Malcolm's character was one of the things that made the *most* sense to me in this ep, actually. He's extremely repressed, very private, kind of depressive, and at times suicidal. He always has been. It's just that the captain is finally trying to DRAW HIM THE FUCK OUT, since the captain has noticed it's BEEN a whole year and Malcolm still has no friends on the crew and still insists on being closed and private and personal.

Starfleet doesn't have Ship's Counselor's yet, after all. :-> I envision some (offscreen?) further attention to Malcolm's mental state, now that it's been made clear it affects his job performance.