Reboot Reunion: IDW's Issues 53 and 54

In IDW's popular series we get to revisit a character we last seen in Star Trek '09 - Gaila who was played by Rachael Nichols.

The story starts 2248, 14 years before the main part of this story. An important event in Gaila and her brother Kai's life takes place when their father kidnaps his two children to prevent their mother marrying off Gaila as part of a deal for the Orion syndicate to seal a deal. The backstory to this event is well established and leaves us looking forward to seeing how the story plays out.  Just be aware there may be SPOILERS ahead!

In the present - 2262 - the USS Enterprise and the USS Tereshkova meet up for some shore leave. Gaila, now a science officer on the Tereshkova meets up with her brother who is now assigned to the Enterprise. Obviously she meets up with former Academy room-mate Uhura (as seen in the first reboot), who gives her a tour of the flagship of the fleet. I found this piece a little odd as it just looks like the two ships parallel parked and the crews went from ship to ship. No space station or outpost. It did take me out of the story a little bit. 

We get to meet Captain Campbell of the Tereshkova and she is well handled throughout the story. She admits she had issues with how Kirk got to sit in the chair but he has earned her respect. She is a good addition to the comic-verse and hopefully someone we see again. 

As this issue ends Gaila and Kai's problems are only starting as they are kidnapped from their ships and taken away by their mother who has waited all this time to fulfill her agreement with the Pacari.

Issue 54 starts off with Kirk's captains log recapping what happened in the previous issue but we spend most of the time with Gaila and her brother while they try to escape from the situation they find themselves in. 

As the Enterprise is out of commission it is up to Gaila and Kai to organise their own escape. 

As Gaila prepares for her wedding her brother is sent to become a bare-knuckle fighter for the Orion public's amusement. However the Orions don't plan for Kai's Starfleet training mixed with his Orion fighting skills and he escapes just as Gaila manages to release her shackles. They escape together but look like they may be caught - but the enterprise shows up in the nick of time!

As the story wraps up we get two references to the previous movies - Scotty says he promised the Enterprise would never be under water again(Into Darkness) and an amusing, if predictable few scenes between Kirk and Gaila over what happened in Uhura's dorm room in Star Trek '09.

While this was a good read it and was nice to see Gaila back after her appearance in Star Trek '09, it feels that this issue was a little bit of a filler as we await the next story which is the much hyped Legacy of Spock. 

There is a nice bit of continuity in this issue with a nod to the USS Tereshkova which appeared in the book The Lives of Dax It was studying a rogue comet and some of the crew died. It seems to have faired a little better here!

Once again Tony Shasteen's artwork is to be commended. Having the Orions feature in the story really makes the colours pop off the page. The Enterprise and her crew are all very well drawn. It's also fun checking out the background aliens and in this issue we get to see an Andorian crew member. 

All in all this story is worth a read but it doesn't reach the heights of some of the stories. It is a little flat and I get the feeling that the writers were already thinking of the Spock story line coming up. Another little inconsistency is that I felt the writing staff's mind was elsewhere as issue two's stardate was 2262.141 and issue 1 was 2262.335!!! 

Hopefully the team returns to form with Manifest Destiny and Legacy of Spock.

IDW's Star Trek comics are currently available from your local comic book store or the usual online digital suppliers.

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Some Kind of Star Trek: The Podcast Episode Three

Back with more news and interviews in our third podcast episode.

We're a bit ahead but couldn't turn down the chance to chat with our friend Jim Bray from Star Trek Anthology plus we cover off a couple of news stories too -

The tragic death of Anton Yelchin

Star Trek Timelines latest event

Getting into the new The Fifty Year Mission book from Ed Gross and Mark A Altman

Star Trek Anthology - here's our original post from exactly one year ago!

You can check out the podcast right now via iTunes by searching Some Kind of Star Trek or download it here from Soundcloud. 

PLEASE take the time to share and review and let us know what YOU want to hear!

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Anton Yelchin

Mourning the loss of anyone involved with the Star Trek franchise is a sad occasion whether they be a single episode guest star or one of the multitude of talented back stage team.

However the shocking and exceedingly unexpected news yesterday that reboot movie actor Anton Yelchin was killed in a freak traffic accident at his home has seemingly affected every fan of Star Trek.

