Released: 13 December 2002
Synopsis: Enterprise is tasked with providing an escort to the new Romulan Praetor, who is a clone of Captain Picard.
Interestingly, just as in Star Trek IX: Insurrection, this film can also be seen as various illustrations of what Archetypal Psychologist James Hillman would call the relationship between the Senex, or wise elder archetype, and that of the Puer, or eternal youth. Hillman believed that the way in which these two types of energy interacted with each other could be used to assess the relationship between all the other archetypes, or unconscious energy patterns, within the human psyche. The difference being that here, the concept hits much closer to home.
In Star Trek X: Nemesis Enterprise’s sensors pick up a positronic signature on Kolarus III, an uncharted planet. Thinking that this might be some relation to Lt. Commander Data, Captain Jean-Luc Picard takes an away team to investigate. What they find are scattered pieces of a prototype of Data, whom they name B-4. Afterward, Picard is contacted by Admiral Kathryn Janeway, that the new Romulan Praetor, Shinzon, has requested a Federation escort to take him to Romulus from his home Reman, a moon orbiting the planet. When Enterprise rendezvous with Shinzon’s ship, Scimitar, Picard takes another away team aboard that vessel, only to discover that Shinzon is his clone created in a now discarded plan to infiltrate the Federation. However, because Shinzon was created to age quickly, his DNA is unstable, which is why he requested the Starfleet escort, to be able to capture Picard to extract his DNA. Picard and Shinzon confront one another, and Data and B-4 also have several interchanges. In the end, Picard and Enterprise save the day, Data saves Picard, and the Federation defeats Shinzon.
In Star Trek: Nemesis there are two main Senex and Puer relationships, that between Picard and Shinzon, and that between Data and B-4. The relationship between Picard, the Senex, and Shinzon, the Puer, is heated and very antagonistic. The Puer wanting to destroy the Senex yet needing him for his survival. But Data seems very willing to share everything with B-4. And perhaps Data is the embodiment of both Senex and Starfleet ideals in that he sacrificed himself to save Picard. Hillman taught that we have many types of archetypes, or unconscious energy patterns, contained in our psyches, that continually interact with each other. This is the basis of archetypal psychology. And he believed that the relationship between the Senex and the Puer could be used to interpret the other sets of complementary archetypes in our psyches. To understand this helps us understand ourselves a bit better, and also to have more compassion for those around us.
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