“Similitude”

Definitely one of the best episodes of Enterprise. Not one of the best ST episodes, but it's up there.

The science was totally unbelievable. Memories passed on through DNA? But that doesn't matter too much. I had a real emotional connection with Sim. 2.5 seasons into the series, and no other episode has gotten me attached to any of these characters. Well, almost none. I do feel pity for Mayweather, since he's so neglected.

This episode reminds me of that one where Tuvok and Neelix melded into one body. Everyone called him Tuvix, I think. It was pretty much the same dilemma, except the Tuvix episode really took the hard edge resolution. This episode's resolution was a little too easy.

Levar Burton really is one of the best ST directors. I hope he gets to direct one of the movies if he hasn't already done so.

Tuvix was a much better episode than this one I would say. It just seemed to work on several levels and actually made you care about the darned thing.

This......this is just a mental experiment played out with no real emotional impact. coma to thing to clone to solution. Just...meh.

I think you underestimate this episode. Yes it could have been handled better but there are. There's not only the moral dilemma of creating new life solely for the purpose of saving someone else. But also it shows the very unenviable position Archer is forced to take. I totally understand his plight and I'm surprised you (Jamahl) missed it.

Scott Baluka isn't the best of actors but he nails it here. He obviously doesn't like this whole idea at all, But more then that. He hates himself even though he's totally justified, And Scott Baluka seem manages to convey that well in this episode. It's as much about his character development as it is Sim's very brief life.

It's not so much growing attached to Sim that's the focus but it's more of desperate measures. Even in a desperate situation can it be justified. Is there some things you simply can't do, even if it means extinction of your people. This episode reminds me more of DS9's 'In the Pale Moonlight'. Archer trading his self respect and being able to sleep at night in order to do everything he can to ensure the survival of his species. He may be wrong that Trip is so vital to that mission but in his mind, Trip is.

In my opinion, this is the worst episode of Enterprise thus far. It's an examination of the morally challenging issue of organ harvesting from clones. But I can't get past the extremely ludicrous use of science in this episode. Memories and DNA have basically nothing to do with each other. And it's fantasy to think that Sim could learn to have a simple conversation in a couple days, let alone work in engineering.

And sickbay is turning into a representation of the Voyager universe - where very little is seemingly impossible. And T'Pol kissing Sim at the end - how laughable!

Yeah, sometimes you have poor episodes where the writers essentially failed and didn't think hard enough. I'd rather have that, than a very poor application of science. Too often, Star Trek becomes more fantasy than science fiction.

Hmm, speaking of Tuvix, I wonder if people would've found the episode more platable if they used the transporter to intentionally clone Trip a bit like the TNG episode "Second Chances."

I just watched this episode for a second time. I almost didn't want to as I remembered how outraged I was after seeing it the first time. Yes, this has nothing to do with science. But there are very good Star Trek episodes that aren't realistic at all. So this is not a major concern for me.

What does concern me is how the characters (esp. Archer % Phlox) completely ignore the ethical implications of their actions. Star Trek was always as much about exploring moral issues as it was about exploring space. And this episode takes the whole thing and just throws it out the airlock.

Yes, we are in the expanse here. Yes, the stakes for Archer and his crew are high. But that's exactly the point. One of the morals of Trek was always that the ends never justify the means. This episode completely turns that on its head. Which is why I don't think it should be called "Trek" at all.

This episode was quite intriguing, in the beginning it seems to address the issue of cloning, harvesting organs, and moreover the moral implication of creating a human (baby) for the sole purpose of saving somebody else´s life. Babies are produced and born to provide bone marrow tissue for the first, severely sick child, without debating the consequence for this new child. What if it finds out later the very reason of his existence, with less fatal ending of course then in this episode.

So that could have made this story interesting. But alas.

The authors failed here in fact. Archer (once stressed about his sick beagle!) and Phlox are not hesitating to sacrifice Sim´s life, and show the similar harshness as in the episode Dear Doctor, which turned them into Social Darwinists, by letting dictate Nature the rules, while they never accept Real Dictators in other episodes (and on all planets they visited). In other Hollywood movies they would have been the bad guys by now, but not here!

A plot twist could have saved the day, letting Sim live by this experimental treatment, and bury the coma - Trip. Trading places would have put the captain-doctor duo on a high moral level, nobody would have noticed it, Sim and Trip were identical, and the Xindi could be found and defeated, since Sim proved his engineering skills in this episode. But the authors quickly jumped away from such "easy escape", and made the captain & the doctor the grim duo again. Then again, this trading places trick was used before in Star Trek- in Voyager´s episode Deadlock, Harry Kim died, and the rest of the series the parallel Harry lived on. No one protested.

But Voyager had a highly moral captain, ready to sacrifice herself, in comparison with her, the authors made Archer a pragmatic cowboy, and Enterprise a ship to stay away from.

Maybe it reflects the change in the world between the optimistic 90s and the more pessimistic first decade of the 21th century. Maybe they wanted to shock the audience by showing a dead Trip in the opening scene, and let the audience wonder how this crew member would miraculously return, to get this cruel solution as a cheap trick after all.

Who knows. But the feel-good Star Trek seems gone forever. Betrayal to the series almost, and messing around with the hope and expectations of the audience as well.

I'll be blunt. I absolutely hated this episode.

The first reason I hated the episode was the bad science. I can stand some bad science, even in Star Trek. To be honest, I've always considered Star Trek to be more science fantasy, than science fiction. That's fine as long as it sets reasonable rules, and it doesn't blatantly break those rules. The symbiote or "absurdus plotdevicious" cloning memories with the DNA doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. I find it nearly impossible to get around that; it's like the breaking the warp 10 barrier in Voyager's Threshold.

And as for the moral debate, BenSisko hit the nail on the head. There was no moral debate. The moral debate consisted of the whole crew completely denying Sim's rights as a sentient being, because it's inconvenient for them. There is no real debate, and anything on the opposing side seems very hollow. Hell, the debate on both sides seems hollow.

I don't understand the "bad science" criticism leveled at this episode. Anyone looking for scientific accuracy should have given up on Trek back when the original series was on - guess what, there's no such thing as warp drive or transporters, either. If you're going to buy the Star Trek premise of life in unlimited variety existing in a huge cosmos, there's no reason to dismiss the ep. on the grounds that a space slug can't be stamped with human DNA. All that matters to me is where they take the premise, and I thought overall they crafted an interesting and thought-provoking hour of television.

Before Voyager, Star Trek was somewhat grounded in scientific fact. I don't mind that they have taken liberties with the science; that's part of science fiction. Good science fiction doesn't require strict scientific accuracy. But when the science and the depicted reality becomes farther away from even "soft" science fiction standards, it morphs into fantasy (such as the later years of Voyager), where it seems that truly nothing is impossible. The problem isn't so much that anything is possible, but that it is very difficult to say what is impossible/what cannot be done. My favorite episodes are about the exploration of scientific possibilities. When science is blatantly violated, then it becomes silly, and hardly worth watching, because Star Trek sucks at character development.

Contrast Star Trek with Heroes. Heroes is complete fantasy and cannot be considered science fiction at all. It's watchable because it has decent character development. Never mind that I have to turn off half my brain when I watch it.

I'd give this 3-3.5 stars. My only major gripes are with the total implausibility/impossibility of the memory transfer -- but you have to admit they HAVE done that before in ST cloning. And Archer didn't spend enough time agonizing over the moral issues -- even though I believe he would have killed Sim. Throw out the "Sim can LIVE!" plot thread at the end, add in more moral quandary for the crew and exploration of self for Sim, and provide a better explanation for the memory transfer, and it would be almost perfect. Well, for Enterprise.

It's interesting to me that your main objection to this episode was the bizarre "sci-fi machinations," considering that your nutshell review of Tuvix--in which two characters are merged WITH A FLOWER via a bizarre transporter accident--said something like "a bizarre premise that nonetheless works."

My main problem with this isn't the bizarre science, although there are probably cleverer ways to clone someone than using magic slugs. I had trouble connecting emotionally with the episode because so few of the characters seemed to give a crap. No one--not even Phlox!--debates or questions the situation. It seems to be taken as a given by everyone except Sim that he deserves to live less than Trip. I would have appreciated some hints that other members of the crew--Hoshi? Reed?--were uncomfortable with the situation.

Equally problematic was Archer's single-minded and pointless aggression. The overly friendly, slightly dumb, slightly goofy Archer of seasons 1-2 got pretty annoying, but the hyper-aggressive Archer of this season is no more appealing. The scene in Trip's quarters where he essentially berates Sim for wanting to live disgusted me.

Enterprise just can't win with you can it? When it does a great sci-fi episode that isn't grounded by "reality" or "real world situations" you bitch about it. And yet when it does a great episode concerning a real (albeit futuristic) moral dilemma of harvesting organs from a clone, you bitch about the science.

This episode made me and my girlfriend cry, because the story was so sad and the plight of Sim so disturbing. I have a degree in cosmology. She is researching neuroscience, specifically MEMORY. If two actual scientists can make the leap, why can't you?

The irony is that even the best scientists out there can fail to see the world in new ways. Only 150 years ago, scientists believed that the human body would not survive travelling at the speed of locomotives; that invasive surgery was impossible; and that radio had no future. Almost 100 years ago, Einstein himself thought quantum physics to be incorrect (even though he accidentally invented the discipline), and atomic energy to be impossible. So if you are unable to predict the future of science then you are in good company. However...

Star Trek has never been anything more than sci-fi for the masses, but generally speaking it never crosses too great a line with sci-fi as to make it unbelievable. What's to say that whatever Phlox injected the symbiont with did not contain Trip's memories? There is enough leeway to say that this episode does not cross that line as much as other "Fun With DNA" episodes, in fact probably less. Ultimately, the idea that it IS "Fun With DNA" is narrow minded interpretation, rather than incorrent implementation. This episode, as far as I'm concerned, does not cross the line. It is only a means to an end. And it's a very poignant end.

If you can't accept weird ideas or new ways of thinking about science at all, why are you even watching science fiction?

Another truly great episode.

I am rarely overwhelmed by a TV show. But the plight of SIM did it for me. As a parent of small children, maybe I was particularly vulnerable to the scenes of babies and the young boy.

Archer's dialog was superb. Telling SIM he would kill him to save Trip (to save Enterprise, to save Earth) reflected how complicated real-life situations really are. What would you do? Personally I problably couldn't kill Sim, while at the same time knowing full well that I probably should.

