Synopsis: In an area devoid of stars, Voyager’s crew comes across two alien species, one dumping radiation into the space of another, while Janeway fights her internal demons.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the operations of inflation and deflation are part of the overall process of individuation, the way by which Carl (C. G.) Jung theorized the psyche becomes more whole. Inflation, being the periodic identification with the god-like power of an archetype from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious; deflation, being the opposite, when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego understands that it does not possess this god-like power. That the idea that it did was in error.
In “Night” while Voyager is traveling in a vast area devoid of stars, she is boarded by a race of aliens and then rescued from them when another alien vessel appears. The captain of the ship that rescued Voyager, Controller Emck, is a Malon. His ship reeks of radiation. Meanwhile, one of the aliens that boarded Voyager is treated in Sick Bay, where he is dying of radiation. Emck wants the dying alien in exchange for showing Voyager’s crew where a vortex is that can take them out of this area of space, shortening their journey home. The dying alien says that the Malons use their area of space as a dumping ground for radiation, and the pollution is killing them. Meanwhile, Commander Chakotay seeks the advice of Lt. Commander Tuvok about Captain Kathryn Janeway, who has kept herself removed from the crew for a period of time. Tuvok tells Chakotay that Janeway feels that it is her fault that Voyager has been marooned in the Delta Quadrant and that guilt is her constant companion. To stop the harm the Malons are doing to this area of space, Janeway tries to give Emck technology that would allow his race to eliminate the radiation. But Emck refuses, telling her that this would put him out of business. Janeway then tells the crew that Voyager will be sent through the vortex, but that she will stay behind in a shuttle to destroy it afterward, eliminating the means by which the Malons are dumping radiation in this area of space. The crew refuses her command, and instead Voyager goes through the vortex and then destroys it.
What Janeway was experiencing in this episode can be seen as an illustration of what it feels like to go through individuation. First there is the wound, here guilt for feeling responsible for Voyager being stranded in the Delta quadrant. A wound creating a complex, which is a way to let bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious come into the purview of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, offering an opportunity for growth. Janeway then experiences inflation, here the idea that she can fix things for the aliens that live in this area of space. She offers technology, which she has been resistant to doing in the past, to an alien race in order to allow them to stop polluting the space of another race. When this offer is refused, Janeway feels deflated. But then she has another experience of inflation, the idea to get Voyager and her crew through a vortex that will get them out of this area of space, but to stay behind and destroy the vortex behind them so the polluting aliens can no longer dump radiation. When the crew refuses her order, she is deflated again. However, Janeway being deflated this time leads to the crew coming up with the idea to send Voyager through the vortex and then destroying it, to both get them nearer their destination and to stop the pollution. The inflation was necessary for momentum to think big ideas and the deflation was necessary to come up with a plan that was more, dare I say rational. This balance is also what goes on continually in the individuation process, the way in which the psyche becomes more whole.
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