Synopsis: Ensign Tendi arrives for her first day on the U.S.S. Cerritos and learns about the dynamics of her crew.
This episode can be seen an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called a complex.
“Second Contact” begins with Ensign Brad Boimler in a closet, composing a log entry describing how the U.S.S. Cerritos specialized in second, not first, contacts. He is discovered doing this by Ensign Beckett Mariner, who is determined to create havoc. Ensign D’Vana Tendi comes aboard Cerritos and is immediately sent to the lower decks, to report to Boimler. We then learn that Boimler and Mariner are both ensigns in the command division, while Tendi is assigned to the science division. However, Mariner dismisses any interest in actual command, telling Tendi that the lower decks are were the cool things happen. Shortly thereafter, Boimler is ordered to report to the bridge, where Captain Carol Freeman commands him to report back to her on Mariner’s activities that are not in keeping with Starfleet regulations. Boimler and Mariner transport down to the planet of the Galadonians, where the Cerritos crew is performing the functions of second contact. Boimler sees Mariner take a vehicle and follows her to where she is offering farming equipment to a group of Galadonians. Believing she is acting inappropriately Boimler tries to stop her and he ends up covered in a goo from his encounter with a large spider-like creature. However, when the two return to Cerritos, Chief Medical Officer T’Ana notices that the goo that Boimler is covered in holds the cure for a plague that has infected much of the crew. We also learn that Mariner is the daughter of Freeman and a Starfleet admiral.
In this episode, Mariner seems to be needing to prove to herself that she is happy on the Cerritos after being demoted from the U.S.S. Quito, and that working on the lower decks is where the action of a starship takes place. And this may be true, however, Mariner displays such overt ridicule of Starfleet rules and regulations that it seems odd that she is still a member of it. Then we learn that her mother is the captain of the Cerritos and her father a Starfleet admiral commanding the Quito. Mariner’s actions can be seen to illustrate the creation of a complex that is created through a wound. Here the wound of being demoted by her father and assigned to a lesser vessel. This must have hurt Mariner, but she seems to be either suppressing or repressing the pain and by doing so creating a complex. However Jung believed that complexes were central to psychic healing when they are addressed. This is done by the conscious ego acknowledging bits of unconscious material into itself, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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