I really don't understand the enthusiasm about that episode. Ok, it was really well acted, especially by Trinneer and Bakula. But that's almost all I can find interesting about it.
I can hardly remember an episode that was that much predictable right from the beginning: From the moment "cloning" was mentioned, it was clear that the initial scene will be the funeral either of the clone the crew will have learned to love, or of Trip which has been replaced - in any case with Trip participating in the funeral.
Then it was full of sledgehammer bathos where more subtle scenes would have been great, as if it was a bad remake of "A.I.". And then these grotesquely embarrasing Trip/T'Pol scenes ... why on earth must they force them into that teenie-like scene?!
Am I the only person that thinks the attempt to portray T'Pol's hidden emotionality has extremely failed so far, as it was never credible?
I think "Similitude" is just a below average episode, only saved by the great acting.
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"When discussing death penalty, it's that simple: When the idea of killing someone pleases you, then you support it, and when you don't like the idea of killing someone, then you're against it."
- Frank Black (Millennium)
Anyone notice the particulate buildup on the window in Trip's quarters and how it changed during the Archer/Sim debate? The effect on the mirror during this scene was a nice detail.
Once again, a strong episode. Bakula continues to give Archer layers which is great. The face-off with Sim in Trip's quarters was top-notch. I just can't see UPN pulling the plug on its best show. Not unless Viacom decides to mothball the whole net. If that happens, I'd be interested to see what numbers ENT could rack up on CBS.
An interesting thing happened while watching my "Similitude" tape this morning. From the beginning, it was a good episode. The script is undoubtedly the most sophisticated of any ENT. The setup is interesting and the references to the contemporary cloning issue are subtle, intelligent, and surprisingly lack the blatant on-the-nose-ism that most of ENT's "message" episodes have suffered ("Detained," "Stigma"). The reference to a Lysenian (??) cloning ban is something you'd expect to make your eyes roll, but instead it's a great nod to the contemporary issues at stake and it's completely appropriate. Again we have another one of these neuro-pressure sessions that I have learned to accept, even though it's a little strange that T'Pol has to put Trip's head b/w her legs and then lean over him to get the job done (did I mention rolling eyes?)
I was fully able to suspend disbelief during the first half hour. STAR TREK is one of those things that requires a certain amount of that. Of course I found myself finding it a little convenient that you can just inject this alien "thing" with Trip's DNA and, boom, you've got yourself a clone. The genetic memory thing struck me as completely unbelieveable (is such a thing possible, that all Trip's memories came out in that one vile of blood Phlox excised?), but I bought into it because it makes the drama very compelling.
The episode began to grow on me. First the child Sim surprised me with a great performance, then the pathos really began to set in when young Sim told Archer "I feel older." As teenage Sim starts interacting with T'Pol, the episode continues to get better. Sim realizes he's an outsider, a manufactured experiment, and although my eyes rolled in the earlier neuro-pressure scene, suddenly I felt it was a pretty clever idea to reveal Trip's feelings through Sim. It's sort of like the DS9's "Children of Time" when old Odo tells Kira of his feelings.
As the end grew nearer, I really started to feel this was a great episode. Then Archer confronts Sim in Trip's quarters. Here we see the greatness of the whole Expanse plotline. If this were business as usual, the ethical dilemma would be simple: Sim wants to live, who's to say he shouldn't replace Trip. Sim makes a good point that he's not responsible for Trip's predicament. But this isn't regular TREK. Archer has the entire fate of the human race on his shoulders and he doesn't have the luxury of thinking only of his own conscience or doing what is otherwise morally right. By the time this scene was over, I was convinced that it is best scene I've ever seen on ENTERPRISE. The intensity of Archer's conviction, that he would kill Sim by force if necessary because he can't risk not having at least one Trip with him to complete the mission, was just mind-blowing. We had a taste of this in "Anomaly," but it was easier then to accept Archer's actions. We knew he was going over the line but it may be justified in the context of the Xindi threat. But here it's not that easy. Archer is willing to murder Sim to save Trip, and that is an extremely powerful moment. Sisko occasionally had to make really tough choices, but "In the Pale Moonlight" he didn't have to kill the Romulan senator himself. This is the first time a STAR TREK captain has had to make this kind of choice. This wasn't simply a matter of ordering an officer, who by wearing the uniform has pledged to give their life, to their death, or leaving someone behind to save the rest of the ship. This is a much darker, much more difficult choice than I think a TREK captain has ever faced. Although Archer has far less screen time than Sisko in "Pale Moonlight," this was Archer's "Pale Moonlight."
