Synopsis: While the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is studying a neutron star, Captain Pike assigns Lt. Noonien-Singh the task of testing a prototype hologram program.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what can happen when the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of unconscious material into itself through the process of projection.
In “A Space Adventure Hour,” while most of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is involved with studying a neutron star, Captain Christopher Pike tasks Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh with testing the prototype of a holodeck program. Noonien-Singh decides that the program will be based on Amelia Moon detective stories set on Earth in the 1960s. Noonien-Singh (costumed as Moon) enters the program and is immediately met by Ensign Nyota Uhura (costumed as talent agent Joni Gloss) who shows her the dead body of Tony Hart, head of the studio that was about to cancel the television series, The Last Frontier. During a gathering of Noonien-Singh (as Moon) and all the suspects, Commander Una Chin-Riley (costumed as the actress/producer Sunny Lupino) is poisoned. Noonien-Singh (as Moon) enlists Spock to assist her, and they question the suspects one by one. Someone tries to kill Noonien-Singh (as Moon). She is injured but cannot exit the program. Noonien-Singh (as Moon) and Spock realize that they are trapped. Lt. Erica Ortegas (costumed as Lee Woods) is the next holodeck character killed. Meanwhile, outside the holodeck, the Enterprise’s systems are experiencing a massive power drain from the program, but the only way that it will conclude is if Noonien-Singh (as Moon) solves the case. Eventually, she does, deducing that Spock in the holodeck program was himself a holodeck image and that he is guilty of all the murders that have been committed. The program ends and Noonien-Singh admits to Spock, the real one, that the program enlisted him as her partner in it because it knew that he was just what she needed.
In this episode, the holodeck program can be compared to Noonien-Singh’s personal unconscious. That the unconscious material here is personal is evidenced by her conscious ego choosing the subject of the program that is created especially to challenge her. The clues, plot twists, and removal of unnecessary characters, illustrate how Noonien-Singh’s personal unconscious was trying to make something known to her. Jung taught that one way that the conscious ego becomes aware of unconscious material is through the process of projection. This is when bits of one’s own unconscious material are projected onto another individual. In the holodeck program, an entire person, Spock, was created to allow Noonien-Singh to see what he represented to her. The revelation to Noonien-Singh that Spock was what she needed can be seen as the conscious ego acknowledging and integrating into itself bits of unconscious material. Here, it helps Noonien-Singh to realize how she feels about Spock; in depth psychological terms it allows the ego to become stronger and the psyche more whole.
That a television series, such as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is able to help individuals become stronger and more whole is verbalized in “A Space Adventure Hour” in the impassioned speech given by Uhura (as Gloss): “You don’t think a person can love a piece of art or music or story so much that it heals them? Shows them parts of themselves they’d never seen before? And give them hope?” (Horgan et al., 2025, 31:41). To which I answer a resounding, Yes, it can!
Reference:
Horgan, D. (Writer), Lyn, K. (Writer), & Frakes, J. (Director). (2025, July 31). A space adventure hour (Season 3, Episode 4) [TV series episode]. In A. Kurtzman, A. Goldsman, H. A. Myers, A. Baiers, F. Siracusa, J. Weber, E. Roddenberry, T. Roth, C. Fisher, D. Perez, & D. Horgan (Executive Producers), Star trek: Strange New Worlds. CBS Television Studios; Roddenberry Entertainment; Secret Hideout.
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