Star Trek: First Contact ~ a Metaphor for Trauma? Part 1

This is a multi-part post where I discuss little nuggets of wisdom from a YouTube video and how it applies to our experiences (or at least mine). Back in October of 2021, Cinema Therapy on YouTube released an episode on trauma and imposter syndrome – two very different topics, but connected in a fantastic sci-fi movie. If you are unfamiliar with their work, these two self-ascribed “YouTube Dads” select a movie and analyze it for its excellence as a movie as well as the mental health themes present. One of the gentlemen is a licensed therapist and the other a filmmaker. The following episode covers Star Trek: First Contact which has two main story arcs: a starship captain hellbent on revenge and a rough-around-the-edges inventor on the brink of redefining humanity. While imposter syndrome is a great topic to discuss, this post will focus on the trauma portions. You can watch the episode below.

(Trigger Warning: There’s some body horror elements, like a needle in the eye, upfront. If that’s not your thing, jump ahead to 6:52. For context, Captain Picard experienced some heavy trauma years before the movie’s setting and the movie is trying to get the viewer into his current headspace.)

Of course the trauma that Picard faced in the show was extreme, it makes for excellent television. However, I think that it illustrates the harm any trauma can cause, regardless of severity.

Our Experience

I feel like there was an uncanny overlap between Teen Mania and the Borg: they required that you assimilate into their collective of “Elite Warriors,” a mold that we were all supposed to form to, as well as become their worker drones after learning what you can offer them. Of course, the tactics between the two were different, TM didn’t have nanobots to inject you with. What was used instead was faulty doctrine, external controls (sleep, food, media), and, most pervasive, peer pressure. While sleeping and eating were somewhat controlled and limited (and mainly in certain periods like Orange Block), the peer pressure was present throughout. There was always a watchful eye on you and a number of people were more than eager to confront you on some perceived sin.

At the 8:15 mark in the video, the therapist Jonathan makes a note that Picard is behaving uncharacteristically when he is spraying down the Borg with a tommy gun. Alan comments that Picard is an intellectual and a pacifist. The video juxtaposes Picard in the movie with a clip from an early episode where Picard describes their mission to peacefully connect with other civilizations before cutting back to the movie where Picard disassembles a recently assimilated Borg drone, formerly an ensign under Picard’s command. Picard looks at the corpse and sees only a machine, nothing more. TV show Picard would have more respect and decency, but his trauma has all but practically rewritten his character. This is underscored a minute later into the video.

Trauma rewires our brain. We lose a sense of ourselves because we have to remain ever vigilant to the next threat. It becomes an issue of survival. I am reminded of something an old girlfriend told me. We started dating a few months after I left the HA, but one of the ladies at church told her (or my girlfriend overhead) that I had changed; that I was a different person compared who I was when I joined the HA. I still wonder what she meant. At first I didn’t agree with her summation, but now I recognize that I was and still a different person. Even recently, 15 years after joining the HA, my mom still comments whenever I make life choices that result in myself brightening up. Sadly, this has only happened a handful of times in the past decade. Psychology Today describes how our personalities can change after a traumatic event.

Tune in next week when we discuss the Window of Tolerance and lizard brain.