IMDB credits Anton with 65 credits as an actor, three of which are in post-production and two completed works that includes the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. While he is perhaps most famously known for his role as the Russian ensign Pavel Chekov, Yelchin's credentials are extensive stretching back to 2000 with appearances on ER, Curb Your Enthusiasm and NYPD Blue but his movie career really did step into gear following his first appearance as the USS Enterprise navigator in the 2009 film.

The circumstances of his untimely death seem to be that he was pinned between his car and the gate/mailbox at his house. Friends found him there after he failed to arrive for rehearsal. His car is said to have been found with the engine still running and in neutral. Speculation has suggested his car may have been a Jeep Grand Cherokee that was recalled in April this year for confusing gear selection with drivers apparently unsure what they had shifted to. This is purely conjecture at this time.

Yelchin's death has been widely marked with comments from director JJ Abrams, actor Tom Hiddleston, Star Wars veteran Mark Hamill, Star Trek actor Michael Dorn and many more paying tribute via social media in the last 24 hours. Perhaps one more saddening point is that the 19th June was also Zoe Saldana's - his Star Trek co-star's - birthday. 

With the imminent release of Beyond, in which he has featured prominently in early promo material, his career was surely about to explode to another level and it's a great loss that we will never see this young actor aspire to the next level.

In his short but highly memorable tenure with the Star Trek franchise, the actor took Chekov from the bridge of the Enterprise replete with "v/w" accenting and an uncanny ability to "Do zat!" when it came to transporters to acting as Chief Engineer and looked to be a key player within the next installment. No doubt his death will make the third movie just that bit more poignant for all involved and in the audience. I for one hope that it stands as a memorial to a tragically short life ended at just 27.

RIP Anton Yelchin

1989 - 2016

Destroying the Enterprise

What do 1984, 1994 and 2016 have in common?

Each of those years marks the destruction (apparent in Beyond I might add) of the USS Enterprise and the beginning of the speculation over the design of the next starship to carry the hallowed name.

But after so many years and a near obliteration in the previous two reboot movies, is this the one explosion too far? Is this a trope that needs to be nipped in the bud right away? Could the fourth reboot manage to avoid what has become a cliche for the Star Trek franchise?

My easy answer would be "Yes" but let's spin back all those years and look at the history of poor old Enterprise. Admittedly she's not had as much bad luck as the seemingly immortal Voyager but track back to The Search for Spock and it really was the Big Thing, the crowd-puller, the draw to the film that it would be the starship's final voyage (and Spock was back but we worked that out from the title). While Harve Bennett wanted the destruction of the Enterprise kept under wraps it was included in the movie's trailer leaving nothing to the imagination. Yep, there's the saucer exploding and the voiceover announcing it's the last voyage of the Starship Enterprise. Well played, slow clap.

While the third Star Trek flick might not be quite up there with The Wrath of Khan, the violent end of the USS Enterprise is a seminal moment. It was sacrificed to "turn death into a fighting chance to live" and went out with some style and a whole crew of Klingons but more importantly it was the ship that had carried Kirk and crew through the five year mission, it was the ship that had become an icon. It was instantly recognisable across the world and even had a space shuttle named after it. Not bad for a lump of wood and metal originally put together in a warehouse huh?

So the movie version was a totally new model but it was still the NCC-1701 USS Enterprise, the first, the original and the one without the additional letter on the registry so you can understand how significant its demise was to a generation of fans. How would the crew get around now? Were they really going to be stuck on a Bird of Prey for the remainder of their careers? Doubtful and The Voyage Home confirmed that in its closing minutes with the unveiling of the absolutely identical Enterprise-A although we'd have to wait until The Final Frontier to get a better look. Her arrival in fact paved the way as to how future Enterprise's would be identified (A, B, C not 1, 2, 3 as was nearly the case) just ahead of a certain series that launched in September 1987.

So we skip forward three movies and 80 years of the timeline to Star Trek Generations. Again classed as one of the weaker motion pictures, Generations has many notable moments one of which has to be the battle with the Duras sisters which leads to the end of the star drive section of the Galaxy Class ship and the crash landing of its saucer section. The Enterprise-D might have survived seven seasons of the TV series and several close calls (Cause and Effect, Timescape, All Good Things...) but it just didn't resonate anywhere near as much as the end of the Constitution Class original in Star Trek III. For one it went out with a bit of a whimper being taken down by a rusty old Bird of Prey and then the saucer crash did look a little too fake even given that we all know this is fiction. 

