star trek tng at tanagra

Shaka, When the Walls Fell

In one fascinating episode, Star Trek: The Next Generation traced the limits of human communication as we know it—and suggested a new, truer way of talking about the universe.

On stardate 45047.2, Jean-Luc Picard leads the crew of the Enterprise in pursuit of a transmission beacon from the El-Adrel system, where a Tamarian vessel has been broadcasting a mathematical signal for weeks. The aliens, also known as the Children of Tama, are an apparently peaceable and technologically advanced race with which the Federation nevertheless has failed to forge diplomatic relations. The obstacle, as Commander Data puts it: “Communication was not possible.”

Picard exudes optimism as his starship courses through subspace. “In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination,” he beams to his senior staff. “I would like to believe that these are qualities which we have in sufficient measure.” But after hailing the alien ship upon arrival, contact with Children of Tama proves more difficult than Picard imagined:

DATHON, the Tamarian captain: Rai and Jiri at Lungha. Rai of Lowani. Lowani under two moons. Jiri of Umbaya. Umbaya of crossed roads. At Lungha. Lungha, her sky gray. (no response from Enterprise, looks at First Officer in frustration) (slowly, deliberately) Rai and Jiri. At Lungha.

In the Star Trek universe, a “universal translator” automatically interprets between any alien language instantly and fluently. Unlike today’s machine-translation methods, the universal translator requires no previous experience with another language in order to make sense of it. Such is the case with Tamarian, at least on the surface, as the Enterprise crew is able to comprehend the basic syntax and semantics of Tamarian utterances. “The Tamarian seems to be stating the proper names of individuals and locations,” offers Data, stating the obvious. But Picard quickly sums up the problem, “Yes, but what does it all mean?”

Picard’s reply to the Tamarians sounds especially staid to the viewer’s ears after having heard the aliens’ exotic prose: “Would you be prepared to consider the creation of a mutual nonaggression pact between our two peoples? Possibly leading to a trade agreement and cultural interchange. Does this sound like a reasonable course of action to you?” His questions cause the Tamarians as much befuddlement as their litany of names and places does the Federation crew. The Tamarian first officer offers the only honest reaction of the lot, a scornful scoff, but he is quickly silenced by his captain:

FIRST OFFICER (laughing): Kadir beneath Mo Moteh. DATHON: The river Temarc. The officers immediately stop their laughter—as if ordered to. DATHON (continuing; for emphasis): In winter. DATHON: Darmok.             The First Officer looks very concerned—objects. FIRST OFFICER: Darmok? Rai and Jiri at Lungha. DATHON (shrugs): Shaka. When the walls fell … FIRST OFFICER: Zima at Anzo. Zima and Bakor. DATHON (firm) Darkmok at Tanagra. FIRST OFFICER: Shaka! (indicating situation) Mirab, his sails unfurled. DATHON: Darmok.

At this point, the Tamarian ship transports its captain, Dathon, along with Picard down to the surface of El-Adrel IV. Dathon has brought along two Tamarian daggers; the bridge scene suggests they carry some ceremonial significance. The Enterprise attempts to retrieve Picard, but the Tamarians have already created a particle-scattering field in the planet’s ionosphere, making teleportation impossible.

On the surface, Dathon tosses one of the daggers to Picard, who misunderstands, thinking he’s being incited to fight. Meanwhile, First Officer Riker makes the same error up in orbit. He attempts to contact his Tamarian counterpart only to be reminded: “Darmok at Tanagra.” “Your action could be interpreted as an act of war,” enjoins Riker. His counterpart laments to his colleagues, “Kiteo, his eyes closed,” before responding to Riker, “Chenza, at court. The court of silence.” He closes the channel.

As night falls on the surface, Picard fails to make a fire while Dathon lounges comfortably around his roaring blaze. Dathon throws Picard a torch, incanting, “Temba.” After first misunderstanding that Temba might mean fire , Dathon clarifies, “Temba, his arms wide.” And Picard begins to fit the pieces together, “Temba is a person. His arms wide … because he’s … he’s holding them apart. In, in … generosity. In giving. In taking. Thank you.”

As morning breaks, Dathon rouses Picard. “Darmok! Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra,” he entreats, but Picard still doesn’t know what to make of it. An ominous roar is heard from afar, and Picard finally accepts the weapon Dathon had been offering earlier. Picard wants to run (Dathon interprets this gesture with a phrase we’ve already heard, “Mirab, with sails unfurled”) but Dathon shakes his head. “Shaka, when the walls fell.” Picard makes another tentative discovery, “Shaka. You said that before. When I was trying to build a fire. Is that a failure? An inability to do something?”

As the unseen creature nears, Dathon attempts to take control of the situation.

DATHON: Uzani, his army at Lashmir.
 PICARD: At Lashmir? Was it like this at Lashmir? A similar situation to the one we’re facing here? DATHON: Uzani, his army with fists open. PICARD: A strategy? With fists open? DATHON: His army, with fists closed. PICARD: With fists closed. An army, with fists open, to lure the enemy … with fists closed, to attack? That’s how you communicate, isn’t it? By citing example, by metaphor! (demonstrates that he understands) Uzani’s army, with fists open. DATHON: Sokath! His eyes uncovered!

The two proceed with this plan, but just as Picard is about to distract the monster so that Dathon can attack, the Enterprise executes an attempt to retrieve their captain, having found a way to disrupt the ionospheric interference temporarily. Absent Picard’s foil, the strategy fails and the creature pounces upon Dathon, badly injuring him. The transporter effort fails anyway, and Picard rematerializes on the planet’s surface. He runs to Dathon who struggles in pain, “Shaka,” he begins, and this time Picard completes the thought, “when the walls fell.”

While Riker and Laforge attempt to find a way to disrupt the Tamarian polarity coil responsible for the particle beam, Counselor Troi and Commander Data make some progress unpacking Tamarian communications:

RIKER: I’d prefer to find a peaceful solution. If we can talk our way out of this—so much the better. TROI: Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. RIKER: What have you found? TROI: The Tamarian ego structure does not seem to allow what we normally think of as self-identity. Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery—by reference to the individuals and places which appear in their mytho-historical accounts. TROI: It’s as if I were to say to you “Juliet. On her balcony.” BEVERLY: An image of romance. TROI: Exactly. Image is everything to the Tamarians.

As their conversation continues, Troi, Crusher, and Data observe that even with this new structural understanding, without a knowledge of the mythical origins of the figures that compose the Tamarian language they have little hope of understanding the sense of their speech. But on the planet’s surface, Picard has the good fortune of a firsthand account that fills in some of the blanks.

PICARD: Our situation is similar to theirs. I understand that. But I need to know more, you must tell me more, about Darmok and Jalad. Tell me, you used the words Temba, his arms wide when you gave me the knife and the fire. Could that mean give ?
 (makes arm motions) Temba ? His arms wide. Darmok. Give me more about Darmok. DATHON: Darmok. On the ocean. PICARD: Darmok on the ocean. A metaphor, for being alone, isolated. Darmok, on the ocean. DATHON: (cries out in pain)
 PICARD: Are you alright? DATHON: (waves him off) Kiazi’s children. Their faces wet. Ughhh. PICARD: Temba, his arms open. Give me more about Darmok on the ocean. DATHON: Tanagra, on the ocean. Darmok at Tanagra. PICARD: At Tanagra. A country? Tanagra on the ocean, an island! Temba, his arms wide. DATHON: Jalad on the ocean. Jalad at Tanagra. PICARD: Jalad at Tanagra. He went to the same island as Darmok. Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra. DATHON: The beast at Tanagra.
 PICARD: The beast? There was a creature at Tanagra? Darmok and Jalad, the beast at Tanagra. They arrive separately, they struggled together against a common foe, the beast at Tanagra, Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. DATHON: Darmok and Jalad on the ocean. PICARD: They left together. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean. DATHON: The ocean. (then, in pain as Picard comes closer) Zinda! His face black, his eyes red! (then, shooing Picard away) Kalimash, at Bahar. PICARD: You hoped that something like this would happen, didn’t you? You knew there was a dangerous creature on this planet and you knew, from the Tale of Darmok, that a danger shared, might sometimes bring two people together. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. You and me, here, at El-Adrel.

As Dathon succumbs to his injuries, Picard returns the favor by recounting the earthly tale of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, doing his best to frame their similar tale in Tamarian syntax, “Gilgamesh and Enkidu. At Uruk.” As Dathon breathes his last, the Enterprise crew finally retrieves Picard, although they had to attack the Tamarian ship to do so, which has retaliated in force. As red alert sounds, Picard enters the bridge and consummates his new linguistic expertise. It’s a scene no fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation will soon forget.

PICARD (as he moves): Hail the Tamarian vessel. WORF (touches controls): Aye, Captain. TAMARIAN FIRST OFFICER: Zinda! His face black. His eyes red— PICARD: —Temarc! The river Temarc. In winter. FIRST OFFICER: Darmok? PICARD: … and Jalad. At Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean. FIRST OFFICER (to others, amazed): Sokath! His eyes open! PICARD (continuing): The beast of Tanagra. Uzani. His army. (shaking his head) Shaka, when the walls fell.             The aliens again face Picard. Picard takes the small             book—the Tamarian captain’s “diary”—and holds             it out in his hand.             The Tamarian First Officer glances at one of his             officers, who touches a console. The book is             immediately DEMATERIALIZED, MATERIALIZING next to the             alien First Officer. He picks it up, showing it to             Picard. FIRST OFFICER: Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel. FIRST OFFICER: Mirab. With sails unfurled.             Picard extends the Tamarian dagger toward the First             Officer, offering it back to him. PICARD: Temba. His arms open. FIRST OFFICER: Temba at rest. PICARD (almost to himself): Thank you …

Shaka, when the walls fell is a likeness of failure for the Children of Tama. It’s also not a bad alternative title for the “Darmok” episode, for the Federation never really grasps Tamarian communication, despite their declared success in making contact with the race and forging a path to future relations.

Picard calls it metaphor , and Troi calls it image . For the Federation crew, the Tamarians cite examples that guide their understanding of and approach to the various problems they encounter on a day-to-day basis: as Picard puts it, by citing “a situation similar to this one.” Science fiction often plays with alternate methods of linguistic understanding, and this is familiar territory: The alien is incomprehensible, but in a way that can be overcome through reason and technology.

But there’s a problem: Metaphor and image are not accurate descriptions of the Tamarian language’s logic. A metaphor takes one thing as a symbol for something else: Juliet’s balcony acts as a figure for romance, Darmok and Jalad as a figure for communion through shared struggle. Even though Troi means image as a synonym for metaphor when she says “Image is everything for the Tamarians,” she also implies vanity in Tamarian speech. From the perspective of her declarative speech, the Tamarians are putting on pretenses, covering over a fundamental thing with a decorative one.

The Federation’s desire to see Tamarian speech as a process of copying one form into another is a uniquely earthly one, even when sieved through Star Trek ’s historical futurism. As Troi and her crewmates see it, Tamarian verbalisms depict the world through images and figures, which distort their “real” referents. Troi and Picard can’t help but interpret Tamarian through their (and our) cultural obsession with mimicry: Metaphorical language operates not by signification, but as poetry, by transforming the real in a symbolic mirror.

But for the Tamarians, something far weirder is going on, precisely because their language is not a curiosity for them as it is for the Federation (and for us television viewers). Calling Tamarian language “metaphor” preserves our familiar denotative speech methods and sets the more curious Tamarian moves off against them. But if we take the show’s science-fictional aspirations seriously and to their logical conclusion, then the Children of Tama possess no method of denotative communication whatsoever. Their language simply prevents them from distinguishing between an object or event and what we would call its figurative representation.

