EPISODE: "Similitude" PROD#: ENT062 TRAN#: 3.10 RATING: PG-L AIRDATE: wed-19-nov-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [not stated; a span of two weeks] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/3203.html FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.startrek.current, .reviews, .tech REVIEW#: 51.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent310_similitude.txt I. INTRODUCTION This document focuses on the technical aspects of a current episode; it is intended to support discussion, and to later serve as a reference; it accordingly contains PLOT SPOILERS, so CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Whenever possible, it indicates who did/claimed/knew what, because characters can lie or be mistaken. Spellings of technobabble and alien nouns are obtained from TV closed-captioning ("CC") -- which is imperfect: it may not match spoken dialogue, or the website, or be consistent within or between eps. In the Synopsis, I may condense or reorder scenes. If you have corrections or clarifications, please contact me, and I'll (eventually) make corrections. Abbreviations commonly used: -(m/f/?) name belongs to mel/fem/unclear, (os) on [viewer] screen, (vo) voiceover, -(?) quote is uncertain, -(sp?) spelling is unclear; VDB Vulcan database, VHC Vulcan High Command, XDB Xindi database; series: TOS TAS TNG DS9 VGR ENT. Although CC uses "Launch Bay," "Sick Bay," and "shuttle pod," I often condense those terms to single words. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne. Feel free to use this document as a reference, but please give credit where due. ** If you live in the Philadelphia Area or Delaware Valley, don't ** ** forget PHILCON, the area's premier SF convention. Run by real ** ** fans, not Those Other People. SF, fantasy; books, TV, films, ** ** anime; art show, science, kids and costume programming. ** ** Runs December 12th-14th. See www.philcon.org for details. ** II. TERMINOLOGY TECHNICAL: polaric field, nucleonic particles, ferric ions, dia-magnetic field. TECHNICAL/ENTERPRISE: system taps, antimatter stream, injectors, [warp] field fluctuation, plasma, intakes, primary injectors, EV team, plasma rifle, medical tricorder, phase-cannons, bio-bed, A-3 injector port. TECHNICAL/SHUTTLEPOD: fusion overburn, grapples, overburn ratio, kilodyne, temperature warning light. BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL: neuro-pressure, Lyssarian Desert Larva, epidermal layer, viral suppressant, mimetic symbiont, simbiot(CC)[sic], Orsic fern. CULTURAL: _War of the Worlds_, "A Night at the Opera". LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Lyssarian Prime Conclave, Velandran Circle. NAME-DROPPING: Zefram Cochrane, Bedford [the dog], Mr.Tucker, Mrs.Tucker, Lizzie Tucker, Ens.Massaro(f). III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... One of Trek's "comment on a current/pending bioethical controversy" eps. Bio-details for Tucker. Another of Phlox's medical menagerie. 2. What we don't get... A date. 3. The shirtless files... In T'Pol's quarters, Tucker is shirtless. T'Pol wears both red and blue versions of her midriff-baring PJs. (Three pairs of PJs, plus four different jumpsuits (red, violet, blue, white)? Quite the fashionista, isn't she?) 4. Arcs... Vulcan neuro-pressure. The T'Pol-Tucker relationship. 5. All the attendees at the funeral wore their duty coveralls. Although Starfleet in TOS and TNG has dress uniforms, apparently in this era it doesn't; that, or they weren't packed for this mission. 6. The way that Trip manipulates the "neural nodes" in T'Pol's feet smacks of "refloxology," the latest version of a century- old quack medical practice; it's predicated on the notion that the human body is divided into vertical zones, such that manipulating specific points on the feet can affect regions elsewhere. (A similar notion of "meridians" underlies oriental acupressure.) OTOH, perhaps Vulcans are wired differently than humans. (See: Martin Gardner's _Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?_) 7. Again with the "intakes" that feed directly into the engine, and that are vulnerable to FOD (foreign object damage). 8. Although common in SF, clones should not retain the memories of their forebears (and to his credit, Phlox is surprised that it happens). Author Frank Herbert coined the term "ghola" for such creatures; extropians use "xox" (as in "Xerox"). See also: Lamarckian genetics, acquired traits, "Doctor Who":"The Invisible Enemy, _The Last Legends of Earth_. 8. There are at least two ventral phase-cannons, mounted on the "shoulders" of the saucer, aft of midline but forward of the launchbays. The flat upper surface of the photonic torpedo launcher is equipped with a row of red lights (magnetic accelerators?) that flash in sequence as the torpedo is fired. It fires from the outboard tube (each Armory, port and starboard, has two). 9. If they'd waited a few centuries, the NX-01 crew could've re- enacted the "Doctor Who" story "Underworld" (which features a starship that accreted nebular particles until it became a planet). 10. Like TNG-"Ethics", this ep is a parable of medical ethics. Like TNG-"Up the Long Ladder" (cloning society), -"Second Chances" (Riker duplicate), VGR-"Tuvix", and the James Blish novella "Spock Must Die!", it addresses the question of identity posed by clones and by suddenly unexpected crew members. IV. NITS 1. If the existence of mimetic symbionts is a closely-guarded secret, how do both Phlox and T'Pol know of them? Or did Phlox merely open the relevant confidential files to T'Pol and Sim- Trip? 2. If the cloud is only 11,000 km (0.037 light-second) wide, then at warp 5.0 (assuming w^3 = 125 c) they'd've traversed it in 0.00029 seconds -- hardly time to ingest many particles. And what were the navigational deflectors doing? 