Synopsis: Hologram Janeway, while unknowingly being controlled by the Living Construct weapon, traps the crew of the U.S.S. Protostar in the ship’s holodeck.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the unconscious works in ways that are different from the conscious ego, and how this is revealed to the ego through a complex.
In “Ghost in the Machine,” the crew of the U.S.S. Protostar work through a holodeck simulation where the ship is hailed, fired upon, and then trapped in a tractor beam by the U.S.S. Dauntless. They are informed by Hologram Janeway that there is a malfunction with the holodeck’s programming and they decide to rest for the night. But soon the crew realizes that instead of going back to their own quarters, they never left the holodeck program. Hologram Janeway tells Dal R’El that she cannot fix the malfunction on her own and asks him for his command codes. He gives them to her and the holodeck then begins running a series of programs, intermingling characters and scenarios from those that have been utilized by the crew before. When the holodeck finally ends the programming, Hologram Janeway enters, only to be told by Fugitive Zero that the Living Construct weapon had been using her program for its own bidding. The crew then learns that the Protostar is no longer in the Romulan Neutral Zone and instead is in close proximity to the Dauntless.
In this episode, when Hologram Janeway and the crew are unaware that her programming had been taken over by the Living Construct, this can be analogized to when the conscious ego is unaware of unconscious forces in the psyche. When Fugitive Zero realizes that Hologram Janeway has trapped the crew in the holodeck, this can be compared to when a bit of unconscious material comes to the attention of the conscious ego by way of a complex. Here, that information leads to the crew discovering the truth of their circumstances. In the psyche, a complex is an opportunity for self-knowledge if attention is paid to it. To acknowledge and integrate the unconscious material contained in the complex into itself, is how the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
mydailysoultrek 