Synopsis: On its way back to Deep Space Nine, the crew of the Defiant encounters their own descendants, from an accident that stranded them on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant two hundred years in the past.
Although there are many depth psychological themes running throughout this episode, I am going to focus on the illustration of what can happen when long suppressed bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious erupt and overcome the will of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
In “Children of Time” the Defiant is heading back to Deep Space Nine when it receives a signal from a planet. The crew goes to investigate but first must figure out a way in which to pass through the energy barrier that surrounds the planet. Defiant makes it through, but in the process Major Kira Nerys receives a surge of energy that came through her workstation. On the planet, Gaia, Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew meet their own descendants. The barrier has the ability to throw the ship back in time two hundred years, and the crew is told that this is what will happen when they try to leave Gaia in two days. One of the inhabitants of the planet has an idea that will allow Defiant to return to the station and still preserve the timeline of the settlements on the planet. However, Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax discovers that this will not work. Sisko and the crew are torn because they want to return to their own timeline, yet if they do, the eight thousand individuals who live on Gaia will cease to exist. Also, in this timeline, Kira dies of her injuries shortly after Defiant is stranded on the planet. However, in this timeline Odo from Gaia has had two centuries to incorporate human feelings into his psyche and he tells Kira that he has wanted to tell her he loved her for two hundred years. Kira does not want to cheat death, and she and the rest of the crew decide to head out as they did originally, believing that the Defiant will be sent back in time and the lives of those that live on the planet will be saved. However, the Odo from Gaia alters the flight plan, and the Defiant returns safely to Deep Space Nine; meaning the eight thousand inhabitants never existed.
In this episode the rational, law and order-driven Odo does something completely irrational. Without telling the crew of Defiant, he saves the life of Kira, whom he loves, but at the same time sacrificing his own life and the lives of everyone who had existed on Gaia. This act was driven by an irruption of an emotion that had been suppressed for centuries. When an individual suppresses or represses bits of material from the unconscious, they will eventually surface in strength relative to how long they have been ignored, which if lengthy can be disruptive. This is a core teaching from depth psychology.
mydailysoultrek 