Synopsis: Mr. Neelix tells a story to the young former Borg drones.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the Eros-driven irrational unconscious has a different way of expressing itself than the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
In “The Haunting of Deck Twelve” Voyager’s power is scheduled to be shut down as she passes through a nebula. Seven of Nine is concerned that the young former Borg drones in her care might become frightened by this and asks Mr. Neelix to look after them while she assists with the ship’s systems during the event. One of the youths in his charge, Mezoti, asks Neelix if the power shut down has anything to do with Deck Twelve, which is a restricted zone. Neelix tells the youths an elaborate story of how an alien lifeform took over the ship last time Voyager entered a nebula until Captain Kathryn Janeway negotiated that she would resettle the alien in another nebula, and that the alien was now housed on Deck Twelve. He then tells the youth that he made the whole story up. Yet, when power is restored to Voyager her sensors indicate that a lifeform has rejoined a nebula. In this episode, when Neelix tells the young former Borg drones a ghost story, he is framing a rational explanation to a question in what could be considered a scarry irrational way. This can be analogized to how our own unconscious may reveal information to the conscious ego in a more creative way than straight forward facts. This can also be compared to how art reveals to humans some truths that science cannot do all by itself.
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