Synopsis: A visiting Federation observer judges the performance of the crew of the Enterprise.
In this episode there is a bit of a turnaround from the normal perspective, as the crew of the Enterprise have taken aboard an independent observer who stands in judgment of them. Here, unlike in most episodes, it is the observer, Ari Bw Bem, who is cast in the role of the Logos-driven conscious ego, and Captain James T. Kirk and the rest of the crew seen as elements of the Eros-driven unconscious.
As the episode progresses, we learn of Bem’s attitude of superiority toward the crew members, which in depth psychological terms means that his ego is inflated because it is identifying with god-like powers. Part of these powers we learn in the episode, is that Bem is a “colony creature,” who has the super-human capability of separating various parts of the whole when needed.
But there is a drastic turnaround when Bem is in peril, and the crew members need to break the Prime Directive, specifically using “superior technology” in the presence of a developing alien race, in order to rescue him. Bem is then humbled and offers as punishment that he will disassemble the unity of himself. This mirrors what happens when the conscious ego realizes that it has erred and becomes completely deflated.
Yet the planet that they are visiting has an advanced alien, almost god-like, entity who is protecting the developing alien race, and that tells Bem that “errors demand recognition so that they will not be repeated” and that “punishment is necessary only where learning cannot occur without it.” The entity encourages Bem to learn from his mistakes, which is really all any of us can do. As psychic development in our lives is a series of confrontations between the conscious ego and the unconscious, which also results in a cycle of ego inflation and deflation, as the psyche continues to integrate different parts of the unconscious into the conscious ego, to individuate, or become more whole.
Original post created 24 April 2021
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