Synopsis: Enterprise’s crew, with the help of the Andorians, locate the prototype of the Xindi weapon created to destroy Earth.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the different archetypes, or patterns of energy, in our psyches complement and relate to each other.
In “Proving Ground,” Degra, the Chairman of the Xindi Council and a member of the Primate Xindi species, tells the other council members, representatives of his and the other four existing Xindi species, the Arboreals, the Aquatics, the Insectoids, and the Reptilians, that the prototype of the weapon that he is developing to destroy Earth will be ready to test in three days. Meanwhile, aboard Enterprise, the tracking device that Captain Jonathan Archer placed aboard Degra’s vessel has allowed Enterprise’s sensors to locate its location. However, Enterprise must navigate an anomaly field to get there and is momentarily engulfed by a large anomaly until she is pulled out by the Andorian Imperial Guard Vessel, the Kumari, captained by Commander Shran. The Kumari crew help Enterprise’s crew in repairing the systems damaged by contact with the anomaly. Archer and Shran devise a plan to capture the weapon and study it. Unbeknownst to Archer, Shran is under orders from an Imperial Guard General to take the weapon back to Andoria. Shran’s plan to take the weapon does not succeed and the weapon is blown up, but not before scans of it are made, which Archer orders transmitted to Starfleet Command.
In this episode, the members of the Xindi Council can be analogized to the different types of archetypal energy contained in our psyches, which are complementary and in relationship to each other. That they have a dialog and work together is one of the main concepts of archetypal psychology as envisioned by James Hillman.
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