Synopsis: When Captain Pike believes that he has found a way to escape the fate that was revealed to him, he is met by a future version of himself who dissuades him from it.
This episode can be seen as an unusual illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory, the concept that just as acorns have everything inside them to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons that have all the information we need to become who we are meant to be.
In “The Quality of Mercy” the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is collaborating with the crew of the U.S.S. Cayuga to retrofit outposts along the Neutral Zone between Federation space and the Romulan Empire. After the Cayuga is sent on another mission, Captain Christopher Pike and his senior officers meet with the Commander of Outpost 4, Hansen Al-Salah. His son, Maat Al-Salah, is with him. Pike recognizes the son’s name as one of the cadets who will die when he is injured seven years in the future. Pike leaves the meeting and starts writing a letter to Maat Al-Salah, to advise him not to enter Starfleet Academy, but is interrupted when he is visited by his future self, who tells him not to write the letter. Future Pike tells him that it will change the future and has a time crystal with him. Pike touches it and goes into the future seven years. In this future, Pike is able to explain to Science Officer, Mr. Spock, that he has been sent there from the past to explore what could be more terrible in this future than the vision that he had of his fate. In this timeline, Outpost 4 is destroyed by a Romulan vessel and the U.S.S. Farragut, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, arrives to assist Enterprise. Pike wants to try to negotiate with the Romulans to avoid a war. However, by agreeing to a two hour truce, the Romulans are able to repair their vessel and fire on Enterprise, resulting in Spock being severely injured – much as Pike was injured in his vision of the future. The Romulans declare war anyway. Pike then returns to his own timeline and decides to not try to change his future.
This episode when Pike is visited by his future self, his future self can be seen as embodying Pike’s inner daimon. Future Pike knows that if he had been told what would be the result of what he had done when he was in the situation that Pike currently found himself in—in which he thinks he can save the lives of the cadets that die when he is injured—he would not have made the choice he made. And Future Pike is correct. Pike in listening to his future self and seeing what the future holds for him if he tries to avoid his fate, can be compared to someone listening to the guidance that they receive from their inner daimon, in order to become who they were meant to be.
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