Synopsis: In a shuttle experiment Lt. Paris reaches Warp 10 and starts evolving into another being.
This episode can be seen as an exploration of theories from modern physics, which in his later years Carl (C. G.) Jung believed were different ways of expressing his idea of the collective unconscious, the way in which we were all connected to each other and part of the unus mundus, the unitary world. This includes David Bohm’s theory of the holomovement, comprised of an explicate order, which can be comprehended and in which time and space have meaning, and the implicate order, which we cannot perceive and in which time and space do not have meaning; as well as Brian Swimme’s cosmological story, where to be in the universe is to be in one location in the center of the universe and at the same time to be everywhere.
In “Threshold” Lt. Tom Paris, Lt. B’Elanna Torres, and Ensign Harry Kim are conducting experiments to devise a way to allow a vessel to travel at the speed of Warp 10, which Kim calls “the maximum warp threshold” (Braga & Singer, 1996). But they do not know what happens at that point. When Paris makes a manned test flight in a specially adapted shuttlecraft he disappears from our ability to perceive it. When he returns, he begins to evolve, as if having gone into what the Voyager crew calls “subspace” alters his very DNA. However, the doctor indicates that what is actually occurring is that he is evolving, just much more quickly than everyone else. Paris then abducts Captain Kathryn Janeway and takes her in the shuttle back into subspace. When the shuttle is finally located three days later, both Paris and Janeway have evolved into beings that are no longer visually recognizable as humanoid, and they have already reproduced. However, there is some human DNA still remaining, that the doctor is able to de-evolve back into human forms. Chakotay decides to leave the offspring on the planet on which they were found.
In this episode, that the specially adapted shuttle can move into subspace where it cannot be perceived and then back into normal space where it can, is an illustration of Bohm’s holomovement. The feeling that Paris had when he said: “for a moment I was everywhere” (Braga & Singer, 1996), is an illustration of Swimme’s cosmological story. Paris’s explanation to Neelix, that “It means that you would occupy every point in the universe simultaneously. In theory you could go any place in the wink of an eye. Time and distance would have no meaning” (Braga & Singer, 1996), seems to include both of these concepts. Jung also had an idea that the psyche, which includes the collective unconscious, had an instinctual need to evolve, and this was shown how when Paris went back into subspace, he took Janeway, and then mated with her. That Chakotay left their offspring on a deserted planet, reflects this as well.
Reference:
Braga, B. (Writer), & Singer, A. (Director). (1996, January 29). Threshold (Season 2, Episode 15) [TV series episode]. In R. Berman, M. Piller, & J. Taylor (Executive Producers), Star trek: Voyager. Paramount Television.
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