Synopsis: The Enterprise is lured to a planet by a distress call and is confronted by aliens who want to take over the ship and conquer our galaxy.
“By Any Other Name” is an illustration of what might happen to our society if we forgo the senses, including beauty, and emotions, including love, or Eros, in a pursuit to exclusively honor the pursuit of knowledge, or Logos.
When Captain James T. Kirk and the landing party arrive on a deserted planet, they are met by Rojan, from Kelva, a civilization in the galaxy Andromeda. Rojan tells them that: “you humans will face the end of your existence as you have known it.” Rojan further explains that the Kelvans were sent to find a new galaxy to conquer and will take the Enterprise and modify her engines, so that she can take them in a multigenerational journey back to their galaxy, and then return with reinforcements to conquer ours. The Kelvans have much superior mental capabilities, but as Mr. Spock observes, in order to achieve their intellect, they suppressed anything that would distract them from their advancement, including physical sensations and emotions. It is interesting that Spock is the character to point this out to Kirk, as on his planet they have done exactly the same thing, so he would be most aware of it.
Since the Kelvans were forced to modify themselves into human bodies in order to take the Enterprise, they are now susceptible to all the sensations and emotions that they have buried for countless centuries. Further, since with all the intellect, they have not learned how to incorporate emotions and physical sensations into their personas, they are most susceptible to sudden outbursts. These sudden eruptions of emotions – flashes from the ignored unconscious makes them vulnerable. Yet, when these emotions are acknowledged, the Kelvans become reasonable. The Kelvans are made aware of one of them, compassion, when Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy explain a way that they can become part of this galaxy as a partner, not as a conqueror.
This idea that partnership is better than domination is also very much in line with the type of society that Riane Eisler writes so much about in her book, The Chalice and the Blade.
Original post created 2 March 2021
mydailysoultrek 