Affliction
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 18 February 2005
- ON
- UPN
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Michael Grossman
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 091
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Mike Sussman; story by Manny Coto
Phlox is kidnapped in San Francisco on the eve of the Columbia's launch, and the search for him draws Enterprise into a dangerous Klingon secret.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
As Tucker prepares to transfer to the newly launched Columbia, Phlox and Hoshi are attacked in San Francisco and Phlox is abducted. The kidnappers spoke Rigelian, and Enterprise tracks their freighter, only to find it destroyed. The ship is then boarded by raiders who look human but prove to be Klingons. Phlox is taken to the Klingon colony of Qu'Vat, where General K'Vagh and Dr Antaak demand his help. Klingon scientists have experimented with genetic material from the human Augments, hoping to create superior warriors, but the work has unleashed a mutated virus that threatens the whole Empire. Phlox is given five days to find a cure. Aboard Enterprise, T'Pol discovers that Reed has been tampering with evidence and confines him. The episode ends with Enterprise sabotaged by the Klingon boarders: it cannot drop out of high warp without a catastrophic core breach, and it is running out of time.
- 01This two-parter set out to explain why Klingons in the original series look different from those in later productions.
- 02James Avery's make-up as K'Vagh took three hours to apply, and he later described it as a nightmare.
- 03It brings Section 31, the covert organisation from later Star Trek eras, into the Enterprise timeline.