By now it was getting really good. The scene with Sim and Archer took it to a whole new level, one ENT has never attained before. Sim's arguments about being just as much Trip as Trip were compelling. When Sim talks to Archer after his aborted escape, cracking the Malcolm joke the way Trip would, the plot really starts to thicken. I've forgotten the genetic memory thing. I've forgotten T'Pol leaning over Trip's face in the opening moments. I've forgotten the convenience of the alien hulk that makes cloning as easy as 1, 2, 3.
Then, it got better. The shot of Sim petting Porthos and being called by Phlox like an inmate on death row is quite overwhelming. When T'Pol kisses him it's amazing. Suddenly I don't care about whether a Vulcan would kiss someone or not. I don't care about the fact that I initially thought it was foolish to get these two main characters into this sort of romantic situation. The kiss destroys all that. It's a powerful moment because it's not just T'Pol and Trip consumating something. It's T'Pol having the humanity to give Sim this gift before he goes to his death, and it's surprisingly effective.
But wait, there's more. The final Sickbay scene is the clincher. The music is absolutely perfect. John Billingsley gives a supporting performance to die for. Maybe his tortured face is part of the reason why something unexpected happened. Phlox has shown it before, early in season one, when he weeped over a dead patient. What TREK doctor has ever reacted this emotionally at the death of a patient? Sim starts talking. The line about having not just Trip's childhood memories, but "my own" just sends me over the edge. I can't believe it. What is this? No--couldn't be. But it is. I'm tearing. My eyes have welled up and it's only due to every ounce of mental concentration that I can keep a tear from streaming down my face. I have only cried a few times when watching a movie or television show. One was DS9's "The Visitor." This entire final Sickbay scene is just dynamite, absolutely dynamite. There is nothing else to say. Transitioning to the memorial for Sim is nothing short of brilliant.
I have never given an ENTERPRISE episode a 10 rating. "Similitude" is an 11. If ever STAR TREK deserved an Emmy nomination, it is here. If ever Connor Trinneer deserved an Emmy nomination, it is for his final scene as Sim. "Similitude" is one of the best TREK episodes of all time, and whether this is the beginning or only a rare gem, it proves not only that STAR TREK is alive and well, but that ENTERPRISE is capable of honorably carrying the torch.
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"I spot an Eagle, up in the trees / I for-get myself, into, what-I-see...
Caught a glimpse of another dream / I turned, and looked / I turned-and-looked-again / I see no trace!"
Hagar. "Eagle's Fly"
RE: Wow
by StarFleet Captain @ 11:12:35 on Nov 21
RE: Wow
by Cyrus @ 11:11:06 on Nov 21
I too found the ep excellent in many ways, and yet curiously passionless except for the crisis/climax confrontation between Sim and Archer. And I can't quite figure out if this is a good thing or not.
On the one hand, the intensity level of the clash between the two seems even more dramatic when contrasted with the almost indifferent reactions to Trip's injury and possible death. Except for Archer and T'Pol, and to a lesser extent Phlox, I sensed no undercurrent of concern or anxiety about the outcome among the crewmembers. Trip, the real Trip, is dying, and yet thre is no discernible impact on the bridgecrew - the people who are most likely to be his closest friends on board. Hoshi's announcement that Tucker is in sickbay is flat. There is no flicker of concern, there are no stricken looks from the bridge crew. Of course T'Pol wouldn't react, but what about Tucker's engineering crew? Archer practically whispers the news to T'Pol. Wouldn't everyone in engineering be curious? Wouldn't at least one of them be trying to overhear? Wouldn't they be demanding news?
On the other hand, this could be setting up the audience, subtly implying that Sim could replace Trip and for everyone except his closest friend the exchange would be unimportant. No, that's not the right word. Unnoticeable. If the crew except for Archer and T'Pol were that unmoved by the real possibility that Tucker would die, perhaps he WAS expendible.