While instantly as recognisable the design was derivative of the original which still held up as a true legend of stage and screen. Oddly though the D had been on screen a considerable amount longer than its hallowed predecessor clocking 178 episodes and a movie to NCC-1701's 79 episodes, three movies and an unaired pilot but the way in which her end was handled didn't pull at the heart strings as much. The demise of the original has a much more emotional climax as it burns up in the atmosphere while all hell breaks loose on the crashdive of the Enterprise-D saucer.

I suppose the other factor here was that while the Enterprise-D was great for TV it wasn't as practical for movies and had to go for the series to take the leap to the larger screen. Maybe for me that's part of the reason that it's not as big a moment in the history of Star Trek. The ship was disposable, while its loss was mourned in the closing scene of the film, Riker is fairly flippant in noting that there are plenty of letters in the alphabet. Perhaps it became a product of the era in which the show was created; disposable and easily replaced, maybe not as revered as the first Starship Enterprise. 

Destruction of a starship has always worked more effectively when we've not seen it coming. Take for instance the shock Breen attack on the Defiant in The Changing Face of Evil or the "other" Voyager self-destructing in Deadlock. They work well as part of a plot and not to be essential to create the plot and that could be a downfall for Beyond if it's relying on that element of the film to put bums on seats; Come see the Enterprise destroyed...again. Perhaps the biggest issue I have with either of those is that Deep Space Nine just got given a replacement and Voyager hit the reset button.

Back in The Search for Spock it really was the end of an era. The ship had been part of the franchise since 1964 - thirty years - while the "D" had only really been around from 1987 to 1994. Not even a decade. The arrival of the Sovereign Class "E" in First Contact was a breath of fresh air. It was meatier, a true  starship devoid of families and more suited to the movie era of The Next Generation crew. But I digress.

Jump forward again to the 2009 movie and the Enterprise has become such a disposable commodity that in both that movie and Into Darkness we see it virtually ripped apart back to its bare bones (more so in the 2013 sequel) and now in Beyond we have already been alerted very openly to the notion that this movie will contain very little screen time for the rebooted flagship which seems to end its days very early on in the proceedings. Is this the step too far? Did we really need to have another movie event where the ship is placed in such severe danger?

I can only hope that there's no reset button looming before the closing credits. I might be totally wrong of course and the end of the starship plays but a tiny part in the larger picture hence we've seen quite a bit of its demise in the trailers and if it is being played down completely then I have to admire that choice and potentially to focus more on the characters than big space battle effects.  It seems now that the expectation is that the Enterprise will be placed in a mega-dangerous situation regularly and I'm not sure if that's good storytelling at all. We know that the final frontier is going to be a mysterious place and perhaps Starfleet isn't prepared for everything but somehow the USS Enterprise managed to survive 79 episodes and numerous opponents.

For note it's now been confirmed that the "swept" design of the Enterprise seen fleetingly in the trailer and also in the HP advert are changes to the ship we've seen in the two previous films rather than hints of an end-of-movie replacement. In fact Popular Mechanics has published this amazing cutaway of the Enterprise, the Franklin and the one man Swarm ships which confirmed this. What we now also know is that the Franklin is a Warp Four starship placing it somewhere before the Archer Warp Five Enterprise. It even has (SPOILER) handy motorcycle storage.

Back to the thread here after that indulgent aside...

Trouble is we may then view the successor of the JJ-prise in the same light; a fad, something to get us through a couple of films before it is once more rebooted. Star Trek has always been more than this to me. It's about the characters and the obliteration of the Enterprise should never be a necessity to tell a good story. People were genuinely surprised and disappointed that this plot device was being rolled out again and that there wasn't something new and exciting to be done. OK placing the characters on the antiquated Franklin might be a nod to the NX class and a bygone era of the Federation but is this all the writers could come up with?

Viewing the starship in these terms really does reflect the time in which it was created. In the 1960's it was built to last, to be there for many years and even within the films the original USS Enterprise lives a long and glorious life including an extensive refit. None of its successors manage anything like that, lasting episodes, a movie, a few in-universe years but nothing more. The more recent the ship and the more easily and readily replaceable much like the portable tech of the day - iPods, laptops etc etc are just the same. A shame but a product of the times. 

