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Darmok (episode)

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Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
"Darmok"
TNG, Episode 5x02
Production number: 40275-202
First aired: 30 September 1991
← 101st of 176 produced in TNG →
← 101st of 176 released in TNG →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered  
← 208th of 727 released in all →
Teleplay By
Joe Menosky

Story By
Philip LaZebnik and Joe Menosky

Directed By
Winrich Kolbe
45047.2 (2368)
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Picard is captured, then trapped on a planet with an alien captain who speaks a metaphorical language incompatible with the universal translator. They must learn to communicate with each other before the beast of the planet overwhelms them.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

Captain's log, stardate 45047.2. The Enterprise is en route to the uninhabited El-Adrel system, its location is near the territory occupied by an enigmatic race known as The Children of Tama.

The USS Enterprise-D is on a mission to attempt to establish communications between the Federation and the Tamarians after several previous attempts had failed. The Enterprise and the Tamarian vessel make a rendezvous in orbit of El-Adrel IV. The two parties try to communicate but, like the occasions before, neither party can comprehend what the other party is saying. Captain Dathon disarms his first officer of a knife-like weapon and suddenly both he and Captain Picard are transported off of their ships to the surface of El-Adrel IV.

[edit] Act One

Immediately after the transport, the Tamarian vessel projects a scattering field in the ionosphere of the planet, preventing both the Enterprise and themselves from using their transporters and blocking communications. However, sensors can still penetrate the scattering field, allowing either party to monitor Picard and Dathon.

On the surface of El-Adrel IV, Picard and Dathon once again try to communicate, as Dathon passes one of the two knives to Picard. Picard assumes that Dathon wants to engage in combat and refuses to take his knife. Picard cannot understand the terms that Dathon is using and both men become frustrated with their failure.

[edit] Act Two

First Officer's log, supplemental. I am sending a shuttlecraft to find Captain Picard, gambling that the Tamarians will sit tight rather than risk an exchange of phaser fire.

Lt. Worf attempts to take a shuttlecraft to the surface of El-Adrel IV to rescue Captain Picard. As they begin to descend, the Tamarian vessel fires upon the shuttle to disable it, forcing it to return to the Enterprise. Lt. Cmdr. Data and Counselor Troi analyzes the log of the communication between themselves and the Tamarians and consult the ship's computer with the words and names mentioned and find several commonalities. Data and Troi deduce that the Tamarian language is entirely based on metaphors derived from their own experience and mythology, making their language extremely difficult to understand because without knowing the people or things in the metaphor, the metaphor is impossible to comprehend. Lt. Cmdr. La Forge and Ensign Lefler then attempt to modify the transporters to transport Captain Picard through the dampening field.

The following morning, on the planet's surface, Picard and Dathon are still no better off in their attempts to communicate with one another. Picard notices that Dathon repeatedly uses the phrase "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" but he does not understand who or what they were. Dathon is still insistent in giving Picard one of the knives, but again Picard refuses. They hear a loud roar in the distance and rocks fall from the cliffs behind the two men, and Picard realizes that Dathon and he are not alone on the planet's surface.

[edit] Act Three

Worf detects a highly localized EM disturbance in fairly close proximity to Picard and Dathon, and it is approaching them. La Forge, Lefler and Chief O'Brien are almost ready to attempt to beam Captain Picard back aboard the Enterprise.

As the creature approaches Picard and Dathon, Picard realizes that Dathon is not offering him the knife to fight him, but to arm him against the creature, and accepts the weapon. When Dathon speaks again, referring to what sounds like a battle plan, Picard understands that the Tamarians communicate by metaphor. Dathon utters a phrase that sounds like he was relieved that Picard finally understands why the knife was offered. The creature attacks Dathon and Picard wounds it, but the creature strikes Picard. The Enterprise makes its attempt to transport Picard while the creature is pummeling Dathon. Picard is furious with being transported just as he and Dathon are beginning to understand each other. The transport fails and Picard is left on the planet as the creature moves away from Dathon.

[edit] Act Four

First Officer's log, stardate 45048.8. Our attempt to transport Captain Picard back to the ship has failed. My options are narrowing and my patience is all but gone.

The Tamarians raise the scattering field to a higher level of the planet's ionosphere, making transport impossible and forcing the crew to devise a new way to bring the Captain back to the Enterprise. The Enterprise's sensors show that Dathon's life signs are fluctuating and they know that the Tamarians know this also, but, surprisingly, no action is taken by the Tamarians to save their captain.

Back on El-Adrel IV, Picard lies down with a dying Dathon and asks him about Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. It seems that Darmok and Jalad were two legendary travelers, strangers who faced and defeated a common enemy on the island of Tanagra. Picard realizes that Dathon knew of the creature and brought them both here so that they could re-enact the events between Darmok, Jalad and "the Beast" at Tanagra. Dathon's hope was that by facing a common enemy, the two sides could learn to understand one another. Now that Picard understands how the Tamarians communicate, Dathon wants to hear one of his stories. Picard recites a story from Earth, very similar to that of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, about Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk, how two enemies became became friends through hardship. Dathon appears impressed and amused by Picard's story. Sadly, Dathon dies during the night, but not in vain as he has become the first Tamarian to successfully establish communications between his people and the Federation.

