Synopsis: Lt. Worf and Lt. Commander Data both face adventures concerning finding their fathers.
In this episode Lt. Worf seeks to find his father in the physical conscious world while the android Lt. Commander Data seeks to find his father in the psychic realm. What is most interesting perhaps from a depth psychological perspective is that Data, the artificial life form, is trying to connect with his father in the realm of the unconscious.
Early in “Birthright, Part I” Data is hit by a plasma shock, which knocks him out physically, yet he reports to Worf that he had a vision of his father. Worf, who has also just received information that his father may still be alive, advises Data to follow that vision. Data then speaks with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who gives him advice that sounds as if it came out of the writings of Carl (C. G.) Jung or James Hillman: “Explore this image, Data. Let it . . . excite your imagination. Focus on it. See where it leads you. Let it inspire you” (Braga & Kolbe, 1993).
Data goes on to paint images that just pour out of him from his recalling the dream. But he is frustrated as he doesn’t understand where his dream is coming from. Depth psychology, which is defined by its interest in the study of the unconscious, encourages this type of exploration of dreams, and especially images from the dream. What Data has done through his art and the story it conveys could be seen as association and amplification of the images. The problem here is that Data is trying to understand his dreams from a rational point of view when dreams are the language of the unconscious and communicate through images. However, Data has the ability to repeat the incident that causes his dream state, and he learns from his father, Dr. Noonien Soong, that when Data reached a certain point in his development that Data would be able to access this programing. Data, being an embodiment of a rational ego, needed a logical explanation of what was occurring to him.
It should be noticed that the event that caused Data to be able to access this dormant program was an unexplained plasma surge from a device from the Gamma Quadrant, a part of the galaxy that is unknown and unexplored by Starfleet. The power from that alien device reached into Data’s neural net, much as a complex brings foreign bits of unconscious material into the awareness of the rational ego. We don’t know where dream images come from either, but like Data, when we choose to explore them, we have also “started a wonderful journey” (Braga & Kolbe, 1993).
Reference:
Braga, B. (Writer), & Kolbe, W. (Director). (1993, February 20). Birthright, Part I (Season 6, Episode 16) [TV series episode]. In R. Berman & M. Piller (Executive Producers), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
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