Synopsis: The Enterprise crew discovers a planet in the Expanse where humans were brought centuries ago as slaves but are now repressing the species that took them there.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the concept of a cultural complex, a psychic wound that is larger than an individual and affects both the society that was injured and the society that caused the pain.
In “North Star,” Captain Jonathan Archer, Sub-Commander T’Pol, and Lt. Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker travel to a planet where Enterprise’s sensors have detected human life. What they discover is a society that seems similar to the Western frontier from nineteenth century America, except that the humans are actively repressing an alien species, the Skagarans. The three learn that the Skagarans brought humans to this planet from Earth centuries earlier to use them as slave labor to create their colony, but that the humans revolted soon thereafter. And that since then the humans have been treating the Skagarans as second class citizens and denying them education, in the fear that they will enslave them again. Archer reveals to Sheriff MacReady that he is from Earth and that people on Earth have moved beyond this type of intolerance. MacReady tells Archer that the humans here have a long memory of what the Skagarans did to them. But after a shootout and a fist fight between Archer and the truly intolerant Deputy Bennings, at the end of the episode MacReady, who is portrayed as being more moderate in his leanings, tells Archer that it may be time to make some changes.
In this episode, what both the humans and the Skagarans experienced on this planet can be seen as cultural complexes. The humans, having been abducted from Earth and brought here as slaves, revolted against the Skagarans, and then repressed them – becoming like those that they despised. The Skagarans, who were the initial aggressors but are now a weakened and disrespected minority, are being forced to feel the same pain that the humans initially did. These events can be seen as evidence of cultural complexes, or psychic wounds that are shared by an entire society. However, when the complex created by the pain that was inflicted by one group over another is acknowledged and truly addressed, cultural healing can begin. This may be happening on the planet in this episode, and one of the reasons that I write this blog every day is the hope that this type of healing is taking, or will take, place on Earth.
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