Synopsis: Captain Archer is tasked with mediating negotiations between the Vulcans and the Andorians.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the relationship between three types of archetypal energy: the Puer, or eternal youth, the Senex, or wise elder, and the Great Mother.
In “Cease Fire” Captain Jonathan Archer receives a transmission from Admiral Maxwell Forrest. He tells Archer that Vulcan Ambassador Soval has asked for his help to negotiate a cease fire on a planet that both the Vulcans and Andorians claim as theirs. This is the first time Vulcans have asked for help from humans. Archer, Sub-Commander T’Pol and Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker share a meal to discuss the situation. T’Pol tells them the events that led to the conflict. The Vulcans claimed the planet in 2097. It was uninhabitable until the Andorians performed a terra-forming operation, and the Andorians now have a colony on the planet which they refused to let the Vulcans inspect. The planet’s only value is its location which is between the two civilizations. Soval and Sub-Commander Muroc board Enterprise and Archer learns that it was Andorian leader, Commander Shran, who required Archer’s mediation between the Andorians and the Vulcans. Archer and T’Pol go to the planet to speak with Shran, and he tells Archer he will only negotiate with Soval face to face. Archer convinces Soval to go to the planet, but when Soval, Archer, and T’Pol take a shuttlepod down to the planet, it is shot down by Andorian forces that do not want to negotiate. The three are rescued, the renegades found out, and the negotiations take place on Enterprise, where a cease fire is reached.
In this episode, Archer can be seen as embodying the Puer archetype, Soval that of the Senex, and Shran as that of the Great Mother. This being the first time that Soval has been in the position of needing Archer’s help, Shran, as remembering that Archer had been an ally in the past and the only one he trusts to bridge the relationship with Soval. Archer here wanting to prove himself worthy to Shran and wanting to break free from Soval’s dominance. This can be analogized to the relationship that goes on inside each individual’s psyche among these three types of archetypal energy. There is tension between the Puer and the Senex, the Puer wanting to do things a new way, the Senex wanting to retain order. The Senex knowing it cannot control the Great Mother, but that does not mean it doesn’t always accept this. The Puer caught between, but always wanting to break free from both. This was one of the foundational relationships among archetypal energy that Archetypal Psychologist James Hillman described in his writings, and what goes on inside of each of us.
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