Synopsis: The Enterprise travels to Skygowan to battle the Vezda.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory—that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons inside us that have all the information we need to become who we were meant to be if we only pay attention to them.
“New Life and New Civilizations” began on the U.S.S. Enterprise, when Captain Marie Batel, who had just been promoted to Director of the Starfleet Judge Advocacy General’s Office, came aboard. That evening, Captain Christopher Pike threw a Captain’s Table for her. Nurse Christine Chapel left the party early because Dr. Roger Korby was to call her from Skygowan, where his research had led him. On Skygowan, the inhabitants believed the Vezda were gods. Back on the Enterprise, Lt. Montgomery (Scotty) Scott, found a pattern of Ensign Dana Gamble in the transporter buffer. On Skygowan, we see that Gamble had become Zeperez, the leader of the Vezda. Back on Enterprise, Batel told Pike that she was staying on the ship headed to Skygowan because she felt that something was pulling her there. On Skygowan, a landing party, including Dr. Joseph M’Benga, met up with Korby. M’Benga read about his life on the entryway to the High Chambers. The entryway scanned him and Zeperez, which takes them to Vadia IX where Zeperez destroys the Beholder Statue. On Enterprise, Batel is brought to sickbay. Chapel shows that her DNA and life signs are identical to the Beholder Statue on Vadia IX. Batel now understood that from her Gorn DNA, her Illyrian blood transfusion, and the Chimera Blossom procedure gave her certain capabilities to fight the Vedza as the Beholder, and keep them on Vadia IX. Effect before cause. On Skygowan, Pike and Batel go through the portal and arrive on Vadia IX where they find Zeperez. Zeperez destroyed the Beholder statue and the Vezda escape, but Batel fought him and re-imprisoned them all, including Zeperez, as she resumed the shape of the Beholder.
In this episode, when Batel realized what her destiny was, can be analogized to when individuals listen to their inner daimons, to become who they were meant to be. This is what Hillman referred to as his acorn theory. In his bestseller, The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling (1996), Hillman even went so far as to postulate that the inner daimon even selected our parents for us. This can be interpreted as corresponding to what Lt. Spock here called effect before cause, which was evidenced here by Batel understanding that being attacked by the Gorn, which caused her to receive an Illyrian blood transfusion, and the use of the Chimera Blossom procedure, were all necessary to give her the strength to fight of the Vezda, which she considered evil incarnate, in order to save the universe.
Reference:
Hillman, J. (1996). The soul’s code: In search of character and calling. Grand Central Publishing.
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