Affliction

DVD, Enterprise S4 (Affliction)

Section 31, Klingon boarding parties and the launch of a new Starfleet ship: how much more intrigue can be crammed into an episode? The answer is a fair bit more as the writers juggle interpersonal problems, kidnappings, and the potential dispersal of this crew we've grown to know. Everything about this episode is confident, slick and tight. It's like they finally got the stabilisers off and were taking the NX-01 and its crew for a proper spin. Not to say the series hadn't felt like this before, but it rarely carries it off through the entirety of an episode ('Regeneration' is one that does it expertly, as did some parts of the Xindi arc). It's refreshing and exciting, with particular strengths being the direction and music, both promoting and underlining a tense and mysterious sequence of events and giving everything an aura of power and confidence in its storytelling. I'd like to say that having Klingons helped, but the truth is they've done some Klingon stories before that felt a little lightweight, and the Klingon scenes in this tend to be some of the more contemplative and sedate parts of the drama, just to be different! An example of how well everything is coming together is the step up in quality of the Targ which we see in a couple of scenes: taking some meat from just in front of the camera, and badgering (or 'Targing'), Dr. Phlox. Compare this to the basic interaction of the Targs in Season 1's 'Sleeping Dogs' and you see a strong indication of how far the effects technology had come in just four years!

What is more impressive is the use of the full cast in a true ensemble piece with all of them looking as if the group could be broken up at any time, mainly thanks to Trip following through with his request to transfer to the NX-02 Columbia, but we also hear that Phlox has been requested to take up a new position by the Interspecies Medical Exchange. And with Reed shown the brig in disgrace after apparently turning traitor, things are looking grim. The only one who didn't look like he'd be going anywhere was Travis, but they'd probably have difficulty prying him out of his seat the way he spends so much time there - I reckon he even sleeps there (could he secretly be an android?). I jest, of course, but as usual he's the only one that doesn't get anything meaningful to do, marginally more than the various extras - take the poor medical officer filling in while Phlox is incommunicado, who doesn't get a word to say, it being left for T'Pol to state the obvious and reveal that the captured boarder is in fact Klingon. Sometimes you need to give a line to an extra to make sense. Just a small niggle. There were others, of course: while it's nice to see Hoshi's combat training pay off as she takes on Rigelians, I was a bit confused about their language. We don't have Universal Translators universally, which is why Hoshi's so valuable being the human equivalent, yet the Rigelians first speak in English when addressing Phlox (unless they were speaking Denobulan and we just heard a translation…), but as they escape Hoshi catches something in their own language which is the clue to unravel the situation. I assume they knew some English and reverted to their native tongue in the heat of the moment.

One thing that was cunningly thought of before anyone could start to wonder, was why the Klingons didn't just kidnap Arik Soong, as he'd know all about the Augment virus. Aside from the fact of budget making it unlikely they'd bring back Brent Spiner again in the same season (though his contribution to the series wasn't quite finished), the Klingons admit they tried to get him, but he was too heavily guarded. So Phlox was only second choice! I like it, it makes sense and calls back to recent events in a cool way, something the series has done really well this season. It's been less saturated with a serialised continuity than Season 3, but has been at just the right level, like 'DS9' used to be, where things would have importance, but wasn't necessarily entirely relied upon for continuing drama from week to week. The Klingons are presented very well, with a rare glimpse into their caste system which is fascinating, but is has always been practically smothered by the attention given to the warriors. Yet we know a little about the differences in birth and vocation from here and there - this time we hear of the difficulty the scientists have, their work not considered as important as fighting and conquering, which is why Dr. Antaak has to stoop to the dishonourable practice of thieving in order to get his work done (though we've seen plenty of warriors do the same thing, and call it legitimate pillaging!).

Phlox stands up as much as he can to his Klingon captors, bravely accepting death rather than help create Klingon Augments, having experienced the human ones. The whole situation is brilliantly devised as a solution to the longterm question of how the Klingons on 'The Original Series' became the bumpy heads of the film series. Various pieces of the puzzle came to light over the decades, notably characters from 'TOS' showing up on the later series' with full-fledged bumps where before they'd been smoothies in the forehead department, as well as the issue being addressed 'head-on' in the wonderful 30th Anniversary tribute 'Trials and Tribble-ations.' Or not addressed, to be precise, as though Worf admits it's an issue, it's one they don't share with outsiders, a clever explanation for why no one talks about it in the 24th Century! 'Enterprise' itself gave us a few questions when it premiered with bumpy Klingons, a century before Kirk and the smoothies, thus explaining that it was indeed how they were meant to look, not the cheaper makeup used in the sixties show. But how to get them to and from that blip of oddness in their continuity? Enter this two-parter, late to the party, but better than never. And it does make sense that the Klingons would respond to the Eugenics-created Augments with the desire to make their own. It doesn't sound very honourable for a species that prides itself on its superior hand-to-hand combat and verve for battle, but pride is the operative word. As we've seen all too often a lot of Klingons talk the talk, but not so many walk the walk!

