Star Trek: Voyager – Season 4, Episode 21: “The Omega Directive”

Synopsis: Voyager and her crew encounter a unique and dangerous particle.

In this episode we get an illustration of the actual union of opposites, the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, the total integration of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.

In “The Omega Directive” Voyager is unexpectedly forced out of warp and then receives an encrypted message for the eyes of Captain Kathryn Janeway only. It seems that all Starfleet captains have been instructed to destroy an Omega Particle upon detection, because it has the ability to rupture subspace, making all warp drive transportation impossible. Janeway summons Seven of Nine to her Ready Room, correctly believing that she has knowledge of the Omega Particle from the Borg. Seven knows about both the Omega Particle and the Omega Directive, from assimilating Starfleet officers. But unlike Starfleet, the Borg believe that the Omega Particle is perfection. Instead of being ordered to destroy it on sight, the Borg directive is to assimilate it at all costs. Janeway convinces Seven to help her, and Omega Particles are sensed on a moon. When Voyager reaches the moon, a structure has been destroyed and Janeway leads an away team down to rescue the survivors and ascertain what caused the destruction. The lead alien scientist tells Janeway that harnessing the power of the particle was a hope for his civilization. Nevertheless, the Omega Particles are contained on Voyager and then destroyed. Yet, for 3.2 seconds Seven is able to look at the particles, making her feel as if she is in the presence of God.

In this episode, Seven describes why the Borg consider the Omega Particle perfection. She tells Janeway that they consider it infinitely complex yet harmonic. This can also be a way of describing the union of opposites, when the unconscious and the conscious are at a perfect balance in the psyche. In reality, this is either an unachievable state, or one that may only be achieved for a few seconds. But moving toward this is the journey of depth psychology.