Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

by Paddy Tye, First Edition Creative Manager

8th December 2021

The dinner scene in The Undiscovered Country is one of the iconic moments from that film. Neither side are at ease with each other yet, and as Gorkon notes “...I see we have a long way to go.”

There were six from each side around the table that evening. From the Klingon delegation, there was:

• Chancellor Gorkon
• His daughter, Azetbur
• His military advisor, Brigadier Kerla
• His chief of staff, General Chang
• Another advisor, named Kor'choth (who was actually listed as Stex in the credits)
• Another advisor, who was not keen on Shakespeare

So we set about creating a card for this last advisor. He needed a non-security based area of expertise, and a name. Gorkon already had a lot of Security based advisors, so to balance out his team, this guy needed to add something like SCIENCE or MEDICAL. Now, there was a surgeon aboard Kronos One, who later died when the assassins attacked (McCoy: "Aren't you carrying a surgeon?" Chang: "We were until this disgrace."). So that left a science advisor, which gave us a rough skill base to work with. But we still needed a name. For a long time throughout playtesting he was just known as General Gagh. But we needed inspiration for a name.

Then tragedy struck.

In early October, the Star Trek CCG community lost a well-loved and valuable member: Dave Hines (Boffo97 on the forums). Dave had been a 1E player since around 94/95 and previously used the handle EHCCGPP (short for the Emergency Holographic CCG Playing Program) since the old Decipher message boards. He re-discovered the game in 2012, joining the forums here at The Continuing Committee, following a stint teaching in South Korea, having returned to the US and unearthing his 1E collection.

Dave loved old school 1E coolness (Dave: "...if you solve Reunion with a Frame of Minded Cantankerous Gorta, a Miracle Working Lal, and a rather confused Spock, then that was cool. 5 points!") and was a king of comedy on the boards, having created popular threads highlighting Stupid Trek/Wars Jokes and Memes (https://www.trekcc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=36665 and https://www.trekcc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=40298). Dave also served as moderator and eventually chief moderator on the forums - protecting us all from those angry keyboard warriors!

My own personal memory of Dave will forever be linked to one thing: Fedoras. Back in 2015, in a thread about Homefront VI, he expressed his severe disappointment about the lack of Fedoras(Dave: "Of course, we forgot the most important feedback of all! THERE! ARE! NO! FEDORAS!!!!! All designers must now do the Lack of Fedora Shame Dance in public. THIS, I COMMAND!").

As a member of the Creative Team, we certainly did take note of his demand while working on Crossover and when I proposed theming a certain card on A Piece of the Action, I did so knowing this would make Dave happy (I even noted on Utopia Planetia: "I know at least one person on the boards will be happy to see some Fedoras"). It then resulted in another conversation a few months later:

Paddy: "More importantly, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a FEDORA!"

Dave: "How did this slip past my notice?!?!?!?! Fedora! Fedora! Fedora! Fedora! Fedora! No one can ever accuse the Design Team of not listening to player feedback ever again!"

Now more importantly than Dave's love of Fedoras, was his devotion to the kids he taught. Dave was a teacher at Lompoc High School in California. I spent the day that I heard about Dave's death reading all the heartfelt tributes from his friends and colleagues at his school had posted on Facebook. He was a great supporter of the kids and a big supporter of the productions from the performing arts department, where he repeated subbed for the other teachers, even earning him award at Drama Awards Night for "Most likely to have a season pass to Lompoc High Drama".

One of my favourite quotes from the tributes I read that day is below:

"Dave learned that some students don't have families who can come to their events - for all kinds of reasons. He never wanted a kid to feel alone so he went to as many events as he could: plays, award programs, dance concerts, graduations... He always said"If a kid doesn't have someone there for them, at least they'll know I'm there for them.""

After reading about the school where he worked, I got some inspiration. I hope that one day we will make a card inspired by Dave himself. With the skill of Law, who boosts your Youth personnel and downloads a funny meme or two! But for now, in honor of Dave, we have named our new advisor after Dave's home and school:General Lompoc.

Qapla my friend! You have joined the honored warriors in Sto-vo-kor! But you will be sadly missed.

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