Released: 22 November 1996
Synopsis: Captain Picard and the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise E go back in time to 21st century Earth to stop the Borg’s attempt to prevent the first warp engine test.
Much like Star Trek: Generations, this film can be seen as an analogy as to what happens in one’s psyche when one becomes too one-sided in favoring the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and suppresses or represses the Eros-driven, irrational instincts and urges of the unconscious – and then the emotions break through in the form of a complex.
Star Trek VIII: First Contact begins when Captain Jean-Luc Picard sensing the Borg. This is followed by a communication from Starfleet that the Borg are indeed headed to Earth. The entire fleet, except for the newly commissioned Enterprise E, are sent to fight them off. The Enterprise is not going because Admiral Hayes believes that Picard has been compromised by having been once assimilated by the Borg. The fleet is defeated and the Enterprise heads back to Earth, against orders, and destroys the Borg cube, but not before a smaller escape vessel escapes. Picard orders that the Enterprise pursue the small Borg vessel, which leads them back through time to 21st century Earth. The Borg have gone there in order to stop the first warp driven test flight and first contact with the Vulcans, that eventually led to the United Federation of Planets. Picard risks everything to defeat the Borg, and in the end they are, but not without great risk to his crew and making many compromises in Starfleet procedures.
In Picard, we see that Hayes is correct, he has been deeply affected by his contact with the Borg. It has created what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call a complex. But as I have written before, a complex can be understood as an opportunity to learn about oneself. As the plot of this film progresses Picard seems to become more and more irrational as he is single-mindedly going after the Borg to try to destroy them. Something has happened to disrupt his rational conscious ego, a complex that has burst into his consciousness. However, once it is pointed out to him how irrational he has become, he is able to adjust his priorities, and is once again able to save the ship and her crew. This can be analogized to how when one eventually does acknowledge these bits of material from the unconscious contained in a complex, in a way aimed at learning about ourselves through them, then they can be integrated into the conscious ego, making it stronger, and also making the psyche more whole.
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