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The captain (Scott Bakula) and Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) aide the Klingons on Enterprise.
First, I apologize for not writing up a review for last week’s Affliction. Things got a little hectic in the last few days, and I kept planning to, but one thing or another had to come first every time. Suddenly, it’s Friday again and was just too late. I thought that was an excellent hour of Trek, either way.
This past Friday we were given the conclusion to Affliction, Divergence, another great episode penned by Judith Reeves-Stevens and her husband, Garfield. They wrapped up what could probably be considered the first real fan fiction concept ever turned into an actual Star Trek episode.
Why is it a fan fiction concept? Basically because when the Deep Space Nine episode, Trials and Tibble-ations first established that the Klingons of the Original Series era really didn’t have ridges, a lot of fans declared that some real explanation should be made. In that episode, the explanation is more of a joke than anything else. But with Affliction and Divergence, a legitimate reason is established.
This episode picked up with the Enterprise having to race through space at high speeds as the ship has been affected by a deadly Klingon program. In order to save the ship, Trip returns to his former starship to save the day. Archer and crew then head into Klingon space to rescue Phlox and help find a cure to the deadly disease spreading throughout the Klingon Empire.
I really enjoyed this episode. It was exciting and interesting, and steeped in Star Trek lore. Not only does it provide a logic for why Klingons in the Original Series don’t have ridges on their forehead, but it also includes information about the infamous Section 31, first introduced on Deep Space Nine. What I liked the most about the Section 31 bit was how it was rather subtle. The name Section 31 is never established, however this super-secret organization was created in section 31 of the Starfleet charter.
At the same time, I would have liked to better understand how and why Malcolm had been involved with them.
All right, so the plot gets a little convoluted. Trying to figure why Section 31 was in bed with the Klingons was a little thick to sift through. And the Trip and T’Pol storyline really isn’t getting any better, so I wish they would just dump it. Trip’s motivation here is like that of a sixth grader who just got turned down for the school dance by the prettiest girl in class, and is still pouting about it months later.
However, I did enjoy the tether sequence with Trip getting onto the Enterprise at warp speeds. It was a little contrived, but was pretty cool to watch and was a unique action sequence for the series. For any Trek series, for that matter. And Phlox finally does get a chance to really do something, which was refreshing, since he has always been one of my favorite characters in this series.
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