I'd love to see DT to truly embrace their prog side and finally have an album with several short unaccompanied songs, like a short piano or acoustic song, ala Yes' Mood for a Day, The Flower Kings' If 28 or Rush's Hope. They sort of did that on SFAM by having Through My Words, except that that had some singing, too. It could give an album a more cohesive and better flow by having several transitional pieces like those that act as sort of a brief comedown between two 10-minute plus tunes.
I'd much rather have an album where every song is equally strong, maybe more like Train of Thought, than something with more transitional tracks, which is something DT hasn't done a lot of (and I'm glad they haven't).
They can still have an album with all strong tracks, while still having transitional tracks. The greater good is often more important, and if an album flows better and works better, I say go for it.
Think of it like an action movie: you don't want every scene in the movie to be non-stop action. You need scenes that bring it down a bit, that way, when the action scenes do kick in, they have more punch (instead of just action after action after action). Same way with an album, where ebb and flow can make an album that much better.
You already mentioned SFAM as a sort of example. How much more evidence does one need?
I really like the diversity of having song lengths and types all over the map. It makes it feel like more of a stream of consciousness (no reference intended) rather than "ok, let's write a song. Ok, now let's write another, ok, that's 75 minutes".
"I'm running from the enemy inside
Searching for the life I left behind
These suffocating memories
Are etched upon my mind
And I can't escape from the enemy inside"
The song could very well be called "The Enemy Inside".
That sounds likely to me. It starts and ends with it, so I get the feeling it's a chorus.
The song is clearly about Captain Kirk in the TOS episode The Enemy Within, where a transporter malfunction splits him into two separate people and personalities. The album is going to be a concept album about Star Trek. You heard it here first, people.
And with over 700 episodes and 12 movies, there is no chance I can't find a way to twist any lyric to be about Star Trek.