Synopsis: After the Borg assimilate Starfleet vessels and young Starfleet officers, Picard and the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation take the U.S.S. Enterprise-D to confront the Borg in an effort to save the Federation.
There is so much going on in this episode, but what I will comment on is how it is an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called the union of opposites.
In “The Last Generation,” on Earth and throughout Starfleet, those individuals younger than twenty-five years of age are assimilated by the Borg. On the U.S.S. Titan, Seven of Nine and Commander Raffaela Musiker retake control of the ship. On the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, which has reached the location of the Borg Cube, Commodore Geordi La Forge tells the crew that someone needs to go down into the cube in order to destroy the beacon that is sending the assimilating signal. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, Captain Willian T. Riker, and Worf go into the cube, where Riker and Worf search for the beacon while Picard looks for Jack Crusher. Picard finds Crusher assimilated in close proximity to the Borg Queen. The Borg Queen tells Picard that the future of the Borg lies not in assimilation but in evolution, that Borg can now propagate and that Borg are born with a single purpose—to annihilate. Picard is able to separate Crusher from the Borg hive mind. In order to rescue Riker, Worf, Picard, and Crusher, Data pilots the Enterprise into the Borg Cube. After the four are safely beamed aboard the Enterprise the beacon and the Borg Cube are destroyed. All the young Starfleet officers return to their normal selves. Later back on the Titan, Captain Tuvok meets with Seven of Nine to tell her that the late Captain Liam Shaw recommended she be promoted to captain even because she does not follow all the rules, she is brave and loyal and listens to her instincts.
In this episode, the recommendation that Shaw leaves for Seven of Nine, stating that she is both reckless and brave and loyal, can be analogized to what Jung called the union of opposites. Shaw realizes that because she has both the rational traits of loyalty and bravery, as well as being reckless and instinct-driven, Seven of Nine is worthy of moving forward in the command structure. This realization be compared to how when the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of material into itself, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
mydailysoultrek 