Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1, Episode 16: “Shuttlepod One”

Synopsis: Commander Tucker and Lt. Reed are on a survey mission when they come across what they believe is the wreckage of Enterprise.

This episode can be seen as an illustration of what can be accomplished when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego integrates bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious into itself.

“Shuttlepod One” begins with Commander Charles Tucker and Lt. Malcolm Reed on an away mission in a shuttlepod surveying an asteroid field. The pod having suffered damage to both her sensors and communications systems, so when they come across what looks to their eyes as the wreckage of Enterprise, they have no way to confirm their fears. Meanwhile, aboard Enterprise we learn that the wreckage that Tucker and Reed saw was that of a vessel that belonged to a group of aliens that Enterprise rescued and is returning to their home planet. Aboard the pod, Tucker and Reed have entirely different reactions to their situation, in which they believe that they are the only surviving members of Enterprise’s crew but that they will soon be dead because they have only a few days of air to breathe. Tucker is optimistic and hopeful, believing that they will be rescued; Reed is pragmatic and prepares for what he feels is their fate, certain death. The two argue with each other, and almost come to blows, over their different ways of dealing with their fate, but then together they decide to do one last thing to try to get Enterprise’s attention. In a scheme reminiscent of when Mr. Spock jettisoned a shuttlecraft’s fuel and set it on fire in “The Galileo Seven,” (see My Daily Soul Trek – Blog 15), they eject their engine and then blow it up. As with Spock’s gamble, they are successful and are rescued.

In this episode, the relationship between Reed and Tucker can be compared to that of the conscious ego and the unconscious. When Reed and Tucker work together, that can be analogized to when the ego acknowledges and integrates bits of unconscious material into itself, which makes the ego stronger and the psyche more whole.