Synopsis: One member of the crew of the science vessel U.S.S. Cabot disobeys a direct order with catastrophic results.
This episode can be seen as another illustration of how the conscious ego may try to suppress bits of material from the unconscious.
In “The Trouble With Edward,” Captain Lynne Lucero holds a staff meeting aboard the science vessel U.S.S. Cabot. One of the scientists in attendance, Edward Larkin, reports that he has been experimenting with a species native to Iota Geminorum IV (Tribleuestes Ventricosus), commonly called tribbles. He is thinking of introducing them as a food source. However, they breed slowly, but Larkin believes that he can alter their DNA to make them breed more quickly. Lucero, who is concerned with the moral implications of genetically modifying a sentient species to create a food, order Larkin to not pursue this experiment any further. Larkin disobeys Lucero’s orders, injects human, his, DNA into a tribble, which causes the tribbles to be born pregnant. This leads to them overrunning the Cabot to the point of causing the crew, except for Larkin, to evacuate the permanently disabled vessel.
In this episode, both the concerns that Lucero has over the moral implications of altering a lifeform and the lack of concern that Larkin has over the same action, can be compared to how the conscious ego believes that it has control of the psyche, when in fact it is only a part of it. The results of Larkin’s actions can be analogized to what happens when the ego acts without acknowledging bits of unconscious material, or the collective unconscious as a whole. The collective unconscious, as Carl (C.G.) Jung defined in his later works, is something that humans and everything else are a part of in a unified world, or unus mundus. Similar to what occurred on the Cabot, a disassociation with the unus mundus is occurring now on our planet, and if not altered can also lead to dire consequences.
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