Synopsis: An experiment on a subspace fold causes the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise to start singing their emotions.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how what Carl (C. G.) Jung called a feeling-toned complex makes itself perceivable to the conscious ego.
In “Subspace Rhapsody,” Lt. Spock and Ensign Nyota Uhura are in Engineering on the U.S.S. Enterprise, trying to send a message into a subspace fold, but failing. Commander Pelia suggests to them that a song, which works on different harmonics might work. Uhura sends a recording of the song “Anything Goes” into the fold. A wave of energy projects from the fold into the ship and the crew starts singing. Spock theorizes that their transmission dislodged a quantum uncertainty field, creating a reality where crewmembers burst into song, particularly when their emotions are involved in what they are trying to communicate. Meanwhile, Lt. James (Jim) Kirk has beamed aboard to shadow Commander Una Chin-Riley before he assumes his role as first officer on the U.S.S. Farragut. Under the influence of the uncertainty field Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh is compelled to reveal to Kirk that in yet another alternate reality, they had feelings for each other. Then Uhura devises a plan to negate the effects of the field, that the entire crew needs to sing one song together. This is successful and the Enterprise is released from the musical reality that the ship was trapped in.
In this episode, when the crew of the Enterprise cannot help but break into song when they are trying to communicate their feelings, can be analogized to how a complex, which is a feeling-toned bit of unconscious material tries to make the conscious ego aware of its existence. Jung called complexes feeling-toned because one knows that one is in the grips of one when one feels compelled to act in a certain way, often a way that ordinarily one would not. Here, the Enterprise and her crew were released from the musical reality once they all worked together to create a grand finale. In our psyches, once the conscious ego acknowledges unconscious material, such as a complex, and integrates the material into itself, then it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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