Allegory might have been a better term for explaining Tamarian. While metaphor represents one subject as similar to another object, allegory replaces one with another entirely. Allegory’s veiled language is powerful, because allegories effectively freeze time, making a historical or fictional scenario immortal. Allegory is what makes it possible for us to continue to derive lessons from the Old and New Testaments, week after week, homily after homily.

The 20th-century literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin lamented this property of Baroque allegory in particular, suggesting that it swaps out historical myth for present-day concerns. As Benjamin puts it, “Evil as such exists only in allegory … and means something other than it is. It means in fact precisely the nonexistence of what it presents. The absolute vices, as exemplified by tyrants and intriguers are allegories. They are not real.” When we talk about evil in the allegorical sense—the serpent of the Garden of Eden, or Sauron’s eye in Mordor—we do so as a replacement for addressing the more ambiguous, palpable instances of evildoing in the present. For Benjamin, the allegorist rejects the world in order to embrace allegory, and in so doing it strips art of politics.

But the Tamarians’ version of allegory, if that’s indeed the right name for it, cuts both ways. On the one hand, it fetishizes myth in the manner of allegory, but on the other hand it musters that myth in the interest of serious sociopolitical action, as evidenced by Dathon’s willingness literally to die in the name of myth. So Benjamin’s concerns about the abandonment of the present don’t seem to apply to the Tamarian situation, offering further doubt that allegory is the best way to describe their communication process.

Despite the episode’s popularity, the Star Trek fan community (being a science-fiction fan community, after all) has issued numerous gripes about “Darmok.” The most interesting of these is a general disbelief in the technological prowess of the Tamarians. How could a race that thinks in allegory ever accomplish faster-than-light space travel? Just imagine the day-to-day work of designing, constructing, or maintaining a complicated machine like a starship. The Tamarians seem to be incapable of saying something like, “Hey Bob, can you hand me the three-quarter-inch socket wrench.” Given this inability to discourse pragmatically, why should we suspend disbelief in the first place?

Yet, if we take the episode at its word, not only is the Tamarians’ technology on parity with that of the Federation, but it might even be more advanced. The Tamarians were able to scramble transport signals across El-Adrel IV’s ionosphere, and their ship was clearly capable of destroying the Enterprise at the end of the episode had Picard not restored diplomatic relations just in time.

But what if the Tamarians abstract worldview is precisely what facilitates advanced technological and social practice, rather than limiting it? Watching the episode carefully, the “Darmok” approach appears to be an afterthought, a new idea that strikes Dathon as he realizes the planned diplomatic approach, Rai and Jiri at Lungha, would gain no purchase with the Federation. Likewise, the first officer’s objections to Darmok are both earnest and unrehearsed—he knows exactly what Dathon is talking about, and he doesn’t like it. But once the captain has asserted his authority (“The river Temarc, in winter”), no further instruction was necessary. The crew transports the two captains to the surface, erects the particle field in the planet’s ionosphere, and fends off the eventual Enterprise retaliation.

The skeptic might point out that these omissions in the teleplay are necessary given the compressed structure of the 45-minute television episode, and that just because we don’t see further instructions take place doesn’t mean they haven’t done. It’s equally possible that the Tamarians had already gone over the Darmok approach during their weeks-long orbit above El-Adrel IV, and that the first officer’s objections are rehearsals of an earlier argument that goes unseen during the action depicted on screen.

Given an absence of evidence either way, why not choose the more aggressive interpretation: Everything that takes place on the bridge of the Tamarian vessel during the episode is encapsulated into the single move, “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.” So dense and rich is Tamarian speech that these five words are sufficient to direct a whole crew to carry out an entire stratagem over two days’ time, and not by following a script, but by embracing it as a guiding abstraction.

As Troi explained, the Tamarians’ possess a sophisticated aptitude for abstraction. This capacity responds to fans’ skepticism at the Tamarian’s technological prowess. The Children of Tama would not be delayed by their inability to speak directly because they seem to have no need whatsoever for explicit, low-level discourse like instructions and requests. They’d just not bother talking about the socket wrench, instead proceeding to the actual work of building or maintaining the vessel.

By contrast, consider how the Enterprise engineering crew attempts to overcome the Tamarian particle interference field in their attempt to retrieve Picard from the surface of El-Adrel IV:

GEORDI: Matrix levels. LEFLER: Annular convergence holding at four three nine point two oh five. Confinement resolution at point five two seven. GEORDI: That isn’t gonna do it. Increase thermal input coefficient to 150 percent. LEFLER (working console): Increasing now … … GEORDI: Shunt the overload to the phase transition sequencers in transporter one. LEFLER: Yes, sir.

While the episode doesn’t provide a Tamarian mythical equivalent, we can speculate on how the Tamarians would handle a similar situation. While I suppose the explicit directive to adjust thermal input by a specified amount might be rendered allegorically (some Tamarian speech is narrower than others), it’s equally likely that the entire exchange would be unnecessary, subsumed into some larger operation, say, “Baby Jessica, in her well.” The rest is just details.

While his declaration that they speak and think in metaphor is most memorable, Picard offers another account of Tamarian during his encounter on the surface. Before encountering the beast, Dathon makes the recommendation, “Uzani. His army. With fist open.” Picard reacts, “A strategy? With fist open …”

“Strategy” is perhaps the best metaphor of all for the Tamarian phenomenon the Federation misnames metaphor. A strategy is a plan of action, an approach or even, at the most abstract, a logic. Such a name reveals what’s lacking in both metaphor and allegory alike as accounts for Tamarian culture. To be truly allegorical, Tamarian speech would have to represent something other than what it says. But for the Children of Tama, there is nothing left over in each speech act. The logic of Darmok or Shaka or Uzani is not depicted as image , but invoked or instantiated as logic in specific situations. In some cases, apparently, this invocation takes place with limited transformation, such as in the application of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra depicted in the episode’s main plotline. In other cases, those logics are used in situations with more play, as when Dathon reassures Picard after the former’s injury, “Kiazi’s children. Their faces wet.”

Here we might distinguish between the invocation of a particular logic and the simulation of a creature, thing, or idea by replicating its image. The simulation of life in art often concerns the reproduction of surfaces: in painting, the appearance of form, perspective, or the rendition of light; in literature the appearance of character or event; in photography and cinema the rendition of the world as it appears through optical element and upon emulsion or sensor; in theater the rendition of the behavior of a character or situation.

While all these examples “simulate” to various extents, they do so by a process of rendering . For example, the writer might simulate a convincing verbal intercourse by producing a credibility that allows the reader to take it as reality. Likewise, the actor might render a visible behavior or intonation that is suggestive of a particular emotion, event, or history that the theatrical or cinematic viewer takes as evidence for some unseen motivation.

A logic is also a behavior, but it is a behavior unlike the behavior of the literary or theatrical character, for whom behaving involves producing an outward sign of some deeper but abstracted motivation, understanding, or desire. By contrast logics are pure behaviors. They are abstract and intangible and yet also real.

If we pretend that “Shaka, when the walls fell” is a signifier, then its signified is not the fictional mythological character Shaka, nor the myth that contains whatever calamity caused the walls to fall, but the logic by which the situation itself came about. Tamarian language isn’t really language at all, but machinery.

Because we don’t know very much about Tamarian history and culture, it’s hard to say much about how their conceptual machinery works. But we do have an earthly metaphor by which we might understand it: computation .

When we think about the kind of representation that computers enact, we typically commit our own Shaka, when the walls fell error. Computational media are generally seen as an extension or acceleration of existing mimetic methods. Take computer graphics as an example. We see computer images as extensions of photographic or filmic representation. In both Hollywood digital video effects (which are offline rendered to achieve high resolution and detail) and in computer games (which are real-time rendered to facilitate player interaction), a variety of algorithms produce two-dimensional depictions of three-dimensional scenes that, at their best, reach a level of credibility that can be mistaken for reality.

This take on computational representation sees the computer as a new method for producing appearances , the images that fascinate the Enterprise crew in “Darmok,” and that fascinate us by means of their broadcast as television. But we err in taking visual appearance as a primary replacement for reality.

In CG films, we don’t notice this problem—computer images just become yet more frames of film. But in computer games, realism is always more than just a visual affair. In a 3-D game, movement through a real-time rendered world can produce a sense of place, not just an image. Yet, the thoughtful player will quickly find an enormous chasm between visual realism and other sorts of realism in computer games. For example, the appearance and sensation of being in Grand Theft Auto ’s Liberty City initially suggests enormous verisimilitude, until the player attempts to enter a building that turns out just to be a Potemkin stand-up, or to interact with a non-player character whose verbal and physical actions amount to a few repeatable lines of stock dialog and a pathfinding algorithm that helps steer her around the player’s avatar.

So, while we think that computer graphics represent the world “as it appears,” instead they mimic the logics of visual verisimilitude themselves more than they do the logics of the real world. The method of producing 3-D computer graphics known as ray tracing works by carrying out linear perspective painting in reverse, rendering light from back to front and hiding areas where that light will not meet the position of the virtual camera due to obstacles. Ray-tracing algorithms produce the rationale of Renaissance perspective, to exact mathematical specification. Computation doesn’t represent the world so much as logics from the world, just like the Tamarian language doesn’t reproduce the figures so much as the processes of its cultural history.

Take SimCity as a parallel example. There have been many editions of this city-construction-and-management-simulation game, but all of them share the same features: tools to zone and construct infrastructure in a physical environment, including roads and rail; housing, commercial, and industrial sectors; electrical and other infrastructure; and services like police and fire, along with taxation, advising, and management tools to run the city on an ongoing basis. Playing the game involves a combination of construction and operation, a dynamic that led its creator Will Wright to compare the experience to gardening.

What city does SimCity represent? Not New York or London or Valenciennes or Albany, for re-creating particular cities proves difficult in the game. Nor does the game simulate the role of mayor (even if its interfaces and paratexts sometimes refer to the player as a mayor), because no mayor has the arbitrary power to create and destroy as the SimCity player does. Nor is it the Platonic ideal of a “city,” because some types of cities are more and less feasible within the SimCity simulation. New urbanist mixed development is impossible, social welfare-style taxation policy is impossible, and rail-based mass transit always leads to faster growth than road-and-freeway automobile transit. In this sense, even though large SimCity cities may “look like” credible urban environments, they don’t bear much resemblance to any actual city. Dense, modernist cities demand mixed-use development and increased infrastructure and services; sprawling middle-American metroplexes rely on slow, historical growth in suburbs that draw commercial activity away from and then back to city centers; neither type of city is possible in the game.

If it mimics anything, SimCity characterizes a particular logic of urban planning, one that most closely resembles the urban dynamics model of Jay Forrester, an inspiration Wright has himself acknowledged. Urban dynamics emerged out of Forrester’s post-war research at MIT in system dynamics, an approach to the interactions between industrial systems and social systems in large organizations. Originally a project integrating management and engineering, by the late 1960s Forrester had the accident of sharing an office with former Boston mayor John Collins.

As a result of this encounter, in 1969 Forrester published Urban Dynamics , a controversial account of urban policy that took the form of a model that Forrester and his students also implemented in computational form. (One example of its controversy: While low-income housing might seem to offer succor to the poor, Forrester’s model suggests that such development creates a poverty trap that stagnates an urban district, forcing it deeper into poverty rather than leading it toward prosperity.) While Forrester’s computational design goals entailed prediction intended to drive policy, Wright’s adaptation of Forrester’s urban dynamics was mostly a matter of convenience: It offered a formal logic for urban behavior that could be abstracted and implemented in the form of a creative work.

Unlike a painting or an actor’s performance, the game does not re-create outward appearances (crime, high rises, property values, and so forth), but the logics that then produce those appearances. Rather than translating logics into descriptions or depictions, computational representation like that of SimCity translates logics into logics . It embodies a particular take on how cities work through a computer program that makes them work that way. In my book Persuasive Games I call this technique “procedural rhetoric”—the use of computational processes to depict worldly processes.

