Synopsis: Chief O’Brien leads a team to Empok Nor, a disbanded Cardassian space station, in order to retrieve parts that Deep Space Nine needs for repairs.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the dangers that may exist for the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to explore the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Empok Nor” Chief Miles O’Brien needs Cardassian parts to make repairs on Deep Space Nine. As Cardassian parts are hard to come by, he suggests a salvage operation on the disbanded space station Empok Nor, which was created from the same plans. O’Brien takes Garak with him, as he would be the only individual on Deep Space Nine familiar with booby traps that would have been left behind. When the salvage team arrives on Empok Nor, Garak discovers stasis tubes containing Cardassian soldiers who have been given a psychotropic drug to make them more aggressive and xenophobic. Unfortunately, Garak is also exposed to the drug, becomes more combative, and tries to kill O’Brien. However, O’Brien is able to rig a tricorder to explode, Garak is knocked unconscious, and the team makes it back to Deep Space Nine with the needed parts.
This episode contains many allusions to the underworld, which can be analogized to the conscious ego acknowledging material from the unconscious. The travel to the dark, empty station that holds the needed parts being guarded by three Cardassian soldiers in stasis tubes, can be compared to a mythological journey to Hades guarded by the three headed Cerberus. The drug that affects Garak makes him forgo his rational motives and makes him act on pure instincts. Garak himself in the role of the psychopomp leading the quest for parts is another. Yet, in the end O’Brien is able to overcome Garak, using his cunning, which arguably is a mix of instinct and rational logic, to overcome the dangers and get the needed parts back to Deep Space Nine. At a cost though. Just as the price of a journey to the unconscious for the rational ego is the change that comes with it. Which can make the ego stronger and the psyche more whole.
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