Continuing with the theme of "2s", we have a pairing contest for which I'll give the credit to Jason Winter (Decipher's erstwhile "Q") who ran a similar one many moons ago, when there were only three affiliations plus Non-Aligned (which wasn't an affiliation back then). The idea is to find two Star Trek CCG personnel who "match" each other to the highest degree possible in all their features except one: they cannot be of matching affiliation. Here's how it works. First, the ground rules:

• The two personnel must be of two different and incompatible affiliations. If either is dual-affiliation, you may use whichever affiliation you wish.
• No dual-personnel cards are allowed.
• They may not be two versions of the same persona.
• You must go by what is printed on the card (taking any errata into account); they may not be modified by any other card.

Here's how to determine how much your two personnel "match." Score 1 point for each of the following "matches" between the two personnel:

• 1 point if they have the same number of letters in their names.
• 1 point if both are unique OR both are universal.
• 1 point for each icon they have in common: Cmd, Stf, EE, AU, Holo, CF, OS, Maq, etc. Don't count icons in the skills box or restriction box, affiliation icons, expansion set icons, or property logos.
• 1 point if they have the same classification.
• 1 point if they have the same number of skills (e.g., both have five skills). Count both regular and special skills (including special downloads). Count skills, not skill dots.
• 1 point for each skill that they have in common (e.g., both have Exobiology). Navigation x2 does not match Navigation. Special downloads are wild cards – that is, any [SD] may be considered a "match" to any other [SD]. Other special skills are not wild cards and don't match unless the skills are actually identical.
• 1 point for each matching skill that is in the same position in the skills box (e.g., both have Exobiology as the second skill).
• 1 point for each attribute that matches (e.g., both have STRENGTH of 6).

The Answers

The highest total received was 15, for Chief Surgeon McCoy and Bashir Founder.

The Winners

Whether it was the holiday weekend, back-to-school blues, or some other factor, we received only 28 entries to this contest. Of those, six obtained the 15 total with the above combination. The three randomly selected winners are:

Allen Gould
Edmonton, AB, Canada

Richard Burns
Shawnee, KS

Jeffrey Neely
Ronks, PA

Congratulations!