A little discussion of timing and “here”.  I’ve seen a lot of decks using the Original Series ships to download personnel when facing a dilemma, and someone is always asking “does that REALLY work that way?!?”  Let’s examine….

1- Suspending play.  Special downloads, along with some other effects, suspend play.  That means those actions can be taken whenever you want, even in the middle of another action, whether or not it’s relevant.  This is how you can play Temporal Vortex before a Borg Ship attacks you.  Or Q the Ref can download The Big Picture before the opponent completes scoring those points that put them over 100.  You are able to use any special download in the middle of a mission attempt, even in the middle of resolving a dilemma.  A simple dilemma example is using Dr McCoy to download I’m a Doctor Not a Bricklayer when facing Horta.

2-  “here”.  If a special download require that the card be played on the spaceline, it has to play at the same spaceline location as the special download icon.  For example, if Tiberius Kirk is at the Halkan Council, he can not download the Tantalus Field onto an Alliance Galor at Bajor.  However, “here” allows you to play the card anywhere at that location; you’re not actually limited to playing it present with the downloading card.  In the previous example, if Tiberius is at Halkan Council on the ISS Enterprise, he can download Tantalus Field to that ship or onto the ISS Constitution that is also there.  If Tiberius is on the Enterprise orbiting Earth, you can download a Communicator and report it on board the Enterprise, on board the Constitution that’s also orbiting Earth, on board an opposing ship there, inside the Office of the President or out on the surface of the planet.  Similarly, a special download on a ship, like the Starship Enterprise, can place that personnel on the surface of the planet below.

3- The single-crew limit.  What happens when a personnel gets downloaded onto a ship or planet?  You can only have one crew or away team at a time unless some card forces them to split up.  So when the new personnel arrives, they immediately join the others there.  Note this limit on one group does not care if it’s your turn, the opponent’s turn, the middle of a mission attempt, battle, or anything.  If you’re facing a dilemma, that personnel is suddenly facing the dilemma, too.  It’s really no different than the Horta example in part 1.  If McCoy can nullify Horta that way, you can use the Enterprise to download Nilz Baris to nullify Framed for Murder.  And from there, it’s not difficult to see how adding Security Chief Sulu to the away team can suddenly catch that Flaxian Assassin.

4- But why isn’t that in the glossary?  Because there’s no need to.  The glossary can’t be filled with “yes, you can do that” examples.  It’s similar to a question I keep seeing on the BBS – “Where does it say Spacedoor can download gamma ships to the alpha quadrant?”  The answer is, “nothing says it can’t.”  This works by simple application of other rules, not by any rule of its own.  It’s not surprising if you avoid the confusions of here vs present and suspends play vs valid response.
 

And a footnote- “OK, that’s really abusive.  The opponent can get whoever they need to beat my dilemmas.  How do I stop that???”  Simple.  Computer Crash.  Make them face the dilemma without help.  Because of the power of this combo, most decks built around it have little else backing them up.  They want to be sure to draw those OS ships.  If you can make one good killer dilemma deal damage, like one Horta or BPD or Aphasia – Tarellian combo, then the opponent is probably in bad shape.

Chris "Rom" Brennan
crbrennan@yahoo.com