoid (from the universe overrun by muppets)