Synopsis: Voyager enters space that is disputed by two species, one with a weapon to completely irradicate the other.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what desperate means the Logos-driven rational conscious ego may take when confronted with material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Year of Hell, Part I” when Voyager enters into an area of space that is in dispute between the Krenim Imperium and the Zahl, they are confronted with two differing messages. The Zahl tell Captain Kathryn Janeway that Voyager is among friends while Annorax, the captain of the Krenim vessel, tells Janeway that the space they are entering is disputed. He then fires upon Voyager and tells Janeway to prepare to surrender. Annorax has a weapon that can eradicate an entire species by changing the necessary timeline so that they will have never existed. Somehow, Seven of Nine is able to create a shielding that protects Voyager from the spacial distortion, but Krenim forces continue to attack the ship. The battle goes badly for Voyager and her crew; the ship damaged almost beyond repair. In a last bit of desperation, Janeway orders the crew abandon Voyager.
If in this episode we consider Janeway as an embodiment of the conscious ego and Annorax and his weapon as symbolizing the forces of the unconscious, then Janeway’s increasing desperate acts can be analogized to how the rational ego will struggle to keep itself safe from bits of material from the unconscious. Like Janeway, sometimes the ego will fight to suppress bits of unconscious material until it is no longer possible. And like Annorax’s spacial distortion weapon, the unconscious does not necessarily fight in terms the rational ego deems fair. This story will continue to the next episode, but at the end of the current one, when Janeway orders the crew to abandon ship it seems like she is facing the inevitable. But is she? We will see.
mydailysoultrek 