TNG S5E2 "Darmok" Review By AnswerMan

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the island. AnswerMan on Trek Reviews. Shaka, when the walls fell.

Talking only in proper nouns is kind of fun for a minute, but begins to wear out as quickly as the patience of Dathon's crew at the lack of understanding from the simpleton humans on the Enterprise. I don't quite understand how this language works, and for this reason "Darmok" has caused me to think and reflect more than the average episode. I like that. So is there a story for every single situation? How would you say "hand me that crescent wrench?" Since there are sentence structures other than proper nouns (such as "at the" "with the" "walls" "island" etc), why can't those be strung together on their own? And how are these vital stories upon which the language is built passed on to new generations, when they lack the ability to actually tell the stories?



No doubt Picard is asking some of these same questions, as he is beamed down to a planet with a numerical name along with the captain of the Tamarian ship, after a bit of failed communication. Even the universal translator, although it understands certain words, can't make complete sense of their unique language. Picard assumes that Dathon wants to fight, and this notion is paralleled on the ship, where Riker sees the abduction as an act of aggression. But this is not the case. Rather, it's a grand gesture of friendship.

I like this episode because it doesn't take the easy route. It could have dumped Picard and Dathon on a planet, and forced them to work together to overcome the situation, and ended with them being friends. But instead, Dathon dies. His sacrifice for just an attempt at communication is very real. He dies not simply due to an accident or lousy circumstances, but rather because he has placed himself directly in harm's way for something that he feels is important. Furthermore, Picard is not able to save him because his crew, lacking trust in the aliens and missing completely the gesture they are making, attempt to beam him away at the moment when Dathon needs him the most. The two are to fight the beast together, but instead Dathon is mauled to death while Picard is being pulled away by his crew. It's an episode that you will remember because of the silly speech, but actually contains some very heavy stuff.

In the end, Picard has decided to study old Greek texts in order to possibly enhance his own communication skills. While I think that we can learn from stories like mythology, or fairy tales, or the parables that Jesus told, I would have preferred Picard to have been reading The Unabridged History of the Federation of Planets or something. I may have read the situation wrong, but I didn't get the feeling that the characters in Dathon's language were merely part of fables, I took it that they at least believed that these were real events. In any case, I think there's plenty to learn from true stories in our own history, and that these stories are far more important than myths. But the episode has left me with two things: 1) I want one of those Picard jackets, and 2) I want to watch this episode again now that I understand a bit of the language.

"Darmok" is a Good episode. It's not necessarily that important of an episode, and of course we never see the Children of Tama again, but it's a touching story about a grand gesture from a friendly alien race that is tired of being isolated by their language, and is willing to make sacrifices to join a larger community. It's also about how tenuous relations can be, as the Enterprise is almost destroyed in firefight that erupts simply due to encountering a race that is different and not understanding their customs.

Published November 13, 2018