Synopsis: The Star Trek Scouts team defeats a soapy asteroid using a water tank to turn it into bubbles.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of concepts put forth by archetypal psychologist, James Hillman, about the relationships between the Senex and Puer archetypes and the Puer and the Great Mother archetypes.
In “Star Trek Scouts Defeat a SOAPY Asteroid in Space – Asteroid Blaster #1” we met the team: Sprocket, a young male Vulcan with a bionic arm, JR, a young Euro-human male, and Roo, a young human female of color. The episode began with Sprocket fitting JR’s boots with rocket power capabilities. JR immediately tested how high the boots could take him, went out of control, and Roo saved him. Just then the astro alarm sounded. An asteroid, identified by Sprocket as a soap bar asteroid from the Bathnar Nebula, was headed straight toward them. The asteroid deflector wheel was activated and the Romulan rubber ducky was chosen to defend the team against the asteroid. The asteroid deflector was activated, the Romulan rubber ducky was energized and fired into the asteroid. But it did not work, it merely bounced off the asteroid. The asteroid deflector wheel was activated again, and the next defense chosen was macaroni and cheese. But it had disappeared. Roo discovered that it had been eaten by a baby targ from Qo’noS, the Klingon homeworld. Instead of using the asteroid deflector wheel again, the crew had to choose whether to use a plate of pumpernickel toast or a tank of water to turn the asteroid into bubbles. The crew chose the tank of water and the asteroid was turned into harmless bubbles. Roo decided to name the targ Bubbles.
In this episode, the characters of Sprocket, JR, and Roo, can be compared to Hillman’s concepts of the Senex, Puer, and Great Mother archetypes. The Senex, being the wise elder; the Puer, the eternal youth; and the Great Mother, being the feminine essence. Here, Sprocket can be seen as embodying the Senex in that he is the one who is relied upon for information. JR can be seen as representing the Puer in that he has youthful energy and a “can do” attitude. Roo can be seen as symbolizing the Great Mother, in that she not only rescued JR in the beginning and arguably Bubbles later in the episode, but she also was the one who physically made things happen. In Hillman’s archetypal psychology, he wrote a great deal about the special relationship between the Puer and the Senex, a constant drive for the Puer to do new things, while the Senex is what restrains him with societal structure. Hillman taught that the relationship between the Senex and the Puer can be used to explore the other relationships between archetypes in our psyches. But he also wrote about the struggle between the Puer and the Great Mother energies. The Puer must also pull away from the Great Mother archetype so that the Puer energy can come into its own balance with that of the Senex, which is all part of the ongoing process of the psyche becoming more whole.
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