Synopsis: The Enterprise is tasked with bringing an aging admiral to negotiate for a release of hostages on a planet, as he did 45 years prior.
There is much to this episode that refers to a trip to the Underworld. In this case the Underworld created when Admiral Mark Jameson broke the Prime Directive of noninterference on the planet Mordan IV four decades earlier.
Jameson is initially located on the planet, Persephone V, Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who was kidnapped by Hades and became his queen in the underworld. Similarly, the planet on which Jameson received his rejuvenating process was Cerebus II, Cerebus being the three headed dog that guards the gates to the Underworld, or Hades.
In the episode it seems as if Jameson wants to vindicate himself, leave the Underworld he has been living in for the last 45 years by presenting himself for atonement to Karnas on Mordan. The name Mordan itself having connotations with the dead.
Jungian depth psychology has often been referred to as the psychology of the dark night of the soul, and Jameson in this episode is living through such a moment in his life. Unlike Persephone, he has spent too long in this Underworld, and will no longer be able to escape it. But, in giving his life, he did fulfill his mission; maybe not only to Starfleet, but for himself as well.
Original post created 24 May 2021
mydailysoultrek 