Synopsis: The U.S.S. Protostar crew is contacted by a former mentor of Dal R’El.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of two of James Hillman’s theories – that our psyches are made up of different archetypal energies and of the relationship of the Great Mother archetype to the Puer, or eternal youth, archetype.
In “First Con-tact” the U.S.S. Protostar receives a distress signal. When Dal R’El hears it he recognizes it as a message that his former mentor, the Ferengi DaiMon Nandi, used as a ploy. Dal R’El identifies himself to Nandi, and she invites the crew to visit her on her vessel, the Damsel. The crew beams over to the Damsel and Nandi shows them a cloaking device that she has but cannot use because it requires chimerium. Something she does not have, but that the Protostar does. Nandi tells them that she will give them the cloaking device in exchange for them helping her retrieve a crystal from a nearby planet. The crew returns to Protostar with Nandi and Del R’El tells Hologram Janeway that they are going on a diplomatic mission. Janeway tells Dal R’El and the rest of the crew about Starfleet’s Prime Directive and first contact procedures, which they do not listen to. When the crew and Nandi arrive on the planet they are surrounded by life forms communicating harmonically. They are brought into a cavern, where crystal are connected together to make beautiful music, that each crystal is a part of. Nandi ignores the music and takes some crystals. Dal R’El chases after Nandi and is able to retrieve all but one crystal, only to learn that Nandi has stolen chimerium from the Protostar and installed it on the Damsel. Nandi also reveals to Dal R’El that she sold him to The Diviner to work in the mines. Nandi leaves in the Damsel, but Dal R’El has managed to put his com badge on the crystal so that they are able to transport it back to where it belongs on the planet.
In this episode, the beautiful music created by the crystals on the planet, and the idea that each individual crystal was necessary to maintain the harmonic balance, can be compared to Hillman’s archetypal psychology. Its central tenet is that there are different archetypal energies contained in our psyches, all in relation to the others, and that each is important to an individual in understanding who they are. Illustrations of one of these relationships, that of the Great Mother to Puer, can be seen here when Dal R’El learns Nandi’s true intentions and that she sold him in the past and reacts as well as when Dal R’El ignores Janeway’s instructions. This can be analogized to how Hillman wrote that the Puer must at some point break from the power of the Great Mother archetype in our psyches, in order for an individual to become who they were meant to be.
mydailysoultrek 