Synopsis: Lt. Mariner aids Ma’ah, a former Klingon captain, regain his captaincy while two guests from Klowahka come aboard the U.SS. Cerritos.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C.G.) Jung called a feeling-toned complex.
In “A Farewell to Arms,” Lt. Beckett Mariner contacts her Klingon friend, Ma’ah, on Qo’noS, where he is now operating his family farm. Because he has helped her in the past she tells him that she feels compelled to assist him in regaining his captaincy, even though he has not asked for her help. Mariner and Lt. Bradward Boimler appear with Ma’ah before the Klingon Oversight Council and agree to participate with him in a ritual that will restore him to his former rank, even though it means risking their lives. Ma’ah’s captaincy is restored and Mariner reveals her true mission was to get permission from a Klingon captain to scan a spacial anomaly in Klingon space. Meanwhile, two food critics from Dr. Gabers Migleemo’s home planet, Klowahka, come aboard. They are unduly harsh in their comments on Migleemo’s culinary creations. But when they arrive at their home planet it is discovered that they have been critical because they have lost their sense of taste. Dr. Migleemo then tells him that he can help them regain the use of their sense of taste.
In this episode, Mariner’s insistence upon helping Ma’ah restore his captaincy as well as the harsh criticism from the Klowahkan food critics can be seen as examples of when individual are caught in what Jung called a feeling-toned complex. Jung wrote that one is in the throes of a feeling-toned complex when one cannot help but act in a certain way. However, a complex is not necessarily negative, but is an opportunity for self-knowledge. If we accept a complex as an opportunity to grow, and integrate the unconscious material contained in the complex into our conscious ego, then the ego is made stronger and the psyche more whole. Here, once the Klowahkan critics admitted that their sense of taste was lost, they learned how they could restore it. And while there was an ulterior motive to Mariner’s urging Ma’ah to work to get his captaincy back, in the end, it did lead to a bit of psychic growth for them both.
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