Synopsis: After Lt. Commander Tucker is severely injured, Captain Archer authorizes the creation of a mimetic simbiot, who’s tissues will be used in a transplant operation to save Tucker’s life.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s concept of the acorn theory, that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons inside us, that have all the knowledge we need to become who we are meant to be.
In “Similitude,” Lt. Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker III, Enterprise’s chief engineer, receives extensive neurological injuries in an accident that occurred while he was working on an upgrade to the vessel’s warp drive. Dr. Phlox tells Captain Jonathan Archer that the only hope to save Tucker’s life is to utilize a Lyssarian Desert Larvae that he has in his laboratory to create a mimetic simbiot, or what today we would call a clone, from whom he will be able to extract some neural tissue to transplant into Tucker. Phlox assures Archer that the lifespan of the simbiot is only fifteen days and that he will be able to remove the tissue without injury to the simbiot. Because of the vitalness of the mission that Enterprise is on, and the ship’s need for her chief engineer to succeed in it, Archer authorizes the creation of the simbiot, whom Phlox names Sim. Sim matures quickly and seems to possess not only Tucker’s physical attributes, but also his memory. Archer tells Sim why he was created, but then Phlox informs Archer that he was mistaken, and that Sim will not survive the transplant operation. Because Sim inherited Tucker’s sense of duty he agrees to sacrifice his life so that Tucker will live, making it more likely that the Enterprise crew’s mission to save Earth will be successful.
In this episode, Sim can be seen as embodying the concept of the acorn theory. He was created expressly to save Tucker’s life. He is told that by Archer, but more importantly, by inheriting all Tucker’s psychological profile and all his memories, he feels duty bound to save Tucker’s life. Sim tells Archer that just as Archer told him earlier that he was born to be a starship captain, he was born to do this. This inner knowledge of knowing exactly who you are and what you need to do to become who you are meant to be, can analogized to listening to one’s inner daimon.
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