“Darmok” gives us one vision of a future in which procedural rhetoric takes precedence over verbal and visual rhetoric, indeed in which the logic of logics subsume the logics of description, appearances, and even of narrative—that preeminent form that even Troi mistakes as paramount to the Children of Tama. The Tamarian’s media ecosystem is the opposite of ours, one in which behaviors are taken as primary, and descriptions as secondary, almost incidental. The Children of Tama are less interesting as aliens than they are as counterfactual versions of us, if we preferred logic over image or description.

At the end of “Darmok,” Riker finds Captain Picard sitting in his ready room, reading from an ancient book rather than off a tablet. “Greek, sir?” Riker asks. “The Homeric Hymns,” Picard responds, one of the root metaphors of our own culture. “For the next time we encounter the Tamarians …” suggests the first officer. To which his captain replies, “More familiarity with our own mythology might help us relate to theirs.” A charming sentiment, and a move that always works for Star Trek —the juxtaposition of classical antiquity and science-fictional futurism. But Picard gets it wrong one last time. To represent the world as systems of interdependent logics we need not elevate those logics to the level of myth, nor focus on the logics of our myths. Instead, we would have to meditate on the logics in everything , to see the world as one built of weird, rusty machines whose gears squeal as they grind against one another, rather than as stories into which we might write ourselves as possible characters.

It’s an understandable mistake, but one that rings louder when heard from the vantage point of the 24th century. For even then, stories and images take center stage, and logics and processes wait in the wings as curiosities, accessories. Perhaps one day we will learn this lesson of the Tamarians: that understanding how the world works is a more promising approach to intervention within it than mere description or depiction. Until then, well: Shaka, when the walls fell.

Transcend & Include

Juxtaposing things that normally don't go together in order to elevate debate about politics and religion by Teri Murphy, Integralist

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Darmok and jalad at tanagra: how i lived out this star trek episode.

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Darmok Stardate: 45047.2 Original Airdate: 30 Sep, 1991

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Darmok–twenty-five years since dathon and picard famously met at el-adrel.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

Twenty-five years ago one of the finest episodes of television aired on your local channel carrying syndicated programming.  Arguably the best episode in the history of the Star Trek franchise, frequently found atop “best of Star Trek” lists, and among the best of all science fiction stories, it was Darmok, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode featuring guest star Paul Winfield as the noble Tamarian Captain Dathon.  Darmok first aired September 30, 1991, the first standalone episode of the excellent fifth season, which featured memorable episodes including Ensign Ro, Unification, Cause and Effect, The Perfect Mate, I, Borg, The Next Phase, and another highly rated standalone episode that bookended the season, The Inner Light.   Written by Joe Menosky and Philip LaZebnik, and directed by Winrich Kolbe,  Darmok broke new ground for Star Trek first and foremost by removing the universal translator from the equation and allowing one of the 20th (and 21st) century’s key challenges–communication between cultures–to be the focus of an episode.  Like the transporter beam and the holodeck, the translator was a story device–a crutch of sorts–that allowed writers to skip beyond basic problems and move along to more complex conflicts.  Darmok took Star Trek back to the basics.

The Federation and the Tamarians–also called the “Children of Tama”–historically failed to break the language barrier, and therefore never could open up diplomatic relations, until 2368.  The Tamarians were an intelligent and strong alien race–their ship easily overpowered the Enterprise-D.  Piglike in appearance thanks to the make-up work of Michael Westmore, they wore warrior clothing (designed by Robert Blackman) that was reptilian in design, with a vest of multi-colored grommets, and a bandolier of leather, copper, and brass that supported a sheath with a dagger that was both practical and ceremonial.  The vest featured totems, crystals wrapped in shaved metal, used for personal spiritual ceremonies.  The captain kept a log book at his belt, chronicling his journey in the strange written language of the Tamarian people.

Shaka.  When the walls fell.

The Tamarians reached out to the Federation first, resulting in Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) confronting Dathon via bridge-to-bridge visual communication in orbit of the planet El-Adrel IV.  Frustrated by the continued dissonance, Dathon beamed himself, and Picard, to the surface of the planet.  Dathon’s goal: To use the metaphor of “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”–a Tamarian story where two warriors joined together by facing a common foe–to bring himself and Picard–and thereby both cultures–together, one way or another.  What took Picard and the viewing audience the course of the episode to learn, that one could begin to understand the Tamarians once you realized they communicated in metaphors, came too late for Dathon.  The enemy of the metaphor–the planet’s beast in the reality they faced on the surface of El-Adrel IV–attacked both him and Picard, but not before Picard understood.

Sokath. His eyes uncovered! 

As the noble warrior passed on, Picard recounted a similar story from Earth’s ancient history, the epic story of Gilgamesh.  Dathon’s sacrifice was communicated to the Tamarian second-in-command, explained effectively by Picard.  As a token, the Tamarian had Picard keep Dathon’s dagger.

Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel.

A simple plot?  Maybe.  But the brilliance was in the storytelling and acting.  Paul Winfield, already familiar to Star Trek fans as a Starfleet captain in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, delivered an emotional performance, conveying these seemingly nonsensical lines of dialogue intensely and believably.  His passion, his determination, his frustration with Picard, his boisterous laugh!  Picard, sporting a new casual shirt and captain’s jacket made for the episode, never looked more heroic (and confounded!).  Back at the ship Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) captains the Enterprise-D and faces off against Dathon’s own equally determined “Number One” with little success.  Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) and Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) concoct a plan to rescue Picard.  An unusual pairing of Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) go off on their own to break the language barrier on a parallel track to that of the captains down on the planet.  And the crew gets a new colleague with the first appearance of Ashley Judd as Ensign Robin Lefler.

Many an adventure back on Earth was begun by way of the episode Darmok.  A Facebook post today about the episode elicited nearly 8,500 shares and more than 1,850 comments.  Teachers recounted showing the episode to students in classes ranging from language studies to social studies to Native American studies.  A mother discussed the importance of the episode to her in light of her autistic son who could speak only in metaphor.  A daughter recalled the episode helped her communicate with her father dying from Alzheimer’s disease.  Others echoed the message of self-sacrifice and the late Paul Winfield’s acting prowess.  The preview of the episode alone inspired Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies to pen the 2008 episode “Midnight.”  Children have been named after the noble Dathon.  Many claimed it as Star Trek’s best episode.  And most recited one of the many memorable lines from the episode.  Others recounted where they were when the first watched the episode–on a honeymoon or the subject of a first date.  One commenter summed-up the episode best:  It was the best episode because it was the most “Star Trek” episode of Star Trek.

Twenty-five years have passed since the episode first ran, and you can watch Darmok at your convenience now, streaming for subscribers of Netflix.

C.J. Bunce Editor borg.com

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Tanagra (island)

Tanagra was an island - continent on Shantil III , where the mytho - historical figures Darmok and Jalad once faced a common enemy, known as the beast of Tanagra . The event was incorporated into the language of the Tamarians as a series of metaphors regarding danger, but also communication and understanding achieved through shared danger. ( TNG : " Darmok ")

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Published Sep 30, 2021

Striving to Create Our Own 'Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel'

To celebrate the anniversary of "Darmok"'s first airing, we're looking back at the many lessons it has to teach.

StarTrek.com

In the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s 5th season, "Darmok," the Enterprise is on-route to the El-Adrel system to make contact with a race called the Children of Tama. Although the race has been peaceful, a failure to communicate pervades — the Children of Tama’s language is seemingly indecipherable.

“But are they truly incomprehensible?” Picard asks the officers on the bridge as they set a course for the El-Adrel system. “In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe that these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure.”

It is this attitude that separates the Enterprise crew from the “first contact” stories between European explorers and the native inhabitants of North and South Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries here on Earth. Instead, Spanish Conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés entered these “new worlds” with the intent to conquer rather than communicate.

At first, the Enterprise believes this may be the case with the Tamarians. After the Enterprise hails the Tamarian ship and the two captains attempt to communicate, Picard’s mouth straightens into a line, his signature “this-is-not-going-well” expression. The Tamarian captain argues with his bridge crew, takes a dagger from one of his officers, and, now holding a weapon in each hand, addresses the  crew with, “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.” Abruptly, the two captains are beamed to the surface of the planet El-Adrel IV below the ships.

Unable to transport Captain Picard back due to a particle scattering field on the planet’s ionosphere created by the Tamarian ship, Commander Riker asks Security Officer Worf his read of the situation. “It is a contest between champions, perhaps,” Worf replies, channeling his Klingon sensibilities. In his culture, this is how an analogous situation would play out.

Meanwhile, the two captains struggle to understand one another on the plant. Picard thinks the Tamarian captain wants him to take the knife for a fight and keeps refusing it even as the Tamarian continue to insist he take it. Night falls and no progress has been made.

The first moment of clarity, when Picard begins to understand, happens when the Tamarian captain, seeing Picard cold that night on El-Adrel IV’s surface, tosses Picard a flaming branch for warmth. He pairs the gift with the phrase, “Temba, his arms wide.”

“Temba is a person,” Picard realizes, “his arms wide…because he’s holding them apart…in…in generosity. In giving—in taking.”

It’s a genuine moment of language exchange and acquisition, part of the Tamarian captain’s plan all along: through shared experiences, the two races would be able to gain a common vocabulary. Picard’s words serve as a metaphor for the process of language learning—and also hint at the key to understanding the Tamarian language: metaphor.

It is also a moment of charity—of gift-giving to aid Picard in an unfamiliar, foreign place. This scene is pivotal—isn’t generosity just the culmination of the characteristics Picard referred to before, patience and imagination?

During the 1527 Narváez expedition, Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca spent eight years traveling across the US Southwest, interacting with different native cultures and even acting as a faith healer and trader. His generosity and attitude toward the native populations was an outlier among the Spanish explorers who tended to be conquistadors, entering with the intent to claim, rather than explore. One of these seminal conquistadors was Hernán Cortés.

Shortly before de Vaca, Hernán Cortés marched into Mexico in 1519 and laid claim to everything. Instead of bothering to learn the language of the land, he used a shipwrecked priest and took an indigenous mistress to facilitate all of his orders.

The remaining bridge crew, unable to understand the Tamarians but unwilling to throw out all attempts and take the forceful Cortés route, instead try to find ways to bring Picard back onboard the ship. The Tamarian vessel thwarts each of the Enterprise ’s efforts because the crew understands “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.” They know what the captain is attempting to do.

Picard begins to understand the Tamarian captain is using allusions or references to communicate. The metaphors serve as analogous situations and insinuate the next move that should be made. The generosity of the Tamarian captain has facilitated the beginning of understanding. This comes to a head the following day after a common foe emerges in a creature native to El-Adrel IV.

Just as Picard figures out the Tamarian speaks by “citing example,” the Enterprise attempts to beam out Picard, causing the Tamarian captain to face the beast alone. Subsequently, he is gravely injured. After Picard is released from the grasp of the teleportation beam, he cares for the wounded Tamarian who still works to teach Picard his language. As he lies dying, the Tamarian captain is more concerned at bridging the language barrier than conserving his energy. For him, the ability to communicate supersedes life itself.

He urges Picard to share a story from his culture.

Perceptive as always, Picard deduces Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra must be the myth of a friendship forged by two people poised as adversaries. He shares the 1800 BC Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. In the Sumerian myth, the two enemies Gilgamesh and Enkidu come together to fight a common foe and become brothers in arms. When Enkidu is eventually killed in battle, Gilgamesh mourns. The parallels between not only the Tamarian myth but the current situation are not lost on either the Tamarian captain nor Picard.

