First, neuro-pressure. I'm sick to death of the neuro-pressure. I did sort of like the fact that Trip was far more excited about the upgrades to his precious engines than T'Pol, but what excuse is there, really, for making us watch her dangle her breasts over his face?

Second, where's the crew's reaction to Trip's injury? We see Hoshi's shock and fear, Jon's anguish, and (unfortunately) T'Pol's horror. What about Travis? What about Malcolm? This is his best friend, the first person on the ship (and probably the first person in a goodly number of years) he allowed to see him as he really is. I'm supposed to believe that Malcolm's not just as devistated as Jon by the possibility that he'll lose Trip? Of course, the writers this season seem to continually forget that the two are supposed to be friends at all, much less good friends.

Third, the issue of Sim having Trip's memories. Um, no. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, but I need a reason to do so. Give me some medical-technobabble other than "racial memory" to explain it, and I'll roll with it. This, they do not do. There is no reason for Sim to remember Trip's life, much less for the memories to just crop up at the appropriate age. If genetics were all there is to memory, why don't twins remember their lives the same? Because they're NOT the same people, damnit! And a clone (or mimetic simbiot, in this case) is nothing but a created twin. Different life experiences = different memories, end of story.

Fourth, T'Pol and her emotions. I have never seen such an emotional Vulcan before. All through the episode I could barely stand to watch her because of the way she was broadcasting her emotional state for all and sundry to see. I fail to understand why, after just over a week, she's got such an attachment to Sim. So far as I can tell, she didn't spend time with him until he was old enough to help out in Engineering, so there's no basis for an attachment to him like Phlox's (tangent here -- Phlox was really cute with baby-Sim, & I kinda wish we could have seen more of his 'childhood'). Basically, in about four days or so, the Vulcan fell for the clone. What?? There's nothing (and I mean nothing - no spark, no friction, no bloody tension) between her and Trip, so why would she have it so bad for his temporary replacement? She usually follows Archer around like his damn dog and then she's suddenly after Sim? Awfully fickle for a Vulcan, don't ya think?

Fifth, Jon's impassioned speach to Sim about how he needed Trip. Not a clone with his memories, but Trip. Okay, this works for me, but why, Jon? I think having him tell Sim why he can't fill Trip's shoes, why he hasn't been, would have gone a long way in both making this scene make sense, and in showing us that Sim really is a different person. If Sim is just Trip with a shortened lifespan, who cares if he dies? Either way, we'd just be trading one Trip for another, & it's only a matter of logic to choose the one with a better chance for survival.

Two related points here: One is Sim's lifespan. I don't understand why Phlox didn't explain to him that, since he's sufficently different from the Lycaran simbiots that he wouldn't survive the procedure as planned, that it's highly unlikely that the enzyme which has had some success in prolonging the lives of the Lycaran simbiots would work on him. The second is the question of whether Sim is really a different person than Trip. I think he is, but the writers couldn't seem to make up their minds. One moment he's Trip so it's okay to kill him (except it's not, because he's Trip), and the next he's his own person with his own set of memories to go with the 'inherited' ones. Were they trying to show Sim's own confusion on the matter? If so, I don't think they did a very good job of it.

Some other bones of contention:

Sim claims that his feelings for T'Pol are more than just an adolecent crush. I don't believe him for a second. With all of the hormones that have to be constantly flooding through his system to sustain that sort of growth/aging, he has got to be under constant pressure from the urge to mate, and soon. Add to that : she's female. He sees her every day from puberty on. And he has Trip's memories of her nearly nude. Of course, he's going to obssess over her! Personally, I would have like to have seen him going through the whole adolecent 'I need to explore my sexuality' phase, and approach Malcolm for a little mano-a-mano talk at the least, and proposition him at best. It would have been fun to watch Our Man Reed turn beet red.

Okay, so Sim thinks he has Trip's piloting skills, eh? All the more reason for Travis and Malcolm to be piloting the pods to tow Enterprise out of the nebula-thingy. It seems pretty well established to me that Trip is not as good a pilot as either of them. Why else would Malcolm consistently be chosen to fly before Trip is allowed? (and remember Trip's propensity for knocking the pod against things?) Why didn't Jon use that reasoning for saying no to Sim when he wanted to be one of the pilots?

I really hope that the nasty comment Sim made about the only thing worse than living out his old-age alone on a shuttlepod, peeing in a bottle, being doing it with Malcolm was supposed to be a sign of how he was different from Trip. That's how I took it. That's the only way I can take it and still have any respect for Trip. Yes, Trip and Malcolm went through hell on that mission, and I can imagine that neither one would ever want to have to go through that again. However, the way Sim said it was just plain mean. I could understand it if they still didn't particularily care for each other, but Trip got some hard-won insight into Malcolm's heart and mind while they were trapped on that pod, coming out of it as close as two guys can get. Trip would have to have at least a little fondness for the incident that bound them together, I should think. There was no affection in Sim's voice when he said that; it didn't sound like a joke.

Now, there were some good things about the episode. The angst displayed by Sim at not being able to tell if what he was feeling for T'Pol was how he really felt, or if it was memory of how Trip feels about her, was wonderfully done. It also set it up so that there doesn't have to be any follow up on the whole, icky, Trip/T'Pol thing. We can just shrug and say that it was hormonal Sim who was "in love" with the Vulcan, that he was confused, and move on with life.

Malcolm was kind of distant with Sim, and I would like to have known why. He was curious, polite, and attentive, but he didn't display even as much warmth as he usually does with Hoshi and Travis, much less as with Trip. He was more reserved than the Vulcan, for crying out loud! Was he operating on the assumption that Sim would be dead soon, so he shouldn't get attatched, or what? Too worried about the ship and the real Trip, perhaps? I'd like to know.

The music that ran during Sim's death scene was lovely. Very evocative, I thought. Added some pathos to what was otherwise a rather wooden scene.

I'm going to end with another query. What do you suppose was going through Trip's mind during Sim's funeral? Something else I'd like to know, but likely will never find out. It would be great if they came back to it later on, but I suspect it will be left by the wayside like his conflict with Archer after "Cogenitor" was.

~RB