At least V'ger is not arrogant. It recognizes that it was created, and yearns to unite with its creator. When Kirk supplies the proof that it was created by Humans, V'ger shorts out its circuitry, so that the last portion of the information it requires will be delivered by a Human.
This time, unlike with the Klingons aboard their ships, the Humans aboard the space station Epsilon 9, and the Deltan navigator Ilia, V'ger unites with the consciousness of a living, organic being (one wholly different from itself), without destroying the other in the process.
Up until now, V'ger has recorded carbon-based life: it has stored it like we would scan a document or photo into a computer. It has analyzed the data gleaned from this process. But only through becoming partly Human--only through uniting its inorganic consciousness with an intelligent, organic one--can it truly enhance its understanding of the universe. Just as occurs with us--when we throw down our mental barriers and accept another person's viewpoint as equally relevant and insightful as our own--V'ger's paradigm, formerly limited, is blown wide open. As Marvel writer Marv Wolfman channels the Biblical book of Genesis to suggest what is going on with V'ger, perhaps I could also reference St. Paul's epistle of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 13, verse 11, Paul suggests how a person's consciousness can be enhanced by dedicating one's life to loving others. "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put childish things behind me." And in verse 12: "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face."
In A Scanner Darkly, Phillip K. Dick compares how a human views the world to how a computer scans its surroundings. He also suggests that St. Paul would not have studied his appearance in a glass mirror, but rather in polished metal that was incapable of generating accurate reflections.
Through uniting with someone else whose life at first seemed completely different (and even opposed) to its own, V'ger is reborn. It is now ready to explore the universe again. This time, it will gain a fuller understanding of everyone and everything it encounters. Likewise, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy have each experienced transformation. Before they lived separately, and devoted themselves to smaller, more individual tasks. Now each can fully reengage with his former comrades and explore the universe again. Perhaps colorist Marie Severin hints at the rebirth of the three in the above panel, where for an instant, the blackness of space is banished, and the U.S.S. Enterprise passes through a realm of light.
Sadly, Paramount Studios booted Gene Roddenberry out the door after the movie failed to bring in the projected revenue, and in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," Kirk has lost the enlightenment he previously gained. All too often, Human existence seems like a journey into darkness, illuminated only by occasional moments of clarity. It would have been interesting to see what a more enlightened Kirk, freed from the bonds and limitations of the past, could have accomplished. But then, we would have missed out on Khan controlling Chekov's mind from vast distances with an insect that crawled into the Russian's ear, exploding planets, Kirk's handwringing over missing out on a relationship with a son he never knew existed, and a Genesis planet with an entire ecosystem that is created--in an instant--from the dispersed particles of a nebula. And all that would have been too cool and exciting to have missed out on, right?
Dragon Dave
Related Internet Links
Bible Apps: 1 Corinthians 13
A meditation on allusions in P. K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly
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