For me, end-justify-the-means arguments almost never hold up. But what if the whole world were at stake? What if not just your humanity but all humans faced imminent destruction? In that scenario all bets are off.

Great Trek.

Well, that was... Different. I'm not really sure how I felt about this one. So, here are my thoughts in general:

PRO:

1. I liked the ambitiousness of the plot. Thank God this wasn't another "Archer goes to jail" episode!

2. Call me an old softie over here, but I liked Sim's interaction with T'Pol. I thought it was sweet, well acted and hit all the right marks.

3. I liked the imagery of the barnacle things on the ship. Nice work from the effects department there.

4. I connected with little Trip on an emotional level.

5. Travis finally got a line.

CONS:

1. As was the case with the first two seasons, Archer is still an idiot. But, now he's an angry idiot who apparently doesn't shave anymore. I'm not sure this is an improvement. I'm getting a very "George W Bush presents Homeland Security" vibe from Archer this season, and the idea of George W Bush in space does not thrill me.

2. If the clone only lives for 15 days, wouldn't whatever they transplant into Trip have a similar shelf life? I actually had a harder time with that part than with the memory thing.

3. It bothered me that the barnacles on the hull came off so easily when they left where ever it is that they were stuck. It sort of took some of their bite away.

4. Archer threatening to kill Sim was very un-Trek-like. I also felt that whole enzyme plot twist came out of nowhere. Everything from the Sim talking about it in sick bay to Archer's psychotic freak out in Trip's quarters was kind of a mess.

5. Phlox's zoo is starting to bother me a little bit too. How many creatures does he have in there? How does he feed them all? How come future trek doctors don't have a petting zoo in their cabinets?


Conclusion:

All in all, I'd have to say this episode was a success only because it provoked such polarized responses from the other commenters here. It was far from perfect. But, still, I'd rather see this than most of the mediocre material Enterprise usually puts out.

Once again, Enterprise takes potentially great material, both from the narrative and the ethical standpoints, and makes a big mess of it.

I will say this right from the start: I'm not even put off by the pseudo-science that is thrown at us during these 40 minutes, and that says a lot given my field of studies (B.Sc in Biology). Yes, memories that are passed through DNA is very hard to swallow, but there IS such a thing of "suspension of disbelief" and even though I agree (like some of the previous readers commented) Star Trek is usually rooted in science, I don't mind short excursions into the realm of fantasy to serve the plot, for as long as it makes a compelling storyline. The problem here is that said compelling storyline suffers so much from its other flaws, it makes the entire trip like a picnic on Qo'noS. So unpleasant one wishes at least the science were sound.

In fact, I'll go one step further: Watching this episode unfold is like witnessing Rodin sculpt "The Thinker" with a sledgehammer. There is no room for grace, subtlety, or nuance, a concept which alas could easily be applied to the rest of the series.

For starters, the opening scene (before the theme song rolls): it takes less than 40 seconds between the opening shot and the camera moving and stopping on Trip (Sim) lying horizontal in a coffin, supposedly the big "dun dun" moment the writers were aiming for. Uhm... have you ever of building *suspense*? I don't know, perhaps something like Hoshi sitting sadly in the cafeteria, cut to two crewmen talking to each other in the hallway and exchanging memories on the defunct character (something which could be applied both to Trip and Sim, but would not yet reveal the identity of the deceased), cut to Archer writing in his journal about someone dying. I don't know, something *intelligent*! Instead, the short span of time before the annoying music plays says nothing more to the viewers than "it looks like Trip is dead". Just plain lazy!

As for the whole ethical issue, it's the episode's biggest flaw. First, there is the lack of accountability: creating a sentient being and sending him to his death simply for the purpose of saving another one raises a lot of ethical & moral issues. The episode attempts to tackle some of them, but the way it handles itself is less than satisfactory. "Even if I have to kill you" says Archer? Really? Is this what it's come to? Losing one's humanity at the cost of completing a mission, as vital for mankind as it may be? Trek's main strength has always been the high moral character of its captains: Kirk, Picard, Janeway, even Sisko... and yet with Archer we have consistently thrown all that out the airlock in this series. All because of the "increasingly catch-all excuse of We Must Save Earth At All Costs". Jammer could not have said it better.

But even so (and this brings me back to the sledgehammer issue), if Archer had to convey the message he was going to use "every means necessary" to save Trip, even at the cost of killing Sim... could he not have been more *SUBTLE*!!? Could he at least have strongly *implied* it, so that Sim would understand, but not explicitly state it? The writers are obviously going for the shock-effect, but it's so out of Trek-character it was less shocking and more actually disgusting for me. I suppose emanding subtlety from B&B and a series known to include fart jokes and even one "peeing in a cup" in this episode is too much. Finally, I completely agree with Jammer's comment on Archer's extreme swings of behavior (first when Sim believes that he must sacrifice himself to save Trip, Archer tells him "We don't see it that way,"; then later after Sim expresses a desire to live, Archer pulls a 180º and tells him he has no rights). Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to describe it.

I dare postulate that if this situation had presented itself on TNG, Picard would have eventually refused to operate on Sim, citing his humanity as the moral guide. And obviously for the sake of the story, Sim (who at first would have expressed a desire to remain alive) would then have agreed to sacrifice himself for the sake of the crew. Because he *understood*. And because after all, the crew were his friends: he had the memories of the original copy (Trip on this Enterprise), and therefore every meaningful person to the original would have also been meaningful to him. Kinda like it's done here when Trip references his sister, in a much less subtle/creative way.

Such a damn shame.

I cried at the end of this episode. I thought the acting was excellent.

I'm not sure what I would have done in all those circumstances, but FWIW I found the characters attempts to deal with them engaging.

I cried too- inside and how goddamn awful this episode was- the science was a complete joke but I just couldnt care less about SIM- it was fodder from the teaser for God sakes. And Archer was a monster.

I am considering giving up on this show again (I dedided to back and watch from season 2 onwards to see the supposed improvements) but I just find the main characters so horrible- there is no one with any true trekkian morals, they are all self serving George Bush types. Archer was monstorous in this episode, he is no role model for any viewer- even Janeway was more thoughtful than this.

Tuvix was a masterpiece compared to this dull and ludicrous episode.

It's all so easy to condemn Archer, but no one has ever been under the pressure he is. He has the survival of his entire species on his shoulders. The end really does justify the means. Why lose your highly talented Chief Engineer for a guy that will be dead in a week? IMO morality has to be brushed aside when billions of lives are at stake.

I'm sure Archer would be more than happy to be called a murderer if his mission was a success. Small price to pay.

It's too bad those transferred memories included that idiotic accent...

My reaction to this episode is similar to "The Visitor"...I watched it, scratched my head and found it had some good ideas, some silly ideas and generally mixed execution, only to discover that people were moved to tears by it...

I have to say, if I were to point to the greatest problem with the episode, it's that the character motivations and the acting don't open the doors for me to care about the moral arguments. Add to that the fact that the "debate" (as others have pointed out) is barely presented in the dialogue. In "Tuvix," no one suggested that either Tuvok or Neelix were irreplaceable, and the performances by Lien and Mulgrew especially were so strong and committed, that I cared about the fate of a character created in the span of 45 minutes. Here, we get to see a snap-shot version of Trip's life (a character whom we know) and little in the way of performance lends itself to scrutiny.

I have a big issue with the way T'Pol is portrayed in this episode in particular--what backwater school of emotional repression did she attend to get choked up when Sim confesses a crush on her.

Is this another score by that new Trek composer? I am extremely impressed by his work, it made a mediocre episode palatable.

2 stars.

This is an exploration of medical ethics through science fiction. Do clones have rights? That's the question. According to Archer they don't; they are for bodyparts -- similar to the thinking of villain in the movie The Island. To have Simb go along with this and let Archer off the hook, ethically, seems an easy way out. Tuvix was a better episode because Janeway had to make the decision -- and she chose murder of Tuvix to save Neelix' and Tuvok's lives. In this situation, Simb had a right to expect help from Phlox to live longer, as least as much as Trip had a right to live as well. Archer's willingness to kill Symb to save Trip is ethically questionable, and probably based on his speciesism -- that Symb was not really human in his mind. But he was a sentient being and thus had basic rights. How convenient that he gave his life up that way. What if he had not done so willingly? The only person who showed any compassion was T'Pol, but only because she knew Symb was going to die -- the equivalent of mercy sex. Like Jammer, I was disturbed by Archer's simplistic thinking and rationale for allowing this to proceed. One man should not be irreplaceable. Perhaps it was his friendship to Tucker that really influenced him. This episode seems to argue - as did Janeway in Tuvix - that the mission is worth violating ethics for. But if that is so, why? Why pretend to be a moral society dedicated to freedom, rights, etc. if it's not really true? The hypocrisy of this way of thinking seems to mirror the hypocrisy of humanity, as least in liberal industrial society, which is so deeply embedded most people cannot recognize it.

Killing one life to save billions ... this is called utilitarianism. The problem with it is that utilitarian thinking is often unnecessary. Better, more inclusive solutions can be found, solutions that can save everyone. Who really has the right to play God, to give and take away life like that?

"The utilitarian analysis often rests on imprecise judgements of the utility calculus itself . . . assuming that questions of value can be reduce to a quantifiable amount" (ethicist Donald Brown).

Here we see Archer make a judgement that Trip's life is more important than Symb's. On what basis? They are identical people, so why is one more valuable than another? Because the one is human and the other isn't?

I think it’s safe to say at this point that -- just based on the polarizing comments posted here -- this episode was a little underrated. The ep was well-acted, well-produced, and featured a SCI-FI spin on a contemporary "ripped from the headlines" story. This thing works on many levels. And "the kiss" at the end was the clincher for me. Three-and-a-half stars.

This is the same kind of clunky clap-trap as 'Tuvix'.

Interesting comments.

This episode did nothing for me. I could not help comparing to Tuvok and maybe since the other series have done the provoking topics there is nothing ground breaking left for this series.

Wow... just.... wow.
It was an amazing episode, as in it's probably one of the most shocking things I've seen in all of Trek. But that's not... really a good thing. Once again, it was gripping and thought provoking, but staggeringly cynical and anti-Trek.

Personally I wasn't bogged down by the implausible science. Yes it's one of those cases where it heads more towards fantasy than sci-fi... whatever... they're similar enough. Most scientists have argued that warping space is a bit far fetched too, now look, apparently it's not as difficult as previously thought if you don't mind wiping out the system at the other end. Things change.

