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| An alien captain (Paul Winfield) attempts to communicate with Picard. |
THE PLOT
The Enterprise makes a rendezvous with a Tamarian ship which has sent out a basic mathematical message at the edge of Federation space. Previous attempts to communicate with the Tamarians have failed, with Federation representatives describing them as "unintelligible." Picard is determined to succeed where his predecessors failed - but on first contact, he finds himself equally stymied, unable to make sense of the words spoken by the Tamarian captain (Paul Winfield).
The Tamarian seems equally frustrated. After several minutes without progress on either side, he gets into a brief, indecipherable argument with his officers. Then he makes an announcement: "Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra." Abruptly, both the Tamarian and Picard are transported to a nearby world.
Riker's attempts to recover Picard are stymied by the Tamarian ship. Meanwhile, Picard tries to find a way to communicate with the Tamarian captain - something on which the survival of them both may depend!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: Another terrific episode for Patrick Stewart, who gets to cover a wide range of emotions. Picard's brain never stops working. Even as he and the Tamarian captain are attacked by a mysterious energy beast, Picard continues to focus on the patterns and meanings of the other man's words and phrases, until he is able to pick up enough meaning to usefully communicate.
Riker: Though this is firmly Picard's episode, it also provides Jonathan Frakes' Riker with his meatiest material in some time. With Picard effectively held captive, Riker steps into the command role once more. He tries multiple strategies to break through the Tamarian interference. His poker instincts lead him to testing if the Talarians are bluffing in the seriousness in their interference, by sending a shuttle to see if the aliens will prevent it from landing. He pushes Geordi to work on finding a way to make the transporter work through the interference. And he assigns Troi and Data to work on deciphering the Tamarians' language. A good showing, though one that emphasizes what was clear at the start of last season - It no longer makes sense for Riker to be content at being anyone's first officer, not when he's so clearly ready for his own command.
Data/Troi: These two make a solid team, working together to unravel the structure of the Tamarian language. Between them, they figure out that the other species speaks in metaphors, with each phrase conveying meaning by capturing an image from a story. Which isn't really much help to Riker in finding a way to communicate with the other ship. As Troi points out, an image such as "Juliet, on her balcony," has meaning only because most people (even those who have never read the story) are culturally aware of the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. To someone with no awareness of the story at all - no awareness that the story and scene even exist - it would simply be a meaningless phrase. Data compares their situation with knowing the grammar of a language but none of the vocabulary.
THOUGHTS
Darmok is one of the definitive TNG episodes, one of a handful of shows people think of when Star Trek: The Next Generation is mentioned. It is somewhat divisive. While its reputation has been exemplary from pretty much the date of its first broadcast, a minority of viewers have strongly disliked the episode from that same date. On first broadcast, my father and I religiously watched TNG, often simply to make fun of its cheesier moments (which were regularly on display). Darmok was an episode he switched off, because he found it boring and pretentious - an accusation which the episode's detractors continue to use today.
I can appreciate that point of view. Certainly, I never fully buy into the existence of a purely metaphoric language. Among other things, as a former English teacher, I'm very aware of the simple fact that many iconic literary scenes are open to multiple interpretations. "The ghost of Banquo, at the feast." A visitation from beyond (Banquo's revenge), or a delusion of Macbeth's caused by his own guilt? The answer largely depends on how the director of a given production chooses to stage it.
But that doesn't interfere with my appreciation of the episode itself. In part, I look at the Tamarians' metaphoric language as a metaphor in itself. Picard's interactions with the other captain are a representation of the act of communication itself. Picard cannot make sense of the Tamarians and finds them unintelligible. He learns with and bonds with one of them, essentially learns the language - and at the end, the same words and phrases which had been meaningless gibberish at the start now have meaning.
Joe Menosky's script is quite tight, the story structure exemplary. The first half focuses on the division between Picard and the Tamarian, on their inability to communicate. Once they make some headway (Picard is able to correctly interpret one phrase), Menosky raises the stakes by bringing in an external threat - the beast. This provides some action and suspense, but it is also to deepen the communication between the two captains. The scenes on the Enterprise, which in a weaker script would be filler, effectively lend the planet scenes some context. The Enterprise plot intersects with the Picard one at a critical point, leaving both Picard and Riker in weaker positions for the final Act.
The acting is another strength. Patrick Stewart is at his best in episodes such as this one, in which Picard must contend with an intellectual puzzle. His bonding with the Tamarian folds in a strong emotional component, leading to a superb final scene between the two characters as Picard tells a fragmented version of the story of Gilgamesh by a campfire. It's a moment that easily could have been dreadful, but the combination of the story context and Stewart's fully-engaged performance make it one of the series' great scenes.
Paul Winfield is equally good as the Tamarian, taking a handful of phrases and imbuing repetitions of those phrases with a wide variety of emotions and meanings, some of which are still left for us to guess at the end. Winfield's commanding presence is also used to good effect. We never doubt that he belongs as the captain of his own vessel, and on the planet he is easily Picard's equal.
Oh, under trivia notes: Look fast for a young Ashley Judd as an officer in Engineering. Probably not something she puts at the top of her resume, I'm guessing, though unlike Teri Hatcher she at least gets to pop up in the background of a good episode.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
Oh, under trivia notes: Look fast for a young Ashley Judd as an officer in Engineering. Probably not something she puts at the top of her resume, I'm guessing, though unlike Teri Hatcher she at least gets to pop up in the background of a good episode.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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Tamarian, not Talarian
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