What this boils down to is that Khan was ultimately responsible for the Klingon transformation. But then isn't he always at the bottom of everything (these days, anyway!). You want to know something else that's always at the bottom of key events? Section 31. Now it isn't mentioned by name in this episode, but by piecing together selective data we can come to the conclusion that it is that nefarious, secretive agency that Reed is working for, and, more shockingly, has a prior connection with (he refers to it as a 'section,' but it's the dead giveaway of the portly Pierpoint as Harris, dressed in those shiny black suits so beloved of Sloan in 'DS9'!). Again, it's a twist on the expected coupled with the unexpected - if they were going to do 31 on the series they were sure to make the British Malcolm Reed the agent (just like Dr. Bashir), but we'd never have guessed that he was under the organisation's wing (or should I say talons), long before he joined Enterprise. One of the advantages of the characters having generally clean slates when it comes to their backstories, is that someone could come along and chalk in some detail, and while those are sparse, they give the impression there's a big story going on. When I first saw these episodes I think I was a little disappointed by the Section 31 part of the plot as in no way was it anywhere as clever as when the organisation was first introduced (in real world production chronology), for 'DS9.' Sloan was such a superb character, and Harris is just a man in black who sits in an office. Now I'm not too bothered as I've seen it done much worse, pretty much in name only ('Star Trek Into Darkness'). At least this really affects the story and has a place.

Reed having built up such a trust with Archer means his lack of cooperation is perplexing and a complete betrayal, especially after all they've been through together. Perhaps Malcolm's tight-lipped style helped him become a candidate for Section 31, the buttoned-up attitude and refusal to talk about himself ideal for such an operative. This, added to his natural shyness may have been why he was so reserved in the early part of the series, holding his Captain at arm's length because he may one day be asked to work against him by the organisation? I'm not saying this was definitely his thought, but it may have existed in his mind as a possibility. It's not yet clear how much work he's actually done for them, but you can imagine him making little adjustments to missions while he's been on Enterprise. Then again, if you look at the ham-fisted way he covers his tracks, I'm not sure how good he really was, and it's likely he hadn't done anything while serving under Archer. On the other hand, the ease with which T'Pol unmasks his deception could point to a wish to be found out, as it's not in his nature to lie to his Captain. Perhaps subconsciously he needed to be uncovered for his own sake?

T'Pol does some good detective work in the style of Tuvok, but the one area she can't fathom is Trip! She outs Reed and mind melds with Hoshi in order to recall her vague memory of an alien language being spoken after the attack on her and Phlox (why didn't he do his bloat fish head trick?), but she doesn't understand why Trip's leaving. The dream or vision sequence was mighty intelligent, neatly segueing from her meditation into Trip's daydream so that we don't really know whose mental experience it was, and likely points to both of them since Hoshi had the same dream, after her meld. It's another, and different way of approaching the mind meld (I liked that the Vulcan is unsure of it and it's Archer who can guide her in the practice after his encounter with Surak's katra!), at the same time as addressing the couple's connection. No scene is extraneous, it all gives us something about the story or about the characters, and makes the episode a fully rounded production in the manner of the previous and better TV series' it followed. An imaginative technique to have the attack replayed with T'Pol there to see what happened and advise Hoshi as events play out again.

It also looks gorgeous, with all those bright lights in dark rooms, night time shooting for outside the restaurant, even some more contemporary shots included, such as during the investigation right after the kidnapping incident where the camera's sort of hovering around and moving between people. It shows that such a style doesn't have to be used the whole time (see most modern films), but can inject some energy and tension when used in moderation. The camera's also fairly free in other scenes, such as the bridge, and it's good that it hasn't replaced the more traditional static camera shots we're so used to, but everything's being used to compliment the story. Just as the Targ looked better than ever, the Columbia is beautiful as it hangs in space-dock, the lighting giving it a silvery sheen. I wasn't so keen on the big 'warp pulse' lights at the back of the bridge, denoting the hum of the warp drive (or so I interpreted), as they could be an annoyance, but they needed something to make the distinction between Columbia and Enterprise's bridge clearer so that when we eventually see the two in action cutting between them doesn't become confusing or show up the fact that they're both the same set. Interesting that it doesn't have a situation room at the back like NX-01, maybe they've got one off to the side or somewhere else - I'd love to know about the design ethics applied to this second prototype following what they learned with Enterprise. As always, if the series had continued we'd no doubt have found out more, and who knows, maybe even a Columbia spinoff? I could have lived with that!