Maybe another way of looking at the destruction of the Enterprise is that it moves the franchise forward to a new phase. In the case of the original its end in The Search for Spock preceded the arrival of the Enterprise-D and that things had to move on and fans needed to accept a new ship/crew. When the "D" was retired it marked the move from TV to cinema for The Next Generation and was a key change in the tone of their adventures (think about that families and exploration versus the more militaristic style of the "E") and could the end of the reboot Enterprise signal a dynamic change in the reboot universe and an "end" to the JJ influence? Is it a symbol that we will be heading into adventures more befitting the Star Trek ethos than in 2009 and 2013?


Whether she survives another film or not, the legacy of the USS Enterprise cannot be ignored nor will it be. That very longevity I speak of has even permeated the real world with the original model still very much in existence and being restored at the Smithsonian Museum in the US. Just proves you can't keep a good starship down and you don't always need another letter of the alphabet to do it.

What's your take on the demise of the Enterprise? Necessity? Gimmick?

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Attack Wing Wave 24 - Updated Classics

Firstly apologies because the Wave 24 review will be a ship short.

It seems that the repaint of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is already out of stock due to stupid levels of demand so we are only privy to the IKS Drovana and the IRW Algeron for June.

The big thing you'll immediately notice is that there have been some shakeups in the waves with shuttles, warbirds and Xindi ships seemingly cast aside for a trio of reboxes. However while this is true of the Enterprise it's not strictly speaking the case for the Drovana or the Algeron. 

The Drovana is the first time since the Starter Pack that we've had a Vor'Cha Class Attack Cruiser released to retail and it's been worth the wait just for the playing piece. The matt green paint now has a slight metallic glint to it and the surface detail really stands out. It's a thinner paint job certainly but the engine colouring is much more accurate and  really makes a difference to the ship as you can see from the comparison. 

The second craft, the Algeron is a bit disappointing just for the fact it's the same old K'T'inga/D7 mould to the point that it's even carrying a Klingon emblem on the underside. Straight rebox if ever there was one! Still the  entire pack is purely Romulan themed and, contrary to the scattered focus of the Drovana it's based around the classic third season episode, The Enterprise Incident. Sadly there's no Romulan imposter Kirk (now there's a card - dual faction, high skill...) but we do get lots of tasty new goodies to take your mind off the very average model. 

Offering five in attack, one agility, five hull and three shields, the Drovana will be able to hold its own in a battle and costs 28 points for the ship. You can upgrade her with a Tech, two Weapon and a Crew upgrade as well as being able to utilise four standard actions - Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo. As a unique action you can discard a non-disabled upgrade during Compare Results to cancel out a Damage or Critical Damage result.

The accompanying generic ship holds the same stats as the version in the Starter Pack, losing a shield, a Weapon slot and the unique action for 26 points. In terms of movement, we have a max speed of four with red 90 degree turns and a red Come About at speed three. There are also green forward and bank turns at speeds one and two.

Unusually the Drovana comes with two equally strong command options in Gowron and Kurn. For a cost of three points and with a skill of five. Also allowing you to equip him with an Elite Action, Gowron can be used as a Fleet Admiral however, oddly, he won't improve your captain's skill but will be able to pass his skill across to another of your ships. What he does offer in that case is the chance to drop a Battle Stations token next to your ship and, if you're a Klingon captain on a Klingon ship, the opportunity to then perform an Action Bar action as a freebie. Seeing as the Drovana doesn't carry Battle Stations it's a very useable feature that doesn't leave you disabling features.

Kurn also costs three points and has a skill of five and allows you to re-roll one of your Battle Station results each time you defend. If it's assigned to a Klingon ship you can re-roll two. Nice card to use since it offers improved defence and costs nothing extra - no Auxiliary Power Tokens, disabling cards  or removal of upgrades. Low cost, big value. He can also field a Klingon Elite Action even though he doesn't have the emblem on the card.

As for that Elite Action, the Drovana comes with Detonation Codes for four points. An Action, it allows you to target a Minefield Token within range and then roll the number of attack dice on the Mine card minus one. It results in every ship within range one of the mine to suffer Damage or Critical Damage as normal and without the chance of using any defence against the results. Of course it does rely on there being a minefield in play!

Which is a good thing that Cloaked Mines is one of the three new Tech options. A discard for three points, it lets you drop the Minefield token within range one of your ship but not within range three of an enemy vessel. If any enemy ship passes within range one of the token it has to roll three attack dice and suffer the consequences of any Damage or Critical Damage results. The craft does not get the chance to roll any defence in this case which is standard against such an item.