Into the #Starchive Featuring Captain Picard's Uniform

An oft overlooked aspect of Earth mythologies are their commonalities. In the Gilgamesh epic, Gilgamesh encounters Atrahasis, the lone survivor of a great flood the gods inflicted to restart humanity. To survive, Atrahasis built a large ship. If this sounds familiar, it’s a story that also appears in the Bible, of Noah and his ark. But it also appears in Greek mythology as Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, sailing in a chest or ark for nine days to survive a flood that destroyed humanity. Ancient Aztec myths told of a couple that survives a large deluge by hiding in a hollow vessel. In the Incan mythology of South America, a great flood Unu Pachakuti kills the first creations of their creator god after he has deemed them inadequate. His second attempt was humanity. One version of this tale has a man and woman escaping Unu Pachakuti by floating in a wooden box.

This is only one salient commonality among Earth mythologies and religions: a flood myth ‘rebooting’  humanity. Instead of using the commonalities among their cultures as a bridge to understanding, Spanish Conquistadors insisted their version of events were the gospel truth—Hernán Cortés forced the indigenous people he encountered to convert to his system of belief. What could have been a shortcut to understanding was instead used as a tool of oppression.

By the end of the “Darmok” episode, Picard returns to the Enterprise and is able to communicate to the Tamarian crew what happened on the planet’s surface, including the demise of their captain. After making religious gestures akin to last rites, the Tamarian first officer says, “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.” The tale of Picard and the Tamarian captain crossing the language barrier is now part of the Children of Tama’s lexicon.

Nearly all of Earth's religions and mythologies contain stories of male friendship, travels into the underworld, deluge myths, and analogous gods and goddesses. If cultures looked at their commonalities as bridges instead of focusing on the differences, a connection such as the one forged by the end of "Darmok" may be possible.

As Picard points out to Commander Riker at the episode’s end, “Now the door is open between our peoples. That commitment meant more to [the Tamarian captain] than his own life.” We too, here in the 21st century, could stand to be that committed to communication across cultures.

Brooke Knisley (she/her) teaches writing at Emerson College and has written for Playboy, VICE, McSweeney's, The Boston Globe Magazine, and others. She has balance issues. Find her on Twitter @BrookeKnisley.

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Ekostories by Isaac Yuen

Nature | culture | self, of myths and metaphors: star trek tng’s darmok.

S everal weeks past, I attended a workshop on the use of storytelling for effective social engagement. Sitting at my table was a doctoral student interested in better ways to communicate concepts of  ecological economics  to the public. As we chatted about the various metaphors embedded within conventional economics, particularly around growth and development, I started thinking about stories that focus on the challenge of communication and the power of metaphor. Searching my mind for examples, I found myself returning once more to the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation  for inspiration, this time to an episode titled Darmok .

The Enterprise, captained by Jean Luc Picard , encounters an alien race called the Tamarians in orbit around the planet El-Adrel. Unfortunately, the two crews find each other’s languages incomprehensible. Frustrated at the impasse, Dathon, the Tamarian captain, kidnaps Picard, transports them both to the planet surface, and orders his crew to prevent the Enterprise from interfering.

Once on El-Adrel, Dathon repeats the phrase “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” to Picard and tosses him a dagger. Picard refuses the weapon, believing the gesture to be an invitation to duel. As night falls and the two make camp, Dathon shares his fire with a frustrated Picard while saying, “Temba, his arms wide.”

The following morning, a hostile creature approaches their camp. Dathon tries once more to speak with Picard.  Picard finally realizes that the Tamarians communicate by citing examples and metaphors. They stand together against the beast, but due to some unfortunate timing, Dathon is mortally wounded in the ensuing fight.

Back on board the Enteprise, the crew struggles to decipher the Tamarian language, but without much success. They come to a similar conclusion as Picard, deducing that the Tamarians speak via metaphors derived from mythology and folklore, but without knowing the context with which to ground these metaphors, the chance for successful communication is slim.

A second night falls on the planet. As Picard tends to a dying Dathon, he pieces together the meaning behind “Darmok and Jaled at Tanagra”, a tale in which two lone warriors arrived on an island as strangers, but through shared adversity against a common foe, left as comrades. Picard realizes that Dathon had hoped to recreate the event on El Adrel as an attempt to open relations between their two people. Moved by his actions, Picard shares a story from Earth, part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. While listening to the tale, Dathon succumbs to his wounds.

Picard has little time to mourn the loss of Dathon the following morning before the hostile lifeform returns. The Enterprise crew resorts to force in order to disable the Tamarian ship and rescue Picard, but the hostile act triggers a full-on firing match between the two vessels. With the Enterprise about to be destroyed, Picard successfully establishes communications with the Tamarian first officer,  demonstrating that Dathon’s mission had succeeded.

The Tamarian crew is saddened by the loss of their captain, recording the story of successful first contact as “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel” before departing in peace.  In the coda, Picard quietly honours Dathon’s sacrifice to open the door between their two people.  

Myth and Storytelling  

“My turn? No, I’m not much of a storyteller.” – Jean-Luc Picard: Big fat liar.

Darmok’s quiet campfire scene ranks as one of my favourites in the entire series. Picard’s telling of Gilgamesh was my first exposure to the ancient Mesopotamian tale, and complemented by the background music, it left a lasting impression on me.   Patrick Stewart  puts on a masterful performance, but equally excellent is the venerable Paul Winfield , expertly playing one who only has a vague notion of what is being said, but is nevertheless captivated.  The scene reinforces the notion that the telling is often more important than what is being told.

I love that Picard chose to tell the Epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Narratively, it is a fitting tale to tell, for Enkidu was eventually struck down by the gods, leaving Gilgamesh to mourn the loss of a dear companion. But beyond that, this ancient tale, one of the earliest known stories in human history, also depicts conflict between the forces of nature and culture. Enkidu, the massive man-beast of the wild, fights Gilgamesh, the god-king from the city of Uruk,  yet out of this tumultuous struggle emerges a sense of mutual respect and a profound friendship that renders both more human and humane. Gilgamesh discovers a worthy equal and ceases to torment his subjects, while Enkidu sheds some of his feral nature to adopt the ways of civilization.

At the episode’s conclusion, Picard comments that “more understanding with our own history and mythology makes us more capable of understanding and communicating with others.” The statement serves as a reminder that past knowledge can help us foster more durable relationships with ourselves and with others. This links me back to a comment made by a fellow WordPress blogger I keep coming back to about the value of mythic stories:

“All over the world great mythic stories were told to people of all ages, stories that had violence, humor, sex, slap-stick, philosophical questions, and ethical dilemmas built into them. As you grew older, you would realize new depths to the stories, picking up on themes and ideas within the tale as your own maturity grew and your mind asked new questions… We injure ourselves by simplifying the world.” – Earthknight

• What are your favourite mythic stories? What elements make them memorable?

Sokath, His Eyes Uncovered!

 “Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery by reference to the individuals and places which appear in their mytho-historical accounts.” – Data, describing the Tamarians

Over the course of the story, Picard slowly works out the main but by no means complete meanings behind the phrases uttered by his Tamarian counterpart:

• “Shaka when the walls fell!” denotes failure
• “Mirab, with sails unfurled.” means departure
• “Kiazi’s children, their faces wet.” signifies unavoidable death (?)
• “Sokath with his eyes uncovered!” conveys revelation or understanding

I won’t go into the feasibility of a language constructed entirely upon metaphor. I am not a linguist, and far more knowledgeable people have written extensively about this issue. ( See here for an essay on Tamarian grammar ) As I rewatch the episode, I instead find myself thinking about our own use of metaphors in everyday life, that we often communicate through narrative imagery. Why are metaphors so evocative? Why are we so drawn to them?

This is personal speculation, but perhaps the power of metaphor stems from its inherently cooperative and participatory nature. In a successful metaphor, the teller compresses and transmits the entirety of their experience as code, while the receiver uses their understanding of the world and the other party to decipher its meaning. The teller must trust that the receiver is capable of understanding the essence of their experience, while the recipient has to be fully engaged in the process of figuring it out .

Perhaps this active and inclusive process, compared to one party stating instructions or ideas at another, is what makes metaphors so powerful. Visiting a concept discussed in The Science of Narrative , communicating in metaphor, like communicating in stories, may lead to greater “neural coupling” in which both teller and receiver become more attuned with each other.

Darmok also illustrates how metaphors are able to tap into vast multidimensional experiences. Packed into the five word phrase of “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel” is a sea of emotion and meaning that Picard becomes intensely aware of: First contact, shared danger, cultural exchange, death and sacrifice, personal courage, and all the specifics those elements entail. Maybe this is why as narrative devices or standalone expressions, metaphors can evoke such deep resonance within us: They can instantly deliver and provide context to a web of elements that cannot be easily summarized by ordinary means of communication.

• What are examples of powerful metaphors that have stayed with you?

The Courage to Convey, The Willingness to Listen

 “The Tamarian was willing to risk all of us just for the hope of communication, connection. Now the door is open between our people. That commitment meant more to him than his own life.” – Picard, in the coda

What resonates with me most in Darmok is how Picard’s curiosity of the other and his willingness to listen helps avert a disastrous conflict. Dathon, despite his commitment and sacrifice, could not have achieved his goal without Picard’s help. Darmok highlights the fact that it always takes two (or more) for successful communication, especially across disparate worldviews.

We often celebrate the courage of the conveyor, the one who initiates the exchange, extends the first gesture. What is less often praised is the listener, the one who is receptive and perceptive enough to create the space for fruitful dialogue. Both are absolutely crucial for meaningful communication. Having two speakers can quickly degenerate into one talking over the other, while having two listeners mean no bridges will ever be built.  Successful communication seems to be an exercise in complementary partnership, and as I write this sentence, I realize that this also holds true in reverse: enduring partnerships rely on complementary communication styles.

• Are you a conveyor or a listener?

While not as accessible as The Inner Light , I found Darmok to be an extraordinary hour of television, embodying one of core mantra of Star Trek “to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations.” As with most aliens in science-fiction, the Tamarians serve as mirrors for ourselves, reminding us of the importance of myths, metaphors, and storytelling in our lives while demonstrating how ingenuity, determination, and receptiveness can help defuse conflict, bridge gaps, further understanding across different worldviews.

Related Ekostories

• Zelda’s Twisted Tale: Majora’s Mask
• Star Trek’s Finest Hour: The Inner Light
• Changing Planes: The Nna Mmoy Language

  Star Trek: The Next Generation is a registered trademark of Paramount Pictures. All images are © Paramount Pictures and are utilized under the the guidelines of Fair Use; no copyright infringement is intended.

17 Comments

• November 14, 2013

This is one of my very favorite Next Generation episodes, and certainly among the most moving. Thank you for posting the clip.

Going back to the title of your post, I think myth and metaphor are very tightly entwined, and the most powerful metaphors I know of are myths. Watching Bill Moyers’ interviews with Joseph Campbell was a powerful experience, and as a Christian, I call to mind C.S. Lewis’s comment that he saw Christianity as a “true myth.” (I think that’s the correct quote. Haven’t double checked.) Recognizing that religion is rooted in symbol, metaphor, and myth as its primal language should keep those of us who subscribe to organized religions humble and help to avoid the hubris that comes from literalist readings that attempt to force the reader’s opinion on everyone else.

The most powerful literature draws on myths, too, for example The Lord of the Rings, which is rooted in Tolkien’s deep religious beliefs, which he uses to create something at once old and new. One of the things that moves me most in Tolkiens’ work is his obvious reverence for the earth and its creatures, as embodied in Treebeard and the Ents. Another of my favorite writers, Robertson Davies, talks about this kind of mythic intertwining of life in many of his novels, most notably in The Deptford Triology and “Rebel Angels.”

Thanks for reminding me of a beloved ST episode and for making me think!

• November 15, 2013

Glad you connected to the episode and the subject of myth and metaphor.

There’s a section of Campbell’s “Thou Art That” that I am fascinated by. I’ll post the link to it here, because it’s a little too long to quote, but it’s full of really intriguing ideas:

http://www.dailyom.com/library/000/000/000000578.html

Temba, his arms wide!

