Synopsis: The U.S.S. Cerritos is hailed by Queen Paolana of Hysperia asking for repairs for her ship the Monaveen, while Ensigns Mariner and Boimler are tasked with bringing a sentient computer to the Daystrom Institute.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how James Hillman described the archetypal need for the Puer,or eternal youth, energy to disengage from that of the Great Mother in our psyches.
In “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie,” Captain Carol Freeman and Commander Jack Ransom capture a sentient computer that has caused a war that lasted for one hundred years on a planet. After they return to the U.S.S. Cerritos, the ship is hailed by Queen Paolana of Hysperia asking for assistance to repair her ship the Monaveen. Paolana is the mother of chief engineer Lt. Commander Andarithio (Andy) Billips. Freeman is wary that the request is a ploy to trick Billips into leaving Starfleet in order to take his place as king of Hysperia, which will happen automatically when he loses his virginity. Billips and Ensign Samanthan Rutherford go aboard the ship, and after the repairs have been completed, Billips returns, only to witness what looks like a massive explosion on the Monaveen, appearing to kill both Paolana and Rutherford. Billips tells Freeman that he now must leave Starfleet. However, the explosion was an illusion and before Billips can lose his virginity, which would seal his fate, the scheme is found out. Confronting his mother, Billips tells her that he is staying in Starfleet because it is what he loves.
In this episode, Billips can be seen as embodying the Puer, or eternal youth, archetype, Paolana the Great Mother archetype, and Freeman the Senex, or wise elder archetype. Hillman wrote a great deal about the relationship between the Puer and the Senex, which are the opposing powers in our psyches that he believed could be used to explain the relationships between all the other archetypes in our psyches. But he also wrote about the struggle between the Puer and the Great Mother energies. Here Billips joined Starfleet, not to abandon his mother or his people, but because he loves his work as an engineer. After Paolana tried to trick him into doing her bidding, he told his mother that he was going to stay in Starfleet because he knew what he was meant to do. Billips ability to break from his mother and follow his own path can be analogized to the pull away from the Great Mother archetype initiated by Puer energy in our psyches. This must occur so that the Puer energy can come into its own balance with that of the Senex, which is all part of the ongoing process of the psyche becoming more whole.
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