Captain Hernandez looks pretty cool, and has all the hallmarks of a good Captain: she listens, weighs up Trip, but so far hasn't told him what to do or how he should run Engineering. I think she'd have made a great recurring character or the star of her own series. It's a delight to see her ship set out for the first time, adding to Starfleet's power and influence in space (opening up the imagination of what could happen now, just as when we heard of other teams in 'Stargate SG-1'), since we hardly ever hear of other Earth vessels out there - we hear her last ship was the Republic, and I assume this was a space-going vessel, but we're left in the dark about whether it was non-Starfleet or a lesser warp capable ship in their fleet. I think more pomp and ceremony might have been in order with such a long-awaited ship, and it certainly doesn't have the emotional punch of the launching of the NX-01, but then this isn't 'Star Trek: Columbia' so maybe they didn't want to steal too much thunder from the main star. Even so, this doesn't happen very often, and this is one reason the episode isn't quite as terrific an episode as it could have been, despite hitting many of the details it needed to (Hernandez pointing out Trip's now redundant NX-01 patch; a subtle, but snazzy new warp effect to go with the new ship). Trip's absence also brings in the new Chief Engineer for Enterprise in Commander Kelby, someone sneakily added into the cast who'd play a key role in the very near future. I like that they introduced him in such a logical and low-key way, just another little deftness of story threading that peppers this episode.

Casting is a big deal with this one, continuing the greatest hits of Trek guest stars of the past that this season has ramped up a notch or two: James Avery hadn't been in Trek before, but he was always such a great presence and was an ideal choice to play a Klingon General, though I'm not sure he was as commanding a presence as I expected, perhaps because he shared most of his scenes with John Schuck who had pedigree with the race going back to the eighties - he was the Klingon Ambassador in both the fourth and sixth films, and had been in both of the previous two Trek TV series'. He gives Antaak a very Klingon attitude, yet also an atypical one that we rarely see: the scientist. His character has the strange conflict of ideas that some races display (saving lives is more important to him than honour, yet he is also has no qualms about euthanising a live soldier for the cause, something that Phlox speaks out about, though the argument is made moot by the General killing the man!), and this adds depth to the race in this series which was so common in 'DS9' but felt dumbed down in 'Enterprise,' where they returned pretty much to 'TOS' or 'TNG' portrayals (excepting certain individuals such as JG Hertzler's role as advocate Kolos). It's this element that adds another positive to the experience of watching this episode, which is also helped by crowd-pleasing references to both the planet Tiburon and that this plague is the greatest crisis to the Empire since the Hur'q invasion, a piece of Klingon history we'd love to have more information on!

Schuck wasn't the only familiar Trek face, as we also got Eric Pierpoint, who'd previously been in 'Rogue Planet,' one of the few who could lay claim to the accolade of appearing in all four of the modern series'. Then there was Brad Greenquist as a Rigelian kidnapper - he was used to prosthetic heads having played alien characters on 'DS9,' 'Voyager' and the 'Dawn' episode of this series. And lastly, we have Marc Worden returning to his Klingon heritage as a prisoner (though I'm not sure which, as there are several Klingons that fit that category!), previously he'd been the older version of Worf's son Alexander in two episodes of 'DS9.' So quite a nice selection, all adding to the fun factor for those keeping track of these details, and I do like to do that! One character we have yet to see is the much mentioned Admiral Gardner, the replacement for Forrest, who seems to be the point of contact for the NX-01, as Archer is often off to talk to him. I'm not sure if we ever did see him in the remaining episodes, but we shall see…

Other threads of interest running through the episode range from minor points to appreciate (Klingons speaking their language with subtitles - never fails to be a wonderful thing!; another mention for the Royal Navy, part of Reed's proud family tradition, though it starts me on the line of wondering who's King or Queen of England at this time?), to passing fancies that provoke questions (the Klingon test subject says his death sentence had been commuted - would this species have a death sentence? Surely living with dishonour is more of a punishment for a Klingon, and if they do have it, surely nothing would prevent it happening immediately!), to wondering about the age of Targs (Antaak has had Boshar since he was a boy, and now he seems pretty old - I wouldn't have thought such an overly energetic creature, presumably with a high metabolism, would live so long, but it suggests that they do, unless he just replaces it with a new one and pretends it's the same one because he's sentimental?), to the alternative style of Section 31's involvement (unlike Bashir, Malcolm's already on the inside, so his conflict of duty comes on much more strongly). The only other thing of note is the strange way the episode ends, with the Enterprise speeding through space. It was a sort of cliffhanger in that they appeared to be going faster than they wanted to (good visuals of the ship travelling ever faster, almost stretched by the angle of travel), but it wasn't completely clear, and it might have been better to make it a feature-length episode as they used to do on 'Voyager.' But otherwise, strong and pleasing - hopefully part two lived up to this one!

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