Synopsis: The Doctor tries to improve his programming and gets more than he bargained for.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what happens when too much material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious comes into the awareness of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, and is not integrated into it.
In “Darkling” The Doctor attempts to improve his program by incorporating what he seems valuable knowledge from learned individuals of the past into it. What he is unaware of is that along with what he considers valuable, there are also darker drives that propelled these individuals into history. Lt. B’Elanna Torres urges him to be careful in this endeavor, but instead of listening to her, already possessed by darker urges, he first paralyzes her and then drugs her into unconsciousness so that he can follow the instincts that he now feels. However, one of the instincts that he feels is to protect Kes, and she is able to reach him, so that his programming can be restored.
In Star Trek, the idea that there is more to an individual’s psyche than what is perceived as positive, goes back at least as far as to the episode “The Enemy Within” from Star Trek: The Original Series. Where Captain James T. Kirk had to unite both his “good” and “evil” halves in order to become more whole. But here it is different. Perhaps because The Doctor is not a flawed human, but a rational computer generated system, and by definition so one-sided that he is unable to incorporate what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call bits of unconscious shadow into his program. Instead, he is overwhelmed by them, and they end up controlling him. This episode can be seen as a cautionary tale in that it is not healthy to completely allow the unconscious to control the psyche, any more than having the conscious ego completely suppress the unconscious is, but rather a relationship of balance between the two is optimal.
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