But I was certainly depressed and disturbed by the darker than ever nature of the episode. (And also to tears - I did get emotionally invested in it, setting the science behind me). At this rate I'm not surprised Star Trek was put out of its misery a season later - the soul of it is gone. Gone is the "we can find better solutions to our problems and save humanity by BEING human" (something Archer himself said a few episodes back), gone is the idea of humanity turning to barbaric solutions to its problems.

I'm struggling to motivate myself to continue watching the show, but I'm a completionist and will see it through.
I really hope there were consequences to this for Archer. Frankly I think the guy needs to be hauled in front of a court martial because he's a torturer and very nearly a murderer (arguably something similar), but that wouldn't help save his character, only the optimism of the show. He needs... NEEDS to struggle to live with this. So far every time we've seen him tossing and turning in bed it's been excused as things like a bad skin rash. Sorry, no, this man needs a conscience or he's just irredeemable. Even

Interesting debate.

Like a few others here, I'm not too sure what to make of it.

- Good idea; Poor science.

- Occasionally moving; Occasionally too easy.

But ultimately, I think it's still better than the average Enterprise ep to this point.

The DNA memories were just impossible to accept. Star Trek has a history of plots based on DNA magic. This was one of the worst. I guess the theory behind this episode is he was aging rapidly and at each age he had the memories that trip had at that age. It's so bizarre that I can't suspend disbelief because I'm not even clear what the episode is asking me to believe.

I had no problem accepting the sci-fi contrivance of cloning Trip. I mean, think about it--on a show where a "universal translator" can somehow render a never before encountered alien language into Engish within seconds, is Trip's clone any worse? In fact, Trip's clone isn't even in the same league. The universal translator simply IS NOT POSSIBLE, yet we all just accept it. I think an organism that can grow human cells into a clone is far less ridculously implausible than that.

I rate this 3.5 stars.

I thought it was an interesting episode. Although some people are saying the writers were courageous - and they were more courageous than usual - I think they actually punted on the ethical dilemma. By giving Sim such a short lifespan, they made Archer's decision much easier. It is easy to deprive someone of 5 or 6 days of life - a harder decision when it's 50 to 60 years. And I know we could look at it in terms of percentages, but most people don't function that way.

Sometimes you do have to ask people to die to save the majority. We've seen this in Star Trek II, when Spock sacrificed himself, and in a TNG episode where Deanna realizes in a command simulation that sometimes you have to order people into a situation in which they will die. In this case Sim wasn't given any choice.

I agree that Archer is sometimes a little too much like GW Bush, which may be one of the reasons that this show did not do so well, but I liked this episode. I thought the acting was fine. Young Trip/Sim was very, very good, excellent for a child actor; the scenes between Trip/Sim and T'Pol were touching. Sim's telling Phlox he was a good father was touching, too.

As for the holes in the science, well, there are so many holes in the science - or holes in what we understand.

Could have so easily been better.
Instead of the awful "even if it means killing you" scene, Archer could say, Enterprise needs Trip, can you be Trip? Sim says, I'm better than Trip! I'm Trip and Sim. Archer says, Okay, I'll talk to the doctor. (As noted, Sim had proven his engineering capabilities!)
Option 1: Phlox determines that the experimental procedure for Sim is likely to work, saves Sim, Sim replaces Trip. (Trip can either die, or more interestingly, hang around in sick bay. Maybe at one point they can find another cure and we can have a neat few episodes with both of them!)
Option 2: Phlox determines that the experimental procedure for Sim is unlikely to work, Archer tells Sim that he needs one of them and Trip is his best bet. Then it makes sense for Sim to reluctantly agree to sacrifice himself.
As is, Archer again just comes off as an awful person and bad captain.

I have to admit: This is the first episode of Enterprise that moved me. Yeah the science made no sense and the ethics were questionable, but accepting all that, I was moved by Sim's predicament and his choice to place the needs of the others above himself. It seemed like the thing Trip would have done. And who can't be happy about a guy getting his dream kiss? :)

Mark - I've been thinking about the UT too, and I've concluded that the only way to understand it is that it's a telepathy machine... it makes you hear the thoughts of the other alien in your language, and it manipulates your speech centers/ functions/ whatever into speaking an alien language. That's the only way to understand it. That also helps understand why sometimes we "hear" Klingons or whoever speaking their own language in a rite or ritual, because they want us to hear their own language, and the universal telepathy machine picks up on that desire that they have that others hear them speak in their own language.

Otherwise of course, totally impossible, as every single word in every language has a long history that has taken it to where it is: culture, trends, history, geography etc., all have an impact, and there's no way a universal translator based on decoding syntax could possible decipher that in a few seconds.

As for the ep., I think Jammer was a little harsh, definitely better than the Enterprise standard

Hmm, seems like most people either loved this or hated it. Personally, I liked it a lot. It's too bad that so many allowed their dislike for the premise to color their enjoyment of the episode. I found it very moving. Easily three stars at least.

This was a very moving episode. I loved Sim and I am troubled that Phlox and Archer couldn't figure out some way to save him. Why not "sacrifice" him to save Trip, but also use the white-blob creature to form another clone: a Sim 2, so to speak. He would be the same, with the memories of Trip and Sim 1, and Sim 1 would live on through him. (Like the Weyouns, or Will and Tom Riker.) It's just a a thought. T'Pol's kiss was sweet and real--unlike the tacky, silly, emotionless neuro-pressure scenes. Watching Enterprise for the first time, and taking these episodes one-by-one, I think that the lower moral tone is sad in a beloved franchise that caught our imaginations and gave us such a hopeful view of the future. I wouldn't mind romance or sex if if wasn't portrayed so stupidly. And worse yet, the killing off of populations "just because" (Dear Doctor, Crossings) seems the opposite of what Trek is all about. Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway: I think they would have found a way to save Sim, save the planet in DD, and establish a relationship with those wispy puffballs .

I think this was one of the most powerful episodes in the whole series so far. Yes, the moral dilemmas are extreme, but that’s kinda the whole point, shaking things up.

I also don’t get people griping about “this isn’t Trek”. Star Trek was not always about uplifting stories of a hippie-commie dreamland of the 24th century. It *always* had a darker side, even in the main characters. You also have to remember that this is the very beginning of the Trek universe, long before Kirk and Picard, long before centuries of progress in the Federation. Archer is no angel, but then again he shouldn’t be — he is a person of his time. It’s like whining about a story about the Vikings showing them bashing people’s skulls in.

OF COURSE Archer isn’t the marble god that Picard is, because he’s centuries before Picard and doesn’t have the experience and perspective that Picard has. The Prime Directive resulted from the lessons learned by Archer’s people, but those lessons were learned from *mistakes*. Obviously the crew of NX-01 and later crews had to make those mistakes in order for them to be learned from in the first place.

Archer is also in an impossible situation. Sacrifice Trip for Sim’s sake, and he effectively consigns all of humanity to oblivion. The pressure on him is immense. Is that utilitarianism? Of course it is, and it shows to what extremes human beings in such a situation are being driven. Would any of the posters behaved any differently in the same situation? I doubt it.

So I would have actually been pretty pissed if they magically came up with some solution to Sim’s predicament while also saving Enterprise and Earth with it. THAT would have been the easy and more comfortable route, but it would also have made Archer and Phlox unbelievable under the circumstances. Archer made a stupid decision in the first place that created the dilemma, but he’s only human, not Superman.

Meanwhile the remark that Archer was negligent for only having one top-notch engineer is bizarre. The NX-01 is a small ship only has just so much space for personnel, and has so many different needs, plus they’ve taken on an extra military crew for obvious reasons, so it’s not like they would have had the luxury of bringing along a few extra engineers. We simply don’t know if engineers of Trip’s caliber and knowledge are that commonly available — again this is Starfleet in its very earliest days! — and after all the whole mission was cobbled together as an emergency operation. Hardly as if every eventuality could be planned for. You may as well rip on NASA for not having crammed loads of extra pilots and engineers on board Apollo 11’s lunar module in case Buzz Aldrin got a toothache.

I thought the acting, direction and production were top-notch (and what's with the people bitching about Trip’s accent? I'm from the South and love it). I’d give this one 3.5 out of 4.

I agree with what some of the other posters wrote about some people never being satisfied: This is a classic case of “Enterprise” can’t win and that not even Shakespeare could save Trek from the nitpicking canon/science nerds. Maybe it really is better to let Trek die, not because it’s out of ideas, but because its fans simply can’t be satisfied anymore even when Trek *does* produce something thought-provoking, moving, and difficult.

Actually, I was Trekked out after Voyager and only made it through a season of Ent. Recently have given S2-S4 a try (because I've heard 3&4 is good compared to VOY) and episodes like this are exactly as you say they were. There's a real "needs of the many" argument here that say Tuvix was lacking. Janeway didn't need to kill Tuvix because Tuvix was a great security chief. If Tuvix say didn't have Neelix/Tuvok's memories and was just a different person it might have been more interesting because of how short handed they were and how irreplaceable each highly experienced staff member was. This episode's moral dilemma had a weight to it that was impressive.

Had this been Picard's Enterprise where they could have just gone back to Starbase and picked up another chief engineer Picard wouldn't have been able to force Sim Geordi to undergo the procedure. But faced with what Archer is faced with? That's good stuff.

I didn't like the way that Archer made it seem like Sim had a choice and then totally flipped on it, but the end result was that Archer would have forced him. It was nice (because Archer has been through a lot this year) that the script didn't make him pull that trigger, but it was NOT wishy washy about the fact that he would have and should have, even if it was ethically murky. And that's pretty cool.

Very much an Edith Keeler must die moment. Lot of parallels to the greyest moments that the characters in TOS/DS9 have faced. I like this one.

I dock it a star for the weirdness with Sim getting Trip's memories/feelings for T'Pol as well as Archer's flip floppy. But those oddities can be overlooked since the rest was strong. 3 stars.

Huh, I commented after reading John's comment to agree with it... it seems many of you already made the Tuvix connection but most of you liked that one better. That's pretty shocking to me.... the ending of Tuvix was so horrible I think it ruined a little bit of every other character for me because they didn't object (except Kes because she was literally a child and her side was acted really well in this episode and the doctor because he did in fact object). I'm shocked!

Ya, I agree with Robert, the Tuvix thing was so hokey and contrived (even by Trek standards) that I hated it, so I’m equally surprised to see people comparing Sim to Tuvix unfavorably.

I never liked “Voyager” much anyway and thought most of it was lame as hell — wooden acting, cardboard cartoony characters (Kim, Tuvok, and above all Neelix), way too goody-two-shoes at times. While I’m only in the middle of S3, and while S1 and 2 were admittedly very uneven, I think “Enterprise” is turning out much better than “Voyager” did. Looking forward to the rest and hope it doesn’t let me down.

