4.15: Affliction

[Dave]

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A plague is spreading across the galaxy...

from Trek Today

The Klingons will reportedly return to cause trouble for the NX-01 crew in the fifteenth episode of Enterprise's fourth season.

According to TrekToday sources, the episode, currently entitled "Affliction", will deal with a mysterious plague spreading throughout the Klingon Empire. Little else is known about the upcoming instalment at this time, except that a group of Klingons will board the Enterprise in an effort to extract information from the ship's database. During the attack, one of the boarding party, Marab, who has been inflicted by the plague, will be captured by the MACOs and imprisoned on board.

Meanwhile, Doctor Phlox will reportedly receive a tempting offer from the Interspecies Medical Exchange. The organisation offers him the position of Director of Xenobiology, but the Denobulan physician is torn between a sense a loyalty to the crew and the prospect of career advancement.

Before Phlox really has time to consider the offer, his circumstances will change dramatically when he is kidnapped by a group of aggressive Rigelians...

 

[Dave]

It looks like this addresses one of our thread questions: Why do klingons get bumpy heads?
http://64.46.119.37/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14501

from Scifi Wire

Enterprise Butts Klingon Heads

An upcoming episode of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise will address the so-called Klingon issue head on: Why do original-series Klingons have smooth foreheads, while their counterparts in subsequent series and films have bumpy ones? The 15th episode of the current fourth season Enterprise, called "Affliction," is the first of two parts that will deal with the question, the official Star Trek Web site reported.

Mike Sussman wrote the episode, based on a story by executive producer Manny Coto. The second part is called "Divergence," written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The episodes will air Feb. 18 and 25, the site reported.

In the episodes, the Enterprise heads back to Earth for the official launch of the Columbia NX-02, Starfleet's second warp ship, commanded by Erika Hernandez. Phlox is abducted by aliens and finds himself in the presence of Klingons who tell him the Empire is facing its gravest threat in centuries. Along the way, as Archer and company investigate and pursue, it's revealed that one of our main characters has a secret past, which comes into play, the site reported.

from Trek Today
After many years of speculation, the truth about what happened to Klingons foreheads between the era of Kirk and that of Picard will finally be explained as Star Trek: Enterprise faces an "Aflliction" in the fourth season's fifteenth episode.

A production report at StarTrek.com discusses the real reason that the appearance of the Klingons changed from Star Trek to the motion pictures and The Next Generation: improvements in prosthetics and a bigger budget made it possible to create the elaborate headpieces. But on the series, Klingons both before and after Kirk's time were shown to have impressive forehead ridges, and in Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribbleations", incredulity was expressed that the Klingons on Space Station K-7 could be the same species as Worf.

The production report does not reveal exactly how the transformation occurs, but it gives hints. During "Affliction", we learn, Enterprise visits Earth to witness the launch of the NX-02, but after a visit to the Chinese restaurant in San Francisco that he missed on the last trip back, Phlox is kidnapped by Rigelians and taken to help the Klingons with a terrible crisis. The subsequent episode, "Divergence", will conclude this storyline.

The official site posted the following brief synopsis:

While Enterprise visits Earth for the launch of Columbia, Phlox is kidnapped and forced to help the Klingons deal with a grave threat toward their species.

"Affliction" was written and directed by two Michaels. Michael Grossman, who helmed "Hatchery" and "The Forge", was behind the camera, while the teleplay was written by staffer Michael Sussman - his fifth of the season - from a story by executive producer Manny Coto.

I've heard the idea of a virus causing this before, but I think the idea in our Star Trek Fan Fiction forum is best of all:
Why do Klingons have lumpy heads?
http://64.46.119.37/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6261

 

[ray gower]

I'm afraid my Rolling Pin Theory makes more sense too!

In the old days (50's) storywriters, good and bad used to fall back on radiation to explain massive genetic changes in short periods. We now know of course that the short period involved is measured in hundreds and thousands of years.

Now of course we have genes and all the bad storywriters are doing exactly what the old writers did, but with genetic manipulation. Unfortunately, just like wonderous radiation, any genetic change e.g. Lumpy bonce to smooth bonce, is going to take many hundreds of years to achieve, and as many to go back again.