This was one of my favourite episodes!!!

And the Inner Light was my all-time favourite! An excellent post and discussion of universal themes.

Haha I don’t mean to highlight Patrick Stewart and Star Trek episodes, but it seems that they’re too good to avoid 🙂

• November 16, 2013

They are, indeed! There were so many universal themes that foreshadowed what has come to pass. I enjoy your discussions – insightful and detailed.

• November 17, 2013

Fun post Isaac and thanks for reminding me of that particular episode. I think it’s interesting to think how language and communication have changed and continue to do so in the present moment. On more than one occasion, I have felt that people are losing their ability to recognize or relate to traditional metaphors and symbols. Perhaps the world trending towards the secular has had an impact here? This just underscores our need to create new stories or find ways to update the more universal ones. When I look at how my own children communicate with their friends through social media and text messaging, I’m struck by the brevity of words and the renewed importance of actual images.

I think language and communication is always changing and evolving, but perhaps it is the rate and the changing of forms in present times that is a little disorienting. I think the lack of resonance of particular stories lies very much in the way of telling and that is a generational problem. If kids don’t want to read long books anymore, is it our responsibility to push them to read them or should we engage them on their own medium and tell stories on tweets and texts? Is there a way to meet half way, to engage in some form of compromise that works for both parties? Bit of a rambling train of thought.

As an aside, I would actually contest the claim that as a whole the world is trending towards the secular 🙂 There’s a fantastic series on Ideas, a Canadian radio show, titled the Myth of the Secular. It’s a lengthy series, but well worth it, if you are interested:

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2012/10/22/the-myth-of-the-secular-part-1/

I don’t recall this particular Star Trek episode, but it sounds very thought-provoking. Specifically, one question that comes to my mind about a language based on metaphors: would said metaphors eventually come to receive so much use, they devolve to the level of cliche, wherein everyone knows instinctually what the words mean, but they fail to resonate on an emotional level or stimulate new emotions and perspectives the way a new metaphor comparing previously unassociated ideas does?

Netflix Joanne! Check it out 🙂

What an intriguing question, and one I’m not sure the episode addresses at all – how metaphors evolve with use. After all, language is so organic and open to change, how will they “wear” over time? Do they invent new ones? I’m sure like our language, there would be dead metaphors that become irrelevant, and ones that enter into such ubiquitous use that they become as ingrained as common verbs are for English. Maybe they build metaphors upon metaphors, or mix them together to create weak and strong versions.

My mind is blown!

• November 18, 2013

Wonderful post. Yet another reason why Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of the best TV shows ever. The Epic of Gilgamesh was very fitting as you mentioned. Such a great story. My favorites, however, are Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. Stories are such a powerful way to build bridges from one culture to the next, if only we take the time to listen.

It’s definitely got some very good standout episodes, that’s for sure!

I’m actually ashamed to admit I’m quite illiterate when it comes to the Western classical epics, being more familiar with Chinese mythology. That being said, I’m currently working on a piece related to The Aeneid, so stay tuned!

• November 19, 2013

Good. Glad to hear it. I’ll look forward to that post.

• December 12, 2013

This has always been one of, if not my favorite episode (I am watching it now, which made me look for discussions of it on the internet). Watching it makes me wonder what happens in our modern age when, due to information overload, there is no root metaphor to unite a culture, no story that is common to all Can this be a single uniteda culture? In past centuries the Bible served as a source of metaphors that tended to unite a culture. What story serves as a metaphor for ours? I hate to think that it is only whatever video on Youtube has the most hits week.

Hello John,

Religion certainly served and will continue to serve as a major source for metaphors. What else? Economic doctrine is can be a pretty rich mine for metaphors, and war is full of narratives that both bind and divide. Perhaps there are powerful stories out there that both unites and acknowledges diversity, but maybe human unity requires we strive against something, the Other. I’m pondering this myself.

• July 8, 2014

I really enjoyed your post, and I really liked the linked article about the language. I always thought this language was impossible – just a fun idea for star trek that conveyed the importance of culutral understanding. I live in Korea, an English teacher, and I’m pretty patient, but 1) I get a bit flustered when I’m with a really good English as a second language student and they don’t get a metaphore or 2) when I’m using Korean, and I though out a Chinese 4 letter proverb, most young people don’t get it (although I admit, sometimes this is due to my pronounciation:p)

Anyway, I think it IS possible for a language to be like this, as when I read chinese characters I often don’t think or can’t remember their korean reading(sound), but just think oh, that’s fire(instead of reading “bul” in my head), or that’s independence or solitutude (instead of “dok” in my head). So its possible if their written language is iconographic ~ OR, like another poster said about our children and texting, its pretty time saving and easy enough nowadays to just send an image of where we are to our friends instead of typing. It’s not hard to conceive a race 400 years in the future would have an even easier time perhaps even transmitting video recordings or reenactments of these myths to one another through… who knows, blue tooth brain implants? (They’re aliens too, so if they are mildly telepathic, that would explain a lot as well).

Just my two cents! Just found your page, and it’s awesome, keep posting!

• July 9, 2014

Hi Stephen, thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts on the possibility of a language like this.

I’m Chinese, and I always marvel at the terseness of the language in communicating complex ideas in a few succinct words. Poetry comes closest to thought, as they say. I remember as a child, my parents would cite a proverb (many times grounded in a historical event or a story) and then proceed to tell me what it means in normal Chinese. So the question is: How do you communicate entirely in metaphor without that step of explanation in a base language? Can the same ideas in the proper context be precisely conveyed to an entire society? For me, that’s one of the many very interesting aspects about Darmok.

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Beyond Translation: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, part 1

Communication is not just about words, but the context, culture and worldview in which they are embedded. 1 A simple translation of words will fail to communicate the entire message, because it doesn’t include this information. The complexities of communication are manifest in obvious and less obvious ways; sometimes we know what we’re missing, and sometimes we don’t. Here are some examples.

Teenagers can carry on entire conversations at the dinner table or on Facebook by quoting movies their parents haven’t seen. If it goes far enough, the parents realize that something beyond the actual spoken words is being communicated. They may not know what the actual message is, because they haven’t seen the movie; they’re unaware of the culturally-embedded context, which carries meaning beyond the words. If it doesn’t go far enough that the parents catch on, then the kids have communicated a message in plain sight with the parents completely unaware.

Let’s say I’m a college chemistry professor with a poor sense of humor. Let’s say further that there’s an international student with excellent English, but has been very culturally sheltered. It’s Friday, there’s a big test on Monday. At the close of class on Friday, I intone “Study hard, because on Monday… A’ll be bock .” Said student understands the words that have been said, knows what they mean, but doesn’t understand why they were said with a funny accent or why the class laughed. Of course the professor will be back on Monday, why wouldn’t I be? [Edit: fixed to add] If the student has never seen any Terminator movies or Saturday Night Live skits mocking the Governator of Kallifownia, the extra nuance is lost.

Or, to make up a textual example, let’s say that zimbu (not an actual word) should be translated as “marriage,” but then that translation doesn’t tell you anything about the role of marriage in society, the rituals or feelings of marriage. In fact, without any of that other information, you’re left to fill in the gaps with whatever your own feelings and conception of marriage happen to be. You read the translation, but don’t get much of the information and you have no clue that what you’re reading in to it really shouldn’t be there. The dictionary won’t convey any of that information.

DATA: They seem to communicate through narrative imagery by reference to the individuals and places which appear in their mytho-historical accounts. TROI: It’s as if I were to say to you, Juliet on her balcony. CRUSHER: An image of romance. TROI: Exactly. Imagery is everything to the Tamarians. It embodies their emotional states, their very thought processes. It’s how they communicate, and it’s how they think. RIKER: If we know how they think, shouldn’t we be able to get something across to them? DATA: No, sir. The situation is analogous to understanding the grammar of a language but none of the vocabulary. CRUSHER: If I didn’t know who Juliet was or what she was doing on that balcony, the image alone wouldn’t have any meaning. TROI: That’s correct. For instance, we know that Darmok was a great hero, a hunter, and that Tanagra was an island, but that’s it. Without the details, there’s no understanding. DATA: It is necessary for us to learn the narrative from which the Tamarians are drawing their imagery. Given our current relations, that does not appear likely.

Through personal experience, Picard learns to speak their language; That is, he learns not just the words (words he already knows!) but the cultural meaning attached to them.

Put otherwise, translation is necessary but insufficient. Cultural context must be “translated” as well. We too must “learn the narrative from which [the Hebrews drew] their imagery.”

In part 2, I’ll apply this to the Old Testament with some examples.

BACK TO POST Fn1 Body language represents another important part of communication, but isn’t present in texts.

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23 comments for “ beyond translation: darmok and jalad at tanagra, part 1 ”.

A classic Star Trek episode. Great choice!

There seems to be a penchant for using Star Trek examples to explain difficulties in bible translation . . . I remember an article I was exposed to early on about different genres; the main example was how Data couldn’t get jokes.

This tells you something–something unfortunate–about biblical scholars and their multiple layers of dorkiness.

I think the reason for that is Star Trek provides a lot of cross-cultural encounters, where differing languages and cultures interact, conflict, are misunderstood. It’s popular and easy to reference as example.

For a while, there, my kids and I communicated extensively with snippets of dialogue from The Simpsons, Seinfeld and South Park.

That’s exactly what we find with the Bible: cross-cultural issues and language issues.

You can find the same thing in business books (e.g. don’t do X in Japan, it’s rude) but Star Trek is so much more fun.

Just days before entering the MTC to learn a brand-new language in 1995, I saw this episode. It had a profound effect on how I viewed language, culture, and context. It showed me, in a way that reached out and grabbed me, how communication was much more than just knowing the grammaticaly correct word to say. Upon returning form my mission, I bought the epsiode on VHS and have continued to enjoy it as the years go by.

Looking forward to your follow-up!

Ben, I think you are discussing a level of Communication not always needed. “STOP!” says a lot without much need of context. Emotions communication things without words. This Star Trek episode tells much about how Mormons communicate within their group. They use words only they know the meaning/context of. Also, Correlation ( as H.B.Lee first created it), was a group of words (He picked), that were spoken within the group, that all thought every member agreed to what the words meant, but really didn’t. Members sat silently, putting their meaning/context on the words, and it appeared (The Correlation part), everyone was in agreement as to what was being said.

Yes! My favorite Star Trek TNG episode.

Bob, I’m not sure what you mean by this being “a level of Communication not always needed.” The cultural context is always useful and often needed for understanding any communication. Yes, other clues can sometimes fill in the gaps, but even then, the context usually fills in gaps.

The only time its not really needed is when the cultural context is nearly the same for both the speaker and recipient of a message. Once they differ, cultural context is very important.

Kent Larsen: I guess I am saying not all communications are by words. It seemed you limited your ‘level’ of communication to words (and humans)(?) I think a case could be made that communications began between plants and/or animals before there were words. But I am being too picky for your post__sorry Didn’t Picard teach him Earth’s culture to communitate with him? (Gilgamish?)

This also nicely illustrates why we need Church materials translated into more languages, or maybe into different editions of the same language. Languages like English and French and Russian have many second-language speakers, but those speakers often come from significantly different cultural backgrounds than native speakers.

There’s a philosophy professor at Georgetown (Metaphysics & Phil of Lang mostly), who teaches an entire class from Star Trek clips – it’s brilliant. So’s the series. Right now, we all read Julie M. Smith (#2) as giving a friendly/charming sort of insult to biblical studies people (possibly herself included) for their “dorkiness” in all being familiar with and using Star Trek to make points. It’s not hard to imagine that in one hundred years or so, the meaning of her sentence will change to be more analogous to complimenting the urbane or cultured nature of biblical studies folk because the incredible creativity and overall dramatic value of Star Trek will be universally acknowledged.

