Synopsis: Ensign Sato experiences an odd sensation when she uses the transporter for the first time.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how real a dream or fantasy image can be.
In “Vanishing Point” Ensign Hoshi Sato and Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker are in a cave on a planet looking at ancient ruins from an alien culture. Two strong storms are approaching their location and the only way to get them safely back to Enterprise before they hit is to use the transporter. Sato does not want to use it, so Tucker tells her he will use it first. He does and calls her from the Enterprise telling her he arrived safely. Sato then uses it. Later, on the Enterprise, Sato feels something is not right. She tells this to Captain Jonathan Archer and also to Dr. Phlox, but both assure her that nothing is wrong. The next day, Sato is unable to translate a simple language in the middle of hostage negotiations and is told to go to her quarters. Then Sato experiences her reflection in the mirror disappearing and water being able to go through her body. Sato again goes to see Phlox and again is told everything is normal. Sato learns that the hostage situation was resolved when artifacts and photographs that had been taken while on the planet were returned. But soon Sato becomes invisible to the crew and gains the ability to pass through matter. While in this state she observes aliens on Enterprise planting bombs and then uses their alien transporter to try to get help. This leads her to materialize on Enterprise, where she learns that she was only caught in the transporter for eight seconds and that what she had believed was real was only a vision.
In this episode, what Sato lived through in that eight seconds can be compared to a dream. Dreams are very important in all fields of depth psychology, be it Freudian, Jungian, or post-Jungian, the difference is in how they are interpreted. Freudian psychoanalysis tends to look to the meaning of dreams to reveal something from the past, many times from childhood, and likely there will be some way to connect it with the Oedipus complex. Jungians and post-Jungians tend to interpret dreams as having some significance for the future, often using figures from mythology as symbols, but not limited to Oedipus. Admittedly, I have a bias towards the Jungian approach. If interpreted from that point of view, Sato’s vision may have contained a message from her unconscious that her conscious ego may acknowledge in the future.
mydailysoultrek 