Blog

Synopsis: A young girl’s imaginary friend turns out to be an alien entity that threatens the Enterprise and her crew. In this episode we can see how our unconscious can be perceived as our invisible imaginary friend. When Clara Sutton first imagines her friend, Isabella, Isabella does just as Clara wishes. But when Isabella becomes… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 22: “Imaginary Friend”

Synopsis: A beautiful female alien is brought on board the Enterprise to serve as a gift to bring peace to two warring civilizations. Much has been written about this episode from not only a depth psychological perspective but also from a gender studies point of view. I myself have previously written a paper on how… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 21: “The Perfect Mate”

Synopsis: Lwaxana Troi, Counselor Troi’s mother, comes aboard the Enterprise to be married and befriends Lt. Worf’s son. In an early scene of this episode Lt. Worf and his son, Alexander Rozhenko, are meeting with Counselor Deanna Troi, trying to resolve some of their issues. Counselor Troi advises a rational way of proceeding in working… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 20: “Cost of Living”

Synopsis: When a fatal accident occurs in Cadet Crusher’s squadron at Starfleet Academy, he is torn between his duty to honor and to his friends. This episode highlights the idea of the tension between the opposites, which is ongoing in our psyches throughout our lives. In “The First Duty” Cadet Wesley Crusher’s squadron leader ordered… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 19: “The First Duty”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise is stuck in a repeating time loop of the vessel’s destruction until they figure out a way to escape it. This episode is an illumination of the idea of what it is like to be stuck in what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call a feeling-toned complex, a term… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 18: “Cause and Effect”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise comes to the aid of an androgenous alien race and Commander Riker becomes involved in a forbidden romance with one of them. This episode is relatively well known as being an analogy for the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals at the time in the United States, and much more progressive… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 17: “The Outcast”

Synopsis: Lt. Worf is severely injured and he and the crew wrestle with different cultural beliefs around death and medical treatment. In this episode the “Ethics” involved therein deal with some of the most fundamental beliefs in our culture concerning medical care, death, friendship, and disability. Lt. Worf, being a Klingon, immediately asks his friend… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 16: “Ethics”

Synopsis: Alien entities invade the bodies of Counselor Troi, Lt. Commander Data, and Chief O’Brien, and then try to take over the Enterprise. This episode is very similar in theme to the last episode “Conundrum,” in that they both involve a plot by a previously unknown alien race that tries to take over the bodies… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 15: “Power Play”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise loses its memory after an encounter with an alien vessel. This episode, in which the crew loses its memory and keeps acting as it knows how to do, but not knowing why, can be seen as an analogy as to how the rational conscious ego feels when it is… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 14: “Conundrum”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise encounter a genetically engineered society that is threatened by an approaching stellar core fragment. In this episode the crew of the Enterprise discovers a settlement inside a biodome on an otherwise inhospitable looking planet. But inside the biodome are the descendants of a genetically engineered society that had its… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 13: “The Masterpiece Society”