Synopsis: On an away team mission, Commander Jack Ransom of the U.S.S. Cerritos becomes possessed by strange energies.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called inflation, which is when the conscious ego identifies too closely or for too long with the power of an unconscious archetype.
In “Strange Energies” the U.S.S. Cerritos is sent on a second contact mission to Apergos. Ensign Beckett Mariner, who for the past couple of months has been working with her mother, Captain Carol Freeman, asks her mother if she can go on a side mission, to power wash some of the buildings on the planet. Freeman agrees and Mariner goes down to the planet and starts cleaning walls, one of which reveals an ancient mural. However, she also accidentally uncovers a strange orb, that when exposed to the sun creates a beam of energy that hits and knocks out Commander Jack Ransom. When he regains consciousness, his eyes start glowing and he levitates himself above the assembled crew and Apergosians. Ransom then goes mad with power making a moon disappear, because it displeases him, and then threatening the Cerritos with his head that he has somehow disconnected from his body and sent into orbit. Freeman tries to reason with Ransom’s head, telling him that he was a good officer and that she did not mean to take him for granted. Meanwhile, on the planet Mariner kicks Ransom’s body repeatedly in the crotch, which causes the head to return to the body and Ransom eventually recovers from the experience returning to his normal self. Mariner and Freeman decide to stop working together and Freeman has Mariner escorted to the brig.
In this episode, both Mariner and Ransom can be seen as exhibiting signs of inflation. Mariner does this by deciding that she can decide to power wash anther culture’s structures, believing that she will show the Apergosians how things should be done, even though they never asked for her to do so. The result was her releasing strange energies. Ransom suffered inflation because of the strange energies that gave him god-like powers. Mariner is placed in the brig for her actions and Ransom is physically attacked until his head returns to his normal body. This can be analogized to their both experiencing the eventual outcome of inflation, deflation. Inflation, identifying too much with the power of an unconscious archetype, and deflation, when the identification ends, seem painful here, but they are part of what Jung called the ongoing process of individuation, the way by which the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
mydailysoultrek 