Synopsis: The Enterprise crew visits a pre-warp culture and finds something amiss.
This episode can be seen as other illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory, the idea that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become a tree, humans have an inner daimon with all the information we need to be who we are destined to be, if we only access and trust it.
In “Civilization” Enterprise’s sensors locate an inhabited M-Class planet. Sub Commander T’Pol advises caution, as Vulcan protocol does not allow for first contact with an alien species until after they have attained warp technology. Captain Jonathan Archer believes that an away team could pass for being native and decides to visit the planet, especially after sensors indicate neutrino emissions coming from a city which are not consistent with pre-warp technology. Archer, T’Pol, Lt. Charles Tucker (Trip) and Ensign Hoshi Sato take a pod to the planet. Archer and Trip break into an antique shop where the emissions are coming from. They are confronted by a female Akaali, Riaan, whom T’Pol stuns. Archer and T’Pol take Riaan to her apothecary and T’Pol takes some samples of Riaan’s work to Enterprise, while Archer stays behind with Riaan. He tells her that they are in the city to investigate the antique shop. Archer asks Riaan about the illness that she observed in the city. Archer returns to the shop, and discovers it is run by Garos, who is from the Malurian System. The Malurians are mining a veridian isotope which is causing the radiation sickness. A Malurian ship then fires on Enterprise. Enterprise drives them away, the mining equipment is removed, and Archer brings Riaan an antidote for the radiation poisoning.
In this episode, there is a scene when Dr. Phlox looks at the samples of Riaan’s work that T’Pol has brought him. Recognizing her innate talent, he remarks that if Riaan had been born on a different planet or at a different time, she would have made a fine surgeon, because she has the gift of healing. Similarly, in another scene, Sato is gleefully listening to dozens of languages that she is hearing from the planet and tells Archer that she could stay there for years learning them all. Both these women were in touch with their inner daimons, which gave them each a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. We all have the opportunity to do this, by getting in touch with our inner daimons with the mission to explore who we were meant to be.
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