Synopsis: A crewmember investigating the condition of a science party on Planet Psi-2000 becomes contaminated with an unknown disease and brings it aboard the Enterprise.
It was eerie re-watching “The Naked Time” yesterday, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The parallel to the pandemic is seen when Crewman Tormolen beams down to Planet Psi-2000 with Mr. Spock and while they are separated, Tormolen takes off his glove to rub his nose, forgets to replace the glove, comes in contact with a contaminated surface, and then touches his face again before putting his glove back on. The science party on the planet all seemed to die because of irrational behavior.
When the disease is spread on the Enterprise, Spock recognizes a pattern of “hidden personality traits being forced to the surface.” These hidden personality traits, that have been suppressed by the crew so that they may fulfill their obligations to the mission, are now coming out at the most inconvenient time possible. As the shadow is wont to do when it is being consciously ignored. This is evident when Lt. Sulu leaves the helm when he is most needed to maintain a tricky orbit, and most especially when Spock reveals that he is not without emotions, he has just spent his entire lifetime trying to hide his feelings.
From a depth psychological perspective, these hidden personality traits, represent the idea that the shadow is not always negative, many positive, or artistic traits are there as well and ignoring these positive aspects of the shadow, which we sometimes repress in order to fit in to society at large, can be just as damaging as suppressing the negative ones. Jung writes: “Psychology does not know what good and evil are in themselves; it knows them only as judgments about relationships. ‘Good’ is what seems suitable, acceptable, or valuable from a certain point of view; evil is its opposite” (1951/1978, p. 53). What Jung is getting to here is that just because something is not perceived as being valuable by our culture, it does not mean that it is bad. In some cases, these hidden talents are our greatest gifts, the source of our strength, or make us who we are. This will be addressed directly in the next episode, “The Enemy Within.”
Reference:
Jung, C. G. (1978). Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Series Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9, pt. 2, 2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published in 1951)
Original post created 7 January 2021
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