Synopsis: After their shuttle crashes on a barren planet, Lt. Commander Tuvok, Ensign Paris, and The Doctor encounter a lone female survivor from a previous wreck.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of projection, one way that the Logos-driven rational conscious ego can become aware of bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious. Carl (C. G.) Jung explained this as being when bits of unconscious material are projected upon another, in order for the conscious ego to be made aware of them. If the bits of unconscious material are from an individual’s anima or animus, one’s ideal inner other female or male, then the emotion that is engaged is love. If, on the other hand, the bits of unconscious material come from one’s shadow, then the individual upon whom the projection is placed is scorned by the projector.
“Gravity” begins with a flashback into the youth of Lt. Commander Tuvok. At a time when he is being told he must purge all emotions, particularly the emotion of love, which can lead to experiencing other emotions. In the present, the plot has the shuttle containing Tuvok, Ensign Tom Paris, and The Doctor crash land upon a barren planet. On this planet they come upon a lone female survivor, Noss, living in the wreckage from a similar accident. Noss develops romantic feelings for Tuvok, which forces him to remember how difficult it was in the past for him to repress his emotions when he was young, as is customary among Vulcans.
In this episode the love that Tuvok felt in the past, as well as the feelings that Noss has for Tuvok in the present, can be seen as embodiments of projection. Here, Noss is projecting her own ideal inner other, or animus, upon Tuvok, just as in the flashback a younger Tuvok projected his own ideal inner other, or anima, upon the young woman he was in love with at the time. However, because he has trained himself to repress emotion, Tuvok rejects Noss’s projection. This causes pain in Noss in the present, much like the pain that Tuvok experienced in the past. But unlike Tuvok, who chooses not to engage in the emotion, Noss has the chance to use this as an opportunity to learn more about her inner ideal other, and in turn acknowledge and incorporate this bit of unconscious material into her conscious ego, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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