Second there's Emergency Power costing four points. Effectively it allows you to ignore any  Auxiliary Power Tokens you have in play on that vessel and perform either a red manoeuvre or an Action. Certainly super-useful and reusable since it's a disable not a discard. Certainly a card that will help you get out of a sticky spot quickly.


The final Tech upgrade is Security Sensors costing five points. If you're targeted by an enemy captain or upgrade you can immediately place an Evade in play even if you already have one active. Good news here that it's something you can keep on using and therefore an absolute essential to any Klingon fleet because of its reuse factor and increased defence. 

Bo'Rak is your new Crew option (five point cost) and can be disabled to force a defending ship to re-roll a die of your choice. He also allows you to defend with a full set of dice even if your opponent is fielding the Scan token. As you might be seeing, this is a Klingon set which offers a lot of increased defensive chances which, for a ship with a single agility point, will be very advantageous.

For a Klingon vessel the offensive capabilities are a bit limited beyond the standard five attack dice. Indeed even the Photon Torpedoes offer the same number as standard however if fired from a Vor'Cha Class you do get to use six dice. There's no specification that it can be fired a certain way, only that it will result in using three Time Tokens. With the note of the use on a Vor'Cha it does push this card to be used on a specific ship which doesn't have a rear firing arc (possibly hence the lack of detail).

As for the mission cards, the Drovana adds Detonation Codes. It's a very different mission, placing the Detonation Codes card onto a Federation ship which must be destroyed by two Klingon vessels including one Vor'Cha Cruiser. The Federation ship can use the Klingon Elite Action once per turn as the ships skirt in and out of the minefield which is also set in the playing field. The Federation player can win by damaging one of the Klingons and destroying the other (must be some damage caused by Detonation Codes), both Klingons are destroyed or all the minefield tokens are obliterated.

The Romulan ship here in Wave 24 is the IRW Algeron, a member of the D7 Class. A Klingon design given to the Romulans in exchange for cloaking technology (or a cheap reuse for the third season of The Original Series), it's another miniature reboxed.

The K'T'inga/D7 cruiser in this pack has a decent paint job and still carries the Klingon emblem on its underbelly which is a disappointment but I suppose re-hacking the mold would be a nightmare.  I can't really say a lot on this one aside from the point that the finish is fairly crisp and the engines and bridge module are actually on the right way.

The Algeron fires with three dice, defends with one, has a hull score of three and two shields. Standard actions are Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo with slots for one Tech, Weapon and Crew option. This basic ship will cost you 18 points to field. As for your unique action, the Algeron will let you perform a one speed ahead move before declaring a target as long as you're not cloaked. I love this feature as it will give you a lot of flexibility to get into range for that final shot. Note that there's no limit to when and how often you can use it. 

The generic Romulan Battlecruiser loses a shield point and the chance of using a Crew upgrade plus the unique action to bring the cost in at 16 points. As to moves, you can max out at a speed of four with only the come about at range three requiring an Auxiliary Power Token to be deployed. There's a full set of turns available at speeds two and three plus green banks and aheads at speeds one and two. This is the standard it seems and it's been a while since we've had a strong, fast ship that gives us a five or a six like Voyager or Prometheus.

As we said, the pack is based on the third season's The Enterprise Incident with the female Romulan commander, Liviana Charvanek (not her name from the episode for note) as your first choice to captain. With a skill of five she costs three points and does have the badge to perform an Elite Action. Charvanek will let players cloak and then perform a free action during their turn which means you could pack out a turn with this and adding that one manoeuvre in too. This captain can be flipped to a fleet admiral role and therefore pass this action out to other ships in your armada. She does also add one point to the captain of the ship you assign her to.

Along with the generic captain card you have a second option to use Tal as your commander. He bears a skill level of three and costs two points and lets your ship use the Battle Stations action even if its not on your standard actions list. Tal won't allow an extra free Action for that round but for Romulans it will offer more in game chances to bear down on their opponents (as long as you're not cloaked).

Command Pod is one of two Elite Actions (four points) and simply lets you cancel one die result when defending. It's a discard that can only be used on a D7 Class ship. For five points you might want to employ Cloaked Attack where you can discard the card and spend your Cloak token and gain two dice for attack. That would effectively give you a five dice attack with the Algeron which makes it a very strong opponent for a turn - especially when you combine it with the ship's additional move ability and Charvanek's free action for example. That's a lot of bits you can pull in for a single turn.

