So far, there have been 10 official TV iterations of Star Trek. After original Star Trek there was an animated series involving the original crew. Star Trek: Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager all ran for seven seasons. Enterprise was a prequel set a century before original Star Trek. Lower Decks and Prodigy are both animated series in the Star Trek universe that are still running, and we are currently two seasons in to Strange New Worlds: an immediate prequel to original Star Trek, set on the USS Enterprise under Captain Pike, Jim Kirk's predecessor, and with younger versions of many of the characters from the original series. Strange New Worlds tho' was a spin-off of Discovery, which started off as another prequel series. Star Trek Discovery revolves almost entirely around a single central character, making it stylistically different to other more ensemble Trek series, and it has had a mixed reception; not least because, despite being a prequel, it introduces technology way beyond that in series set more than 100 years in its future. In USS Discovery has access to a revolutionary 'spore drive' that allows it to transport instantaneously to any point in the universe: how useful that would've been to the stranded crew of Voyager!
WizKids' Star Trek Discovery: Black Alert is notionally a 2-4 player game, tho' primarily, it's a game for two teams of two players. In season 1 of Discovery, the ship finds itself in the 'Mirror Universe' first seen in the original Star Trek episode 'Mirror, Mirror' and revisited in subsequent Trek series; notably, DS9 and Enterprise, and the game focuses on the events of the latter part of Discovery season 1. In the four-player game, one team represents the crew of USS Discovery and the other represents the crew of the Terran Empire ship ISS Charon. The teams have asymmetric aims: Discovery is trying to complete missions and return home; the Terran Empire tho' wants to infiltrate Discovery to take control of the spore drive. Alternatively, either team can claim victory by crippling the opposing ship by damaging five stations. Certain actions trigger cards that can place corruption tokens out on the spore network; if all the corruption tokens are placed out then both teams lose.
Each team picks two of five characters from their crew. The characters all have a single-use special ability that can be taken at any time as a free action. Players also have a hand of cards, replenished up to three at the start of their turn, and you also have the option to play one of these as a free action. Players' main action tho' will be to move to a location and take the action indicated on that location's card, but it is possible in particular circumstances for characters to beam onto each other's ship. The action available at any location is different for each of the two factions, and if a location is damaged it is only the home ship's crew that is affected - characters from the opposing ship can still take the action for their faction if they are on the enemy ship.
Discovery's spore drive is represented by the different way in which Discovery can move (between nodes on the mycelium network formed through the connections between the randomised hexes that make up the board) as compared with the Charon, which just moves between adjacent hexes.
There are resources to collect. These are needed for certain Discovery missions but also to enhance card and location effects. Throughout the game, cards are also used for their (0-4) 'Resolve' value. Certain actions trigger a 'Challenge' for which the active player contributes cards face down. An opposing character at the same or a specified location can also play cards. Team members on the same ship can contribute an additional card. Once the cards are revealed and Resolve totted up, taking account of any modifiers in the card text, each side flips a card from their draw deck to add the Resolve number to their total. It's the Challenges that are central to the game, so hand management can be crucial to success.
With Black Alert, the Lynnvander Studios team of Dylan Birtolo, Josh Derksen, Peter Bemis and Thomas M Gofton have managed, in a medium-weight game, to conjure much of the flavour and atmosphere of USS Discovery's sojourn in the Mirror Universe. The design and immersion is supported through WizKid's use throughout of screenshots from the TV series. Tho' there's inevitably a luck factor over the cards you draw, there's scope for bluff and some push-your-luck gambles in those all-important Challenges, and canny players will try to time their Challenges for when opponents have already used some or all of the cards in their hand...
Many of the members of the Board's Eye View team are lifelong Trekkies, tho' not all have unreserved love for Discovery. Star Trek Discovery: Black Alert tho' has gone down well with everyone who's played it - including those who've never even seen or heard of the Discovery TV series!