Synopsis: The Enterprise encounters an alien adrift in a large anomaly while tensions run high between Lt. Reed and Major Hayes.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of Jung’s concept of projection, but rather than projecting upon another positive traits from one’s Eros-driven irrational unconscious, here negatives ones are being projected leading to animosity.
In “Harbinger,” the Enterprise crew locates an alien in a small pod craft adrift in a large anomaly field and brings him and his vessel aboard. The alien tells Captain Jonathan Archer that he is from a trans-dimensional realm and was sent to where he was found against his will. Meanwhile, when Mayor J. Hayes suggests to Archer that senior officers train for hand to hand combat, Lt. Malcolm Reed becomes antagonistic toward him, accusing him of going over his head. Reed, being in charge of security on Enterprise, and Hayes being in charge of an elite Earth combat force attached to Enterprise, have been in a bit of a territorial dispute when it comes to security on the ship—perhaps real, perhaps imagined. At one point a brawl breaks out between the two, injuring them both unnecessarily. The alien then turns out to have been sent to where he was found on a mission from a species hostile not only toward humans but also toward the Xindi.
In this episode, when Reed and Hayes come to blows it is because Reed has projected upon Hayes his inner shadow, seeing his own worst traits in him. Hayes seems only too happy to accept the projection of Reed’s shadow upon himself, and may be doing a bit of projecting his own shadow onto Reed as well. Which results in a physical combat. After the fight, Archer is furious with them because he needs them both to complete Enterprise’s mission. Being caught in Archer’s crosshairs seemed to have jolted them both out of projecting upon the other and made them understand that they do need each other’s skills to save Earth from destruction.
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