See Also: 'Canamar' Episode Guide

After years of rumours, Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman announced today an upcoming Enterprise episode will feature an AIDS-like storyline.

In the episode, currently called 'Stigma', T'Pol and Dr. Phlox will reveal the Vulcan first officer has been infected with a degenerative Vulcan disease. The reason T'Pol has kept secret she is suffering from the incurable illness was to avoid being associated with mind melders, the group in Vulcan society who suffer from the disease.

''By the end of the episode,"' Berman told William Keck at USA Today, "we're left with some open story elements. What we would most likely deal with is T'Pol's desire to educate the Vulcan people and destroy this sense of prejudice held against [mind melders]. "In true Star Trek form, we're hoping the young people who watch will have some degree of enlightenment about a situation they're not all that aware of."

Jolene Blalock told the paper she was pleased to be able to play this role. "Our generation has been educated; now it's time to educate the next generation - it's dangerous out there! This is something I really believe in, so I was honored to be chosen as the ill one."

More can be found in the full article, in which Berman also mentions again there were never any plans to feature a same-sex couple on Enterprise, despite rumours to the contrary. Thanks go out to the Futon Critic for this!

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