Very moving episode. I had tears in my eyes at the end, and I credit Connor Trineer's acting. The first young boy who was young Sim/Trip was spot on, too.

Watching him decide to give his life for the ship... so moving, and so in character - after all, the real Trip was about to crawl out of a derelict shuttlepod's airlock to give Reed a couple of more days of life in a previous episode.
Any lesser actor, and it wouldn't have been nearly as good. I loved the kiss -- of course, we know Trip doesn't know about it, but T'Pol does, and I'm interested to see if it colors their relationship from here on out.

Archer... eh. I can't get worked up over him or his ludicrous decisions, or how he bounces like a pinball from one viewpoint to another, from understanding to demanding and angry -- there's not much middle ground with him. He can be so volatile and bombastic. This time I actually do think he took a realistic position, however, because of the fate of humanity resting on his shoulders. Once he made the decision to grow the clone, he was in for a pound.

I hadn't thought of him being like GW Bush. UGH. I don't want to think about Bush while watching Trek. Blech.

I agree that the writers definitely let Archer off the hook when Trip willingly agrees to the procedure. But the confrontation in Trip's quarters followed up by the resolution in the shuttle bay rings true for Trip as a character that would give his life to save his friends. Further, I really enjoyed seeing Archer unshaven, dead eyed - burned out. This is clearly a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders and his depiction is very reminiscent of Captain Picard in "Yesterday's Enterprise" or the borg-war crazy Alterna-Riker in "Parallels".

Archer is tired of making the big decisions and tired of being trapped in hopeless situations. It seems like the Enterprise is running out of luck and the Captain needs a break. I don't think its lost on him that saving humanity might mean killing his friend and it feels right that Sim, in an act of friendship, wants to make this one awful decision a little easier for Archer.

Pretty good episode!

At least they were trying to do something a bit different and original. A few scientific/logical flaws but the whole thing was saved by reasonable acting and other strengths highlighted by John Gs comments above.

More of a success than a failure for me, maybe even 3 out of four stars.

Good grief, folks, there is a reason it's called science FICTION! Those of you, including Jamal, complaining about the so-called "bad science" need to consider that transporter technology is pure fantasy (how many episodes throughout Star Trek were based on the transporter, starting with "The Enemy Within"), yet I don't hear you bitching about that. This was a great moral dilemma that was created, and I thought the acting all around was superb. It's a no win situation for everyone involved, and the conclusion leaves feeling as though there was no good answer, other than the mission must press forward... 3.5 stars, easily!

Describing this episode as problematic would be an understatement.

Similitude is an example of the worst sort of melodrama: deliberate, nonsensical plot contrivances intended to produce contradicting conflicts which are meant to solicit irrational sympathies from the audience.

What makes it all so seductive is the quality of the performances, which lends an air of legitimacy to what is really a very manipulative ball of confusion.

Good grief, folks, there is a reason it's called science FICTION!
---------

This statement is as old as the dinosaurs and is only written by people who totally do not understand storytelling. A fiction does not give a writer the right to totally contravene the universes own internal logic. It has a limit. It especially has a limit when the universe in question is our own. Good storytelling has a balance and clever sci-fi is clever. Please, please learn this.

I'm on the fence for this one. The story was about something interesting for a change, but the plot had too many contrivances. It could have been interesting if Sim didn't have Trip's memories. That part was too convenient in setting up conflict and strained any scientific belief. On the other hand, Trineer did some fine acting in this episode and the outcome had some emotional resonance despite the absurd science and contrivances.

At the story intro, it was funny how the camera last panned to Mayweather, I thought he might be the one to play dead for the entire episode since he doesn't get a chance to do or so much anyway. Poor guy...

This was the first episode of this series to make me cry, and I'm not a crier. Sure, I struggled with the genetic duplication of emergent memory and some of the practical considerations for spectacularly rapid (relative to our experience) development, but in the end Connor Trinneer's performance as Sim, tensioned against my experiences of the series' understanding of Charles Tucker III, blew me away. I suspended the speculative fiction considerations for the power of what in my opinion was one of the finest episodes of the series I've seen so far.

When I saw Tucker dead in the operating scene, I cringed thinking, "Not another reset button episode!"

When Phlox explained the cloning procedure I cringed again at the ridiculous science.

But despite that I got pulled into the episode and enjoyed it a lot.

I don't think Sim finally volunteering to give his life took away from the moral dilemma aspect, as Archer had already decided he was going to die. It did put a much happier spin on the ending, making Sim a hero rather than making Archer a possible villain.

What did sort of dilute the moral dilemma is that the entire population of Earth would likely perish if they did not sacrifice Sim's last few days or a small chance at a longer life.

If it had merely been Sim's life vs Trip's or Sim's life vs. Enterprise and the lives of its crew the decision might have gone the other way or been more difficult . But 5 days of life for one clone vs the survival of humanity made it much easier to rationalize.

Perfect science fiction story.

I respect your review, but I don't agree with it.

Just watched this again. It holds up even better than I thought.

Just one quick point on the subjecivity of these reviews. I am astounded that you gave Twilight nearly a perfect score for the very same reason you disliked this one. The convenient reboot of time through some bizarre theory of parasites affecting Archer's brain that could be undamaged through time? It completely spoiled it for me.

Were there better ways that they could've explained the cloning? Yes. Artificial acceleration of the clone's growth would've amped up the controversy and made more sense about its short life span, and I suspect that's what would've accounted for it. It makes the cloning more transparently disturbing and permits the delusion that the clone would never survive and have a life anyway.

DId I regret the "wap this up in 45 minutes" plot? Yes. It would've been much more interesting to drop the extreme acceleration and carry this plot out over several episodes, to let T'Pol's exploration of her feelings play out more dramatically as well, not just leave it ambiguous whether she had a moment of empathy to give Sim/Trip a goodbye kiss. And to play out the possibility that the saving of Sim might work.

Harder choices, less tidy outcomes would've elevated this to significant storytelling affecting the series, but it's well done nonetheless.

All and all, I liked this episode. 3 stars from me.

The science was pretty good, actually. At least, it was pretty good for Star Trek, which was never meant to be super-hard sci fi.

The only thing that was a stretch, was the fact that Sim got Trip's memories which unfolded neatly and chronologically as he aged. But I can forgive this because:

1. It can be rationalized in many ways. Who knows? Maybe the body does "back-up" the brain state into it's chemistry somehow, in a way we currently don't understand. The raw info-processing power is certainly there.

2. Phlox himself seemed surprised that it happened. In other words, it is obvious that the writers knew that ordinary cloning doesn't work like that.

3. It was completely necessary for the dramatics of the story.

As for the ethics of the episode: I don't necessarily think that forcing Sim to sacrifice himself was morally wrong. BUT what really bugged me, is that none of the good arguments in favor of this course of action, were mentioned onscreen.

And these arguments are many: For one, if Archer sacrifices Trip for Sim, he will likely lose both of them. And it *is* the job of a starship captain to order crewmen to sacrifice themselves for the safety of the ship and/or (in certain circumstances) the success of the mission.

But none of this is even hinted onscreen. It just seems that Archer, once again, makes an arbitrary decision for all the wrong reasons. And this is the only reason I wouldn't give this episode a 4-star rating.

The only thing I had a problem with in this episode was who aboard Enterprise is the ultra-fast baby/kid outfitter? (I'll explain the feed bottle away as something Phlox uses in his zoo.)
I couldn't not think of Tuvix, which I liked a lot, and I do like Enterprise, which I find vastly superior to anything else since TOS, one big reason being the lack of wallpaper characters like Troi, Chakotay, or God forbid, Worf.
And I totally condone John G's outburst about not expecting impeccable Trek behaviour from characters who don't have at least 100 years of Trek hindsight to guide them.

What an episode. Screwed up situation? you got that right. Beautifully done.

And yes, I cried at the kiss. Sweetly handled.

Everyone forgets Enterprise 1 or whatever was a military ship on a military mission with a commander trained in military doctrine and I suppose engineering.

With the sole exception of Defiant/Sao Paolo, which weren't put into situations like this regularly.Medical ethics are shakier than we give them credit for. In a sense you could look as Sim as a facsimile of trip and nothing else. Of course it would behoove them to write more thought/rationale into audible dialogue.

The episode where he essentially left a ship with a full compliment of civilians derelict in an act of plunder, now that was a moral dilemma. This was too, and it affected me without thinking too much about the implications of ancestral memory (look up holonomic brain theory, apparently memory isn't even locally stored. I don't know much about it but it didn't ruin Dune for me.) I found the affection for this scion of Lt Cmdr was he? Tucker and it moved me deeply.

The only thing that keeps this episode from being a slam dunk 4 star is the very thing that the very similar Tuvix didn't duck - that in the end it was Sim's nobility and self-sacrifice that prevented Archer having to make a life or death call, and in so doing got the writers out of a big hole by having Archer take such an extreme position.

But that aside this was something of a tour de force - provoking and affecting in equal measure with some really strong performances and many great scenes. "Damn, this is a screwed-up situation" indeed. 3.5 stars.

Your review, as always, entirely echoes my own. There is a real moral dilemma here, and the acting (from Bakula and Trinneer) is really stellar. But the writing is a big let-down. There's far too much pseudo-science, too much resting on the magic sickbay, too many cliches and contrivances. And ultimately, the result isn't a heightened moral dilemma but a confusing mess of unbelievable and muddled plot.

Still, the episode was sad (it did, at least, evoke an emotion), and it was an attempt at something interesting. It's just a shame that it was let down by what can only be too little thought, care, and time spent.

I also want to say thanks for these reviews. I know they're a decade old, but I'm keeping up with them now partly because it's remarkable how similarly we think. I'm yet to find one that I hadn't independently given the same rating and found the same things to praise or criticise. Thanks again.

TV rarely makes me cry. When it does, I honor the work of those who created it.

The DNA doesn't include memories argument has an answer--epigenetics. Relatively new data show that PTSD can be transmitted from parents. Our DNA and bodies are far more plastic and adaptable than our current science dreams of...

Our current cloning technology doesn't do this but his do we know it can't?

In addition to honoring stories that spontaneously cause me to laugh or cry, I also honor those that invite vigorous debate. Therefore, this one is 4.

Denying a Race the cure for a plague and now cloning a sentient being to harvest its organs. Now i'm convinced that Phlox could have pulled off a proposed episode in season 4 where he would go crazy and start secretly building Frankenstein like monsters out of his sickbay animals and some of the crew.