The Weapon slot can be filled with a standard Plasma Torpedoes upgrade giving you four dice in attack and lets you re-roll any blank results. It does incur the Time Token penalty an can be fired fore or aft (if you have those arcs). Nothing new here although very useful and costing three points. There's also a lone Crew upgrade with Romulan Technical Officer (two points) who can be disabled to place a Scan token next to your ship. It's another one of those cards that gives you access to a "standard" action not available with the core ship card as there seems to regularly be with a lot of expansions.

The final upgrade here is Impulse Drive which can be disabled to perform a "white" manoeuvre even with an Auxiliary Power Token next to your ship. It does however mean you skip performing an Action for that round. For a two point cost and the fact it can be reused it might be useful however movement-wise there's only the 180 turn that will bring about an Auxiliary Power Token on the Algeron so there might be better ways to spend points or look to assign it to a ship where there are a lot more red turns that you could abuse and therefore warrant the need for this card.

The mission also plays to The Enterprise Incident with a Federation ship attempting to outrun three Romulan craft (including a D7) and install a stolen cloaking device. Mission tokens represent steps of installation and once all six are active the device is online. Rolling Damage points will mean that process is successful and if all six rolls have the Damage result then it's a free action. The Romulans need to stop you before exiting the north end of the playing field.

Another cool and different scenario to play out that isn't a straight one on one rehash with a planet in the middle. I reckon this could easily be changed to a one player mission with you controlling the Romulans. The big challenge here is that you'll only be able to use a Federation ship with a hull of four or less and Romulans with hulls of three or less.

So a good wave overall once you get past the disappointment of some reshuffling between 24/25/26 and having three ships that are repeats. The cards however for the Drovana and the Algeron do offer new features and the missions have some originality which is very refreshing. I'm a bit gutted I have not yet grabbed an Enterprise but from what I understand it's a straight rebox and repaint job from the earlier version. If I acquire I will update!

UPDATED!!!

With some scurrying around across the internet I picked up the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 repaint which completes Wave 24. First thing is first - if you've bought the original pack don't bother with this one unless you want a second The Original Series Constitution Class starship because aside from a new silver coat of paint it's the exact same pack. Luckily I didn't so this hasn't been a waste of money because it's a brilliant set of cards even if I fear that the model is so small I could lose it.

Cudos on the detail of the Tinyprise because Wizkids have managed to add in window detail, get those nacelles aligned and finish the model off with some nice touches such as the red bussard collectors, a golden deflector and a gold, highlighted bridge module. It's not the most stunning item to come out of the game but it does what it needs to do and you can tell exactly what ship it is. I've only seen the original version a couple of times and to be honest there's not a great deal of difference between them. Perhaps the paint job here is a bit neater.

The Enterprise has an attack of three, agility of one, four hull points and three shield points. In relation to the refit version that's a single shield point less. As with all Federation craft we have the standard Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations actions as well as four Crew slots and a Weapon slot to upgrade the starship. The basic ship will cost you 22 points. As for its unique action, the Enterprise can still perform an Action from the standard bar even if it has an Auxiliary Power Token assigned. That has to be one of the most useful options available to a ship in the whole game. The generic Constitution Class vessel loses one shield point, two Crew slots plus the unique action to cost 20 points.

Movement is pretty flexible with a full set of turns at speeds two and three (sharp right and left on three are red) plus a top speed of four although you can't bank at that level. Speed one will allow bank turns while there's a most welcome speed two reverse to help you back off a bit sharpish. Odd point but the move card and the generic card both carry a picture of the refit Enterprise rather than the one from The Original Series. 

Clearly the first captain option in this pack has to be James T. Kirk (six point cost). Carrying a skill of nine and the ability to field two Elite Actions it has to be one of the go-to command cards for Federation players. Kirk costs six points and any Elite Action cards you pick for him cost three points regardless of their face value. Also being able to keep them face down until "activated" means other players can't see what you're planning although I expect Cheat Death will be in there.

Second option is Christopher Pike. A logical choice since the movie version has Decker. While not as amazing as the Kirk card, Pike does offer a skill of six for four points and has an Elite Action slot so don't dismiss him straight away. He'll also mean that those Crew upgrades cost a point less each and considering the Enterprise can take up to four that's a good saving when it comes to budgeting. Finally there's the generic captain with a skill of one and a zero point cost. It uses the image of Ron Tracey from The Omega Factor and I would have liked to have seen him as a "proper" captain rather than to fill out a useless card.

