Synopsis: The crew of the U.S.S. Discovery set off on a new secret mission.
This episode can be seen as providing illustrations of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s concept of a feeling-toned complex.
In “Red Directive,” at Federation Headquarters Captain Michael Burnham is called into a meeting with Fleet Admiral Charles Vance and Dr. Kovich. In the meeting Kovich announces that Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery are ordered to take him on a Red Directive mission to rendezvous with the U.S.S. Antares and seek out an ancient artifact in an equally old Romulan spacecraft near the Beta Quadrant. But before Discovery arrives at the location of the Romulan vessel, two other individuals have already gone aboard and taken a Romulan puzzle box. Believing these two are couriers, Burnham enlists the aid of Cleveland Booker in tracking them to a planet, Q’mau, where they visit a dealer interested in old relics, Fred. Fred, an android, opens the box to reveal the diary of the long dead Romulan, Dr. Vellek. One of the couriers, L’ak, kills Fred. Burnham and Book arrive on the planet and find Fred dead. They are joined by the captain of the Antares, Rayner, and together they chase after the couriers. But the trio loses them, partially due to the actions of Rayner wanting to act alone. Meanwhile, Fred’s body has been beamed aboard Discovery, and his memory contains the contents of Vellek’s diary. Kovich tells Mariner that Vellek was present when Captain Jean-Luc Picard came across the technology of a species called the Progenitors, that was responsible for the creation of life as we know it, but Kovich will not tell her more.
In this episode, when Rayner wants to chase after the couriers alone and when Kovich refuses to tell Burnham about the mission that they are on, these can both be compared to an individual being compelled to act in a certain way by what Jung called a feeling-toned complex. When an individual is in the throes of a feeling-toned complex, that person cannot help but behave in the manner that the complex demands they do. Rayner can be said to feel the need to be a hero, and Kovich, perhaps compelled to keep his secrets to himself. But Jung felt that a complex was not necessarily a bad thing, and that when one acknowledges its existence, it can be a means to gaining self-knowledge. Just as here, Rayner’s need to be a hero and Kovich’s unwillingness to share information tell viewers a lot about the characters who possess these traits.
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