I liked this episode 3 stars.

As has been noted, this is basically "Tuvix," only without the teeth.

I loved Similitude because of a few reasons
1. Any Star Trek fan of the original series knows the show has unrealistic superhero ways of saving the all important Crew and the real interesting question is this a cool way that they saved the Star Trek world?
For me it was a strong yes.
The character bonds of loyalty and friendship is the real draw for me in the series because I feel it is something we all would love to have in a perfect world so that is why I ignore the Big Bang Therory arguments of making it work because it would probably take way too long to tell the story correctly in less than an hour.

The topics that are addressed are Sim's complete innocence. Trip is flawed in many ways but Sim is a clone innocence. His life is so short lived that it represents pure innocence which is a great topic to ponder.
I also like the dilemma of whose feelings love T'pol, Trip or Sim and I also love the logic with T'Pol's affectionate kiss because how could she logically evaluate that innocence other than pure. I liked the fact that Sim's short love of his life gave him the perfect goodbye.

I loved Sim's attitude of such a short life better say the most important things to the most important people like calling Phlox a good father since that was truly his reality.
Sim's Sacrifice and his reasoning that was his meaning to life, what he is here for that question we all ponder and see he is part of a greater whole.

I also liked the way they started with the funeral and it didn't take long knowing Star Trek that it was Sim's funeral but it was a cool mix of bringing up a possible cure for Sim and his desire to live and the end result of although his life was only days it was far more significant than most people accomplish in decades of life.

I liked the Porthos scenes with Sim since dogs also have a short life and innocences and I think we all that love dogs can relate to Sim's death like a beloved pet.

The connections with this episode are to many important life's questions and dilemmas.

This world is flawed but it sure is nice to escape to the Star Trek world where they solve all of these mysteries in less than an hour and this episode hit on my favorites.

I wonder why they didn't develop the story along the lines of Sim really being a part of Trip, to ultimately be reunited to Trip in the conclusion. That would be a whole lot more positive than coercing Sim to die to save Trip. Sim knew he would die in a few days, but as Trip would have a chance at a normal adult lifespan. I agree with others also that other crew needed to have opportunity to react and voice their responses. This story made Archer into an ugly utilitarian which is not who he really is.

Re-watched this, and still like it, as I wrote upthread almost three years ago. Still a very emotional story, despite all the ridiculous science. It holds up well, and I have to pretty much respectfully disagree with Jammer's review. I'd give it a good three stars.

Zero stars. I love Star Trek in every incarnation, but this manipulative and contrived episode is a textbook example of "too far." While not quite as bad as "Dear Doctor," it's one of the most morally disturbing things I've seen on Trek, and not in a good way.

The idea of the grew growing a clone who retains the memories of the original person, and then killing him to save the original person, fails here because of the utter lack of moral considerations or consequences. The episode never seems to consider that Archer and Phlox made a mistake by rushing ahead irresponsibility with a medical procedure that had all sorts of unanswered moral questions. And whatever happened to patient consent in the 22nd century? Are you telling me Trip didn't have a "Do Not Revive" order for this kind of case?

As Jammer says, although I don't know why he didn't object to it in "Dear Doctor," Dr. Phlox seems to be the most charmingly amoral person you'll ever meet. And that amorality as a counterpart to human morality seems to be designed into his character, making him into a sort of Doctor Frankenstein who always has some new and dubious procedure ready to go in what Jammer aptly calls his chamber of horrors. After convincing us in "Dear Doctor" that it could be morally wrong to withhold a cure from sick people in desperate need of help, Phlox convinces us here that it's okay to clone a human being without his knowledge and without any scientific data on what will happen. Um, thanks, but no thanks. This is profoundly dumb and offensive on so many levels.

I liked this episode a lot. When they kiss at the end I started crying. I don't think the science is unbelievable. After all, this is Star Trek, with Borg cubes, Q and whatnot. A touching story about what it means to make a sacrifice, about an extremely difficult decision and about love.

I liked this episode. That's it.

Before I tell you what I think of this episode, can I just get this off my chest: I have suspected for some time, and now I pretty much believe that Phlox is a psychopath.

So? I liked it a lot. It has all sorts of problems, but to appreciate it I needed to step back a little.

After all the nitpicking I've engaged in, along with most of you, I can hardly believe I'n writing this, but good SF - let's call it 'speculative fiction' is sometimes about ideas and hypotheticals, and accepting a lot of stuff which is unprovable at best, in order to explore the ramifications of a 'what if?' ('Hard' SF fans will disagree. I understand that, and I do like hard SF, but not exclusively.)

Phillip K Dick wrote some of the most admired SF of all time, but characters were seldom his long suite. Nor were coherent plots. The best Trek, OTOH, nearly always involves solid plotting and great characters - very probably because it's a TV series rather than a novel or short story, and you have to grow to like and believe in these people, or the whole 'enterprise' fails.

This episode is good SF, but maybe it's not great Trek.

Similitude only works if you're prepared to cut the writer's some slack on points of order, to be able to address the 'what if'. I don't know if it's remotely plausible that the events in this story could have unfolded the way they did, but if you accept that they do, accept furthermore the circumstances they happened in, and engage in the psychological, ethical and emotional issues that are produced, it's compelling, sometimes rivetting stuff. For once I'm prepared to forgo the nitpicking and just look at the issues which are thrown up, because they're so powerful.

There is only one thing I can think of which crosses the blood-brain barrier for me, and perhaps I just didn't get it: it seemed that when Sim learned he wouldn't survive the procedure, this was a qualitative, not just a quantitative game--changer, and not just for him but for Phlox, who almost grew a conscience (though I now suspect Phlox's conscience is a bit of a chimera). As I understood it, everyone knew from the outset that the symbiont was born to die in 15 days. That was the whole crux of the ethical dilemma from the get-go. To me, learning that this was going to happen slightly sooner didn't change the big picture that much. Did Archer and Phlox think this turn of events had made them murderers? Sorry, they crossed that bridge and burned it when they decided to initiate the process in the first place (may I add that Phlox's scenes with the baby were probably the most chilling moments I can recall from Trek. God, if there was still doubt after 'Dear Doctor', these moments put him up there with The Doctor with his ethical subroutines removed, or the dentist from 'Marathon Man')

I really liked this episode because it hit me on an almost visceral level. It was very emotional, and it had the ring of truth to it, even if it were for all I know, impossible.

I don't think I'm going to judge Archer. I wish he'd have had a few more obvious reservations, and earlier than he did, but the stakes were enormous.

What might be a better question, at least from a Trek fan's POV, is have the writers gone too far?

Funny how DS9 always gets called 'gritty'. It is my favourite series, but I never thought of if in terms of that adjective. If DS9 was gritty, what does that make this episode? A lot of you probably have an answer to that.

Suspension of disbelief, people, is the key to enjoying ANY Star Trek episode. Nitpicking over a fictional story is puerile, arrogant to the point of hubris, and thoroughly sanctimonious to the point of nausea.

I think Similitude was one of the best episodes of Enterprise, and that Enterprise as a series is very underrated. Archer was a bumbling fool due to being the FIRST, does anyone expect an intrepid novice to behave any differently?

For Chrissakes, most people sincerely believe in magical gods that created the universe from nothing, yet people rank on silly Star Trek stories that are simply STORIES from the mind of man.

That's why they call it "science fiction"; simply enjoy the STORY - anyone who actually thinks that "warp drive" or "transporters" will ever exist in any universe has lost contact with REALITY, just like those who think religious dogma is fact.

Suspension of disbelief is the basic prerequisite that allows us to consume any fiction, but emotions need to be earned. This episode doesn't remotely earn them.

This was an interesting hour of ENT - all about ethical debates and weird science. It comes down to how far the suspension of disbelief goes - can DNA bring memory along with it? And having a symbiont sitting in a jar turn into a human if injected with DNA? I don't know much about stem cells but I think this exceeds my suspension of disbelief. But nevertheless, I'll accept it to see what story is to be told.
There are a number of plot holes here - how the ship can't have a replacement for Trip on such a dangerous mission, how Phlox effs up with the idea that transplant won't kill Sim (unacceptable bumbling on his part), how Phlox even has one of these symbionts sitting in a jar in sickbay, and how Sim just agrees in the end because he doesn't want to live his life in a shuttlecraft out in space (why not just run around the ship and force Archer to basically kill him).
Still despite all the flaws in "Similitude" (agree with all the arguments Jammer's review makes) - I found it an engaging hour of sci-fi. It is conveniently resolved at the end - for Archer's benefit - as are many Trek episodes. And it does attempt to push the emotional buttons on love (T'Pol kiss at the end -- which I thought was ridiculous but some may think it's a nice touch I guess) and honoring the sacrifice of Sim (firing him off into space).
For me the episode just gets up to 3 stars. You could see the ethical issues coming and I didn't expect the episode to deal with them well, but it told a good story. I liked Bakula's acting here - his more resolute/pragmatic self which is quite different from S1 and S2.

No dilemma here. The clone was born to die. Save Trip; it die. Don't save Trip; they both die. If there really was a cure for clone Trip then Trip dies and clone Trip takes his place. He seemed capable enough, despite Archer's insistence that the ship needed Trip. Archer was acting out of pure emotion. So the only dilemma here was Archer reaching the conclusion that he didn't give two hoots about clone Trip. Sim was the perfect name for it.

I have just come to ENT in 2017. Despite it's bad previous reviews, I find the series quite good. Sure, a hero (and an Enterprise) before Kirk is somehow heressy to me but...

This time, I agree with those who said that Archer's spoken statement could have been less rude than "I musk kill you anyway". At least, I liked the detail of the unshaven, weary looks of him. Kind of visual indication of his stressed and somehow, remorsal state of mind.

I loved the final hearth - melting of T'Pol and the tasteful goodbye kiss. It was really touchy.

It was indeed a sad story but I believe that despite his short life span, Sim had a very, very intense one and it is at least a little consolation.

The reason I dislike this episode is that I don't believe any ethical person would create a clone they know will have to die, in order to save someone. It's just so morally repugnant and unbelievable that they would do that, and it casts the crew as monsters in my eyes. I'm all for moral gray areas (The episode Damage is a great exploration of this), but this is so over the top past the line that I wasn't able to buy in to the episode.

To me , this was an episode that jumped the shark.

"The reason I dislike this episode is that I don't believe any ethical person would create a clone they know will have to die, in order to save someone"

Every time a human life is create people know it will die. I don't think lifespan is what makes a life worthwhile (a life that lasts 100 years isn't necessarily more worthwhile than one lasts 10 days).