Or a third possibility arises: that this crew is so traumatized, so exhausted, so intensely aware that they are Earth's last chance for survival, that all other feelings, including friendship, have been shut down. Is the entire crew headed for a nice bout of post-traumatic stress disorder at the end of Season 3? Look at Archer in this episode. He is a man hanging on to sanity by the barest of threads, pushed to his limit. And the terrible - but rich with dramatic potential - thing about this kind of limit is that it can only be found by being exceeded. We've seen T'Pol unable to maintain her control. Trip has been one neuropressure session away from a nervous breakdown all season. I know the physical and psychological consequences of chronic sleep deprivation even if the writers seem oblivious to them. Archer has been acting distinctly un-Archerlike. I mean, really, throwing people into airlocks and so forth. It's been creeping up so gradually that we don't really see it happening unless we go back and watch the gosh-golly-gee whiz enthusiast of season 1. The stress has been building all season long, and sooner or later something's got to blow.
I am not as troubled as many of you by Archer's action in condemning Sim to his death. This is the nature of duty and sacrifice, and the role of the Captain is too often one of demanding that sacrifice. Remember Troi "earning her wings" only after she was willing to order Geordi on a suicide mission (simulation though it might be.) And "Sim-Geordi's" unquestioning obedience? Or Kirk, in The Immunity Syndrome, with his poignant log entry: "And now I have to choose: Which of my two closest friends do I condemn to death?" Is it not possible that at least some of Archer's anger is driven by the paradox of Sim wanting to be a permanent member of the crew at the same time he shows himself unwilling to do what any true crewmember - Trip included - would do in a heartbeat? That Trip, in fact, HAD done when he chose to manually shut down the engines.
We can quibble over grades and scores. It seems to be that the true test of Similitude is the response it has generated on the Board. Never have so many words been typed by so few persons.
One final thought: if Sim had Trip's memories, is it even remotely possible that Trip will eventually recover some of Sim's? What kind of connection would he feel to this other self? Imagine the ambivalent feelings he would have when he realized that his best friend was willing to kill "him" to save "him" Now that's a scary thought.
Very nice and thought provoking episode worthy of the finest hours of TNG. I dont why people are getting so broiled up with the standard voyager fare 'Tuvix'. Tuvix neither was as thought-provoking or gripped me in the same way Sim did. Infact I felt I was watching TNG instead of Enterprise(and thats a big compliment..). If they keeps this creative writing tempo up I may have to change my signature afterall. :)
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"The mighty Star Trek would fall before us"-B&B
This was a certainly an interesting hour of television. I’m just not sure it was a good hour of Star Trek – or even an hour of Star Trek.
Yes, it was gripping stuff. I was shouting at the television. And that was no doubt the intent.
Why didn’t they just sedate Sim? Oh no, they play with him, let him wander about the ship, let him interact with others. I mean, how cruel can you get? But it makes better drama.
But I just cannot believe the worst actions of Archer and Phlox. With the Enterprise under no present danger where Engineering knowledge is needed, they decide to MURDER Sim because they NEED Trip.
Well, I better not see Trip on any Away missions in the future, because that would certainly put him in danger.
I am looking forward to the court martial of Archer and Phlox when they return from the Expanse. I hope they throw away the key.
And T’Pol. What does she do when the ship was in danger? She reads a freaking book in her PJ’s! Is she or is she not the Science Officer? Yet again someone else has to come up with the solution. Time to officially reassign her as Massage Officer, I think.
Conclusion: Gripping, but I just didn’t recognize the characters at times. The producers should be simply ASHAMED for putting out this stuff under the Star Trek banner.
Quote:
Of course the problem is that Trip's life isn't very interesting and neither is Trip. We relearn such revelations about Trip that he loves engineering, key lime pie and T'Pol. Oh and he apparently has had the same hair cut for 30 years, unless the hair style was also encoded in his DNA, which considering this episode's scientific credibility is entirely possible. It's Trip 2.0's plight that is interesting, not his personality.
Who were expecting to Trip to be, a modern day Alexander the Great or Abraham Lincoln?
Then again, rarely do many individuals rise to the level of greatness and god-like superiority that O Deus has so often done, time and again, on the TrekWeb BBS.
I'm sorry that we mere moratls cannot live up to your expectations. Pardon us for being so uninteresting. We'll try harder in the future not to annoy you.
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"Language is a virus."
- William S. Burroughs
Count me among those who thought this episode was just fine but nothing special, certainly not deserving the raves I see others giving it. Despite the tremendous potential for heart-rending pathos, it left me and my family completely dry-eyed. I thought the plot just kind of ambled along, the threat of the magnetic particles was completely uncompelling (though I liked the towing solution), and on whole it was a pretty passionless affair.
