tanagra star trek

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.

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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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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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Star Trek: The Next Generation

• 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.
• 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.
• [ repeated line ]
• Captain Dathon : Shaka, when the walls fell.
• 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 : 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 : Temba, his arms wide.
• 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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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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P icard understanding Darmok: A Dataset and Model for Metaphor-Rich Translation in a Constructed Language

Peter A. Jansen , Jordan Boyd-Graber

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[Picard understanding Darmok: A Dataset and Model for Metaphor-Rich Translation in a Constructed Language](https://aclanthology.org/2022.flp-1.5) (Jansen & Boyd-Graber, Fig-Lang 2022)

• Picard understanding Darmok: A Dataset and Model for Metaphor-Rich Translation in a Constructed Language (Jansen & Boyd-Graber, Fig-Lang 2022)
• Peter A. Jansen and Jordan Boyd-Graber. 2022. Picard understanding Darmok: A Dataset and Model for Metaphor-Rich Translation in a Constructed Language . In Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Figurative Language Processing (FLP) , pages 34–38, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Hybrid). Association for Computational Linguistics.

Tamarian language

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Examples of Tamarian written language

The Tamarian language was the spoken language of the Tamarians .

• 3.1 Background information
• 3.2 Apocrypha

History [ ]

The Tamarians spoke entirely by allegory, referencing mytho-historical people and places from their culture . As a result, when the Federation first made contact with the Tamarians, although their universal translators could successfully translate the individual words and sentence structure of Tamarian speech, they were unable to convey the symbolic meaning they represented. Without prior knowledge of the Tamarians' history and legends, a word-by-word translation was of no use to someone attempting to communicate with them. This language barrier led to the isolation of the Tamarian people after all attempts at communication had failed.

For example, instead of asking for cooperation, they would use a phrase such as " Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra ", because their culture's stories include a tale of two Tamarians, Darmok and Jalad, who were brought together while fighting a common foe on an island called Tanagra. The problem with communicating in this fashion is that without understanding the context of the reference, the metaphor has no meaning. While explaining the structure of the language, Counselor Deanna Troi gave the example that " Juliet on her balcony " could be used to describe a romantic situation, but it is impossible to understand if the listener does not know who Juliet is, or why she was on the balcony. ( TNG : " Darmok ")

While he was trapped with Captain Dathon on El-Adrel IV in 2368 , Captain Jean-Luc Picard gained an understanding of the metaphors used by Dathon as communication. Captain Picard used the Tamarian metaphors to establish communication with the Children of Tama and resolve a confrontation between the USS Enterprise -D and a Tamarian deep space cruiser . ( TNG : " Darmok ")

By 2379 , the language barrier had been sufficiently broken for it to be available as an elective language to learn at Starfleet Academy while Brad Boimler was a cadet . By 2381 , the first Tamarian in Starfleet, Kayshon , had reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade , and those working with him could at least reasonably understand him even when the universal translator failed. The universal translator was largely able to translate Tamarian speech, though some metaphors were still translated literally, occasionally resulting in metaphors being mixed into an otherwise understandable sentence. ( LD : " wej Duj ", " Kayshon, His Eyes Open ", " The Spy Humongous ")

Examples [ ]

Some examples of the Tamarian language:

