Synopsis: While visiting Lt. Commander Data’s home world, Omicron Theta, they find the life on planet destroyed and a duplicate of him, his brother, Lore.
This episode gives viewers the opportunity to understand Carl (C. G.) Jung’s theory of the shadow, as did the episode “The Enemy Within” from Star Trek: The Original Series, except in “Datalore” the shadow was not united with the conscious ego, and the results are much different.
Depth psychology is the name for any psychology that examines the unconscious and how it relates to an individual’s conscious ego. In the unconscious, Jung has identified several archetypes, his term for symbols of specific types of behavior. One of these is the shadow, which Jung defined as the traits within us that are either undeveloped, or those that are not appreciated in society and therefore repressed. The shadow is therefore not necessarily negative, because sometimes positive traits such as artistic talents can be found there as well, that an individual needed to suppress in order to fit into the dominant culture.
With that said, Lt. Commander Data, the android Starfleet officer, is an embodiment of all the traits that Starfleet holds dear: honesty, bravery, self-sacrificing, rational, strong – in fact stronger than humans, yet as he tells First Officer Commander William T. Riker at their very first encounter: “I am superior in many ways, but I would give it up to be human” (Fontana, et al., 1987).
Lore, Data’s long lost, and dismantled brother, is represented in this episode as Data’s shadow. Lore is everything that Data is not. Where Data has no ability to feel human emotions, Lore is comfortable with them, especially those which Starfleet is not appreciative of, especially deceit and treachery. An interesting reflection of this is the naming of the characters as Data and Lore. Data brings to mind the rational accumulation of information; Lore, more related to tall tales that may or may not be true. “Datalore” ends with Lore’s impersonation of Data being found out, and Data transporting Lore off the Enterprise.
This is much different than the outcome of “The Enemy Within.” In that episode Captain James T. Kirk unites “Good Kirk” and “Evil Kirk,” incorporating both opposites into his psyche, and we never see “Evil Kirk” again. However, in “Datalore” Lore, the shadow figure, is thrust out, yet this is a reoccurring villainous character that makes numerous appearances as the series goes on. This is much like how humans who suppress their shadows merely put them out of their sight, until they reappear, and a complex is created. A complex that will not go away until it is acknowledged and integrated into the conscious ego.
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 20 May 2021
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