Synopsis: Dal R’El and the rest of the crew visit an uninhabited planet.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s later understanding of the collective unconscious, as something that we are all a part of.
In “Dreamcatcher,” the sensors on the U.S.S. Protostar discover an M-class planet, and Hologram Janeway explains to Dal R’El and the rest of the crew that they have a duty to explore it. When Protostar lands on the planet, Dal R’El, Fugitive Zero, Jankom Pog, and Rok-Tahk explore the environs and discover that the planet is one huge superorganism that can make itself appear as anything they want. Meanwhile, aboard the Protostar, Gwyn breaks out of the brig and tries to launch the ship, but vines from the planet attach themselves to the vessel, capturing it. Gwyn and Murf take a shuttle to try to escape, but it crashes into the planet.
In this episode, the idea that the planet is one superorganism can be seen as analogous to Jung’s later understanding of the collective unconscious. In his early teachings, Jung wrote that the human psyche was comprised of three parts: a conscious—with the ego in its center, a personal unconscious—that was unique to each individual, and a collective unconscious—that was shared by all humans. Later, he changed his concept of the collective unconscious as not being something contained inside all of us, but something that we are all a part of. This idea is similar to the superorganism on the M-class planet depicted here.
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