Synopsis: Voyager receives a message from the Alpha Quadrant.
Here, if we analogize Voyager and her crew to the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, and the Alpha Quadrant to the Eros-driven irrational unconscious, then this episode can be seen as an illustration of how difficult it can be for the conscious ego to receive information from the unconscious.
In “Hunters” Voyager receives a signal from Starfleet using the same alien communication array used to send The Doctor’s holographic program into the Alpha Quadrant in “Message in a Bottle.” Only here the message is garbled. Thinking that if Voyager is closer to the array the crew might be better able to retrieve the information contained in the message, Captain Kathryn Janeway orders her to the array module where much of the message is stored. However, as in the last episode, the alien race that claims the array, the Hirogen, do not want it used by outsiders. Also, the array module itself harnesses the power of a small black hole, which in turn emits a gravimetric field, making it impossible for Voyager to get close to the array. Seven of Nine and Lt. Commander Tuvok take a shuttle closer to the array to try to lessen the power of the gravimetric field, but their shuttle is fired upon by a Hirogen vessel and Seven and Tuvok taken aboard as hunting trophies. Voyager comes to rescue them and then is fired on by a group of Hirogen vessels, but when the Hirogen vessels fire near the gravimetric field they are pulled into the black hole. The array is also destroyed, but the crew was able to recover letters from home that were part of the transmission from the Alpha Quadrant.
In this episode the difficulties with getting the message from the Alpha Quadrant can be analogized to the defenses that the rational conscious ego puts up when confronted with bits of material from the irrational unconscious. And even when some of the information gets through, it can be garbled and hard to decipher in both cases. But if the information does get through, is acknowledged, and then integrated into the ego, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole. Much as the morale aboard Voyager was lifted by getting letters from home.
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