Synopsis: After the rest of the crew has disembarked, so that the Enterprise may undergo a baryon sweep, Captain Picard is trapped aboard the ship with thieves intent on stealing a dangerous commodity from her.
In this episode, what is interesting from a depth psychological point of view is an overwhelming feeling of being trapped throughout the episode from many different perspectives.
At the beginning of “Starship Mine” Captain Jean-Luc Picard is cornered by officer after officer as the ship prepares for the routine, yet lethal, baryon scan, which requires that the crew disembark the ship. After having to deal with the concerns of Counselor Deanna Troi, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Commander William Riker, Picard’s shoulders are so hunched up that his neck looks like it is receding into his uniform, like a turtle. Then he steps into a turbolift and is trapped by Lt. Commander Data and his new subroutine for small talk. Ironically, this allows for a little comic relief, before he is confronted on the bridge by Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge and Lt. Worf, who both also have concerns Picard needs to deal with before they can all leave for Arkaria. Finally, just before leaving, Picard has a moment alone on the bridge, and smiles as he caresses a banister. Workers then invade the mood and the space, and Picard is forced to move on again.
On Arkaria, the senior officers, including Picard, feel trapped at the reception hosted by Commander Calvin “Hutch” Hutchinson, who, as Picard informed Data earlier, is a master of small talk. Hutchinson mentions a riding path where there is “not a soul for kilometers,” and Picard sees an escape route, to return to the Enterprise to get his saddle, and get some peace of mind and quiet. Of course, this is when Picard really gets trapped, when he uncovers a plot aboard the Enterprise to steal trilithium resin, “a highly toxic waste product” produced by the ship’s engines (Gendel & Bole, 1993).
This pattern of feeling trapped, thinking one has found an escape, only to be trapped once again into an even bigger problem, is what the conscious ego feels like when it is confronted with the bits of unconscious material that comes into its awareness through a complex. It is likely that the ego’s first response will be the need to find a way out of dealing with what it perceives as negative or unwanted, when in fact, unless the bits of unconscious material are acknowledged and integrated into it, the complex will only get bigger and harder to deal with. However, when a complex is understood as a chance to learn about oneself, then the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole. This is the idea at the heart of depth psychology.
Reference:
Gendel, M. (Writer), & Bole, C. (Director). (1993, March 27). Starship mine (Season 6, Episode 18) [TV series episode]. In M. Piller & R. Berman (Executive Producers), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
mydailysoultrek 