You get five Crew choices with the Enterprise with only Chekov not making the cut of the standard crew (no sign of a Rand of a Chapel card either but y'know...). Both Spock and Montgomery Scott cost five points to equip while Sulu, Uhura and McCoy cost three.

Spock allows players to convert Battle Station results into damage during an attack as long as your ship carries the Scan token. Nicely there's zero need to disable or discard this one wich makes it eternally useful not does it say that you can't utilise the Scan ability when altering your attack result. Scotty offers a double advantage which, like Spock, makes that higher cost much more appealling. Firstly he can be used to disable two shield points  and add two attack dice (in the case of Enterprise it would take you up to a five) or you can reduce the attack roll by two dice and repair a shield. Super useful and that second one doesn't specify the need for the engineer to be disabled. This is another huge win card and beyond question one that you will always want to have on the table.

So to the three pointers and Leonard McCoy. Offering a "medical" alternative, the good doctor will let one of the other Crew upgrades operate as a freebie for that round. He is a discard so make that one extra ability count!

Sulu on the other hand doesn't specify that discard/disable handicap and adds two dice to your defence (agility) for the round. It is an Action so you have to note it's enabled rather than it just being there all the time. Potentially one to use with McCoy depending on how bad things are getting! Sulu will also let you convert a Battle Stations result into an Evade during the round in which you declare him active.

Finally there's Nyota Uhura who is again a discard but will let you change your manoeuvre before you move. It's a bit of a classic card and one that helps a lot especially if you're loaded with a high skilled captain (i.e. Kirk). Does mean you can check out the enemy and then do what you need to do to better position for the next round.

As for Weapons you get just the original version of Photon Torpedoes (cost of three points). Yep, that's right it literally is a repack with not even a Time Token update for the later waves. In fact even the inners of the packaging are from the original box and there's no reference to it being part of wave 24. This does make me think it might have been a very late - and cheap - swap for something else. Photon Torpedoes here still utilises the disable feature which hasn't been used for a while now. Standard two to three range here with an increase to four dice and the chance to convert one Battle Stations result into a Critical Damage hit.

Unusually the pack has three Elite Action cards included all costing five points individually (or three if coupled with Kirk). Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver is a discard which lets you Come About right after performing a forward speed one move but will incur the old Auxiliary Power Token penalty. A risky move but one that could well put you into a much better firing position and turn that retreat into an attack. Chancey but if the enemy don't know it's coming it will be a big surprise.

Second you have Corbomite Maneuver taking its name from the classic first season story. Again a discard it stops you being attacked but you can't go on the offensive either. Might give you a chance to reform your fleet and get some repairs completed. Last but by no means least is one of the most controversial cards in the history of Attack Wing; Cheat Death. Man have I heard about this one over the years!

If you're destroyed then you get to remove one Damage Card at a time until the amount of damage is one less than your  Hull Value and then you can flip the remaining card face down which eliminates their effects on your ship. I guess this means one Damage Card per round so for the Enterprise for example you can ignore the fact you've been obliterated and then each of the next three rounds you remove a Damage Card. The remaining card is then turned over and treated as normal damage. You can see why that's caused a stink and certainly if you're playing Kirk and this is hidden face down its going to always be ready to play. Probably the biggest game changer but with your enemies always assuming it'll be played, whatever ship it's on will be taken out damn quickly.

The legendary Kobayashi Maru scenario comes with the Enterprise pitting your 50 point ship against a triple Klingon threat of 80 points. Set out as a standard two player game it's all about strength of character as it's severely weighted to the Klingons. Will you rescue the stricken freighter or die trying? Sadly there's no chance to just re-programme the simulator and win. Dammit. I don't believe in a no win scenario!!!

For anyone who already has the USS Enterprise from Wave Zero I wouldn't bother. I'm happy to have been able to find it given that the earlier one is a hard find (not as hard as Excelsior) and there are some serious killer upgrades in this set that you would be stupid to miss out on. Late adopters will find this pack one of the most essential to get their hands on and use if only for that Cheat Death although the crew choices are solid as well.

What Wave 25 will look like is potentially still in the air as I've had trouble locating exactly what it will include and it's been a while since the Wave 24 previews. It might be a shuttle, a revamped Negh'Var, Xindi. Who knows - will we even get a wave 25 or are we going to be looking at Frontiers...?

What are you waiting for? Are the Klingon and Romulan expansions here what you wanted?

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