Synopsis: The U.S.S. Protostar and her crew arrive in Federation space, planning on seeking asylum, but instead a hidden truth is revealed.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory, that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an acorn, we also have all the information we need inside of us to be who we are meant to be.
In “Asylum,” the crew goes on adventures that they consider good deeds, to assuage any negative perceptions that Starfleet might have of them for being in possession of the U.S.S. Protostar when they reach Federation space. When the Protostar arrives at the Federation’s furthest communications relay outpost, CR-721, the crew boards and asks for asylum. They are met by Lt. Junior Grade Barniss Frex. Fugitive Zero, feeling responsible for Gwyn’s loss of memory, tries to restore it using the equipment on the outpost. But when Frex tries to uplink the systems of the outpost to that of the Protostar, he activates a hidden weapon, and all the systems on CR-721 go haywire, trapping Gwyn in a biobed. However, Gwyn breaks out and regains her memory of what her father told her about the Protostar.
Here, when the weapon hidden aboard the Protostar is activated, it can be analogized to just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an acorn, the weapon has all the information, in this case, programming, to be what it was meant to be. This realization is reinforced by Gwyn’s remembering of what her father told her about it. As depth psychology makes room for ecopsychology, which perceives all living things as being ensouled, this seems to broaden its concepts to include to all things, whether understood as alive or not. And the acorn theory as extending beyond human persons to artificial intelligence created by future alien cultures as well.
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