[edit] Act Five

First Officer's log, supplemental. Despite the risk of war, I have no choice but to break the stalemate.

Back on the Enterprise, La Forge and his staff have developed a way to disable the Tamarians' scattering field - by firing a highly focused single phaser beam from the front torpedo bay at the generator on the Tamarian vessel. Cmdr. Riker gives the order to fire on the Tamarian vessel. The shot disables the generator, allowing Chief O'Brien to beam Captain Picard aboard just as the creature is about to attack him again. The Tamarians return fire, severely damaging the Enterprise. As Picard returns to the bridge, he orders hailing frequencies to be opened with the Tamarian vessel. The Tamarians reply angrily but they quickly calm down when Picard addresses them in metaphor. He explains that although the mission was a success as far as establishing communications between the two peoples, Dathon gave his life to accomplish it. This successful contact will henceforth be known as the story of "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel".

The episode ends with Picard in his Ready Room reading Homeric epics, explaining to Riker that maybe more familiarity with their own mythology may help them relate to the Tamarians. Picard notes to Riker that Dathon sacrificed his life in hope of communication, and wonders if he would have been willing to do the same. Riker leaves the Ready Room, and Picard picks up the knife and looks out of the Ready Room window into space while repeating the possibly religious gestures he saw Dathon engage in, paying silent tribute to his fallen comrade.

[edit] Memorable quotes

"Darmok, and Jalad... at Tanagra!"

- Dathon (meant as a metaphor to fight a common enemy)


"Dathon and Picard... at El-Adrel!"

- New Captain of the Tamarians (referring to Dathon and Picard's experience at El-Adrel)


"Shaka, when the walls fell."

- Dathon and Picard (repeated often by both) (meant as a metaphor to failure)


"I have encountered 1,754 non-human races during my tenure in Starfleet."

- Data (reference to the breadth of alien races in the Star Trek universe)


"Temba, his arms wide!"

- Dathon (meant as a metaphor for giving and receiving)


"That's how you communicate, isn't it? By citing example... by metaphor! Uzani's army... with fists open..."
"Sokath, his eyes uncovered!" (meant as a metaphor to realization)

- Picard and Dathon


"Darmok, and Jalad... on the ocean."
"Darmok and Jalad... they left together."

- Dathon and Picard


"Now the door is open between our peoples. That commitment meant more to him than his own life."

- Picard

[edit] Background Information

[edit] Story and production

[edit] Continuity

  • This is the first episode which introduces a new captain's uniform: a gray undershirt with an open red jacket. Although the jacket has a black yoke like the standard uniforms, the yoke is made of a material that looks like leather and has a quilted pattern. Also, the red portion of the jacket is made from a material that looks like suede.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of the Type 6 shuttlecraft.
  • Paul Winfield was previously seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as the ill-fated Captain Clark Terrell.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Ensign Robin Lefler, who later played an important part in discovering the conspiracy in the episode "The Game".

[edit] Reception

  • On Menosky's effort, Piller commented, "I just think 'Darmok' is the prototype of what Star Trek should be. It dealt with a very challenging premise and many of our best shows are scripts that have been around a long time...He created a whole language for that episode and it's just astonishing. The episode worked on every level; it had the philosophy dealing with language and what it does for us, two great acting performances, it had a monster and a space battle – it had everything." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • Director Winrich Kolbe commented that he had mixed feelings on the episode. "Storywise, it was a hell of a story. It was almost flawless. It tangled a very interesting subject and a very complicated subject as well, and I think it did it well." However, he felt somewhat constrained in how he could film the planet scenes with the monster. Furthermore, he noted the difficulty in directing scenes in an alien language. "Can you imagine not speaking Russian and...having to write an article in Russian? It makes it kind of difficult. Even though I had a translation of the dialogue, it wasn't quite there and for me it was like directing a Russian movie without speaking the language, but you work your way through it. So that was an additional challenge. The episode seems to have struck a chord. It's a show we can all be proud of." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • Despite his initial resistance to the idea, Berman later named "Darmok" as one of his all-time favorite episodes. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • This episode has been used by linguistics teachers to aid in students' understanding of how languages work and evolve. [1]

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

[edit] References

47; bioscan; bull; Children of Tama; Darmok; Gallos II; Gilgamesh; El-Adrel IV, El-Adrel system, Enkidu; Jalad, Kanda IV; linguistic database; Magellan; Malindi VII; mythology; Razna V; Lerishi IV; Shantil III; Shiku Maru; Silvestri; T'Lani; Tamarian deep space cruiser; Tamarian language; Tamarians; Tanagra (island); Tanagra (beverage); Tanagra family; universal translator; Uruk

[edit] External links


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