Synopsis: The U.S.S. Protostar and her crew are reunited with the U.S.S. Voyager, but then come under attack by Asencia and a dangerous weapon.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s concept of archetypal psychology.
In “Ascension, Part I,” the U.S.S. Protostar crew is finally reunited with the U.S.S. Voyager. The next part of the mission for both crews is to get Protostar back into the place in the timeline that will save Gwyndala (Gwyn) and prevent a terrible war. Voyager is hailed by Admiral Edward Jellico who orders Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway and the Voyager crew to escort Protostar back to Earth where the Department of Temporal Investigations will be better able to send Protostar to the correct place in time. But before they can comply, Voyager is hailed by Gwyn’s father, Ilthuran, who warns them that Asencia has disbanded the ruling council on Solum and has a dangerous temporal weapon. Just then, Asencia’s enormous ship, Rev-1, appears and unleashes an energy draining beam on Voyager. The Nova Flyers and Protostar are then dispatched in an effort to knock out the beam before Voyager will be rendered defenseless.
In this episode, deploying different teams on different missions in order to try to save Voyager from destruction, can be analogized to Hillman’s concept that the human psyche contains a multiplicity of archetypes—which he defined as psychic structures or expressions of inner gods (1976, p. 134). Having the fast and nimble Nova Flyers draw away enemy drones while the stealth capabilities of the Protostar can be used to glean coordinates on where to target Voyager’s weapons—utilizing assets with different capabilities in different ways, can be compared to how an individual’s ego uses the different abilities of different archetypal processes in different situations. In other words, Hillman taught that our psyches all contained a variety of archetypes that were all engaged in ever changing relationships to the others, and that this was as it should be.
Reference:
Hillman, J. (1976). Re-visioning psychology. Harper.
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