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Synopsis: Before Ensign Crusher leaves for Starfleet Academy, Captain Picard has him accompany him on a mission to mediate a dispute on a mining colony. “Final Mission” can be interpreted from a depth psychological perspective as an illustration of the ongoing changing relationship between the Senex and the Puer archetypes. Archetypal Psychologist James Hillman theorized… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 9: “Final Mission”

Synopsis: An alien captures Commander Riker and creates an imaginary future based on his own memories. In this episode, Commander William Riker’s own memories are used by an alien in order to create an imaginary future. The alien first appears to Riker as his son, and then later as a young boy in distress, and… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 8: “Future Imperfect”

Synopsis: Lt. Worf is confronted not only by the enemy who accused him of dishonor, but the mother of a son he did not know he had. In “Reunion” Lt. Worf confronts some major archetypal psychic figures, the anima, the shadow, and the child. These are all archetypes as defined by depth psychologist, Carl (C.… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 7: “Reunion”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise respond to a distress call that brings them to the home world of Tasha Yar and her sister, Ishara. In this episode, when the crew of the Enterprise encounter the sister of their dead comrade, they remark how much the same they are, but they are also surprised by… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 6: “Legacy”

Synopsis: As the result of Ensign Wesley Crusher’s experiment, Dr. Beverly Crusher is inadvertently stuck in a warp field bubble. In my last post for the episode “Suddenly Human” I wrote how the determination to be true to one’s inner drive can be analogized to what James Hillman calls the acorn theory. The acorn theory… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 5: “Remember Me”

Synopsis: When responding to a distress call, the crew of the Enterprise find a human youth among the injured on a wrecked alien spaceship. In “Suddenly Human” a young boy, Jono, born Jeremiah Rossa, is found aboard a Talarian training vessel. Lt. Commander Data has discovered that he is the long-lost grandson of a Starfleet… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 4: “Suddenly Human”

Synopsis: Lt. Commander Data’s creator, Dr. Soong draws Data to him, in order to give him an emotion chip, but unexpectedly, Lore, Data’s brother takes it instead. In this episode we learn much about the android Lt. Commander Data. How he has a homing mechanism that when activated causes him to take over the Enterprise,… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 3: “Brothers”

Synopsis: In the aftermath of the fight with the Borg the Enterprise and her crew stay on Earth to mend themselves. As I mentioned in my last blog for the episode “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II,” Captain Jean-Luc Picard after his time as the almighty ego-inflated Locutus is now only Picard, a damaged,… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 2: “Family”

Synopsis: Now that Captain Picard has become Locutus of Borg, Commander Riker must figure out how to defeat the Borg and save his friend and commanding officer. In my last blog post on “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I,” I equated Captain Jean-Luc Picard to a physical manifestation of what Carl Gustav (C. G.)… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 1: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”

Synopsis: Captain Picard is kidnapped by the Borg and assimilated into the collective. While this may be a bit of a controversial interpretation, I believe that Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s assimilation by the Borg can be seen as a physical manifestation of what Carl Gustav (C. G.) Jung terms the individuation process. That process by which… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 26: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”