Synopsis: The U.S.S. Enterprise responds to a distress call from Captain Batel of the U.S.S. Cayuga.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what happens when the conscious ego is in the grips of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called a feeling-toned complex.
In “Hegemony,” Captain Marie Batel and Nurse Christine Chapel are on the planet Parnassus Beta, where Chapel is assisting with inoculating the population there before going on to her fellowship with Dr. Roger Korby. Batel is hailed by Captain Christopher Pike, and just as all communications fail a Gorn ship is seen hovering overhead. Soon thereafter the U.S.S. Enterprise crew receive a distress call from Batel and the ship immediately sets course to the planet. Enroute, Pike is ordered by Admiral Robert April to gather information only and not make the situation with the Gorn worse, as Parnassus Beta lies outside of Federation space. When the Enterprise arrives at Parnassus Beta, the crew see the remains of the destroyed U.S.S. Cayuga. The crew also receives a message from the Gorn relayed by Starfleet Command, which shows a star chart with a red line of demarcation drawn in the middle, indicating federation space and Gorn territory, with Parnassus Beta located on the Gorn side fo the line. While technically obeying the order that the Enterprise remain on the Federation side of the line, Pike and some of the senior crew devise a plan to land on Parnassus Beta and try to rescue any survivors. Aided by a Starfleet officer that has survived another Gorn attack, Lt. Montgomery Scott, Pike and the landing team are able to locate the survivors, which include Batel. However, Batel has already been infested with Gorn eggs. Nevertheless, Pike, Batel, and Scott are returned to Enterprise, as is Chapel—who survived the destruction of the Cayuga. However, the rest of the survivors who had been on the planet are aboard one of the Gorn ships that now surround them.
In this episode, the unstoppable drive of Pike and the crew of the Enterprise to rescue the survivors of the destruction of the Cayuga, can be seen as an indication of a complex, in this case a savior complex. Jung wrote that one can understand oneself to be in the throes of a feeling-toned complex when one cannot help but act in a certain way. Here, there is no doubt that Pike will find some way to try to obey Starfleet technically, while still devising a rescue plan. This is something seen over and over again in Star Trek, and recognizing this also makes us understand that a complex is not necessarily negative, but is an opportunity for self-knowledge. Meaning that although we might not initially understand that we are motivated by an unconscious drive to react in a certain way, whether that is considered positive or negative by society, if we do acknowledge this, and integrate the unconscious material contained in the complex into our conscious ego, then the ego is made stronger and the psyche more whole.
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