Similitude (Star Trek: Enterprise)

"Similitude" is the tenth episode from the third season of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It first aired on November 19, 2003 and was the sixty-second episode of the series. Captain Archer orders a short-living clone of Trip Tucker to be made in order to save Tucker.

"Similitude"
Star Trek: Enterprise episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 10
Directed byLeVar Burton
Written byManny Coto
Featured musicVelton Ray Bunch
Production code310
Original air dateNovember 19, 2003 (2003-11-19)
Guest appearance(s)
  • Maximillian Orion Kesmodel - Sim-Trip at 4
  • Adam Taylor Gordon - Sim-Trip at 8
  • Shane Sweet - Sim-Trip at 17

After about ten years, "Similitude" along with "Dear Doctor" were hailed by some as the most thought provoking episodes of Enterprise.[1] In particular it highlights Enterprise examination of ethics, especially the questionable decisions Archer makes in Season 3.[1]

Plot

The pre-music/credits introduction offers a solemn memorial scene of a dead crew member. As Archer speaks a small eulogy, the intro closes on the body of Trip Tucker in a torpedo casket. Post music, days before, Commander Tucker, while endeavoring to increase the stable speed of Enterprise to Warp 5, becomes comatose when the engines destabilize and explode. Doctor Phlox suggests a radical and controversial procedure to save him — growing a mimetic symbiote as a neurological donor. Archer, concerned with the overarching goal of their mission, gives the order to do so. The symbiote, with a natural life-span of two weeks, is then injected with Tucker's blood and is soon born. Phlox names him "Sim" as Phlox becomes a surrogate father.

This section of the expanse is filled with magnetic debris which adheres to the ship's hull and causes phase distortions inside. This is what caused the warp drive explosion. As the engines can not be restored for over three weeks, it is discovered that the debris, coating the hull, will disable all ship's systems in less than 72 hours.

Sim grows into boyhood, flys a radio controlled plane with Archer, who (against Phlox's orders) shows Sim Tucker's waiting comotose body. Sim grows through adolescence and into manhood knowing his intended purpose. As Sim debates Archer about his own life, and his own value, he still has Trip's integrity and loyalty to look after the Enterprise, and comes up with a theoretical solution to the magnetic debris problem. In a non-Trip moment, Sim gains the approval of T'Pol for the scientific theory and feasibility of the new engineering application without rancor or belligerence. Sim has theorized that given a new power profile, the two shuttle pods have engines which can be harnessed to give Enterprise enough forward momentum to free herself from the debris field before the ship becomes powerless. The Shuttles are deployed, the physics are harnessed, the ship moves forward. The mission will continue.

The window of time approaches when Phlox must perform the transplant, which, according to him, will unfortunately now be fatal to Sim-Trip. Sim, having now 'met' himself in sickbay, reveals knowledge of an experimental procedure that might allow for an extension (presumably by decades) of his lifespan. Archer learns that Phlox was aware of this procedure, but concealed his knowledge of it due to its highly experimental and poorly researched nature. Sim then expresses a strong desire to live —Tucker's own life notwithstanding—through the rest of his natural life. Later, a tired-looking Archer, angered at finding Sim in Tucker's quarters, states he would rather Sim voluntarily submit to the fatal procedure than be forced to do so.

Sim eventually resigns himself to the transplant, after contemplating the fate of his sister back on Earth, but not before attempting to escape in a shuttle-pod. He realizes his and the crew's options are limited (given the fact that the ship is stranded without engines in a highly magnetic and life-threatening particle field). Before leaving for Sickbay, T'Pol arrives and gives him a kiss. The medical procedure is implied to be successful, as coming full circle, the episode ends with the funeral, now showing Trip also looking down on the casket/torpedo of Sim.

Via the torpedo, Sim is fired behind Enterprise and receives his honorary burial[2] in space.

Enterprise moves forward.

Character Development

Returning from the introduction and opening music sequence, the story begins with another Trip + T'Pol Vulcan Neuro-Pressure session. After Trip casually admits he is sleeping better (the official reason for the sessions), T'Pol responds that there are more advanced techniques as the scene ends with a very sexually suggestive position (which neither of the two acknowledges). The episode then displays a series of interactions between T'Pol and "Sim" that have more honesty[3] than the "original" pair have ever shared before. "Sim" comes to T'Pol's quarters and asks about Trip and T'Pol's relationship because Sim tells her that he "thinks about you all the time." Sim wants to know if these are "his" thoughts or Trip's -- and of course they are both. After Sim resigns himself to the fate Archer has thrust upon him, Sim reports to engineering two hours before his coming life-taking operation. He runs into T'Pol, who wonders if this is the best place for him to spend the waning moments of his life. After receiving his assignment to modify an injector, Sim walks away saying "I'm here with my two favorite things on Enterprise." Back in his quarters, Sim is about to go to sickbay, when T'Pol appears at his door. Inside she confesses that the crew is going to miss him - pause - "I am going to miss you," and then she kisses him, with Sim responding "I couldn't have asked for a better going away present." Such simple candor as "missing you" will not be again possible for T'Pol until well into Season 4. But now, in the present, The Similtude has not only given life to Trip, but also to T'Pol.

Reception

In 2009, Den of Geek ranked this the ninth best episode of this television series.[4]

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter rated "Similitude" the 85th best episode of all Star Trek episodes.[5]

In 2017, Vulture listed this episode as one of the best of Star Trek: Enterprise.[6]

gollark: According to my notes: Chaotic Lawful: has a strict moral code but nobody knows what on earth it is.Lawful Chaotic: creates as much chaos as possible by following the letter of the law to ridiculous extremes.Chaotic Chaotic: you are chaos itself. You are responsible for the end of the universe. You are Limbo, you are madness.
gollark: I vaguely remember reading that they were testing for it weirdly. Still, it's a worrying possibility.
gollark: And there are loads of different vaccine projects going on, so if it's possible to make one one of them will probably work it out.
gollark: I don't think the "you can't be immune" thing is actually very well evidenced.
gollark: A well-programmed one could log locally and upload later.

See also
  • Up the Long Ladder (TNG S2E18, airdate May 22, 1989; another Star Trek with clones)
  • Tuvix (STV S2E24, airdate May 6 1996; another Star Trek with the Trolley Problem)
  • The Child (TNG S2E01, air date Nov 21, 1988; another Star Trek with a rapidly ageing child)

References
  1. Star Trek: The Human Frontier By Duncan Barrett, Michèle Barrett (Page 262)
  2. "Burial At Sea". Military. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  3. "Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional and Modern Media", Scheck, Bohn etc, p. 114-117
  4. "Top 10 Star Trek: Enterprise episodes". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2019-07-10.
  5. Hollywood Reporter 'Star Trek': 100 Greatest Episodes
  6. www.vulture.com https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/the-star-trek-universe-a-beginners-guide.html. Retrieved 2019-07-28. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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