3. The writers don't understand magnetism. The terms diamagnetic, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic refer to the response of a material to an external magnetic field. All materials are diamagnetic, but that's a weak effect, one that can be swamped by paramagnetic (due to unpaired electrons) and especially ferromagnetic (long-range alignment) qualities. http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/MagParticle/Physics/MagneticMatls.htm http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/magpr.html 4. The writers don't understand rocket science. Presumably the cloud has no significant gravitational field; if so, *any* sustained thrust, no matter how low, could impart acceleration to the ship; there should be no "stickiness" to break free of. If warp is out, then impulse, thrusters, or non-overburned shuttlepods should've been sufficient. 5. The shuttlepods' thrust is measured in "kilodynes," and velocity in "kilometers per hour," another example of ENT mixing its metric systems (per hull pressure in 114-"Sleeping Dogs"). There are two sets of metric units used in science and engineering: MKS and CGS, which have length-mass-time base units of meter-kilogram-second and centimeter-gram-second, respectively. (SI, the Système international d'unités, is based on MKS.) In MKS, the unit of force is is the newton (1 kg*m*s^-2); in CGS, the dyne (1 g*cm*s^-2). On Earth, an apple weighs about one newton; a dyne is 1/100,000 of a newton. A thrust of "1000 kilodynes" is therefore only 10 newtons, a ridiculously miniscule figure given that shuttlepods are capable of SSTO (single stage to orbit) flight. Where's Rick Sternbach when the writers need him? http://www.iec.ch/zone/si/si_entry.htm 6. If Sim-Trip worn nondescript grey coveralls for most of his life, why did they garb him a uniform for the funeral? 7. The crew always refers to "the Armory," but given the external hull features, shouldn't there be *two*, designated port and starboard? V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS 1. When T'Pol kissed Sim-Trip, was she genuinely returning his feelings, or merely ameliorating his last moments of life? (William December Star) 2. "I submit that this is the missing level of tension that would have legitimized the events of “Tuvix.”" (Kevin Johnston) VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: Archer presides over a funeral in the Armory... and inside the photorp casing is Trip. ACT 1: Two weeks earlier: In T'Pol's quarters, Trip massages her feet, while explaining his plan to "re-route the system taps" to "compress the antimatter stream before it reaches the injectors," thereby eliminating "field fluctuations" at warp 5.0 and permitting a smooth cruise -- or so his "simulations" indicate. He comments that she'd made "neuro-pressure" sound harder than it is; she replies that they haven't yet reached the more challenging postures. They begin the test, which will need warp 4.9 to heat the "plasma" sufficiently for compression. Tucker monitors the plasma flow on a monitor in Engineering. It works -- then the ship begins to shake, and the stream-graphic devolves to turbulence. Something is "flooding the intakes," causing a "primary injector failure," which could trigger a "system-wide overload." Flames erupt on the bridge. Shutdown doesn't work, so he clambers atop the warp core. An explosion throws him across the chamber. ENT drops from warp inside a salmon-colored nebula, which T'Pol IDs as "some kind of polaric field," composition unknown, 11,000 km wide. Later, she determines that "nucleonic particles" flooded the intakes, causing the injector flares. The extensive damage could take "weeks" to repair. Meanwhile, Tucker lies comatose in Sickbay: his head wrapped in a dressing, sensor pads on his forehead, a tube under his nose. Phlox shows Archer his "Lyssarian Desert Larva;" its "epidermal layer" secretes a "viral suppressant" he uses as a salve for cuts and bruises. It can also, when injected with DNA, transform into a clone of the donor, replicating its lifecycle within 15 days. A closely-guarded secret, the Lyssarians call them "mimetic symbionts." Phlox proposes to harvest neural tissue to repair Trip; the symbiont should survive the procedure, and live out the remainder of its lifespan. T'Pol reports to Archer in his Ready Room, carrying a slab of debris retrieved by an "EV team." It took multiple hits from a "plasma rifle" to dislodge; it consists of "highly charged particles," mostly ferric ions, but some unidentified; and it's highly magnetic. (Archers mug jumps across the desk.) Per Tucker's situation, she cites the ruling by the "Lyssarian Prime Conclave" banning the use of "simbiots"(CC). Archer angrily replies that he's not subject to their rules; true, he wouldn't normally accept the creation of a sentient being for this purpose, but "Earth needs Enterprise, and Enterprise needs Trip." Phlox injects the larva with Trip's DNA. Two days later, Archer comes to examine the fetus floating in a tank. ACT 2: An infant squirms in an incubator box. Phlox remarks that it's a perfect duplicate, down to the birthmark on its right