It’s a very good episode. However, the liguistic premise as presented in the show is impossible: such an story-reference-based language could not exist as the only language known by the Tamarians. To use Ben’s example, it would be like teenagers communicating only through the subtext of movie quotes from movies they haven’t seen, and the only way they can explain the subtext of the movie quotes mean is through the subtext of other movie quotes from movies they haven’t seen.

There was a story in Analog Science Fiction a few years ago ( “Let the Word Take Me” by Juliette Wade ) that provided an explanation as to how such a language could work: a religious proscription on using anything but the story references outside of a sacred place.

Bob (9) — apparently a little confusion there — its not my post.

Amen, Amira (10).

Eric James Stone, “… the liguistic premise as presented in the show is impossible”. I agree. Story telling cannot stand alone, but is very useful in communicating. I do however drive my wife nuts when I try to communicate something to her using a sports or war example.

Bob- I’m talking about words and text because I wrote this in context of Bible-reading, where there is nothing *but* the text. To sum up, text alone is insufficient without knowledge of context, culture, usage.

Picard tells Dathon the Gilgamesh story, but it doesn’t play a role in the language learning as much as the shared experience does.

Amira- A second amen.

Kevin- Way to be fluent in a second language .

Eric James Stone- Agreed. Such a language could never adequately capture technical terminology or abstracts, or teach anything new, only that which had an analog in a well-known story of the past. (One wonders exactly how these stories were originally communicated to the speaker so that *they* knew them.)

Great episode, great post. I have heard the analogy made before but this post did it better. Ben, telling stories at T&S.

Great article. Of course, Darmok is an episode that made me think a lot and also inspired me (many thanks to Eric James Stone for mentioning my story “Let the Word Take Me”). A language of this nature would need to be learned in some kind of limited context where the original stories could be told, and where the metaphoric allusions could be discussed in a group so their meanings could be passed on, reinforced, shared, and altered. It was the question of how to *learn* such a language that got me to think of the scenario in my story, where the language could only be spoken in a holy place, and it was unforgivable blasphemy to speak it anywhere else (outside the holy place, the people had to ‘protect’ themselves from the language by referring to it obliquely). Still, it was an inspired episode of TNG and well worth an ongoing discussion.

Our daughter met her future husband, Ross, when we moved to Richland, Washington, from Salt Lake City. A couple of months later, Ross’s brother was visiting Salt Lake and standing in line at McDonald’s behind two guys his age who were talking with each other, using quotes from movies like “The Princess Bride”. He asked them, “Are you related to Becky Swenson?” They were surprised, said “Yes, she’s our sister,” and then asked him how he knew that. He said “You talk the way she does”.

Towards the end of my mission in Japan, I was chatting with other missionaries about the process of becoming “civilians” again, and I realized how much of our conversation was laced with Japanese terms, sometimes in Americanized forms with Japanese nouns turned into verbs in an English sentence. As many as a third of the words were Japanese. We actually had trouble occasionally thinking of the English word to translate a Japanese concept. I realized that, except for a few of us (my mother is Japanese and my Dad served his mission in Japan), our parents would be mystified by our conversation–and that also was true for the Japanese parents of some of the Japanese missionaries, whose speech had been corrupted by our Missionary Pidgin.

Words do not “contain” information by themselves. Rather, they evoke information that is already in our minds and memories. Even if the words are the same, the memories they evoke can be vastly different. Even with the common cultural context of the Bible, the same phrases can be understood with divergent meanings, so that a speaker may think she has fully communicated her thoughts to a person of another denominiation, and not realize that the words evoke a very different meaning for the hearer. This problem can be even more intractable than the one encountered by Captain Picard, because the parties to the conversation don’t even realize they have not reached a common understanding of what the speaker meant to say.

EJS, further, Star Trek purports to have some kind of universal translator that works on most unknown languages. Since *all* languages require context and allusiveness to understand–which is Ben S. point–this Star Trek episode is irredeemably stupid.

Adam, while I would say that the episode is flawed, I think one of the things it does is show that Star Trek had begun questioning its universal translator – a very worthwhile move. Universal translators are what I’d call a necessary conceit (necessary to the interactions that Star Trek was portraying, in any case). I was glad to see someone thinking outside the box with “Darmok.”

My understanding of liguistics comes from my study of anthropology. liguistics is 1/4 of that degree. Therefore, my context or understanding of languages is very different from most on the thread. I did not find this Star Trek episode is “irredeemably stupid”. I found it helpful in showing for many ways there are to communicate.

“Darmok” is one of my two favorite Star Trek TNG episodes (the other being “The Inner Light”). Even with the questions raised about how plausible it is–it’s just a one-hour TV episode after all–it seems to me one of the most profound and powerful attempts to grapple with the nature of communication I’ve ever run into. And it provides an experience for viewers unlike anything I remember encountering elsewhere: as we learn along with Picard how to interpret and communicate with the Tamarians, we have the thrilling experience of UNDERSTANDING what’s being said, of making sense of something that would otherwise have been opaque. The fact the this whole experience also involves adventure, danger, confusion, and finally human sympathy, courage, and self-sacrifice further enriches and deepens it. Like a number of Star Trek episodes, it’s an illuminating parable or condensed image of life.

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Darmok: A failure to communicate

Tng: s05e02.

Written by: Engage Featured Image by: Adventure

Imagine a client staring blankly at your presentation without a clue what you’re trying to say. A marketing nightmare for us, a diplomatic nightmare for the Star Trek crew who meet a species whose language is incomprehensible. On Friday, September 3rd, PD’s Friducation Star Trek-scapade went where no linguist has gone before, exploring how much we take for granted in our basic communication.

This episode reminds us that real extraterrestrials won’t merely sound like us with foreign accents.

It’s only words, and words are all we have…

Darmok (TNG, S5E2) is themed around the question: how do we open a dialogue with a species whose language is based on an entirely different structure than ours?

Darmok has become one of Star Trek: Next Generation ’s most popular episodes because its invented alien language is filled with so many evocative, quotable lines. “Shaka, when the walls fell” and “Mirab with sails unfurled” don’t make sense, but once you get it, they do.

The episode begins with the Enterprise en route to the planet El-Adrel to rendezvous with a Tamarian ship. Previous encounters with the Tamarians have described them as an “Enigmatic” species, as nobody has been able to decipher their language.

Star Trek, when the words fell

Captain Picard’s first attempt at dialogue is no more successful. The Tamarian Captain appears onscreen with a string of words that sounds like it was run through a bad Google Translate: “Rai and Jiri at Lungha. Lowani under two moons” . Even with the universal translator, the phrases make no sense.

Picard responds: “Would you be prepared to consider the creation of a mutual non-aggression pact between our two peoples, possibly leading to a trade agreement and cultural interchange” , leaving the Tamarians with a blank look.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to talk to each other, the alien Captain consults with his First-Officer and appears to arrive at a decision, uttering the word “Darmok” . His First-Officer shakes his head and replies, “Rai and Jiri at Lungha!” . The two are obviously disagreeing over something, but when the Captain emphatically states, “Darmok at Tanagra” , the debate is clearly over.

Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel

A moment later, Picard is beamed off the bridge and transported to the planet below, where he’s met by the Tamarian Captain, Dathon, who is holding up two daggers. A dual? Dathon tosses Picard one of the daggers, but he refuses to pick it up. “I certainly didn’t come here to start a war…” .

Night falls, Picard tries unsuccessfully to light a fire to keep warm. Dathon chuckles, tosses Picard a lit branch from his roaring fire and says, “Temba” .

Picard: “What does that mean? Fire?”

Dathon: “Temba, his arms wide.”

Picard grasps the basic meaning. “Temba is a person. His arms wide … because he’s … he’s holding them apart. In… generosity. In giving. In taking. Thank you.” A first glimmer into Tamarian communication.

The next morning, Picard is woken by an agitated Dathon. “Darmok! Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!” A loud growl is heard from a distance. Picard finally accepts the dagger Dathon had offered the day before. The growl is getting closer. As the two captains team together to face the approaching predator, Picard begins to piece together the actions and their association with the Tamarian words.

Dathon: Uzani, his army at Lashmir.


Picard: At Lashmir? Was it like this at Lashmir? A similar situation to the one we’re facing here?

Dathon: Uzani, his army with fists open.

Picard: A strategy? With fists open?

Dathon: His army, with fists closed.

Picard: With fists closed. An army, with fists open, to lure the enemy … with fists closed, to attack? That’s how you communicate, isn’t it? By citing example, by metaphor! Uzani’s army, with fists open.

Dathon: Sokath! His eyes uncovered!

Communication has finally been bridged, however the epiphany is short-lived. The beast materializes and attacks, wounding both Picard and Dathon.

At that moment, Picard is unceremoniously transporter-jacked for the second time in the episode, this time by his own ship. While he and Dathan had been engaged in their unique team-building exercise, the Enterprise crew had been trying to solve the Tamarians’ particle scattering field, which had blocked attempts to retrieve Picard. However, enveloping Picard in a transporter beam just as he and Dathan had established communication. The beam doesn’t hold, Picard rematerializes in the same spot on the planet, but it’s too late, the beast is gone and Dathan is left badly wounded.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu, at Uruk

As night falls, this time it’s Picard building a fire to keep his new ally comfortable. Understanding now that Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra was a metaphor for their current situation, Picard is able to share his thoughts with the weakening Tamarian Captain.

“You hoped that something like this would happen, didn’t you? You knew there was a dangerous creature on this planet and you knew, from the tale of Darmok, that a danger shared might sometimes bring two people together.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

You and me, here, at El-Adrel.”

In a touching scene, as Picard cares for the dying Tamarian Captain he translates the tale of Gilgamesh into metaphor-based images, sharing some of Earth’s history with his new ally.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered

The Tamarian Captain dies from his injuries as the beast is approaching again, the Enterprise disables the Tamarian ship’s particle field and beams Picard back onboard. The rescue is seen as a hostile act. The Tamarians fire back, abandoning diplomacy and engaging in battle.

But before the superior Tamarian weaponry can overpower the Enterprise, Picard bursts onto the bridge. Addressing the opposing First-Officer, Picard flexes his new Tamarian linguistic skills with a stream of metaphors that explain what took place on the planet, and how their Captain met a noble end. The First-Officer bows his head in acknowledgment. Picard holds up Dathan’s log, brought back from the planet. It’s beamed to the Tamarian bridge, where its story of “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel” will now be inscribed into Tamarian lore.

In a final act of respect, Picard holds up the ceremonial dagger as an offering. “ Tembo. His arms open.”

The First Officer defers, “Tembo. At rest.”

“Thank you.”

The meaning behind the meaning

Because of its unusual approach to linguistics, Darmok has been a source of debate among Star Trek fans. One interpretation questions the claim that the Tamarians speak in metaphors. Perhaps a more accurate description is that Tamarians speak in strategies, which would be far more efficient. If Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra was simply a poetic image it would have very limited use. However, if those words were a complete instruction manual for what to do in a specific situation, then it’s possible to put in motion complex actions with the details already understood, like a set play in football. The short bursts of Tamarian imagery could pack hundreds of granular details, learned over time.

The other interesting note is that although Tamarian grammar is different, they use the same mathematics. Their speech includes numerical references ( “Lowani under two moons” ), suggesting that math is the universal language.

Perhaps that’s more analysis than the episode deserves, but the best Star Trek episodes are self-contained parables that lend themselves to discussion. Darmok is neither the most exciting nor the best written episode in the series, however there’s something compelling about ‘Firsts’.

Darmok, Jalad, and PD, at Friducation

One last thought about our own communications. Here at Pixel Dreams our team is eclectic, from different places of origin, with various first languages. But through our company culture, shared values, collective purpose, and mandatory reading assignments, we are meeting on the same playing field and developing our own company language. The results speak for themselves.

