Captain’s Log, Stardate 013014.0115
Similitude
In this
episode the starship Enterprise was on its way to find the Xindi weapon that
destroyed part of North America’s east coast. While in warp they ran into some
form of nebula that interfered with the ship’s engines and in an effort to
prevent a disaster Chief Engineer Tucker, aka Trip, shuts off the warp drive
but is severely injured and entered a coma. In an attempt to save him, Captain
Archer approves Dr. Phlox’s plan to create a clone to use its tissue to fix
Trip. He believes the procedure will not interfere with the clone’s lifespan,
about 15 days, but later discovers that the procedure will be fatal. The clone,
named Sim, refuses to partake in the procedure, and instead proposes that Dr.
Phlox create a certain enzyme that will allow him to have a normal human
lifespan. If Phlox creates the enzyme, too much time will have passed to save
Trip, and the enzyme has a very small chance of succeeding. Eventually Trip
tries to escape in a shuttle, but decides not to because partially because he
would live out the rest of his life and die in the shuttle. He came to the
decision to go through with the procedure, and dies.
I feel that they should have tried to use the enzyme earlier, and if it failed, give Trip the transplant from Sim. I also figured out the math on this episode.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that Sim would have lived to, in a human lifespan, 90-105 years.
If you then divided 90-105 by 15, you would get the average rate of growth per day, which would be 6-7 years worth of growing daily
Then, if you divided 24 hours by 6, you get the 'yearly' growth rate of 1 year every 4 hours.
Thus, he would have to be eating a lot of fuel and also be under immense growing pains.
I agree with graeme that they should have used the enzyme sooner but that is could have back fired and killed sim
ReplyDeleteI think they did everything correctly in the episode except for one thing. I think they shouldn't have told Sim that he would be killed in the operation. They created him thinking that he would survive. If they had know he was going to die, they would have been far more hesitant. Not telling Sim would allow him to live his last days no having to worry about dying. I think that is much more humane....ethical? Maybe not.
ReplyDeleteWith the information he was given, Captain Archer really had no other choice than the one he made because so much depended on the success of their mission and that depended on having Commander Tucker at his position. While Sim did come close, he bore some differences from Tucker and could not be a substitute, and even if he could, his survival was unlikely since the enzyme was too unreliable.
ReplyDeleteI think the clone also have the human being's rights. We cannot decide their life. We need get alone well with them.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with creating a clone for a medical purpose like this is similar to the issue of creating a genetically-enhanced "super-soldier," in that the creators are deciding the subject's singular purpose before his birth without his consent. That said, because Sim would have been allowed to live out his full, if brief life [based on the knowledge available at the time Archer made his decision], he would not have had the problem of not being given the opportunity for normalcy.
ReplyDeleteThe problem arose when he realized that he had a chance to live a "regular," full-length life. Was it right to deny him that opportunity so that another, and potentially many more might live? Perhaps not, but, at that point, the decision had already been made and there was really no other option. Even Sim himself accepted this and gave himself up to help the people he cared about.
I wish they could have created more clones of Trip, so they could test the enzyme on the new clones, and possibly develop clones with a lifespan of a normal human. If the development of this kind of clone was made a reality, then if any crew members died, they could be replaced. I feel that Captain Archer made the right decision by cloning Trip to replace the part of his brain. I would just go further into the world of cloning than he did.
ReplyDeleteThat was a really depressing episode. I can't say much, since this is the only full episode I've seen of the Enterprise series, and so don't have much knowledge of the characters. Probably the character I now know best is Sim, because the episode revolved around him specifically, so I'm likely biased in my judgement.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do feel that Dr. Phlox should most certainly have at least mentioned the enzyme at the start. He said that he gave every available option, but he really didn't. He omitted a very important one because he "had doubts." I say this in quotes because the entire situation was pretty dubious from the start.
I think that the doctor should have fully informed the captain about the enzyme so that maybe both Trip and Sim might be able to live.
ReplyDelete