3x10 Similitude

[9.1/10] There was a news story a few years ago about a little girl who was born with a degenerative condition. The treatment of the condition required a certain type of donation, and so her parents had another child specifically to be that donor. (Apologies in perpetuity throughout the universe for the details that I’m sure I’m getting wrong from this half-remembered story.) The situation raised the intrigue and outrage of ethicists and laymen alike. Is it okay to make life just to save another life? Is it okay to bring someone into this world with the deliberate purpose of serving, in some ways, the needs of someone else? What rights does that second child have to agree or refuse to the procedure, however great or minor the risks?

These are questions with no easy answers, to the extent that they have any real answers at all. Now take that already impossibly complicated situation and throw in a few more dimensions of complexity. What if the sick child wasn’t just a helpless kid, but a vital member of a team who could accomplish things no one else could? What if you were on a mission against what might be an existential threat for all of humanity? What if the second child was only going to live for a matter of weeks regardless? What if there were a risky and experimental treatment that could extend their life, but at the expense of the life of the sick child?

The difficulties and moral intricacies of that situation would expand exponentially. That’s essentially what “Similitude” accomplishes. It takes an already ethically fraught area -- the creation of one life not as an end unto itself, but to save another -- and piles on added consideration after added consideration that only makes the situation more thorny and harder to decide what side you come down on.

That is, in a word, wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, this is episode is tough to watch in stretches. There is a Benjamin Button peculiarity and fragileness to Sim’s life, where he has to get by in a community and in a miniature set of norms that are not built or meant for someone like him. That leads to hard realizations and difficult experiences for the poor soul at times. Even beyond his considerable plight, it’s hard to have to watch Archer and Dr. Phlox and others, who both care about Trip and care about this innocent being whose inner life is just as rich, have to wrestle with the quandary of who lives and who dies.

But that is the space where Star Trek, as a franchise, soars. It’s these little moral thought experiments that challenge our notion of what’s right and fair and just through the lens of abstraction that science fiction provides. I can honestly say that I don’t know what I would do were I in Sim’s or Archer’s or Dr. Phlox’s position. The episode builds the moral considerations on both sides of the ledger to the point that choosing anything, even vicariously through the characters, feels a little heartbreaking, which is the sign of both a well-designed thought experiment, and a well-built episode.

Granted, Enterprise takes some liberties here that grease the wheels a little too much in places. For one thing, the cold open with “Trip” in the coffin is a pretty cheesy fake out. For another, it seems awfully convenient that Phlox just has this creature at the ready and has never mentioned it before. And last but not least, it’s vaguely implausible (albeit well within the realm of willing suspension of disbelief for a sci-fi show) that Sim retains Trip’s memories, not just his physical structure.

None of that really matters in the final tally, though, because Enterprise doesn't just take this admittedly out there situation seriously; it takes the characters who are enmeshed in it seriously.

While Sim’s development is understandably rushed, the focus of the hour is on his journey, and the bizarre but pathos-ridden experience of being born to die, while having the memories and the lust for life of the man whose health you’re supposed to sacrifice yourself to restore. While, as usual, Bakula can’t quite pull off the “morally distraught but determined” vibe, the production and the script take pains to show the tolls this situation is taking on him, with his morals balanced against his duty to the people of Earth.

And my god, Jolene Blalock gives what is maybe the best performance of the series so far. The way she is able to convey the sense in which T’Pol harbors affection for Sim and for Trip, and how she’s quietly breaking apart beneath her stoic Vulcan veneer when facing this situation, is brilliant. She conveys so many layers of surprise, of caution, of concern of pulling in too close to someone she’ll just have to say goodbye to, with such minor changes in expressions. In an episode that understandably gives Connor Trineer a lot to do, Blalock still manages to stand out.

The episode isn’t just character studies and moral philosophy though. It manages to tie all of this into a specific plot obstacle -- namely that the ship is stuck in some sort of magnetic rust nebula and has to get out before they’re jammed their forever, adding extra urgency to the required Trip resurrection. But even that adds moral complexity to Archer’s choices, when Sim contributes the idea that makes their escape possible, but isn’t allowed to lead the mission lest Trip’s last hope for revival blows up in the process.

Still, it’s the moments after that problem is solved that are the most harrowing here. When Sim discovers that there might be a way to end his life, when Archer has to threaten to kill one innocent person to save another, when T’Pol resolves (if only for a moment) her complicated feelings for the man in a coma and the man who’s assumed his life, when Dr. Phlox has to set aside his “do no harm” principles, the episode rises to a gripping, heartrending crescendo.

It’s a climax that involves sacrifice, of recognizing the impact of the greater cause hanging over all of them, of reckoning with your own impending death, of being glad for the brief life you had. In short, it is the stuff that great Star Trek is made of: the character-focus, the sci-fi plot hurdles, and most of all the high-minded philosophical challenges, that come together to expand our minds and test our hearts.

“Similitude” was penned by Manny Coto, who would go on to showrun this series, and if this is what he has in store for the show, I can’t wait for more.