As someone pointed out near the top of the thread: the decision to create this life is analogous to parents who have another child in order to provide a tissue donor for one of their other children. I understand people may feel uncomfortable about that, but as long as the parents will love the new child, I have no problems with it. Similarly, I have no problems with the initial decision to create the new life in this episode. Again, I must emphasize: quality of life is not determined by lifespan!!!!

If they would have stuck to that premise, this might have been a strong, poignant episode, as we could watch a human lifespan play out over a relative blink of an eye (would have been even better if they gave him a lifespan of a few months, and had his life play out over half a season). The idea didn't need a forced conflict.

Of course, they had to pile on all sorts of twists & turns: DNA memories*! Now the procedure will kill Sim! now maybe there's a procedure to make Sim live a "normal" lifespan!

I didn't dislike the result, although I agree with some of the problems others have stated. The biggest problem is that all the twists took away time to really absorb & dwell on the ideas or to give much characterization (with an idea that opened the door for a lot of characterization). I'd give the episode 3 stars.


*They could have easily gotten away with not using DNA magic. Just say that the symbiont had some small amount of telepathic powers that let Sim absorb some of Trip's memories. Telepathy is a magic that's been in Trek a long time!

On a lighter note I was relieved to see Archer had let Porthos out of whatever cupboard he keeps him shut away in most of the time...

Re watching it again, third time, I would say I liked it better now than the previous viewings.

Scientifically or not, the most irritating thing was that due to the story plot it had to go very fast. I accept the cloning but growing something from 0y to 35y in 8 days was "unrealistic".

Though I think it was more about the moral dilemma. And it was at least three visible. Plox who used a dubious method, also admitting leaving out the option for a normal life span. Archer prepared to commit a "murder" and T'Pol's very mixed feelings which she for the firs time showed. But was the kiss her possibility to show her own feelings or was it a final logical gift to someone who loved her and scarified himself.

I join the comment from Mallory R. "Perfect science fiction story."

I don't think anyone realized that the clone was going to have Trip's memories. They probably thought they would have some zombie like thing lying around and then they would take part of it's brain without killing it, and it would die naturally in a couple weeks. Not much different than breeding a housefly that only lives a month. Not quite as easy of a decision to make with a human/slug clone, of course, but not so different as to be unthinkable.

And Phlox never says with any certainty that Trip's memories are coming through in his DNA. He just hypothesizes it. I prefer to think that the clone had some sort of telepathic link with it's original donor, like someone else mentioned earlier. Fixes all the stupid science stuff pretty well. Telepathy is accepted in ST very readily. And they never say for sure how it's happening, so telepathy sounds good to me.

Once they find out he is getting Trip's memories, that doesn't really change anything, besides providing some scenes of Sim interacting with the crew, it's still a very simple choice. At least that's how I see it. There is a chance that the treatment they talk about may save Sim, but maybe not. So there are 3 options: Either 100% Trip lives and 100% Sim dies, or 100% both Sim and Trip die, or 100% Trip dies and 50% Sim maybe lives, or maybe not. The only logical choice is, Trip lives and Sim dies. Sim's lifespan also doesn't even matter in the slightest to the choice.

Say you have 2 children. And someone is holding them hostage with a gun. They give you 3 choices. They will kill one and let one live, or they will kill both, or they will kill one and shoot the other in the stomach with a chance they may either live or die. Obviously you are going to pick the first option. Guaranteeing that one will live. Why would you possibly pick one of the other 2?

The only real moral/ethical dilemma in the episode was whether to create the clone in the first place. The dilemma was, Trip dies, or a clone that lives 2 weeks dies. That's it. Once that was decided, any dilemma was gone. It had to die, naturally or otherwise. Simple as that. Should they have created it in the first place? I think so. Otherwise they would have lost their Chief Engineer, and they are on a mission to save the entire human race, remember. One clone that only lives 2 weeks and dies anyway is not so great a sacrifice to save our whole species from extinction.

And anyone comparing this to the Tuvix episode needs to have their head examined. Janeway flat out commited murder in that episode.

For Tuvix the choice was like this. You have 2 children, but they both die. Then you have another child. Would you kill that child to bring the other 2 back to life? Of course not. Well some people might, I suppose. But I would imagine that 99% of people wouldn't do that. There is a distinct choice to be made with Tuvix. Either 100% Tuvix lives and 100% Neelix and Tuvok stay dead, or 100% Tuvix dies and 100% Neelix and Tuvok come back to life. One is leaving things be the way they are, the other is murder. And noone had even died technically speaking, they were just merged together, so that's even worse I think. They were both still there and alive in a way. Nothing bad would have happened had Tuvix lived.

Janeway chose murder, she did it because she wanted her friends back (why she would want Neelix back I don't understand, but whatever). Archer made a tough ethical decision to save his engineer, and possibly the entire human race, by cloning Trip, and then by picking the only logical choice that existed. The 2 aren't comparable.

3 1/2 stars from me.

It's not my favourite, but it had interesting points, even touching.
DNA memory is not good science, but it doesn't bother me more than teleport, warp motors or instant phone calls between people separated several light-years apart.

I expected the clone to be flat-minded or disrespected, but he turned out to be tender, a genius (like the real Trip, I guess) and treated by all like a family. I loved this, and how he actuallt became a good engineer and saved the ship once.

I hated the "I'll kill you even against your will" speech from Archer, but I guess he thought twice later and wouldn't have done it without Sim's permission. He actually waits until Sim decides, in the end.
This is harder than classic Trek, but I like it because it shows evolution: 23rd century standards aren't ready yet, and they can't appear out of the blue, there must be initial doubts.
It's clever to show how Archer (and Enterprise) evolve from their era (close to our G.Bush time and a world war) towards a better future: the 23rd century Trek standards.
This moral development sounds to me more interesting than an immobilistic saint approach:
Archer starts the Xindy arc and the Sim episode really darkly, but he becomes more understanding (and more Star Trek) in the end. This is what a prequel should be

I expected Sim to volunteer, in fact: he's brave just like Trip is. And I expect Trip to disagree with such an experiment happening without his consent.

One personal touch: two years ago, I attended a medical meeting where my father was told his cancer had no cure, chemo was not an option and only strong painkillers were available. He behaved basically calm, but his skin went gray and his gaze and voice changed nervously, like looking for a way out and not finding it.
The scene where Sim requests a treatment to extend his life, portrayed the same situation perfectly. Good job by the actor (Connor/Trip/Sim) and by makeup department. It twisted my guts.

I loved Sim overcoming this horror to become a hero, his engineering skills (not just a spareparts container), and T'Pol being sweet to him.
I just missed some serious research to extend his life, and some kindness from Malcolm.

This fully engaged me at an emotional and moral level. Couldn't quite believe they had the courage to take the route they did. Bravo. The underplaying by T'Pol and Phlox was heartbreaking, so much was left unsaid. They explored enough in the time they had. Sim had a wonderful naivety, and innocence, and that kiss broke me. Whilst T'Pol controls her emotions Blalock conveyed a deep empathy which is what Sim was falling in love with. The only downer for me was the way they began with the funeral. Otherwise 3.5 stars.

Interesting, but manipulative. You'd think most of the crew would have enough sense not to name and befriend the clone, because that will only make it harder to harvest the tissue and see him die in a matter of days. It's odd that "Sim" didn't realize he was aging faster than everyone else until someone told him. Wouldn't he feel his body changing and growing by the minute? The whole thing about a clone being grown from something off Phlox's shelf and Trip's memories being transferred to it via DNA is total nonsense IMO, and the ending was just a way for the writers to get out of the corner they'd painted themselves into. And do Starfleet really launch their dead into space? Urgh.

I agree with Jammer; 'Similitude' held my attention but I wasn't emotionally invested. The performances were great all around, though, and I respect Archer's determination to do whatever it takes to save one of his crew and stop the Xindi.

I agree with the haters here. There were too many plot contrivances that serve to make us (a) feel sympathy for Sim and admire his sacrifice and (b) make Archer's decisions come off as not that bad. These plot contrivances include:

(a) the idea of a clone going through a full human life cycle in 15 days - it doesn't really matter if you kill him to save Trip, he's going to die anyway
(b) the idea that Phlox thinks he could have done the transplant without killing the clone and then realizing too late he was wrong - serves to put the best possible gloss on Archer's initial decision to do the cloning in the first place
(c) the crud accumulating on Enterprise's hull that puts the ship in mortal danger - they really have to go with the procedure or else everyone will die SOON
(d) the ludicrous notion that Sim inherited Tripp's memories--it basically means Sim is Tripp and not someone with the mentality of a newborn infant, so he is given character, we respect his courage and feel sorry for him.

Basically this episode took the easy way out so characters can do horrific things without recognizing it. Think about how the episode would have played out if instead of this ridiculous cloning scenario, it turned out a crew member could donate their organs to save Trip, and it came down to Archer ordering them to do so, even if it meant killing them. That would have real consequences, both for the characters and for the viewers' ideas about them.

Would you give your life to save your child’s life?

Most people would say yes.

Would you give up your (clone) life to save your own (original) life?
Would you give up your (original) life to save your own (clone) life?

Yes and yes.

No moral dilemma.

Amounted to Tuvix without the unintentional humor. Interesting moral question but its too neatly resolved with a feel good ending to have any real impact.

Contrivences, god playing and sick choices. But still a watchable episode because we care about Trip. And the clone happens to be a nice guy too, but a little more sensitive than Tucker, which was interesting too see.

"a little more sensitive than Tucker". Well yeah, a man facing his own execution might be a tad emotional.

The bad science, eh, its star trek, treks got a lot of gibberish science (I do however rue that my grand prediction of "higgs boson" abuse in ST:DISCO hasnt come true). The details should serve the story, not the other way around.

My problem is that the premise is a total ripper, but the resolution is monsterous. Symb isn't wrong, what is proposed is murder. This episode has never sat well with me for the same reason Tuvix never has. Some ethical choices are too big, and some crimes too monsterous, to yield to crass utilitarian thinking.

I thought this was excellent - understand that some couldn't suspend their disbelief on the science. I personally could given that this has always been a soft sci-fi show.

Think all the actors were great, particularly Billingsley and Trinneer. Billingsley does a tremendous job of showing in his very few scenes his journey from thinking of Sim as an organ pool which makes him a bit uncomfortable to loving Sim and being horrified by what he needs to do. Trinneer also walks the line very well between making Sim very like Tucker but a little bit less confident and more alien.