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10 Most Memorable Star Trek TNG Episodes, Ranked

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The now-massive franchise of Star Trek owes a great deal to its second live-action series, Star Trek: The Next Generation for its revival in popular culture. Released a massive eighteen years after the original series, The Next Generation began with a slow start that was gingerly viewed in its first season. By the second season onwards, it had won the hearts of the fan base.

From profound questions about humanity and perspectives boldly shown on television that sowed the seeds for social change generations before they surfaced, The Next Generation excited, enticed and challenged its audiences to dare to be optimistic and open-minded, and stand for it. Amid its profoundness, it also had its Star Trek signature diversions to comedic camp and action adventure. Well-rounded and widely loved, which episodes of these seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation are the most memorable?

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This study on how an omnipotent and immortal being deals with the confines of a vulnerable, material, and emotional body is both an interesting introspective into Q's character development, and a humorously satisfying experience for the crew who have had enough of his unlimited powers. All philosophy aside, the episode is most known for Q's very naked entrance as well as his celebratory mariachi appearance when his powers are returned. Furthermore, he gives Data a temporary but parting gift of spontaneous laughter.

9 The Naked Now

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Although this episode was more of a one-off with a recycled plot, that moment is echoed as an important key to proving Data's sentience in the later episode The Measure of a Man, when a holographic image is brought to the stand as proof of Data's capability to feel and develop complex emotions.

8 Hollow Pursuits

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6 The Outcast

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One of the more unique one-off episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation is when Picard is stuck on a planet with a Tamarian, whose language has the federation's translators confounded as it is completely allegorical to their legends. This incredibly simple premise raised the stakes with a creature pursuing the two captains on the planet's surface.

Unfortunately, the Tamarian captain does not make it out of the planet alive. However, after days of toiling to communicate with him, Picard has finally learned how to honor him and build a meaningful base of contact with his people. Writers of this episode reference The Epic of Gilgamesh as their inspiration for the history of "Darmok and Gelad" whose deeds and sentiments are the basis of the Tamarian language. The human epic is also referenced by Picard as a way of realizing how their language works.

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2 The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1

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"I am Locutus of Borg..." one of the most foreboding and terrifying reveals and cliffhangers in Star Trek 's history comes from one of the series, and arguably, the franchise's most memorable episodes. This two-episode arc is often given laurels for propelling the franchise into an intriguing and action-heavy genre, whilst still maintaining the mold and form of Star Trek 's storytelling conventions.

After arriving at a Federation colony that is all but destroyed, the Enterprise discovers the Borg is responsible for its destruction . The Borg eventually catches up with the Enterprise and captures Picard, converting him into an information siphon for the Borg to fight easily against the federation. This was one of the more enticing endings to an episode in the series and created the two-episode arc convention as a more common staple for the franchise's television shows moving forward.

1 The Measure of a Man

This episode is a classic framework of the storytelling brilliance and lesson-taking nature of Star Trek as a whole. A scientist, excited by Data's programming and technology , goes so far as to demand he be privy to research and testing against his own will since he is a machine. This leads to a complicated court case involving Riker and Picard, pitted on opposite sides of the debate of which Data's definition as a species hangs in the balance.

Full of intriguing takes on what defines sentience, emotions, and the right to choose, The Measure of a Man continues to be more relevant than ever for numerous reasons and continues to emotionally hit right as Picard delivers his final speech. The thought of this episode alone triggers chills of writing and performance brilliance among fans of the series and is incredibly rewatchable.

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• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : You hoped that something like this would happen, didn't you? You knew there was a dangerous creature on this planet, and you knew from the tale of Darmok that a danger shared might sometimes bring two people together. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. You and me, here, at El-Adrel.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Gilgamesh, a king. Gilgamesh, a king. At Uruk. He tormented his subjects. He made them angry. They cried out aloud, "Send us a companion for our king! Spare us from his madness!" Enkidu, a wild man... from the forest, entered the city. They fought in the temple. They fought in the streets. Gilgamesh defeated Enkidu. They became great friends. Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk.
• Captain Dathon : [ faintly ] At Uruk.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : The... the new friends went out into the desert together, where the Great Bull of Heaven was killing men by the hundreds. Enkidu caught the Bull by the tail. Gilgamesh struck him with his sword.
• Captain Dathon : [ laughing ] Gilgamesh.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : They were... victorious. But... Enkidu fell to the ground, struck down by the gods. And Gilgamesh... wept bitter tears, saying, "He who was my companion, through adventure and hardship, is gone forever."
• Captain Dathon : Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
• [ repeated line ]
• Captain Dathon : Shaka, when the walls fell.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : The Tamarian was willing to risk all of us, just for the hope of communication. Connection. Now the door is open between our peoples. That commitment meant more to him than his own life.
• Tamarian First Officer : Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.
• Captain Dathon : Mirab, his sails unfurled.
• Lt. Commander Data : Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery, a reference to the individuals and places which appear in their mytho-historical accounts.
• Counselor Deanna Troi : It's as if I were to say to you... "Juliet on her balcony."
• Doctor Beverly Crusher : An image of romance.
• Counselor Deanna Troi : Exactly. Imagery is everything to the Tamarians. It embodies their emotional states, their very thought processes. It's how they communicate, and it's how they think.
• Commander William T. Riker : If we know how they think, shouldn't we be able to get something across to them?
• Lt. Commander Data : No, sir. The situation is analogous to understanding the grammar of a language, but none of the vocabulary.
• Doctor Beverly Crusher : If I didn't know who Juliet was or what she was doing on that balcony, the image alone wouldn't have any meaning.
• Counselor Deanna Troi : That's correct. For instance, we know that Darmok was a great hero, a hunter, and that Tanagra was an island. But that's it. Without the details, there's no understanding.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [ presenting Dathon's dagger to the Tamarian First Officer ] Temba - his arms open.
• [ 'Take it' ]
• Tamarian First Officer : Temba - at rest.
• [ 'Keep it' ]
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Thank you.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [ interpreting Dathon's tale of Darmok and Jalad ] They arrive separately. They... They struggle together against a common foe, the Beast at Tanagra. "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!"
• Captain Dathon : Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [ translating ] They left together. "Darmok and Jalad on the ocean."
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : But are they truly incomprehensible? In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe that these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure.
• Capt. Picard : Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra!
• Captain Dathon : Sokath - his eyes uncovered.
• Captain Dathon : The river Temarc - in winter.
• [ Chief O'Brien is trying to beam Picard back ]
• Chief Miles O'Brien : I've got a piece of him, Commander, but that's all.
• Captain Dathon : Temba, his arms wide.
• Captain Dathon : Uzani - his army with fist open... his army with fist closed.
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [ to the fallen Dathon ] I understand your sacrifice, Captain. Unfortunately, if our friend out there has its way, no one will ever know what you tried to do.
• [ first lines ]
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : 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."
• Counselor Deanna Troi : All our technology and experience - our universal translator, our years in space, contact with more alien cultures than I can even remember...
• Lt. Commander Data : I have encountered 1,754 non-Human races during my tenure in Starfleet.
• Counselor Deanna Troi : And we still can't even say hello to these people.
• Captain Dathon : Rai and Jiri at Lungha.
• Captain Dathon : Kiazi's children - their faces wet.
• Captain Dathon : Zinda - his face black, his eyes red.
• Commander William T. Riker : New friends, Captain?
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I can't say, Number One. But at least they're not new enemies.
• Tamarian First Officer : Kailash, when it rises.
• Tamarian First Officer : Chenza at court - the court of silence.
• Tamarian First Officer : Kadir beneath Mo Moteh.
• Tamarian First Officer : Darmok?
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : And Jalad at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.
• Tamarian First Officer : Sokath, his eyes open!
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : The beast of Tanagra. Uzani, his army. Shaka when the walls fell.
• Tamarian First Officer : Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel. Mirab, with sails unfurled.
• Counselor Deanna Troi : A single word can lead to tragedy. One word misspoken or misunderstood.

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“My stomach would turn over”: Brent Spiner’s Star Trek: The Next Generation Experience Was an Absolute Nightmare That Would Break New Gen Stars Today

B rent Spiner played the role of an android, Data, who served as the second officer of the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Spiner went on to reprise his role in the movies as well as the sequel show Star Trek: Picard . However, being an AI system, Spiner’s role had heavy dialogues filled with jargon. Many actors today would have struggled to carry the role, but not Spiner.

Some speculated back in the day that the actor had a photographic memory. However, he revealed in an interview that he did not have any special ability to remember the lines. He shared that he just got better at learning them by doing it every day for The Next Generation .

Brent Spiner’s Star Trek Role Was Challenging For One Major Reason

Brent Spiner appeared for an interview with Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast Inside of You , in 2023. During the interview, Rosenbaum asked Spiner whether he had a photographic memory since he was very good with lines on Star Trek: The Next Generation . Spiner immediately replied no, which made the host curious about his method of learning lines.

Spiner explained that he was doing the episodes almost every day during TNG and had developed a muscle to remember the lines quickly. He shared that he had a deal with himself that he wouldn’t go to sleep until he learned his lines for the next day.

“I panicked… How am I going to play this?”: The Star Trek Character That Terrified Brent Spiner Was Neither Data Nor Lore, He Ended up Playing Him Anyway

He had to say the dialogues out loud one time perfectly before he could sleep that night. It was particularly challenging since Spiner filmed for 16 hours a day for the series that had 26 episodes a year at that time. Spiner shared with Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You

Well back in those days when I was doing it, you know, every day, it is a muscle. You get better and better and better at it. I used to have a deal with myself. I would go home after 16 hours or whatever because we were doing 26 episodes a year back then. I’d come home and I’d say, ‘Okay, let me open up a script’, and my stomach would turn over. I think, ‘I could learn this for tomorrow’. I had a deal with myself that I couldn’t go to sleep until I could say it out loud one time perfectly so I knew I could do it the next day.

When Rosenbaum asked if there were nights when he couldn’t learn his lines, Spiner shared that he didn’t sleep for a lot of nights due to this process. The host further asked if he had complained to the producers about the same. Spiner shared that he did speak with the producers and the situation eased up after the first two seasons of the series.

Brent Spiner Loved The Star Trek Role For One Reason

Brent Spiner’s role was also challenging in terms of displaying his acting skills since the android character was devoid of emotions. However, as the series progressed, Data became more human-like. However, Star Trek: The Next Generation helped Spiner to bring out his acting A-game when characters were allowed to live their fantasy lives through Holodecks.

“How long is this going to last?”: Brent Spiner Had to Tackle a Major Issue Every Season in The Next Generation He Never Faced in Star Trek: Picard

Spiner had some fun in episodes where he got to transform into somebody else. During an interview with Syfy, Spiner shared that he really enjoyed Data’s version of Sherlock Holmes. He shared that it was a dream for an actor to play all kinds of things in a single role. Spiner shared with Syfy :

I really enjoyed playing Sherlock Holmes when we did that [on TNG episodes ‘Elementary, Dear Data’ and ‘Ship in a Bottle’]. We did all kinds of things, and I was inhabited by different creatures and personalities. It’s a dream, for an actor, to be able to do that.

He added that he faced the challenge as an actor to be identified with one role in his whole career. However, he was happy that he got to play the different characters in that single role.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is now available for streaming on Paramount+.

Screen Rant

Star trek: tng almost cast the predator as data or geordi.

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10 Star Trek Actors Who Also Appear In Alien Movies

I think picard should have given riker kirk’s star trek generations advice, the star trek: tng episode that predicted ds9 & voyager.

• Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator, was considered for Star Trek: TNG roles.
• Hall appeared as Leyor in Star Trek: TNG's "The Price," after not getting the Data or Geordi parts.
• Hall's career included various movie monsters and guest appearances, before his passing in 1991.