I suppose it could be a type of cancer?
But even in the cancer capitals of the world, it only affects at most 25% of the population and generally in later life. Which given the TOS Klingons is not the case here, beside cancers cause growths (like the lumpy bonce).

I don't know how the rest of Season 4 is shaping (been trying not to get too worked up for it), but this is one that is heading for the title 'Wild Fantasy'

 

[Dave]

Well, I don't know the plot yet, but I read a theory that it could be due to a 'resist gene' or 'gene switching'.

We ourselves, have genes that do nothing until they are switched on. They can be switched on or off by certain hormones at puberty, or accidently, or by a virus.

If all the Klingons have a gene for 'bumpy foreheads' that is somehow switched off by a virus, that would be the best explanation for the problem.

Remember, both ENT Klingons and ancient Klingons have the lumps. But TOS Klingons did not until the films era, and then they all did again, even reaching the point where O'Brien and Bashir did not recognise TOS Klingons at all.

That is how I would write it, but then "My mother has a smooth forehead!"

 

[ray gower]

But for a whole race to be affected?

Even if it did, apart from the bonce it appears not to have any real negative effect on the Klingons. So hardly a major galactic catastrophy?

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
apart from the bonce it appears not to have any real negative effect on the Klingons. So hardly a major galactic catastrophy?

That all depends on how important the lumps are to the Klingon psyché. Speaking as a Role-playing half-klingon I think that the bumps are very important to them. The bonce defines what they are, it's like a uniform, or a club membership. You cannot be a part of the tribe without it. Not a galactic catastrophy, but certainly a Klingon Empire one. It's like an Andorian without antennae, or a Vulcan without Logic.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't explain why the Organians made an image of Kahless without the forehead, when he would never have appeared that way.

Now maybe if it was a bio-weapon designed to incapacitate all Klingons, with the 'bonce' as a side effect, and therefore all Klingons needed to be mass vaccinated against it -- that would explain why Kor, Kang and Koloth appeared first 'smooth' then later 'bumpy' after extensive medical treatment -- but can't explain Kahless.

Of course, the best explanation was already given in DS9 -- to accept that there just cannot be one -- and to simply say that it is something Klingons do not discuss.

 

[Eway]

Can't people just be o.k. with the fact that things change over time like production styles, dollars available, and such....

 

[ray gower]

We probably would...
Except for Trials and Tribulations, which was guaranteed to make people argue about it

 

[Dave]

Also, this sort of ironing-out all the Star Trek nits seems to be a theme this Season in the Manny Coto written episodes (where as Brannon and Braga just create more new ones )

Already we have:

The differences between TOS era Klingons and other Klingons.
The difference between Entrprise era Vulcans and other Vulcans.
Why Romulans are never seen directly until TOS.
Why they need warp drive when they have a transporter.

Maybe you aren't interested in these things, I'm not sure I was that worried about them, but it does seem to be the theme of the season. If they can be used as a starting point to develop a new story idea rather than the recycled ideas we had before, then I've no objections.

 

[Mariel]

The Klingons experiment with genetic engineering. They get some of the eggs from the augments and use them to make their own kind of augment. One of the Klingons they experiment is sick and the virus he has mutates and becomes deadly, so they have Phlox abducted to help find a cure. Some of the Klingon augements board Enterprise and leave a computer virus behind. One of them is stunned and left behind. Reed is put in the brig for keeping info from Archer. Trip has transfered to the Columbia because of his unrequited love for T'Pol.
:blpaw:

 

[Dave]

The Klingons seem to have a problem with the virus, not because it is particularly harmful (in fact the augmented Klingons are stronger and more intelligent) but rather because it makes them look foolish, exposes them for having made a mistake, and would force them to ask for help from their enemies. This is the explanation for them kidnapping Phlox instead of requesting his assistance.

I never liked the idea of Section 32, but this plot with Reed actually gives him a chance to act for a change. Not sure where it is leading, but I am sold on the idea of these story arcs now. The Trip leaving plot is interesting too.

What the virus doesn't explain is why the 'new' Klingons stopped wearing leather, had their hair cut short, and why little gold waistcoats came into fashion