4x15 Affliction (1)

[7.5/10] Holy cow there is too much going on in this episode. I realize that mini-arcs has been Enterprise’s thing this season, but even with a two-episode stretch to fill, there’s way too many things happening here. Many of these storylines could carry an episode all on their own, which leaves them feeling cramped when crammed in next to one another.

But hey, most of them are good! There are worse problems to have than too many good stories! So let’s get into them.

My favorite of these stories is Malcolm’s, which surprised me. I don’t mind Malcolm, but he’s never been my favorite character on the show. Likewise, Dominic Keating has never really given a bad performance on the show, but he’s not a standout either. Until now. Keating knocks it out of the park when communicating the internal conflict in Lt. Reed, where it pains him to have to refuse to answer questions, or outright lie, to Archer, at the same time he wants to remain steadfast in his other duties. His struggle to communicate his regret, remain stoic, and not give anything away while it eats him up comes through loud and clear in affecting way, which is a real credit to Keating and his layered performance.

There’s also something interesting about Section 31’s involvement in all of this. At its best, Star Trek uses Section 31 to examine the inflection points between the Federation’s high-minded ideals and the on-the-ground realities of international diplomacy. I don’t know if “Affliction” really aspires to that, but it at least toys with the idea that there are Starfleet interests at play in this Klingon business that conflict with on-the-books missions, which lends the whole thing an air of mystery and provides that compelling character story for Malcolm.

That said, my biggest complaint about this episode is that, in a season which seems to be slinging more and more connections to other major events in the Star Trek canon, this is starting to feel like fan fiction. I mean, the central premise of this episode is that the reason the Original Series-era Klingons didn’t have ridges was due to an effort to make Klingon augments from embryos that have loose ties to Khan and Data, with the surreptitious involvement of Section 31. Half of me thinks that’s awesome and half of me think it’s the taco bell eleven-layer nacho dip of story ideas.

Still, I can’t deny that there’s a thrill to seeing TOS-style Klingons show up on Enterprise, existing as refugees and attackers all at once There is also something compelling about the notion that they are the product of a virus currently ravaging the Klingons and posing an existential threat, which leads to typically merciless Klingon responses.

That leads to other great storyline in the episode -- Dr. Phlox being abducted and forced to search for a cure for the disease by Klingon Uncle Phil. Phlox is one of my favorite characters on the show, and I love how this storyline gives him the opportunity to once again show his brand of courage in standing up to his captors, while also having to balance his ethical obligations as a physician.

There’s strong reasons for him not to want to cooperate with his Klingon abductors: from their killing and use of live Klingon test subjects, their lack of any medical ethics, their stolen medical info, and the fact that they want him to help solve the cure by fixing their augment process. On the other hand, his Klingon lab assistant seems to have his heart in the right place, and there are millions of lives at stake. Seeing Phlox balance those competing interests, rail against his captors, and figure out how to get by in a tense, dangerous, ethically fraught situation is compelling television. It deserves to play out over the course of its own episode.

But there’s too many other plotlines to fit in here, the most exhausting of which is the overextended will they/won’t they shtick with Trip and T’Pol. I’ll admit, I actually kind of like the conceit that they’re so connected that they occupy a shared mental space while Trip is daydreaming and T’Pol is meditating. That said, Enterprise is devolving into Dawson’s Creek-levels of relationship-based brooding and pouting, and I’m tired of it.

Despite that, Trip’s sojourn on the Columbia is another interesting story that deserves its own episode. While him abandoning Enterprise because he can’t keep dealing with T’Pol feels melodramatic when the two of them are interacting, I actually like it as subtext with him trying to fit in and project those frustrations into other areas in his new start on Columbia. His dynamic with Captain Hernandez (whose return is welcome) is a good one, and the notion that he’s not quite ready to adapt to his new environs is compelling. Hell, while it’s pretty plainly a pretext, or at least not the whole story, I like his notion that despite or because of his close friendships with T’Pol and Archer, he’d gotten too comfortable on Enterprise and needs a new challenge.

Last but not least, all of these stories intersect somewhat in the noir-ish effort of Archer to uncover who kidnapped Phlox and why. That involves a mind meld, a race against time, some of the usual Archer-y interrogations, and the intrigue of Reed’s subtle sabotage. Even here, there’s probably enough meat on the bone to sustain an A-plot, rather than to have to split time with everything else going on. The mystery angle adds some spice to things on Enterprise apart from the other major happenings, and gives Archer something to do.

That’s probably the best thing you can say for “Affliction”. As overstuffed as it is, every cast member except for Mayweather gets something meaningful to do here. That’s rare for Enterprise, which likes to play favorites and reduce many, if not most, of its team to supporting players. Still, that just leaves me hungry for a more expansive bit of storytelling, where rather than getting snippets of each of these stories, we get a main course out of each of them. Still, I’m excited to find out what comes next in each of these plots, so however overcrowded this installment feels, Enterprise must be doing something right.