Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, Episode 6: “The Counterclock Incident”

Synopsis: While observing a supernova, the Enterprise encounters an alien vessel headed into it, and ends up following the ship into another universe.

In this, the final episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, we get an illustration of the idea of the tension of opposites and their union, a depth psychological concept put forth by Carl (C.G.) Jung.

“The Counterclock Incident” begins as the crew of the Enterprise is in the vicinity of the Beta Niobe’s supernova and encounter an alien spaceship traveling at an almost unimaginable speed, warp 36, headed directly into the supernova. Believing that he is saving the vessel from certain destruction, Captain James T. Kirk orders that it be captured in a tractor beam, in spite of the pleadings from the pilot of the vessel, Karla Five from the planet Arret, to let her go and finish her urgent mission. Kirk refuses to do so until he cannot continue without irreparable damage being done to the Enterprise, but by that time it is too late, the controls do not function, and the Enterprise is pulled by the alien vessel into the other, reverse universe.

Once in the alternative universe, the crew of the Enterprise discovers that everything operates in reverse, including the aging process, and they must escape or be de-aged into oblivion. They are forced to rely on the help of scientists on Arret to devise a plan to travel back to their own universe. The assistance and sacrifice of the Karla Five is great, but she does so freely to save Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise, and all hands are safely returned to our universe.

That Kirk reacted to try to save the alien spaceship, even though its pilot asked him not to, is an embodiment of a Logos-driven conscious ego that believes it knows the correct course of action and does not want to consider messages sent from the Eros-driven unconscious. But ignoring warning signals can be dangerous to the psyche and creates a complex in order to bring the unconscious material to the attention of the ego. This will continue until that unconscious material is acknowledged and dealt with. In the acknowledgement and honoring of the complex, the unconscious material can be integrated into the conscious ego and bring the psyche closer to wholeness.

Original post created 29 April 2021