“Similitude”
Page 1 of 6Story by: Manny Coto
Teleplay by: Manny Coto
Directed by: LeVar BurtonSynopsis followed by review:
The crew is gathered in the launch bay where a funeral is being held for someone. Archer gives a eulogy and we see that it is Trip who has died.
It is two weeks earlier. Trip is in T’Pol’s quarters receiving Vulcan neuro-pressure treatments. This time they are massaging their feet. Trip mentions that he may have a way to improve the stability of the warp engines and keep the warp field from fluctuating when they are at high warp.
During the implementation of Trip’s plan, the ship enters a polaric field. Something floods the intake manifolds and causes a primary injector flare. The flare causes a system-wide overload. Trip must shut down the engines and there is an explosion. Trip is injured.
T’Pol is overseeing repairs when Archer comes to Engineering. She tells him that “when we entered the field, nucleonic particles flooded the manifolds causing the injector flare. If Commander Tucker hadn’t shut down the engines, we could have had a breach.” Archer tells her that Trip is in a coma and has severe neural damage; that he may not survive and that she will have to supervise the repairs which may take weeks.
Archer goes to sickbay to see how Trip is doing. The doctor tells him that Trip’s condition is unchanged. Phlox shows Archer a Lysserian Desert Larvae that he says he can use to create a clone of Trip which will very quickly grow and die in 15 days. Phlox wants to harvest the neural tissue of the simbiot and then transplant it into Trip, thus saving his life.
T’Pol brings a sample of a substance that is accumulating on the hull to Archer. She tells him that “it is composed of highly charged particles” and that it is magnetic. Archer tells her to get the engines back online so that they can escape the field. T’Pol talks to him about the procedure Phlox wants to do on Trip. She suggests that the simbiot will be sentient implying that it would be wrong to use him for the transplant. Archer tells her that he’s aware of the ethics involved but that they need to complete the mission and they can’t do it without Trip.
Phlox goes ahead with the procedure. Meanwhile the particles continue to accumulate on the hull and the engines are still offline. In Archer’s log, he says that “it’s been two days since Phlox initiated the procedure to grow the simbiot”. In sickbay, Phlox shows Archer what appears to be a growing baby and tells him that by morning it should be *born*.
Next day, Phlox shows the baby to T’Pol and Archer. They decide that he should stay with the
