Similitude

[Ro Boat]

I recently re-watched Similitude. As I often do, I read the Mem-Alpha page before watching the episode. I was shocked to read the following:

This episode was chosen as the #3 fan favorite in an on-line poll conducted by UPN.

Is this the general consensus of the fans here? I found the episode to be a little ridiculous. Even if you move past the absurdity of the method of cloning and its results, the episode seems to fail. There were some interesting points to be made, but the reactions to and level of interaction with Sim seemed out-of-character for most of the crew.

After watching the episode again, I thought that the premise was interesting, but the execution felt weak. I have a hard time seeing this episode in anyone's top 3.

What do you think? Am I missing something?

 

[Peter the Younger]

I recently re-watched Similitude. As I often do, I read the Mem-Alpha page before watching the episode. I was shocked to read the following:

This episode was chosen as the #3 fan favorite in an on-line poll conducted by UPN.

Is this the general consensus of the fans here? I found the episode to be a little ridiculous. Even if you move past the absurdity of the method of cloning and its results, the episode seems to fail. There were some interesting points to be made, but the reactions to and level of interaction with Sim seemed out-of-character for most of the crew.

After watching the episode again, I thought that the premise was interesting, but the execution felt weak. I have a hard time seeing this episode in anyone's top 3.

What do you think? Am I missing something?

Well it sounds like I liked it a lot more than you. There are parts that could have been handled better, and if it were me, I would have used it as an opportunity to do something a little more gutsy and less reset-buttony. But the science was no less silly than a hundred other things we've seen in Trek, and I thought the premise was interesting.

 

[auntiehill]

I think you might be missing something. I thought it was one of the best, and most moving, episodes of the series.

It touched on many different things: who was Trip, as a person? How is Sim different or less valuable? Are we not just a sum of our memories and experiences? Would we, in the not-so-distant future, see cloned people as less than human?

Connor's performance was wonderful; I actually teared up the first time I watched it.

Of course, the science was silly. But it usually is. It was the STORY that affected me.

But, hey...to each his or her own.

 

[lceb]

I think it was one of the most powerful episodes of the series. When I watched it for the first time I did not really "like" it, it left me feeling uneasy and not sure about what was right and what was wrong under the circumstances. I love Star Trek when it gives stories like that.
I also believe that the strenght of Connor's performance made the episode even more sad and moving.

 

[od0_ital]

I thought it was the best episode of the third season.

But that may just be me.

 

[Freman]

I actually just rewatched this today.

Brought a tear to me eye.

 

[frenchman]

i think it's one of the most powerful and moving episode of the entire show. the connor's performance was great : he managed to make me forget Trip and see him as Sim, not as Trip anymore.
i'am not an emotionnal guy, but when i saw Sim on the bed with Porthos, waiting death and the final scene in the sickbay, i admit i've had some tears.
Scott was great too. the fight between letting Trip die and letting Sim living was very well acted (ethical question).


oh, and the music was very beautiful. they have had an award for that and it was deserved.

 

[Mach5]

A beautiful episode, by far the best S3 ep, and better than all S4 episodes combined. Connor and Jolene at their best. Billinglsley was good too, so was Bakula.

 

[Ro Boat]

I'm not an action-only Trek fan. In fact, I tend to dislike episodes that don't have dramatic substance. I want to like this episode, but I'm struggling.

I am going to watch it again in a few weeks with a more open mind. I think that I am having a problem getting over how Sim would have the same feelings and memories of Trip. Also, it seems odd that he's just strolling around the ship with everyone thinking that it's normal despite the fact that there is an obviously deep ethical issue going on here.

Even though there certainly are much sillier things in Trek, I'm having a difficult time suspending disbelief in this case. I will try harder.

