Synopsis: Captain Archer and Lt. Reed bond while trying to deactivate a mine that attached itself to Enterprise’s hull.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how what Carl (C.G.) Jung called ancestral trauma, psychic wounds that we share with past generations, can influence our actions.
In “Minefield” Enterprise unexpectedly enters an area protected by cloaked, i.e., invisible to sensors, mines. Enterprise hits one, is severely damaged, and Communications Officer Ensign Hoshi Sato is injured. Then Lt. Malcolm Reed discovers that a mine has attached itself to Enterprise’s hull, and as he is the best qualified to deactivate the mine, he heads out onto the hull. Reed is injured and Captain Jonathan Archer goes to help him. Meanwhile, an alien ship approaches and hails Enterprise, but Sato is in Sick Bay and cannot translate what the individual on the other vessel is trying to say. A shot is fired across Enterprise’s bow, and Ensign Travis Mayweather gingerly pilots her out of the minefield and away from the planet. While Archer is following Reed’s instructions on how to deactivate the mine, he asks Reed questions, saying that it helps him focus on what he is doing. Reed tells him about how he joined Starfleet because he was afraid of drowning, just like his uncle. And that the uncle served aboard a submarine and died by sacrificing his life so his fellow crewmembers could live. Reed tells Archer he is ready to make the same sacrifice. That does not prove to be necessary, as Archer is able to come up with a plan to save Enterprise, Reed, and himself.
In this episode, similar to in the previous episode “Carbon Creek,” when Reed tells the story of his uncle’s actions to Archer, although he may not be aware of it, he is helping himself heal from ancestral trauma. Reed comes from a naval family and being afraid of drowning, an affliction he shared with his heroic uncle, was something he felt great shame over. He and his uncle both felt that they had let their family down. The guilt of this is an ancestral trauma that Reed holds in his psyche. By telling his truth to Archer, as hesitant as he was, he started healing this psychic wound. Doing so can seem like one is entering a minefield, but just as here, it is one that can be safely crossed. As I noted in my last blog, this is why it is so important for individuals to feel that their voices and stories are heard, especially those who have historically not been given the opportunity to do so. When these stories are told it also helps to heal the anima mundi, or soul of the world.
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