Retrieved from the Cutting Room Floor

by Paddy Tye, Mustachioed Colonel

14th August 2022

Back in 2002 when The Motion Pictures was released, players were introduced to new form of capturing, which doesn't use terms like “captive” (so can't be rescued by Rescue Captives). It also doesn't need additional cards like Brainwash to be able to use these captives to staff ships and attempt missions. These new incidents, Ceti Eel and Release This Pain, instead used the phrase “under your control” (similar to Brainwash) to take direct control of an opponent's personnel (or your own) and overcome any compatibility issues.

Unfortunately for players on the receiving end of this, there was no easy way to get such personnel back, short of killing them (often hampered by affiliation attack restrictions), retrieving them from the discard pile and replaying them.

Until now.

Allow me to introduce Colonel West and his plan for Operation Retrieve. Wait, you are familiar with Colonel West, right? From The Undiscovered Country? Played by Rene Auberjonois, who also played Odo in Deep Space Nine?

If you aren't familiar with this role, don't worry, you may not be alone! Some material from The Undiscovered Country was cut from the theatrical release, including Colonel West's entire role, but was added back in later for release on VHS. Even today, “standard” versions of the movie continue to exclude him, although there are extended DVD versions which include him. I checked Paramount Plus here in the UK: he's been cut there too! As new image source material is becoming increasingly hard to find while staying inside the limits of Decipher's original licence, the cutting room floor provides a wealth of potential new material!

Can't find it? Try here: https://youtu.be/oJZDXxVOi8Y

Anyway, Colonel West was presenting a plan to retrieve their imprisoned officers, and that's exactly what Operation Retrieve does – takes a personnel who you own but is either held captive by your opponent or under your opponent's control and let's you return them to hand. Or, if they are from the Classic Films era, get them straight back into play for free! Pretty good way to ensure your key personnel (Khan, Sybok etc) don't get stolen and ruin your deck!

But what about easy access to Operation Retrieve? Well that's where the Colonel himself comes into play! Downloadable with Defend Homeworld and with a download of Operation Retrieve (once your opponent has had a chance to play with the abductees). That not enough for you? Well, in addition to his skills (Federation with Treachery is often handy) he's also an assassin and an infiltrator (he's the Klingon assassin from the end of the film, they pull his rubber mask off in the extended cut). So maybe you could download him with Assassination Attempt and also grab Assassination Plot to take out an opponent's personnel!

Either way, Colonel West and his cunning plan provides plenty of new deckbuilding options

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