I agree that this episode too neatly evaded its own ethical implications. When SimTrip started arguing for his right to live, everyone in my home had the same simultaneous thought: "What's the big deal? He's gonna be dead in a few days anyway!" In an apparent attempt to answer that question, which surely came up in the writer's room during the story break, Trip pulled the deus ex machina enzyme out of his ass, which arbitarily but conveniently upped the moral stakes. For about a minute I thought they might go the Miles O'Brien/Harry Kim route and swap the Sim for the old, dead Trip, which could have been interesting if derivative. But no; the enzyme angle was dropped, the dilemma dodged, the problem back to square one.
Less importantly, the science was just too dodgy for me to overlook. You really want to tell me that the molecules inside the nucleus of one of Trip's red blood cells knows his sister's name, his favorite kind of pie, his Southern accent, and how to fly a shuttlepod?! That's a hell of a blood cell! Maybe, maybe I could have bought it if Phlox had explained that the pod established some kind of psychic link with its host but, as presented, the "rules" of the cloning procedure were, again, too arbitary and convenient. Whatever the plot required at a particular point, that's what the clone (or enzyme, or magnetic particles, or shuttlepod engines) could do. Every twist was too obviously manufactured for my taste.
Even less importantly, while I thought the T'Pol-Sim relationship was interesting and kind of sweet, I also thought it continued the degradation of the Vulcans (just when you thought it couldn't get worse....). A Vulcan shouldn't express affection in human terms. She shouldn't get misty-eyed. She shouldn't kiss; it's well established that Vulcans show affection through finger contact, and it occurs to me that T'Pol touching Sim fingertip-to-fingertip could have been a very sexy reference to their earlier massage therapy. As presented in this episode, T'Pol might as well be a human whose head got caught in a mechanical rice picker that gave her pointy ears. The "alien" Vulcans aren't so alien anymore.
I'm not bagging on the episode. It was a fine hour of Star Trek. I thought the actors playing young Trip were great, particularly the young boy. But for some of the reasons above, I can't put it on my list of the all-time Top Ten. Or Twenty. Maybe Forty or Fifty.
I thought this episode was excellent- good to see some pride and dignity being restored to the franchise.
I liked Archer's edgy unshaved look when he was making a tough decision. Bakula is really growing into the role. A vast improvement over the stiff first season.
One of the best episodes of any Trek incarnation- in my humble opinion, superior to anything TNG produced.
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psp1
I thought Trip's favorite pie was pecan.
RE: Pie
by Jadzia-Dax @ 11:20:55 on Nov 20
RE: Pie
by MaxPower @ 11:58:03 on Nov 20
RE: Pie
by Jadzia-Dax @ 17:26:24 on Nov 20
RE: Pie
by Beefies @ 00:44:44 on Nov 21
I agree with some of what you say, but I think you are wrong when you say this episode avoids the difficult issues and topics.
To point out one, when you say they avoid a bullet by Archer not having to force him to death. Archer basically DID!!!! Sim was going to jump ship because he KNEW that Archer was going to force him to do it. Archer STATED he would force him. IT was GOING to happen, there was no doubt.
I thought this episode was brilliant. I never saw Tuvix. I never watched Voyager, so it could have very well been a rip, but I don't care, I thought it was spectacular. And frankly...hardly anyone watched Voyager, so I think it is fair to rip the good ones! :-) They are new to me!
Way to go Enterprise!
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"Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
-- Winston Churchill
(Picture of the City and Country building in Salt Lake City, UT)
I finally decided to watch Enterprise again cause I kept hearing good things about this episode. It was an OK episode, but what ruined it for me was what you brought up in your review, the sense that they were dodging the tough moral questions. Tuvix was very controversial which is why it was memorable. And even though people didn't agree with Janeway's decision or how the rest of the crew acted, it was still better than this episode. Tuvix was one of the few times that Voyager took some risks and the writers showed they had some balls. But this episode wasn't interested in asking the tough questions. Personally, I think Star Trek is at its best when it deals with moral dilemnas which is why this episode seemed like a wasted opportunity. Exploring the life of a person in a few days was certainly interesting, but as the review pointed out, it's already been done before in The Inner Light. So not only does this episode feel like a missed opportunity, it also feels like a rehash. A much more interesting angle would've been to have the two Trips interact and see how Trip 1 feels about letting Trip 2 die for him. But the episode is definitely better than the usual Enterprise episode.