 

[frenchman]

oh, yes i see what you mean. concerning the memories stuff, manny coto said in the commentary of this episode that was certainly an error from his part. that's why they spoke about a mimetic clone to explain that sim had the trip's memories.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Similitude is the only episode from any Trek series that has moved me to tears. I think it's one of the finest hours of Star Trek. I love episodes that explore ethical issues, and this one did a great job. (It reminded me a lot of the Voyager episode Tuvix, but what Tuvix got wrong, Similitude got right.)

 

[KimMH]

I agree it's one of the most wrenching of the entire series. That must be the merit upon which it has been judged vs the plausibility or the likeliness of such an event.

 

[Middleman]

Deleted.

 

[Middleman]

Even though there certainly are much sillier things in Trek, I'm having a difficult time suspending disbelief in this case. I will try harder.

It's in my "Top Five"!

Ya gotta remember...it's science fiction
Once you do that, it's more enjoyable.

 

[JiNX-01]

Frankly, the only thing that surprises me is that it was only No. 3 in the poll.

I love Similitude, it's my absolute favorite episode (Connor's too, BTW).
Yeah the science is silly but the story is amazing.
What right do you have to create a human being just for the purpose of harvesting parts?
And how do you decide when one life is more precious than another?
Sim was such a sympathetic character, sweet, vulnerable (an amazing performance by Connor who was challenged to create a character who is Trip and yet not Trip).
The score is beautiful.
The acting was superb.
Favorite scenes:
Archer and Sim in Trip's quarters and in the sh'pod bay.
Sim with Porthos.
T'Pol's goodbye.
Sim's final scene with Phlox was magnificient. It just breaks my heart every time (I have a script of Similitude and had Connor autograph the page where that scene takes place. I'll be seeing John Billingsley at Creation, N.J., this summer to get his autograph too ).

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I thought it was a powerful and moving episode, a classic Trek examination of an impossible dilemma with no "right" solution. Top-notch performances from the cast, great direction, wonderful music (Velton Ray Bunch won the Emmy in 2004 for this score). The scene with Sim and Porthos choked me up, too.

It's in my top three, along with "Observer Effect" and "The Forgotten."

 

[frenchman]

I thought it was a powerful and moving episode, a classic Trek examination of an impossible dilemma with no "right" solution. Top-notch performances from the cast, great direction, wonderful music (Velton Ray Bunch won the Emmy in 2004 for this score). The scene with Sim and Porthos choked me up, too.

It's in my top three, along with "Observer Effect" and "The Forgotten."

oh, yes, this scene between sim and porthos! so simple and so moving in the same time. i love this scene.
and yes, don't forget LeVar Burton who have done a terrific work.

 

[bluedana]

Beautiful story, beautifully told. It's one of the many things that ENT got right that I thought other iterations of Trek lacked: the refusal to invoke a deus ex machina to solve the ethical dilemma.

 

[Penguin]

I am going to catch Hell. I didn'r care for rtthis episode.

I can buy Phlox being able to clone Trip.

But the things in the episode that bothered me.

Like sim walkig down a hall about 20 years old and we hear that he is very popular with the crew. HOw. The crew would not have known him. first day a Baby, second day a child, third day an adolescent ( am fairly ceertain that Phlox did not drag sim around the ship those thre days. so day four sim is a Teen apparently spendig rthe cday in sickbay taking apart and putting together equipment. Did Phlox drag him arond the ship to introduce him to the entire crew that evening? Doubt if he had the time.

So day five how could sim be very popular with a crew that would hot have known him.

Same with T-Pol. Sim would have only had face time with her on day five and day six and that probably would have been off and on maybe totaling hree or four hours total.

How could sim say that he had feelings for a woman he was barely aquainted with and she him.

so the scene where T-Pol is saying goodby she says the whole crew will miss him. the whole crew does not even know him how could they miss him. and she says she wil miss him too. Again she is barely acquainted with him.

Things like that bothered me.

 

[JiNX-01]

Actually, Sim's admission about his feelings for T'Pol included his acknowledgement that he wasn't sure they were his feelings. He wondered if they might be Trip's.