Synopsis: Seska lures Voyager and her crew into a trap.
This episode is an illustration of the different ways in which the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and the Eros-driven irrational unconscious operate differently and are in relationship to the other, but also how they can both be manipulated by Trickster energy.
In “Basics, Part I” viewers are first reminded that Crewman Lon Suder is still aboard Voyager but restricted to his quarters and working with Lt. Tuvok to deal with his more violent urges. Then the bridge staff is alerted to a distress call from a lifebuoy that sends a message from Seska, the former crewmember, former Maquis, now a member of the Kazon-Nistrim. The message says that she had Commander Chakotay’s son, which she created by stealing his DNA, and that she is fleeing the Kazon-Nistrim to avoid the wrath of her lover First Maje Culluh. In a dream Chakotay seeks his dead father’s guidance and is told that the child does not know about the deception that caused him to be conceived. Then Seska’s aide, Tierna, comes aboard Voyager to tell the crew that Seska is dead and that Chakotay’s son has been taken to the Gema IV Colony. Captain Kathryn Janeway decides to take Voyager to where Chakotay’s son is said to be, but it is a trap. Voyager is surrounded by Kazon-Nistrim ships, Seska is very much alive, and she and Culluh claim Voyager, and leave the crew stranded on a nearby planet. However, Suder is still aboard.
In this episode, we see Seska manipulating both Janeway and Chakotay. She appeals to Janeway’s Starfleet ideals and Chakotay’s emotions. In this respect, she is embodying a bit of a Trickster archetype, but a dark one. Quite often the Trickster is the archetype that drives change in the psyche, by forcing the conscious ego to integrate bits of unconscious material into itself, to become stronger by making it more flexible. But here, Seska, as the Trickster is out for herself. She is identifying too closely with the god-like power of this archetype. We will have to see in the next episode whether Seska is brought down, just as the conscious ego is when it identifies too closely or for too long with energy from an archetype.
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