The actor who portrayed the Predator in the first two Predator films was considered for the roles of both Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) on Star Trek: The Next Generation . After its initial run in the 1960s, Star Trek: The Original Series developed a passionate fanbase, and many of these fans were wary of a new Star Trek series with different characters . This put a lot of pressure on Gene Roddenberry and the people at Paramount to perfectly cast the crew of the USS Enterprise-D for TNG .

The first Predator film premiered in 1987 and went on to become a classic, despite initially mixed reviews. The commercial success of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led film spawned an entire Predator franchise which includes five total films, as well as two crossover films with the Alien franchise. In 1987's Predator, Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer leads a rescue mission to save hostages in a Central American rainforest. The military men soon find themselves the ones being hunted, as a technologically advanced alien known only as the Predator stalks them. At 7 feet 2 inches tall, actor Kevin Peter Hall cut an intimidating figure as the terrifying Predator.

Several actors have made the jump from exploring the stars in Star Trek to hunting Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise.

Predator Actor Kevin Peter Hall Was Considered For Star Trek: TNG's Geordi & Data

Kevin peter hall played the predator in 1987's predator & 1990's predator 2..

As seen in a 1987 memo from Paramount (pictured below), Kevin Peter Hall was on the shortlist of actors to play Lt. Geordi La Forge or Lt. Commander Data. While LeVar Burton was also on the list as a possibility for Geordi, alongside Reggie Jackson and Wesley Snipes, Brent Spiner was not even being considered to play Data at this point in the casting process. Patrick Stewart was already a frontrunner for Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but Gene Roddenberry wasn't a fan of Stewart . Many different actors were considered for the roles of the Enterprise-D crew members, but the final cast choices ended up being a resounding success.

Because of his height, Kevin Peter Hall appeared as numerous movie monsters throughout his career, beginning with several horror films throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Hall also popped up in episodes of Night Court and The Dukes of Hazzard . Hall played the Bigfoot named Harry in 1987's Harry and the Hendersons, a role he reprised for the first season of the spin-off sitcom of the same name. Kevin Peter Hall's life was tragically cut short when he passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia on April 10, 1991, at the age of 35.

In addition to playing the Predator, Hall also appeared as an unnamed helicopter pilot near the end of 1987's Predator.

Kevin Peter Hall Guest Starred In An Episode Of Star Trek: TNG

Hall portrays a caldonian named leyor in tng season 3, episode 8, "the price.".

Some of the actors who had been considered for major roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but didn't get the part, were later brought in for guest roles. Kevin Peter Hall didn't end up portraying Data or Geordi, but he did appear in TNG season 3, episode 8, "The Price." "The Price" centers on negotiations for the right to control a supposedly stable wormhole that would allow starships to travel a vast distance in a matter of seconds. Hall plays Leyor, a Caldonian diplomat and negotiator.

Eric Menyuk, who was also considered for the role of Data, played the mysterious Traveler in three episodes of TNG.

Leyor eventually withdraws the Caldonians from the negotiations after another negotiator, Devinoni Ral (Matt McCoy), convinces him that maintaining the wormhole would require too much time and resources. Although the Caldonians were mostly intellectuals and academics, Hall's height helped make Leyor a particularly imposing alien figure. His Star Trek: The Next Generation role may have been a minor one, but Kevin Peter Hall cemented his place in film history by portraying the iconic Predator in the first two Predator films.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

• SI SWIMSUIT

2024 Wimbledon Men's Seed Report: Here Comes the Next Generation

Jon wertheim | jun 28, 2024.

Like most transitions in life, the shift in tennis power happens gradually, then suddenly. Roger Federer is retired. Rafael Nadal has taken a gentle pass. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are hanging on by strings, alas, literally. And so it is that—for the first time in more than 20 years—none of the Big Four is favored to win Wimbledon.

But here comes the next generation. The defending champion and winner of the previous major , Carlos Alcaraz. The new No.1 and winner of the major before that, Jannik Sinner . And 126 other men of varying ages, nationalities, styles and grass court aptitude.  And, of course, Djokovic cannot be dismissed even if he is physically compromised and 37 years old.

Which is to say, there are plenty of storylines focussing on the present; and on those present. We will miss the Big Four when the run-of-show officially ends. But there remain compelling narratives, personalities and potential rivals. And if Alcaraz wins his fourth major next month—as we brazenly predict—that wouldn’t be the worst thing for the sport either.

1. Jannik Sinner

Your new No.1—and winner of the year’s first major, as well as a grass court event last week. He took a small step back in Paris, losing a semifinal semi-classic to Alcaraz. And he was weirdly absent last year against Djokovic—but that was the old Sinner. This guy —provided he’s healthy—could easily win the title. Especially if he is pulling off points like this in the process:

YES, he did it AGAIN 😨🔥 pic.twitter.com/GqHhLtfCMi — José Morgado (@josemorgado) June 20, 2024

2. Novak Djokovic

It’s a testament both to his perseverance and to medical science that he is even in the draw, mere weeks after knee surgery . An eighth title—which would tie him with Federer—seems unlikely. And he has not reached a final (much less won a title) in 2024. Bet against him at your peril. But objectively …

3. Carlos Alcaraz

Your Roland Garros champion. Your defending Wimbledon champion. Your gravitational center of men’s tennis at the moment. It’s hard to pick against him. Life is his beanbag right now. Three majors into an inevitable Hall of Fame career, he remains the antithesis of jaded. It’s a pleasure to behold.

4. Alexander Zverev

He came within a set of winning the title in Paris which is both a source of optimism and concern. A silly tennis heuristic: German (and Dutch) players play well on grass. But Zverev is only 13–7 for his career at SW19 and has never ventured beyond Round 4. And what is the residual scar tissue from the French?

5. Daniil Medvedev

Not dissimilar to Zverev—they have the exact same number of Wimbledon match wins—the hard court skills haven’t always translated to grass. He’s always good theater, but, three years since his lone major, is Medvedev turning into an also-ran?

6. Andrey Rublev

A cut-and-paste from the drafts folder: “This will sound harsher than intended. But there’s an element of counterfeit here. A top-flight player, week in, and week out. A fine member of the society, his penchant for self-flagellation notwithstanding. But has yet to show he has the metal and physical durability to get it done in the best-of-five events.”

7. Hubert Hurkacz

Let's start with trivia: Who was the last player to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon? Here’s your guy. The elephant gun serve will militate in favor of his being a contender. The issues he has closing big matches will militate against his being a contender.

8. Casper Ruud

Let’s start by accentuating the positive: The idea that he is a plus-one, a benign interloper in the game’s exclusive parties? That’s no longer a legitimate point. His 100+ match wins and three major finals—and a stomach-addled semifinal run at Roland Garros—over the last 25 months are splendid. But his grass aptitude—and attitude—remains highly questionable. He has two career wins at Wimbledon. If he’s not golfing by the middle weekend, it will mark a triumph.

9. Alex de Minaur

The glossy Aussie is coming off a fine run at Roland Garros, now de Minaur can transition to a surface that will reward his quickness, slick movement and professionalism. Some real grass bona fides here. Can he win? Probably not. Can he advance beyond his seeding (i.e. reach the semis)? Potentially. But is he likely to lose to anyone beneath him? No

10. Grigor Dimitrov

It’s been a fine year overall for the Bulgarian vet (now 33? Can that be right?). On the right day, his easy-on-the-eyes game can match anyone’s. And we all know the emotional tug. But there’s too much delta in his game (and mental fitness) to make him a reliable contender in a best-of-five event. Trivia: In 2008, the year Nadal beat Federer in the classic final, Dimitrov was the junior champ.

11. Stefanos Tstisipas

The 25-year-old suffers when time is taken from him. He’s shown he can play on a fast court, but not so much on grass. And then there’s the paternal propinquity issue.

12. Tommy Paul

As a wise man recently put it: “Looks like the early year @TommyPaul1 train is back on track after it was interrupted by the ankle. Looking good TP. Roll.” The highest-ranked American is coming off the title in Queens and has the athleticism to be a real noisemaker.

13. Taylor Fritz

Fritz seems to have settled into a bit of a professional cul de sac . He wins most of the matches he should win. He loses most of those he should. It's curious he was a quarterfinalist in 2022 (losing to an injured Nadal); and a Round 2 loser to Mikael Ymer (who is no longer an active player) in ’23. He has a potentially tricky first-rounder vs. Chris O’Connell.

14. Ben Shelton

It has been a bit of a disappointing grass court campaign for Shelton, a player whose athleticism and high-octane serve/game should, notionally, benefit from the surface.

15. Holger Rune

Something is—if not rotten—amiss in the state of Denmark. The talent is undeniable. And bear in mind he was born the same month as Alcaraz, so there is no crisis. But a lot of drama and personnel churn here. And, more concerning, he is a health question.

16. Ugo Humbert

The Frenchman sneaks in with the all-important 16th seeding. He’s lost three of his five grass matches this season (including a three-setter to Roberto Bautista Agut this week).

Select seeds 17-32

17. Felix Auger-Aliassime

He has all the tools to be a threat. They just have not quite yet coalesced.

20. Sebastian Korda

The American continues to tantalize with game and results (including a tune-up win over Paul and a Hertogenbosch final appearance). Not unlike FAA, when does he put it together?

23. Alexander Bublik

Your guess is as good as anyone’s, his included.

27. Tallon Griekspoor

He showed so much versatility and flair for 4.9 sets against Zverev in Paris, and about 1.5 sets against Sinner last week. How is he coping with the disappointment of failing to close?

28. Jack Draper

Currently the No. 6 contender with the oddsmakers? Really? Then again, anyone who wins a tune-up—and beats Alcaraz—gets an automatic nod. There is so much to like, from the easy lefty power to steady Wayne Ferreira in the coaching box. Can he adjust to the Wimbledon expectations that befall all Brits? Can he adjust to the best-of-five format?

29. Francis Tiafoe

A player who is so easy to like personally, he seeks to end a vertiginous decline …

32. Zhizhen Zhang

The 27-year-old is a big striker and becoming more match-tough. His run to the Halle semifinals included a win over Medvedev.

Dark horse pasture

Tomas Machac: Czech him out. He has so much power—that ought to serve him well on grass. 

Chris Eubanks: Last year’s breakthrough star is back on grass (and, less happily, back to defending a considerable haul of points).

Arthur Fils: No artifice here. The French phenom is in search of a major breakthrough.

Jordan Thompson/Max Purcell: One of the Aussies will make it to Week 2.

Matteo Berrettini: The former Wimbledon finalist would be seeded but for his injury-driven ranking.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard: Your 2024 Wimbledon champion. Just kidding. Or perhaps not. A 6’8”, 20-year-old whose grass campaign included a win over Shelton.

Billy Harris: Just to cover our bases. 

Matches to watch

Machac vs. Murray: Assuming it happens.

Korda vs. Davidovich Fokina

Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Auger-Aliassime

Adrian Mannarino vs. Gaël Monfils: The French 35-and-older championship.

Sinner vs. Berrettini: A potential Round 2 matchup.

First-round upsets

Denia Shapovalov d. Nicolás Jarry 

Brandon Nakashima d. Sebastian Baez

Hurkacz d. Draper

Alcaraz d. Sinner

Alcaraz d. Hurkacz

JON WERTHEIM

Jon Wertheim covers a variety of sports investigations and social issues that intersect with sports for Sports Illustrated. A full-time member of the SI writing staff since 1997, Jon has been a senior enterprise writer at the magazine for decades. In addition to his work at SI, he is a correspondent for "60 Minutes" and a commentator for The Tennis Channel. He has authored 11 books and has been honored with two Emmys, numerous writing and investigative journalism awards, and the Eugene Scott Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Wertheim is a longtime member of the New York Bar Association (retired), the International Tennis Writers Association, and the Writers Guild of America. He resides in New York City with his wife, who is a divorce mediator and adjunct law professor.

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