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Star Trek fans: did you like the original series best when Kirk was off on some distant planet wrestling the Gorn or threatening to spank the female leader of an alien civilization(!)? Or the space standoffs where the Enterprise came under assault by Tholian, Romulan, and Klingon ships, where shields were raised and phasers were fired and Scotty began shouting about how the ship couldn't take much more o' it, cap'n?

If the latter, then consider the new Star Trek Panic board game, where you will fight... a lot.

Aboard the cardboard Enterprise

The original Castle Panic board game gave players a castle to defend, complete with cardboard walls and towers, at the center of a circular forest clearing. Enemies swarmed in from the forest edge of the circle's six colored sectors, moving closer ring by ring, while players cooperatively attacked them by playing knight and archer cards that matched the right sector and ring for each enemy. After a player's turn, enemies moved inward by one ring and more enemy tiles were added to the outer ring. If enemies reached the castle, they began destroying walls and then towers; if your group lost all its towers, the game was over. Victory came by surviving a full bag of enemy tile draws.

Game details Designer: Justin De Witt

Publisher: Fireside/USAopoly

Players: 1-6

Age: 13+

Playing time: 90 minutes

Price: $34 ( Justin De WittFireside/USAopoly1-613+90 minutes: $34 ( Amazon ) / ~£35 in the UK, but hard to find online

I've played the game with my kids numerous times, and while it can be entertaining, there's little real strategy, no real goal but "survival," and a playing time that stretches to 90 minutes—at least 30 minutes too long for this sort of experience.

So when I heard that Fireside Games, the family company behind Castle Panic, had partnered with USAopoly to do a Star Trek version, I wasn't sure what to think. After all, USAopoly was best known for slapping new IPs on existing games, bringing us such games as CLUE: Game of Thrones, CLUE: Alien vs. Predator, CLUE: Disney Tower of Terror, CLUE: Doctor Who, CLUE: Firefly Collector's Edition, CLUE: Harry Potter, CLUE: Penny Dreadful Edition, CLUE: Supernatural Collector's Edition, CLUE: The Big Bang Theory, and CLUE: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. (To say nothing of Yahtzee versions featuring Cthulhu, Deadpool, and the Legend of Zelda.)

Would Star Trek Panic be a simple reskin cash-in?

Rather surprisingly—it's not. Indeed, this is the best version of Castle Panic yet, improving on the base experience through new mechanics, much better art, and variable player powers. And did I mention the thick cardboard, enormous mission cards, and seriously hefty shield pieces?

The care taken here is apparent the moment you open the box, because you are confronted with a 7-inch long cardboard Enterprise that needs assembly. This thing is fantastic, well-built and enormous, and it dominates the game board. Like the castle in the original game, the Enterprise fights off swarms of enemies; unlike the castle, though, the starship can rotate and even "move forward," drawing every ship in front of it one ring nearer to the center. Because of the this, the game's deck of cards has effects linked to the ship's "facing" rather than to any absolute board positions, adding an additional wrinkle to play.

Enemies move inwards as usual, but here they also cloak, uncloak, and move sideways when appropriate; the Tholians even trap the ship in a web if they get too close, preventing further movement. Enemies also take shots on every turn, not just when they get close. This adds up to far more damage for the Enterprise, but it's counterbalanced by a healthy set of neutral or helpful tiles among the "enemies" and by plenty of cards that let you add even more cards to your hand, dig through the deck, or move enemies with tractor beams.

The more fundamental changes concern the win conditions. No longer are you faceless, nameless heroes holed up in a castle; now, each player is one of the original series crew, complete with a special power that activates on every turn. Chekov, for instance, does one additional damage per turn when you attack an enemy ship with a phaser, while Scotty can repair a damaged shield or hull segment.

The characters aren't just trying to survive an extended space mauling, either; in Star Trek Panic, they attempt to solve missions based on the show. In "The Immunity Syndrome," they have to fight off a giant space amoeba—as one does from time to time—and the game includes a special "Space Amoeba" token. To defeat it, players must turn the Enterprise to face the amoeba and move forward enough times so that the amoeba is in "short range" (ie, next to the ship). In addition, they must "commit" two phaser cards and one dilithium card to the mission in order to launch "an anti-matter charge in the Amoeba's chromosome-like body." Oh—and they have to do all this within five turns or the mission fails. Succesful missions provide rewards, often in the form of patching up the Enterprise.

Within the limits of the basic Panic system, the missions do try to convey a sense of theme, though many come down to simply putting certain cards from your hand towards the mission. Still, having goals is far preferable to simple survival, as they put your own destiny (somewhat) under your control. (Because these missions do depend on card draws, however, you will sometimes get missions that are simply impossible to complete within the time period provided. Yes, it's frustrating.)

Missions also deal with game's length issues. Should you, as I do, prefer shorter games of this type, simply set the victory condition lower. (We find that three successful missions works well for an evening family game.) If you are a masochist with free time, however, the game includes counters for everything up to ten-mission games.

Bring the panic

Star Trek Panic is not a deep strategy game. Do not pick this up and expect to set your brain on fire. Do not think you will have deep command over the ship's systems; this is basically a "blast and repair" game. And do not expect to "really feel" like you are involved in the missions. Still, the theme does come through. (I have never actually been able to destroy an enemy ship without making "pew! pew! ba-boooom!" noises.)

The game is mostly about creating and resolving pressure, and it excels at delivering the "panic" promised by its name. When you're midway into a game, trying to complete "Journey to Babel" with three turns left as a pair of Romulan ships decloak and fire at the hull of your now-shieldless Enterprise and Kang's Battle Cruiser suddenly enters the game, you will feel under impossible odds.

But when you send four security teams to repel the Romulan boarding parties, play "The Corbomite Maneuver" card to remove Kang's ship, and limp your way back to a starbase with four of your six hull sections on fire, you'll feel a bit like Kirk, Spock, and the gang executing another of their improbable escapes.