Synopsis: The Enterprise and her crew find themselves thrown into the distant past and learn about how humanity came to be.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how our unconscious operates differently than our conscious ego, and how hard the ego fights to get its own way.
Lt. James T. Kirk, Lt. Spock, and Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh were in a shuttle returning from a Future Federation Leaders retreat, when they received a signal from the U.S.S. Griffin, which had been missing for nine years. They sent a long range message to the U.S.S. Enterprise and then boarded the Griffin.
On the Griffin, Kirk heard a baby cry. A ghostly woman appeared, who emitted negatively charged ions. The three followed her to a door that had been barricaded. Kirk heard the baby cry again. The barricaded door was opened and revealed sickbay. Noonien-Singh and Kirk left Spock alone in sickbay. Noonien-Singh discovered that the ghostly woman was a former chief security officer on the Griffin, Rose Harper. Spock learned that the Griffin crew had died but he was prevented from communicating with Noonien-Singh and Kirk. Noonien-Singh discovered in Harper’s logs that something took over the Griffin crew. In sickbay, draped bodies suddenly appeared, and then so did T’Pring. T’Pring spoke to Spock, she then stunned him with a phaser, told him she wanted to cut out his Vulcan side, and chopped off the tip of his ears. Harper told Noonien-Singh that she was not a monster, but she was one of the Griffin crew. Harper’s logs started to address Noonien-Singh by name, and told her not to trust the others. Noonien-Singh and Kirk discovered that their shuttle had been destroyed. A rescue team from Enterprise arrived on the bridge. Kirk told them that there was a survivor aboard the Griffin. He told them that he was still hearing his son cry. Noonien-Singh went into the turbolift, but it will only let her exit on Deck 17. Harper admitted that she failed to keep her crew safe. Captain Christopher Pike and Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Number One) took Spock back to sickbay where Number One stabbed herself. Noonien-Singh stabbed Kirk. Noonien-Singh, Kirk, and Spock were beamed back to the Enterprise.
On the Enterprise, it was determined that Division 12 will handle the Griffin. Nurse Christine Chapel restored Spock’s ears. Pike told Noonien-Singh that the only thing that mattered about her experience was that she survived.
In this episode, the Griffin can be compared to an individual’s unconscious, that part of the psyche that is unknowable to the conscious ego, and contains a different type of knowledge. Addressing unconscious material is difficult for the conscious ego and as Pike advised Noonien-Singh, the important thing is that the material was acknowledged and that the ego survived. However, if the information contained in the unconscious can also be integrated into the conscious ego, then the ego is made stronger and the psyche more whole.
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