10 Most Important Mental Health Awareness Episodes In Star Trek
What are the key Star Trek moments for our understanding of mental health?
Please be aware that this article discusses a wide range of mental health issues, including suicide and self-harm, that may affect some readers. If you or someone you know are affected, please reach out to a healthcare professional. You can also contact the Samaritans via their website: https://www.samaritans.org/
Star Trek is a constant (one of its primary contributions to mental health). It will always be there to offer a vision of the future to look forward to. Through the screen, a kind of comfort is given like no other.
Star Trek has broached the subject of mental health more directly (and indirectly) over the years. From the beginning, a battle of emotions was incorporated in Spock — a character with whom many have come to identify. The Original Series might have misfired in its portrayal of psychiatry, but broadly speaking, it provided many lessons.
When Star Trek progressed into a new era, it highlighted the psychological needs of its crew with the addition of 'ship's counsellor'. Star Trek: The Next Generation would explore complex issues, as would Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Throughout, the franchise has continued to shine a light on a wide range of mental health issues such as addiction, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.
For me, the writer, like many others, Star Trek and mental health is personal. It has helped me through challenging times. As I write, it is also World Mental Health Day (10 October), led each year since 1992 by the World Federation For Mental Health. It aims to raise awareness of, and support for, mental health globally. Let us take a look at how Star Trek has done its part.
10. Encounter At Farpoint
A new century. A new ship. A new crew. Star Trek: The Next Generation aimed to differentiate itself in several ways from its predecessor — not the least of which was mental health in the workplace. The Original Series had occasionally featured psychiatrists and experts in "space psychology" elsewhere aboard ship. From its opening scenes, Encounter at Farpoint placed a counsellor at the heart of the bridge.
The character that became Deanna Troi was devised early in development of TNG as "an emotional healer," story editor David Gerrold stated in The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years. Her role would be "to support those aboard ship in the job of being the best they can be". The Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer/Director's Guide (the Series Bible) — largely the work of Gerrold — goes on to add that the position of counsellor is,
Of vital importance on space vessels of the 24th century […] Troi is a master in Human and Alien Psychology [sic].
We would have to wait until the second season's The Icarus Factor to pay a visit to the counsellor's office. A sign, sadly, that the character was being underused. But by her very presence, Troi continues to teach us that one's mental health and emotional well-being should be primary from day one on the job.