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"If I wanted to read, I'd buy a book on tape." --- Dennis Miller
Wow. LOL I agree with this review. :-P
And agree with the comparison to VOY "Tuvix". Although the difference is that there were 2 VOY crew members (Neelix and Tuvok), plus this 3rd combined individual (Tuvix), who the crew seemed attached to almost to the same degree (which was purposefully shown in that ep). Thus the arguments that Tuvix made to spare his "life", seemed more poignant. Although in VOY's case, the end result was essentially reset and the crew returns to what they were before... more or less. However to be fair, Tuvok was shown as having apparently retained memories of some of Neelix's oddities and Neelix some of Tuvok's foibles. So not a complete reset.
However here, Sim wasn't shown interacting much with the crew outside of Archer, T'Pol, and Phlox, thus the ep does lessen the impact of Sim's loss somewhat, other than the memorial service's purpose to honor him. However it would be interesting to see if Sim's memories will apparently rub off on Trip in later eps (which is what is being suggested by the plot device of memory transfer).
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Outer Space. The last frontier.
These are the trips of the Star Trek Enterprise.
Its 5-year plan...
Calls for us to seek out new life and new civilizations.
To boldly fly where no man has gone in space.
Patrick Stewart on SNL 2/5/94
...but isn't an important distinction from "Tuvix" the fact that Tuvix was an accident and Sim-Trip was specifically bred in order to be harvested ala the present day cloning debate (taken to the extreme of course, a stem cell isn't a sentient being entitled to anything). You seemed to gloss over that in your comparisons to "Tuvix."
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"I spot an Eagle, up in the trees / I for-get myself, into, what-I-see...
Caught a glimpse of another dream / I turned, and looked / I turned-and-looked-again / I see no trace!"
Hagar. "Eagle's Fly"
I respect your right to your opinion, O.Deus, but I found Trip 1.0 and Trip 2.0 quite distinguishable from each other. I never felt the two characters were interchangeable; Trinneer's performance was amazing in that regard. Sim incorporated Trip's inherent goodness while maintaining a separate identity; CT's nuances and body language accomplished the differentiation quite deftly. Trip and Sim were similar, yes, but they didn't share a soul. Sharing memories isn't the same thing. They weren't any more the same person than Jadzia and Ezri Dax were the same person.
I liked this eppi very much and felt that it raised hard questions without offering a pat resolution. To each their own; I do find Trip interesting. After tonight's eppi I find Archer one hell of a lot more interesting than I ever did. Watching him drag Sim (not Trip 2.0, he was Sim) kicking and screaming to the sickbay would have been too much, but my jaw dropped when Archer said, "Even if it means killing you" because Bakula sold that line. My God did he ever sell it. It was chilling because I believed that he'd do it. F**k Picardian nobility; it doesn't suit Archer. I find Archer's potential for violent behavior chilling but it sure is different from the noble starship captains of yore and I appreciate it. Starship captains don't act that way? They do now. Deal with it. You found it significant that we see an Archer willing to go farther than he ever has to save Trip. We agree on that score.
You missed the pertinence of Archer's changing attitude toward Sim once he grew into the man Archer remembered. Archer was just fine when Sim was an adorable child but when a grown Sim dared to make himself at home in Trip's quarters look out....he sure as hell wasn't interchangeable with Trip in Archer's mind. Archer was quite visibly upset with him for assuming he could take Trip's place. I can't damn Archer for his anger under those circumstances. I'd have lost all respect for Archer if he were capable of blithely exchanging Trip's life for Sim's. They weren't the same person. It cheapens both characters to imply that they were. All that brouhaha about it being "only the mission" was a total smokescreen for Archer. He knew that it was unethical to create a clone but he loved Trip so much that he went ahead and did it away and that was the crux of the matter. Archer's tension was obviously eating him alive. It was palpable. He did not want Sim in Trip's place no matter how guilty he felt for authorizing his creation and I appreciate that about Archer. No matter how bad I might feel for Sim, that kind of loyalty on Archer's part strikes a chord with me and makes the episode wholly worthwhile. Archer has his flaws but the man loves his friend dearly. That isn't a worthy story?
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