Synopsis: Chief O’Brien and Dr. Bashir are captured by a group of renegade Jem’Hadar, whose leader wants to free them from their inborn addiction to ketracel white, while on Deep Space Nine Lt. Commander Worf gets used to his new surroundings.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung calls feeling-toned complexes. Jung calls them this because we know that we are in the grips of a complex when we feel that we cannot help ourselves from doing something. But complexes are also one of the ways that the Logos-driven rational conscious ego becomes aware of bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious and is afforded the opportunity to acknowledge and integrate them into itself, in order to become stronger and the psyche more whole.
In “Hippocratic Oath” Chief Miles O’Brien and Dr. Julian Bashir are in the Gamma Quadrant on the way back to Deep Space Nine when they discover a subspace trail that might be a vessel in trouble. When they go to investigate, their shuttlecraft is fired upon and they are forced to land on a planet, Bopak III, where they are promptly confronted by Jem’Hadar soldiers. However, these Jem’Hadar are led by Goran’Agar, an individual who has broken his addiction to ketracel white, the enzyme that the Jem’Hadar are genetically engineered to need to live. This substance is supplied by the Founders, and this is how the Jem’Hadar are enslaved to them. Goran’Agar feels the need to give his soldiers the same opportunity to break their addiction he had. Bashir as a doctor, wants to help them, but O’Brien, as a Starfleet combat officer only wants to escape the planet. When Bashir is just about to find a solution to the problem O’Brien escapes the Jem’Hadar and destroys Bashir’s work. Goran’Agar allows them to leave but stays behind because he cannot leave his soldiers. Meanwhile, on Deep Space Nine, the newly arrived Strategic Operations Officer, Lt. Commander Worf, after having served seven years in security on the Enterprise feels compelled to be included in the security operations of the station. This leads to him ruining an undercover operation led by Chief of Security Odo.
In this episode, it can be argued that the featured characters are all operating out of a complex. Bashir as a doctor before all else has a deep need to try to heal. O’Brien, as a member of Starfleet, feels he must escape the enemy at any cost and take his fellow Starfleet officer with him. Goran’Agar, the Jem’Hadar leader, feels compelled to try to bring the freedom from addiction that he has experienced to his soldiers. And on Deep Space Nine, Worf cannot help but try to be a part of Starfleet security onto the station. It is in this last situation though that we learn what happens when a complex is worked with positively. Captain Benjamin Sisko speaks to Worf and tells him that after he has been there a while he will learn that unlike Starfleet, which Worf is used to, on Deep Space Nine the residents tend to operate more in the gray area, and once Worf learns what set of rules the different individuals hold dear, he will know them better. This is much like how when the conscious ego finally acknowledges what the complex is trying to tell them, and works with the unconscious bits of material that have been brought to its attention, the ego is made stronger, and the psyche is made more whole.
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