Synopsis: Alien entities invade the bodies of Counselor Troi, Lt. Commander Data, and Chief O’Brien, and then try to take over the Enterprise.
This episode is very similar in theme to the last episode “Conundrum,” in that they both involve a plot by a previously unknown alien race that tries to take over the bodies of the crew of the Enterprise in order to use the ship for their own needs. If we can analogize the vessel of the Enterprise that is home to her crew, to the vessel of the psyche, that holds all the elements of our psyche, we can see that both these episodes can illustrate what happens to us when the unconscious takes over the rational ego.
As noted in my prior post, in “Conundrum” an alien race is controlling the rational consciousness of the Enterprise’s crew. They do not know why they are doing what they do, yet they cannot stop themselves. They recognize their actions, but not themselves. This is what it can feel like when one is in the throes of a complex. As Carl (C. G.) Jung would say, we know we are dealing with a complex when we cannot help our actions and feel somewhat unlike ourselves.
In “Power Play” the idea is the same, but it is expressed differently. After the alien being leaves the body of Counselor Deanna Troi, she tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard that the feeling was like her own consciousness was pushed to the side. This is another way that the rational ego can experience when unconscious material erupts into its conscious awareness through a complex that has become autonomous. Our conscious ego has no control.
The difference between the two episodes is that in “Conundrum” the entire crew had been affected by an alien takeover of their bodies, while in “Power Play” only three crewmembers were affected, and the resulting resolution was subtly different. Here Picard, acting on behalf of the crew, or the rational ego, acknowledged the alien presences and tried to work with them to achieve their goal. That was until Picard learned their true nature, and then ordered the crew to take action against them. At that point the aliens were suppressed again, sent back to their imprisonment on the moon below. Suppression is another way the conscious ego handles bits of unconscious material, especially when they are deemed dangerous to it. Sometimes, this is all that the ego can do.
However, at the end of the episode, as the aliens were once again returned to the moon they warned Picard not to cross their path again. This reflects how when dealing with the bits of unconscious material that the ego has suppressed, there is always a danger of it coming back to consciousness again, stronger than before.
Original post created 11 October 2021
mydailysoultrek 