side. The crew's been offering suggestions for a name: Steven, Enrique, Dennis. Denobulans require very little sleep. His "Orsic fern." Reading _War of the Worlds_ with Phlox and Sato, Sim-Trip-4 remembers having read it before. Later, Phlox comments to Archer that some species rely exclusively on genetic memory; that humans also have the capability could be an important discovery. "Medical tricorder." Archer takes the responsibility to explain Sim's origins to him. Archer brings Sim-Trip to his quarters to feed Porthos. Sim (complete with southern accent) remarks that he used to have a dog: "Bedford." In the empty launchbay, he remote-pilots Archer's model spaceship [from 101-"Broken Bow"], and remarks that his father wants him to be an engineer; his mother, an architect. Archer takes him to Sickbay, and shows him Trip; tells him he was born four days earlier. Once put a garden snake in Lizzie's dollhose. Incapacitated for seven days. Sim is assigned to Engineering. He brings T'Pol a PADD re: the "waveguides for the primary port bypass." Tonight's movie: the "Marx Brothers" classic, "A Night at the Opera." Re: Ens.Massaro(f). T'Pol reports to Archer: warp drive should be functional in two weeks. Unfortunately (he replies), Reed has discovered that the accumulating particles are producing a "dia-magnetic field" with a "dampening" effect; one that, in four days, will disable every system on the ship. ACT 3: In the Mess, Sim discovers key lime pie. He voices a plan to Reed: redirect the "phase-cannons" to shoot the hull, clearing the crust from the launchbay doors, so that shuttles can emerge to tow the ship. Reed opines that they have insufficient thrust to escape in time. Tucker arrives at T'Pol's quarters. She's reviewed his plan to induce a "fusion overburn;" it's never been attempted with a shuttlepod engine, but she believes it could work. He confesses his feelings for her ("This isn't some adolescent crush; not like two days ago,") but doesn't know if they're *his* or Trip's. Archer refuses to let Sim pilot one of the shuttles; Reed and Mayweather will do it. Trip has "thousands of hours" of flying time. They manage to burn off the coating from the launchbay doors, and deploy both shuttles, which fire grapples to ENT's leading edge (either side of the deflector). They start the "overburn ratio" at 0.175, and thrust at "1000 kilodynes," building to 2000, 2500. Mayweather gets a "temperature warning light;" they're 500° overtemp. Finally, T'Pol reads 0.62 kilometers per hour motion; then Mayweather reports 12 kph. At their final speed, they'll emerge in 6.1 hours. [They're only 72 km from the edge?] In Sickbay, Phlox regretfully tells Archer that Sim won't survive the neural transplant; human "simbiots"(CC) apparently aren't as resilient as Lyssarian ones. ACT 4: Sim cites the "Velandran Circle," a group of Lyssarian scientists who claimed to have created an "enzyme" that stopped the rapid aging of simbiots; he suggests *he* could replace Trip. Phlox concedes that he's heard of the Circle, but their results were unsubstantiated; also, it would take a day to synthesize the enzyme, by which time Sim's neural tissue would no longer be compatible with Trip's. "Bio-bed." Sim visits Engineering, and T'Pol directs him to replace the "A- 3 injector port." He sneaks over to a terminal. Later, on the Bridge, Reed finds the launchbay controls locked out. Archer goes there, and finds Sim sitting in a pod's hatch. "I was all ready to do it," he admits ruefully -- but where would he go? And he didn't feel like spending his last days in a shuttlepod "with no toilet facilities, peeing in a bottle." The only thing worse would be doing so with Malcolm [116-"Shuttlepod One"]. In Trip's quarters, with Porthos. Sim is paged; Phlox is ready for the operation. T'Pol is at the door; she kisses him. "I couldn't think of a better going-away present," he remarks. In Sickbay, he walks over to Trip and tells him, "You owe me one." He lies down on the central biobed, and DISSOLVE TO... ...the funeral. Trip stands by Sim's casket. Reed and Mayweather fit the lid, and it's loaded into the launcher. It fires off into space (from the port outboard tube). VII. VFX SHOTS ENT at impulse. ENT dorsal. ENT goes to warp. ENT drops from warp in salmon-colored nebula. Particles drift toward and adhere to ENT. ENT. ENT (3 days since birth). ENT (7 days since failure). Ventral cannons shoot forward launchbay doors. Again. They open. Shuttlepods launch. Pods fire grapples to ENT's leading edge. Pods. Viewscreen. Pods. ENT begins to move. Dorsal view. ENT out of nebula. ENT sloughs its coating. ENT at impulse. Torpedo-coffin fires. VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles "Trip" Tucker III Jolene Blalock as Sub-Commander T'Pol Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather [actual lines!] Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox Porthos [twice] GUEST CAST: Shane Sweet as Sim-Trip (Age 17) Adam Taylor Gordon as Sim-Trip (Age 8) Maximillian Kesmodel as Sim-Trip (Age 4) CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by LeVar Burton ["Geordi LaForge"] Written by Manny Coto NEXT WEEK: In 3.11/063-"Carpenter Street", Daniels-of-the-future sends Archer and T'Pol to Detroit, 2004, to stop a Xindi bio-weapon attack. See: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/3256 .html. Advisory for US/PA/Philadelphia viewers of UPN-57: this episode will air at 21:30 (90 minutes late), due to a Flyers hockey game.