Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to Beta III to try to ascertain what happened to the starship Archon, a Federation vessel which disappeared after passing by there one hundred years before.
What is an archon? In the episode “The Return of the Archons,” to the crew of the Enterprise the Archons were the survivors from the Federation starship Archon, which passed by Beta III one hundred years earlier. Yet to those on the planet Beta III who resist Landru, the planet’s computer-generated leader, the Archons were those who supported their efforts to overthrow him, and the crew of the Enterprise is now fulfilling the prophesy from the Archons that more would come and free them.
More broadly, in the Gnostic system archons are the assistants to the demiurge. The demiurge is usually considered to be an evil lower deity, sometimes described as “the craftsman responsible for the creation of the material world and the fallen state of humanity” (Smith, 2009, p. 69). Scholars have associated archons with various types of negative attributes, everything from being “fierce and troublesome” (Hoeller, 1989, p. 106), to “blindly dedicated to power over matter” (Churton, 1987, p. 124), to “cosmic forces under the dominion of the demiurgos or cosmic ignorance” (Malachi, 2005, p. 370), to “bumbling” (Hoeller, 2002, p. 34), to having “a negative role . . . being responsible for the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the crucifixion of Jesus” (Smith, 2009, p.28). Throughout C. G. Jung’s Collective Works there are scattered mentions of archons; various interpretations of meaning coming from different Gnostic teachings as well as astrological references, and alchemical texts from various historical periods (2014). However, in most aspects, archons are seen as disruptors, or dark forces opposed to spiritual purity; and when Jung uses the term archons, he seems to be associating them to a of balancing of light and dark elements of a psyche, instead of giving preference to the light, spiritual and the good. All that being said, for the purpose of examining this episode, let’s just consider an “archon” as an archetypal energy for disruption: a force that changes the objective of spirituality from perfection of the soul to the intent to accept and integrate both the light and dark aspects of our personality into our psyche.
In “The Return to of the Archons,” after the landing party has been on Beta III for a while Mr. Spock describes what he sees:
This whole society is a machine’s concept of perfection. Peace but no soul. This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All this indeed peace and tranquility – the peace of the factory, the tranquility of a machine.
Coming from the Logos driven Spock, this is quite an indictment. However, when Captain James T. Kirk says that they must disrupt the society for its own good, basically finish the work of the Archons, Spock for the first time speaks of the Prime Directive of Non-Interference, which on its face would prohibit the actions that Kirk is contemplating. Kirk responds to Spock: “That refers to a living growing culture. Do you think this is one?” Thereby Kirk is stating his reasons for his decision to play god, a demiurge, or at least an archon to bring humanity back to this planet’s culture. After discovering that Landru is indeed a computer, and in an Eros moment of creativity, Kirk uses Logos and logic against the mechanical brain and convinces it to self-destruct. In a cavalier, disruptive, archon-like attitude, after the computer lies in ruins, Kirk tells the robed Lawgivers that have been enforcing the will of Landru: “You can get rid of the robes. If I were you, I’d start looking for another job.” Kirk demonstrating with this line that he is very comfortable embodying his role as the destructive force of this society.
Incidentally, Star Trek lore tells us that the name of the starship Archon came from a service club that Gene Roddenberry belonged to at Los Angeles City College that presented him with a small award on April 1, 1940 (Alexander, 1994, p. 246). No fooling.
References:
Alexander, D. Star Trek creator: The authorized biography of Gene Roddenberry. New York: Penguin Books.
Churton, T. (1987). The gnostics. New York: Barnes and Noble Books.
Hoeller, S.A. (1989). Jung and the lost gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
Hoeller, S.A. (2002). Gnosticism: New light on the ancient tradition of inner knowing. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
Jung, C. G. (2014). The collected works of C. G. Jung: Complete digital edition (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; H. Read et al., Series Eds.). Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebscohost.com
Malachi, T. (2005). Gnosis of the cosmic Christ: A gnostic Christian kabbalah, Saint Paul, MN: Llwellyn Publications.
Smith, A. P. (2009). A dictionary of Gnosticism. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
Original post created 26 January 2021
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