I burst into tears at 'You were a hell of a father'.

The ethical questions are so huge that it's almost impossible to judge, but I did think the episode did an excellent job both of hearing people out and showing that they were doing something they hated through grim necessity. Echoes of 'In the Pale Moonlight'.

I was REALLY hoping they weren't going to have the symbiant speak English and have Trip's memories. I was happy to suspend my disbelief about greatly accelerated embryonic development, but you don't get memories from DNA. That's where the storyline broke for me.

I was worried that clone would act according to his biological age rather than his chronological age ... and when the episode indeed went that route it lost all credibility for me. Memory from DNA or super fast learning? ABSURD!

PS:
Archer can be pretty amoral when it suits him. Not good for a Star Trek captain.

Peter,

"when it suits him"? .... circumstances didn't have anything to do with his decisions here?

Good lord.

@rudy actually the original Harry Kim was found by jetlya or whatever her name from ashes to ashes and turned him kobali in star trek online and I still consider sto to be canon

I really don't understand how commenters can like this episode. The bogus science is no problem. But usually in Star Trek that is used to explore a moral dilemma. It this episode it used to create a shocking opening scene. In the rest of the episode the writers have to solve that puzzel. Here is a mystery! And here is our solution. Ta-da! Done. Next episode. One cloned and one real star for this episode.

If a TV show based in fantasy can produce strong and polarizing viewpoints from an episode, then I say Similitude hit a bullseye. The hand wringers who want this to be a BBC science documentary should have turned Trek off a long time ago, this was pure fantasy and the writers did not shy away from the fantasy, but hit you with both barrels. I was expecting them to chicken out and prolong the Sim's life and let Tucker die, but they did not, and here we are. I do agree there are moral issues here, a greater good, a catch-22, and a no win situation, and that is what makes the debate continue on 14 years after the episode first aired.

spinalatte,

Well said.

Two things that annoyed me:
1) Sim - child's thick accent - I'm not an English native and sometimes couldn't understand a word he said.
2) I cannot believe that noone predicted the moral consequences of keeping Sim conscious amd having him around, knowing him, getting emotionally attached and having to explain him his purpous and finally, with all that bagage, kill him. Why couldn't he be just sedated or kept in a coma or something and be harvested without ever having to wake him up. That also bothered me with Tuvix.

Enterprise moving along with the White bad boy getting the woman story. Never seen that before.

This could have been something. Instead, it is an utterly vacuous episode that avoids all the interesting moral issues related to its subject. It's even worse that it was aired during a massive nationwide debate about human cloning.

By the end, the clone is expected to just meekly submit to be killed and harvested for his tissues so that Trip can be revived. So what exactly is this episode saying? Sentient life forms are now expendable if it helps the cause? I know this isn't Picard, but this is out of character even for Archer.

Bad writing, implausible story, no philosophical reflection whatsoever. This isn't just "not Trek," it's the Anti-Trek. It also doesn't advance the larger story arc of this season. Totally worth skipping -- zero stars.

Nailed it.

I like this one. It is entertaining and makes you think.

People are again picking apart things as unlikely. Of course they are-it's just a TV show!

The memory thing would have to be there, or Sim would be an adult with the brain of a 10 day old baby. I don't want to see Trip drooling around the bridge and fouling his clothes!

"One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without dissolving into tears...of laughter". Oscar Wilde (reputedly).

@John G
"The NX-01 is a small ship only has just so much space for personnel [...] it’s not like they would have had the luxury of bringing along a few extra engineers.,"

No need for any extra crew, just a better one. NX-01 has a number of engineers on board, one or two of them should be capable enough to take over.

"We simply don’t know if engineers of Trip’s caliber and knowledge are that commonly available"

Hard to believe he's the only one and the mission of such importance should not have a problem with recruiting another one. Weren't there another NX ships being built? There would be some engineers preparing to work on them.

"You may as well rip on NASA for not having crammed loads of extra pilots and engineers on board Apollo 11’s lunar module in case Buzz Aldrin got a toothache."

A "slightly" different stakes.

I haven't read through all the comments yet but wanted to weigh in as I just watched "Similitude": it was a TERRIBLE, maudlin plot and the science was so bad it was painful to take in. I agree with the review except I'd give it a much lower star rating. I am willing to accept Trek's take on warp cores and dilithium's properties because they are not real and most of the time they follow an internal logic. Real things like DNA, cloning, organ transplants, etc. (ahem, deuterium) should respect-- or at least mostly respect-- the parameters of the actual science. So it comes off as ham-fisted and convenient that Sim was born with Trip's memories, accent, education, and technical skills encoded in his DNA so he's magically interchangeable with Original Trip once it's time for the transplant procedure to happen. The "enzyme" and Phlox's discovery that he wouldn't survive the procedure were likewise hard to get past as plot contrivances. Them calling him Sim basically said it all (although I do enjoy "Quad" haha): it was dehumanizing-- every single character corrected him every time he identified with Trip, although for all intents and purposes he was Trip. UGH. I agree with those who said this was not addressed as a moral quandary at all-- no one on the ship had any questions about who got to live and what Sim's rights were. So the science was bad, the moral questions were non-existent, and I am very sorry to see that they're catalyzing this romance with Trip and T'Pol even though it was obvious she wasn't just going to serve as his personal "morale officer" for the rest of the show.

I also thought of Tuvix as soon as Sim decided he wanted to live. I really disliked Tuvix (the episode... and I guess the guy), but I thought it had more substance than this.

That said, I did think the acting by Trinneer and Bakula was surprisingly good, given the crumminess of the plot. They did a better and more affecting job than this episode deserved. That is particularly surprising for Archer, who is so 2 dimensional. So it wasn't all downsides (but unfortunately, their efforts weren't enough to make this good).

Now that I've finished the comments I wanted to add a couple more things! The comments seem to broadly break along the lines of those who thought the episode was moving enough (which I read as "well-acted" enough-- mainly by Trineer who had to do the yeoman's work by conveying the tragedy of adult Sim's plight) to overlook the layers of magical science fantasy (i.e., "didn't nitpick"), and those that agreed it was well-acted but found the flaws in the premise and the plot generally, as well as its letting Archer and Phlox off the moral hook by having Sim do a complete 180 for no reason whatsoever, too problematic to get past.

Obviously I'm in the latter category. You'll get no disagreement from me that the acting from Trip and even Archer was really great (as I mentioned): I guess one's mileage varies on how much that lets the problems with the episode off the hook. I would dispute that it's nitpicking when there were ways to set up the central conflict that involved fewer contrivances and avoidance of important questions raised.

For one thing, I'd revise, my comment above that Trip and Sim were totally interchangeable: as other commenters pointed out Sim was innocent and lacked artifice or emotional baggage (like going off on Vulcans for reasons that I never caught) but had all his best personal qualities and apparently was also a genius at fixing the ship. Obviously T'Pol was a fan of his (Sim's): why wouldn't she step up to advocate for him and object to Archer's actions or urge him to figure out another solution-- like this enzyme they brought up and then disposed of minutes later, so what was the point of that?

Right, because there was no other solution and no one ever wanted to find one. He existed for the sole purpose of this organ harvest and was even aware that his lifespan was absurdly short. That was a done deal from the jump and despite all the gyrations they went through to create this possibly *more* likeable Clone Trip who wanted to live (even letting him work as chief engineer?), Archer, T'Pol, Phlox, Hoshi et al. had no intention of ever letting him survive. I thought that was pretty gross and depressing. But I will concede the acting was definitely good :).

Better than any 4-star episode of STD.

Probably the best episode of Enterprise. The comments above are ridiculous

Not much to say about this. Like almost all Enterprise's episodes, it's weak. My general feeling while watching this episode:

I, Sim, fiend for Blaylock's soup coolers therefore I am Trip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFHu5e-o8bA

Aw, Sim, you were born in the wrong century and attained the wrong rank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIfGO9-VY0U

I don't have a problem with the sci-fi jargon. Phlox did say that he used the symbiont to harvest anti-viral substances, so that was why he had it in sickbay to begin with. Like others, my problem is with the ethics, not only for Sym but for the crew who interacted with him, knowing he would have to eventually die. It's just not ethical on any level. In the year 2022 we would not allow this.

Furthermore... I have other questions:

1) Why was this trick never pulled for other crew members? This reminds me of the Voyager episode when Neelix was revived from the dead using Borg nanoprobes. Wow... how convenient... we have resurrection technology just sitting around that only gets used once in the entire series on our preferred character!

2) I'm a biochemist. The Enterprise era is 2150. You're telling me that neural tissue couldn't be cloned through some other means? All you'd have to do is impregnate a de-nucleated cell with neural stem cells and you'd get neural tissue. Add an enzyme catalyst in a growth medium and you'd get *a lot* of it. We know how to do this in the year 2022. Phlox can regenerate cellular damage caused by radiation and he can cure cancer, but he can't clone replacement brain tissue de novo? It makes no sense. He is super advanced when it suits the plot but he is in the 1950's when it doesn't.

3) Why is Trip so "critical to the mission" that he is worthy of this treatment but other crew members who have been maimed and killed haven't been? How is there no backup crew to replace Trip's functions as they undertake this perilous mission into the Delphic Expanse? It would have been more believable if Archer just said he wanted to save his good friend and leave it at that. He's already violating all medical ethics, so more bias wouldn't hurt.

4) If the cloning function of the symbiont is so secret that hardly anybody knows about it, then how does Phlox know? How is he, as a licensed physician from Denobula, even permitted to do such a thing? Did he obtain the symbiont through black market means? There are so many unanswered questions on this aspect alone. A few extra lines in the script could've remedied this gaping plot hole.

5) How can Phlox be so super ethical in some episodes but allow ethics to go out the window in this case?

6) How can Archer allow a fully functional and sentient copy of his friend to run around the ship, interact with the crew and form social attachments while knowing he will prescribe its death within 15 days? Talk about "cruel and unusual"!

7) Why does NOBODY on the crew have a problem with this? These are Starfleet officers. "The mission" is not excuse enough.

It seems like a lot had to be thrown out the window to drive this plot. I agree with Jammer, it's too unbelievable. If something this unethical could happen in the real world, I guarantee you that the clone would be kept in isolation and not allowed to run amok. The science doesn't add up, even for science fiction. The state of medicine in 2150 would be so advanced that this symbiont would be unnecessary.

