Synopsis: Malik, the leader of the Augments, comes up with a scheme to attack a Klingon colony so that the Klingons will attack Earth in return.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the relationship between the archetypal energies of the Senex, or wise elder, and the Puer, or eternal youth.
In “The Augments” Captain Jonathan Archer is able to save the personnel of Cold Station 12 from the deadly pathogens Malik, the leader of the Augments, set to release after the Augments left. Meanwhile on the stolen Klingon bird-of-prey, Malik tells Arik Soong that Archer and the rest of the individuals on Cold Station 12 are dead and that he took bio-toxins from there to use on the Klingons, believing that they will blame humans and seek vengeance on Earth. Malik begins questioning Soong’s authority when he sees that Soong is trying to alter the DNA of the remaining genetically enhanced embryos by taking away their aggressive natures. When Soong disagrees with the plan to release the bio-toxins, Malik locks him up. Soong takes an escape pod from the stolen Klingon vessel and Enterprise picks him up. Soong tells Archer about Malik’s plot to attack a Klingon colony with the bio-weapon, and Enterprise pursues, arriving just in time to stop it. Malik then secretly boards Enterprise to try to kill Soong and Archer is forced to kill him. Soong is returned to prison, where he contemplates changing the focus of his research to cybernetics instead of trying to improve humans.
In this episode, in the struggle of wills between Soong, the creator of the Augments, and Malik, the leader of Soong’s “children” can be compared to the relationship between the archetypal forces of the Senex, or wise elder, and the Puer, or eternal youth, found in each of our psyches. James Hillman believed that the complementary forces between all archetypes in our psyches could be explored through the relationship between the Senex and the Puer. Here Malik can be seen as embodying the Puer, who rebels against the status , and Soong can be seen to represent the Senex, the wise elder who wants to preserve the ideals that he has come to use to understand the universe. Through conflict comes growth, although in this episode, arguably the growth in consciousness was on the part of Soong, when he decided to move on to a new focus of his research.
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