Synopsis: Lt. Paris, The Doctor, and Crewman Suder take back Voyager and rescue her crew.
This episode is another 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.
“Basics, Part II” opens with Voyager’s crew abandoned on a planet except for Lt. Tom Paris, who had taken a shuttle to try to get Talaxian vessels to aid Voyager’s crew, The Doctor in his emergency medical program, and Crewman Lon Suder, who managed to escape detection by the Kazon-Nistrim boarding party. Paris was able to enlist the assistance of Talaxian ships and he sends a message to The Doctor how to sabotage Voyager’s weapons so that they will not destroy him and the Talaxians. The Doctor’s program is discontinued and it is up to Suder to take the necessary action. In doing so he kills many Kazons. He does accomplish his goal, but then is killed by another Kazon. Paris’s plan succeeds, the Kazons leave Voyager, and he takes the ship back to the planet to rescue the crew.
In this episode, we see The Doctor, the image of Starfleet, encourage Suder to follow the darker instincts that he had been trying to subdue. As it turns out, his violent tendencies are exactly what was needed in order to allow the crew to retake Voyager, even though he was killed in the process. This is something like how the conscious ego is forced to draw upon instincts that it would like to suppress, but needs in certain situations, in order to get past an obstacle that it cannot deal with in its normal or preferred way of functioning. And this is how it should be. The way to make the ego stronger, is for it to acknowledge and integrate bits of unconscious material, and in the process making the psyche more whole.
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