Synopsis: En route to Farpoint Station, the crew of the Enterprise encounter an alien who calls himself Q.
Depth psychology is defined as any psychology that examines the unconscious, and the depth psychological theme that I would like to discuss in this first post on Star Trek: The Next Generation is the concept of projection. Perhaps this is fitting, because projection is the process by which individuals project onto others the elements of their unconscious psyches that they are challenged by, which Carl (C. G.) Jung called the shadow. It is the first step to identifying a complex and the beginning of the process of incorporating the bit of unconscious material that has made itself aware to the conscious ego.
“Encounter at Farpoint” includes many instances of one character projecting his or her unconscious material onto another, and this is how we learn about how they feel about each other. For example, when Captain Jean-Luc Picard accuses Q of being one of the “self-righteous life forms who are eager not to learn, but to prosecute, to judge anything they don’t understand or can’t tolerate,” he is identifying in Q a shadow element, or troubling judgmental characteristic, of his own psyche and the structure of Starfleet Command. Similarly, Q calls humans a “dangerous, savage child race” before he savagely endangers all the lives of the crew of the Enterprise D (Fontana et al., 1987).
Also, to appease Q enough to gain the temporary reprieve, Picard tells Q to “test us” (Fontana et al., 1987), and understands that his behavior is on trial. Yet, as soon as First Officer William T. Riker comes aboard, Picard tests him, ordering him to do a very unusual piloting maneuver, thereby projecting his frustration at being tested onto Riker. Riker, for his part, is new to the ship and is forced to ask for help in order to find Lt. Commander Data, and in doing so, seems a bit like a lost child aboard the lost vessel. Yet when he does find Data, he seems to find Data childlike, in that he is trying to whistle. Here Riker is projecting his feelings of being vulnerable onto Data. These are just a handful of instances of projection that occurred in the premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and justifiably so, because this is the way that viewers are able to perceive how these new characters interact with each other.
Reference:
Fontana, D. C. (Writer), Roddenberry, G. (Writer), & Allen, C. (Director). (1987, September 28). Encounter at Farpoint (Season 1, Episode 1) [TV series episode]. In G. Roddenberry (Executive Producer), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
Original post created 7 May 2021
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