Synopsis: When the Enterprise crew discovers a comet, they also discover a Vulcan vessel.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C.G.) Jung called a feeling-toned complex. A complex in this sense being an opportunity for gaining self-knowledge.
In “Break the Ice” Enterprise’s sensors locate the largest comet that humans have ever discovered, one rich in a rare element, Eisilium. Captain Jonathan Archer sends Lt. Malcom Reed and Ensign Travis Mayweather to the comet to survey the possibility of mining this ore. Shortly thereafter, a Vulcan ship, the Ti’Mur, commanded by Captain Vanik is sensed. Vanik hails Enterprise and tells Archer that he wants to observe the mining operation. On Enterprise, Sub Commander T’Pol receives an encoded message from the Ti’Mur and suspecting that T’Pol is contacting the vessel behind his back, Archer orders Ensign Hoshi Sato to decipher it. The message is of a very personal nature and has nothing to do with Archer or the Enterprise. Meanwhile, on the comet, Reed and Mayweather run into difficulties and Archer is forced to accept Vanik’s offer of assistance to bring them safely back to Enterprise.
In this episode, when Archer saw that the Vulcans were following his ship, he immediately felt that they were observing him to criticize what he might be doing and could not help himself but to react negatively. When T’Pol received a message from the Ti’Mur without telling him about it, he could not help himself but to suspect her of contacting the Vulcans behind his back. This feeling of not being able to help oneself from acting in a particular way, even though it is not something one would normally do, is how one knows that one is in the throes of a feeling-toned complex, when one feels unable to control one’s feelings or actions. Here, normally Archer would not have violated T’Pol’s privacy, but his suspicion of the Vulcan ship acted on his complex of feeling that they considered humans inferior. However, when Archer was able to accept assistance from Vanik despite his desire to prove his ship could rescue Reed and Mayweather without him, he not only saved his crewmembers, but gained some inner healing as well. When complexes do arise and we work with them, by the conscious ego acknowledging the bits of unconscious material that activate it, the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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