Synopsis: Lt. Paris and Ensign Kim are imprisoned by an alien culture for a crime they did not commit.
This episode is an illustration of what it is like when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego is forced to confront the Eros-driven unconscious.
In “The Chute” Lt. Tom Paris and Ensign Harry Kim are convicted of terrorism and thrown down a chute into an alien prison where all inmates have a clamp implanted into their brains. Paris and Kim try to escape but are discovered by a mob and Paris is stabbed. Kim brings Paris to one of the inmates, Zio, for medical treatment. Zio treats Paris in exchange for going with them when they escape. Paris gets worse and Zio tells Kim that the clamps agitate the inmate’s brains to make them want to kill each other instead of work together, which is how they are controlled. Kim and Zio reach the top of the chute only to find that they are not on a planet, but in a spaceship. Zio wants Kim to kill Paris, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Captain Kathryn Janeway believes that if she brings the true terrorists to the authorities that Paris and Kim will be set free. When this expectation is not met, she locates the ship where they are being held and rescues them.
In this episode, we see Paris and Kim take a trip to the Underworld, which can be seen as an analogy to when the conscious ego delves into the unknown of the unconscious. Paris, being a bit more morally flexible, is able to navigate this place slightly better than Kim, who still holds onto his Starfleet ideals, no matter what. On the outside, Janeway tries to maintain Starfleet ideals, but when they do not get her what she wants, she too is forced to bend to more devious means to extricate Paris and Kim from their predicament. It seems that there may be a bit of a change of attitude here, even though Janeway may not yet acknowledge it. That being that if the Starfleet way is not getting the job done, instead of being tortured by her conscious, Janeway figures out a way not necessarily condoned by Starfleet, but that will accomplish her goals. This can be seen as analogous to psychic healing, in that the ego is allowing bits of material from the unconscious to be integrated into it, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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