Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Synopsis: After discovering an attack on a science station Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to try to mediate negotiations between clans that have been feuding for generations on a planet. In “The Vengeance Factor” there is an interesting mythological custom that is on display, yet never mentioned in every scene in which parties are brought… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 9: “The Vengeance Factor”

Synopsis: The Enterprise hosts an auction of sorts for control of a wormhole and Counselor Troi is pursued by one of the negotiators. This episode illustrates the depth psychological concept of “projection.” The idea that we see our idealized inner opposite on others when we fall in love at first sight. And what happens when… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 8: “The Price”

Synopsis: In responding to a distress signal, the crew of the Enterprise finds two survivors from a Romulan ship on an inhospitable planet in Federation territory. “The Enemy” offers us an illustration of two ways in which opposing forces relate to each other. This is analogous to the ways that the Logos-driven rational conscious ego… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 7: “The Enemy”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is caught in the same predicament that killed the crew of an ancient starship a millennia before. In “Booby Trap,” Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge was able to devise a way to free the Enterprise from this peril, that for every bit of energy that the vessel generates to free herself from… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 6: “Booby Trap”

Synopsis: A member of the crew of the Enterprise is killed on an away team mission, and officers and an alien feeling responsible for the death, try to ease the pain of the orphan son she left behind. In my last couple of blog posts I discussed the Senex archetype as described by James Hillman.… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 5: “The Bonding”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise comes to the aid of a team of anthropological scientists observing a less developed civilization, only to be discovered themselves in violation of the Prime Directive. In my last blog discussing the episode “The Survivors,” I write how an alien species can be seen as a physical manifestation of… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 4: “Who Watches the Watchers”

Synopsis: Answering a distress call, the crew of the Enterprise finds what appears to be only two survivors on a devastated planet. “The Survivors” gives viewers the opportunity to see a physical manifestation of a character holding the Senex archetype as described by James Hillman. When the Enterprise reaches the planet Rana IV, the ship’s… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 3: “The Survivors”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is contacted by an alien race to fulfill the Federation’s treaty obligations and remove a human colony on a planet conceded to them. “The Ensigns of Command” offers viewers different examples of prejudice and the way to overcome them, a way that James Hillman may have referred to as soul-making. In the… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 2: “The Ensigns of Command”

Synopsis: Acting Ensign Crusher’s school science project puts the Enterprise at risk when it evolves into living beings trying to protect themselves. In “Evolution” the nanites that disrupt the operation of the Enterprise’s computer systems can be seen as analogous to how bits of unconscious material disrupt an individual’s conscious ego. In the episode, these… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 1: “Evolution”

Synopsis: On an away mission Commander Riker becomes infected by a deadly alien microbe. In “Shades of Gray” in order to fight off the infection caused by a deadly alien microbe that is attacking his nervous system, Commander William Riker is forced to relive many of his past experiences in order to halt the progression… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, Episode 22: “Shades of Gray”