Synopsis: The crew answers a distress call from a planet that has been modeled on Starfleet.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how when one has empathy for another’s pain not only does this help heal the other, but it can also lead to greater understanding and healing of one’s own soul.
In “All the World’s a Stage,” the crew decides that although they cannot communicate with Starfleet, for risk of activating the Living Construct weapon, they can still act in accordance with Starfleet’s ideals, by helping others in need of assistance. Protostar receives a distress call from a Class-M planet and responds. When Protostar arrives, Dal R’El, Gwyn, Fugitive Zero, and Jankom Pog beam down to a planet and are greeted by James’T and Sool’U. They soon learn that the planet’s inhabitants, the Enderprizians, have had contact with someone from Starfleet. The crew also learns about a mysterious “Gallows” that is causing illness on the planet. Dal R’El comes down with the disease and Gwyn, Jankom Pog, and Rok-Tahk go to try to find the source of it. They discover a damaged shuttlecraft, the Galileo. It is leaking plasma that is reacting with poisonous materials in the rocks where it crashed. Gwyn, Jankom Pog, and Rok-Tahk become trapped where the Galileo landed. In order to save them, Dal R’El and Fugitive Zero bring three Enderprizians aboard the Protostar. Afterward, the Protostar crew leaves the Enderprizians with medicine to cure the illness created by the Galileo, and in his log Dal R’El notes how his crew was inspired by the example of the Enderprizians, and that they too can behave as if they are Starfleet officers even knowing that they are not.
There is so much going on in this episode that can be viewed from a depth psychological perspective that it is difficult to focus on just one thing. When the Protostar crew first arrived at the planet, they were determined that they wanted to help people, as if they were in Starfleet. What they found on the Enderprizians’ planet was an entire population that also wanted to emulate Starfleet, although it seemed to have caused them to become exposed to a strange illness. True to their Starfleet ideals, the Protostar crew took on the task of trying to find out what was poisoning the Enderprizians, and when they themselves became trapped, Dal R’El recruits three Enderprizians to help him in the efforts to save his crew. In return, the Protostar crew leave the Enderprizians the medicine they need to heal themselves. One way to explain what was going on between the Protostar crew and the Enderprizians, is that both groups were projecting their own ideal inner others onto the other group of people. This caused an identification with the others, empathy if you will. This allowed a friendship to be forged and led to both physical and psychic healing. All this because each group took the time to try to understand where the others were coming from. A lesson we can all use in this day and age.
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