The episode actually makes perfect ethical sense. They intended to give Sim his full 15 days because it was initially thought that the neural tissue could be harvested without killing him. That changed later. Yes, we could say it's cruel that they brought a sentient being into existence that could only live for 15 days, but that's nature. Sim seemed okay with the knowledge that his life would be short.

The problem arises when Trip becomes aware that an experimental drug could extend his life. Phlox and Archer aren't willing to try it because if it doesn't work, Sim will have aged beyond the window of opportunity for doing the neural tissue transplant to save Trip. Archer decides that it's better to hedge his bets on definitely saving Trip vs. risking life extension for Sim that may not work and then both Sim and Trip would be lost. Archer makes it clear that he would be willing to violate the rights of a sentient being and commit gross medical ethics violations to save Trip, for reasons that don't really add up.

The ethics work within the confines of the events of the plot. It works because Sim does consent, in the end. That's how the writers got past the ethical dilemma. If Sim didn't give his consent in the end then we would have a very different outcome. In reality, it shouldn't matter if Sim's life extension wasn't guaranteed. He would be a sentient being refusing to consent to a life-threatening medical procedure. Phlox would be obliged to obey.

To put this into perspective, even when it was believed that Sim could survive the neural tissue transplant, he still had the right to say no. But this is where the ethical premise of the script fails. Nobody thought to ask in the beginning: "What happens if clone-Trip says no to surgery, even if it's not life threatening?"

They don't discuss the rights of this sentient being that they're creating before it is created. The conversation is never had in the entire episode and that's why it's a bad episode. The Federation may not exist yet but there are still multiple sentient alien species already working with humans, so clearly rights extend beyond humans. I find it hard to believe that Archer, even in his "mission mode", would be able to put aside 22nd century ethics here.

What happens if a "more important" crew member is in peril and another crew member of less important status has something they need? Would Archer make a similar gambit based on "mission" priorities? The way "Similitude" is written, that door is technically left wide open.

Consider that Archer's mission is to save Earth, yet any other Trek series would at least have the conversation that Earth has to be worth saving -- meaning, the values of Starfleet and humanity. If we toss all our principles out the airlock, including valuing other living beings, then what are we really saving?

This episode was a missed opportunity on many levels and is a reason why Enterprise flopped. They always took the easy way out of interesting philosophical dilemmas, then had no follow up, even though philosophy is the driving force of Trek. It's supposed to use science fiction and aliens to explore the human condition. Otherwise what's the point? It's too bad, really.

I liked it. 3.5 stars

Yes, the biology is ridiculous. As is warp drive, the transporter, and time travel (which, the Vulcan Science Academy has declared "impossible"). Yes, the biology is contrived to fit the plot. As is time travel ("Twilight", the Temporal War arc).

What happened to the impulse drive? Or even the thrusters?

The physics is ridiculous. F=ma. Enterprise isn't a block of wood on a desk. If you push it, it moves. The harder you push, the more it accelerates. There's no "threshold". Ever watch a tiny tug move a giant oil tanker? To add insult, a "dyne" is a very small unit of force. So, when Malcom says "3 kilodynes" while piloting a shuttlepod.... that's less than my pinky can exert. The Saturn V had 33 TRILLION dynes of force....

And, sure, no one should be irreplaceable. But we don't get to live in the idea world, we live in the real world. And, knowing the stakes, not knowing what the future will bring, and knowing that Enterprise might be on a one-way trip..... yeah, you really can't afford the risk of losing any key staff. Which, of course, means no stupid detours to play cowboy. (I note that during WW-II, there were numerous assassination attempts on high-ranking enemy officers -- some people truly are irreplaceable.)

So... why did I like it?

Because it puts Phlox and Archer through the wringer. And I found both portrayals convincing. Phlox *clearly* didn't like this option -- but his job was to present *all* options to Archer.

And Archer -- he literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders. So when he goes from compassion ("We don't see it that way") to killer ("Even if it means killing you"), Bakula sells it and I bought it.

What are Sim's choices? Even assuming the experimental enzyme won't work, Sim is within his rights to refuse. On the other hand, how would he live with himself those last three(?) days. How does he stay with a crew who know that he's let them (and by implication all Earth) down? What would Tripp do? Don't the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one? (ST:TWOK)

Had Sim refused, Phlox should have refused to operate. And Archer's threat to kill Sim would really cross a line that probably should not be crossed. And (SPOILER ALERT) will cross in "Damage".

Finally (a soapbox I've been on before), there's a lot of claims about "Trek morality" and how the ends never justify the means. TOS and TNG were safe galaxies, and when there were real threats the writers gave Kirk ("The Changeling") or Picard ("The Best of Both Words") rabbits to pull out of their hats. In the Dominion corner of the galaxy, the writers didn't give Sisko the rabbit ("ITPM"), and he had to make ugly choices to survive (I fully support his choice). "Trek morality" is great in a "safe" TOS/TNG galaxy -- it's extinction in a Dominion galaxy. I guess you can say "the writers should always have a rabbit handy for our heros"... but that gets boring fast. And I don't believe the real world always offers up rabbits....

Continuity Problem.

When Trip dies in the last episode, how come Phlox isn't smiling and holding up the clone blob?

I have watched every episode of every major Trek series (minus the animated versions). It is the rare few that are perfect, and many are utterly awful, including on the most beloved TOS and TNG. This is far from being one of the worst.

Trinneer, Blalock, and Billingsley are fantastic in it. Blalock was still being forced to walk around in skin tight clothes even when other women on the crew are not, but she delivers without blowing the Vulcan expectations of trying to be stoic, but wtith small cracks to suggest that she is less than 100% in control of her emotions. Trineer has evolved his character with the limited writing, and Billingsley outshines them all. The epsiode has things to offer. Sim's scenes with T'pol were fitting, and his final moment with Porthos was a nice touch.

As for that final scene between Sim and T'Pol, it is SO misread here. Her character was evolving anyway, but she has had her mind forced into a meld, suffered in the expanse, and is probably unable to contain her emotions. Her final scene with Sim was NOT something she had to struggle to do or muster up – far from it. She has mostly likely wanted to explore her sexuality and is attracted to Trip, but she could not do that with the real Trip, so she gets her chance to do something that no one else would ever find out about – to act on her attraction. Loved it.

Yes, the writing was far from perfect, and the central plot was destined to end with a dead temporary copy if not a clone that might have survived. I am surprised that so many people focus on the clone being allowed to die his expected death without an experimental attempt to extend his life span at the expense of Trip. Clones of this nature are the stuff of fiction generally and the idea that all of the clone's engrams could be copied into the "clone". This goes far beyond cloning as we know it. This "clone" is, as the plot runs, based on the idea of more than a regenerated being that will grow from tissues and genes into a new being with the same genetic material. He is a temporary holding for Trip in a temporary body with Trip's memories and cells. And I doubt anyone would be reacting so harshly to the episode if it was about being able to create a copy after the real Trip died.

Does this make it necessarily less troubling morally? To me, there is enough of a difference, and enough of the story to make it watchable.

And the scoring of it was really touching.

After many years of reading reviews on this site, I find myself agreeing with Jammer most of the time. "Similitude" is an exception. It deserves a 4 for the powerful performances from ALL the cast (except Mayweather, of course).
It was utterly unnerving to watch Archer go through the emotional rollercoaster of his decisions, knowing what he HAD to do, including telling Sim he would kill him if that's what it takes. Scott Bakula nails it, as someone else posted. And look at his face when others are talking! This was Bakula's greatest performance as far as I am concerned.
And the rest? Pholx going from father to executer; T'pol choking up when Sim visits for the last time; and, most important of all...
Sim spends his last available moments, HIS LAST MOMENTS, with.... PORTHOS!!!
Kudos to the writers for that moment...
This episode gets 4 paws, and a very waggy tail.

Sorry, that should be "executioner" in the above comment. But also wanted to mention the spot-on performances of the children who played Sim growing up. I thought they did a fantastic job...They really caught the drawl rather.... SQUIRREL!!!!!!

Aside from the Memories coming from DNA thing, I find the whole premise self-contradictory. If this alien gel can exactly take on the DNA form of another life form, why wouldn't it also share the same lifespan? It's the exact same DNA it should age at the same rate too, right? Many people mentioning the moral dilemma here leads to my criticism of the entire main story of the Enterprise series, the whole trying to save Earth thing. I think that was a little too much, and it kinda reduces the effectiveness of every "moral dilemma" that comes up because every single situation gets weighed against saving an entire planet. Of course anytime a single life or ship is at stake its going to be judged as "well an entire planet is still more important", duh, who didn't see that coming. It makes these moral questions less interesting and more cliche. Like when Archer crippled that ship to steal the warp coil, no one was surprised. The whole Xindi thing just became an unfollowable confusing mess which wasn't very enjoyable anyway. (I wasn't even impressed with the first episode that kicked off the whole expanse season with that stupid probe cutting a line of destruction through Florida and then through the water the rest of the time). If they had based a season on those mysterious spheres instead that would have been more watchable. The whole xindi spagetti bowl and temporal cold War just failed miserably in my opinion.

It was Mr. Spock who said that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

Yup definitely a tuvix clone, but not well done. It’s unfortunate they made sim choose to die. Lets archer off the hook. Phlox knew about the enzyme. So much is wrong with this episode which made the characters monsters. Because no one actually thinks he made the choice willingly. We all know he just wanted to die with dignity.
(The dna memory is pretty silly. Just wouldn’t happen.)

I found this episode surprisingly moving, and much better than 2.5 stars. The acting was great and the story raised interesting ethical questions before the publication of Never Let Me Go (and well before the film version).

Watching Sim grow up helped me get attached to the character and understand why this was so difficult. Billingsley did a superb job as Phlox, whose experiment went emotionally awry, and the rest of the cast were able to treat Sim as a different person. Even though he only lost a day or two of his life, I can see how losing him would be awful.

For a moment, I wondered if Sim would become the new Tripp à la Harry Kim. I also wondered why the brain sample would live longer than two weeks, and wish they had answered that with a throwaway line (e.g. "it only takes on the host's lifespan when grafted onto them").

Overall, I think it was one of Enterprise's best episodes yet.

Micheal Miller said:

If this alien gel can exactly take on the DNA form of another life form, why wouldn't it also share the same lifespan? It's the exact same DNA it should age at the same rate too, right?
==========================================

This idea may have come from the Dolly sheep clone, whom had been widely reported to have suffered from rapid aging. This was a huge story back in the late 90s and may have been on the minds of the show-runners. Many years later we now understand that Dolly just had some bad luck, and her misfortunes were incorrectly ascribed to her being a clone.