Synopsis: When Captain Batel’s Gorn infestation becomes more acute, Captain Pike and Dr. M’Benga travel to a planet in a restricted zone to collect an ingredient to treat it, where they encounter zombie-like creatures and a Klingon determined to kill M’Benga.
This episode can be seen as containing various illustrations of Jung’s concept of feeling-toned complexes. Jung described complexes as feeling-toned because when individuals are in the throes of them, they cannot control their actions.
In “Shuttle to Kenfori,” Captain Marie Batel’s Gorn infestation becomes more acute. Dr. Joseph M’Benga tells Captain Christopher Pike that the only hope for Batel is a treatment made from Chimera Blossoms, and that the only place to locate this ingredient in time to save her is on Kenfori—a planet in a restricted zone. A plan is devised that Pike and M’Benga will take a shuttle to Kenfori while the U.S.S. Enterprise will try to remain hidden from detection. In an abandoned research center on the planet, Pike and M’Benga find Chimera Bloosoms, but then are attacked by a group of Klingons. However, once they are caught by the Klingons, their captors are attacked by a hoard of zombie-like creatures, allowing them to escape. M’Benga tells Pike that likely the creatures were at one time the researchers on the planet, who had been exposed to moss genomes during a bioengineering experiment, which changed them into the zombie-like creatures. It is then that Pike asks M’Benga what type of treatment he is proposing for Batel, and it is revealed that her only chance for survival is to become a human-Gorn hybrid. The zombie-like creatures swarm the research center, but are then held back by the Klingons. Only one Klingon survives, their leader—Bytha Dak’Rah—Ambassador Dak’Rah’s daughter. She wants M’Benga to answer for assassinating her father. M’Benga, Pike, and Dak’Rah escape to the roof, where they create a force field to protect themselves from the zombie-like creatures. Dak’Rah demands that M’Benga fight her, to restore her honor. M’Benga wins, but spares her life. Because this will not restore her family’s honor, Dak’Rah sacrifices herself to hold off the zombie-like creatures to give Pike and M’Benga enough time to escape. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is detected by a Klingon battle cruiser due to Lt. Erica Ortegas disobeying an order from Commander Una Chin-Riley (Number One), because she feels that her plan to save the landing party is better. The plan is successful and the Enterprise is able to elude the battle cruiser and retrieve Pike and M’Benga. Once they are safely back on the ship, Pike confronts Batel about her decision to pursue this dangerous medical treatment without consulting him while Number One reprimands Ortegas for disobeying orders.
In this episode, there are several examples of unconscious feeling-toned complexes. Pike is compelled to go into a restricted zone to obtain Chimera Blossoms because he cannot help but do everything within his power to try to save the life of his beloved, Batel. Dak’Rah is driven by a need to restore her family honor, as a matter of life and death. M’Benga feels the need as a doctor to do everything possible to save the life of his patient as a way to atone for the monster inside of him that not only killed Dak’Rah’s father, but countless other Klingons—which leads him to devise a treatment plan far outside Federation standard practices. Ortegas is pushed by the belief that her plan is the best way to save the day, so that she disobeys a direct order to force its implementation. Without putting a value judgement on the actions of these crewmembers, what is causing them to act beyond what is expected by Starfleet regulations, is their complexes. Jung saw complexes not in a negative connotation, but as a means of gaining self-knowledge, when one becomes aware of their presence. Identifying complexes in ourselves is often the first step in individuation—a lifelong process whereby the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates unconscious material into itself, to become stronger and make the psyche more whole.
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