• " Arnock at the race of Natara " – running
• "Arnock, on the night of his joining" - congratulations, or a great achievement (perhaps 'racing to a long-awaited consummation')
• " Bazminti when he pulled back the veil " – an undercover operation or hidden agenda
• "The beast at Tanagra" – a problem to be overcome
• " Chenza at court, the court of silence" – not listening
• "Children of Tama" – Tamarian
• "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" – cooperation
• "Darmok and Jalad on the ocean" – new friendship and understanding gained through a shared challenge
• "Darmok on the ocean" – Loneliness, isolation
• " Gramble , his throat slit by his mistress " – carelessness, clumsiness
• " Kadir beneath Mo Moteh " – failure or inability to communicate or understand; derisive in connotation
• " Kailash , when it rises" – a necessary loss or sacrifice
• "The path to Kamata in spring " – signifying calming peace
• " Karno in the forest with Mira " – overeating or weight gain
• " Karno , when his mind was fogged?" – may refer to someone being confused or corrupted by unknown cause
• " Kiazi 's children, their faces wet" – downplaying the severity of a perceived injury
• " Kimarnt , her head cloudy?" – offering an intoxicating beverage
• " Kira at Bashi " – to tell a story
• " Kiteo , his eyes closed" – refusal to understand
• " Koltar , when he drowned in the swamp " – resigned to one's fate, or remarking on a gruesome fate
• "Life in the cave of Garanoga " – a place where one feels a sense of belonging
• " Mirab , with sails unfurled" – signifying departure/engines to full/fleeing; depending on tone, could mean "Prepare to withdraw" or "We have to get out of here!"
• " Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel " – successful first contact between two alien cultures, or to work toward a common goal; coined in 2368
• " Rai and Jiri at Lungha . Rai of Lowani . Lowani under two moons. Jiri of Ubaya . Ubaya of crossroads, at Lungha. Lungha, her sky gray" – greeting between two different cultures/races
• " Rapunki , when he joined the Seven " – greeting, expressing honor at joining a new group
• "The river Temarc in winter " – to not be swayed from a decision; often used as an imperative
• " Shaka , when the walls fell" – failure
• " Sokath , his eyes uncovered/opened" – understanding/realization
• " Temba , at rest" – declining a gift. A gracious response signifying that the gift is unnecessary or should rightfully be kept by the other person.
• "Temba, his arms wide/open" – signifying a gift
• " Unzak and Vhila as children?" – meaning unknown, perhaps related to language learning or making a connection with other cultures
• "Unzak, when he guided the florkas to their roost" - meaning unknown, perhaps a reassurance related to carefully escorting something to a destination
• " Uzani , his army with fists closed" – to close rank and attack after luring the enemy
• "Uzani, his army with fists open" – to lure the enemy towards you by spreading your forces
• " Zenrox , tilling his field in the spring" – meaning unknown (possibly "stop what you are doing/what you are doing is wrong"); exclaimed in a panic
• " Zima at Anzo " "Zima and Bakor " – danger/hostility arising from miscommunication/misunderstanding.
• " Zinda , his eyes red" – expressing pain or dismay
• "Zinda, his face black, his eyes red" – anger or conflict, also can indicate pain, possible indication of inability to survive (either self, or other party)

These phrases and idioms were often attenuated in conversation: "Shaka, when the walls fell" was heard shortened to "Shaka"; others followed a similar pattern.

Picard used "The river Temarc in winter " at the start of his conversation with the Tamarian first officer, when he was trying to bring an end to the battle, possibly meaning "stop."

Dathon also used " Callimas at Bahar " after experiencing pain in his shoulder, signaling to Picard with a hand wave associated with "stay back", or perhaps meaning "I feel better now" or "the pain is gone".

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

In devising the Tamarian language, " Darmok " writer Joe Menosky was inspired by three sources: the work of psychologist James Hillman (who had emphasized "All is metaphor"), the quote "Every word is a poem" from translator and poet John Ciardi , and the dense historical metaphors present in Chinese poetry and philosophical works such as the I Ching . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 220)

In one scene where Picard attempts to treat a wounded Dathon, the Tamarian says " Kiazi's children, their faces wet ". It is unclear what Dathon means by this, although (since Dathon is trying to shoo Picard away from caring for his injuries at the time) it may allude to children crying for no reason; the Tamarian may be saying that Picard should not worry or feel sad, as nothing could be done. It might also mean that Dathon knew he was dying, as Kiazi's children apparently knew, since Picard was trying to find out the extent of Dathon's injuries at the time.

SF Debris theorizes in his video " The Language of Darmok " that "metaphor" is likely not what is really going on with the Tamarian language by using Chinese as an example. He explains that in Hanzi, the Chinese system of writing, the word for China is comprised of two ideograms: 中 ("middle") and 国 ("nation" or "kingdom"). The second character itself is comprised of two radicals, 玉 ("Jade" or "precious gem") and 囗 ("enclosure"). Given the universal translator does a word-by-word translation, SF Debris opines this means if the translator were to be given the term "中国," rather than return "China" or "Middle Kingdom," it would probably produce the somewhat nonsensical "central enclosed jade". [1]

The Atlantic 's " Shaka, When the Walls Fell " comes to a similar conclusion stating, "Metaphor and image are not accurate descriptions of the Tamarian language’s logic." and presents allegory as a better representation of what is really going on which fits reasonably well into SD Debris' explanation. [2]

Apocrypha [ ]

The Tamarian language is explored further in the short story "Friends with the Sparrows" from the TNG anthology book The Sky's the Limit . In the story, it is explained that Tamarians have a fundamentally different brain structure to most humanoids, and as such experience concepts such as time and self differently.

The story also explains that Tamarian children learn the stories behind the metaphors, and thus their meanings, through enactment and repetition. Variations of meaning in metaphors were conveyed through subtle vocal and gestural cues that the universal translator had previously missed. In fields such as engineering and programming, a musical language was used to convey precise equations, numbers and instructions; thus, explaining how Tamarians could effectively operate starships.

The Voyager relaunch novels Full Circle and Protectors introduce the Tamarian Dr. Sharak who had been teaching the language to Samantha Wildman .

• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

The alien species introduced in this episode is noted for speaking in metaphors, such as “Temba, his arms wide”, which are indecipherable to the universal translator normally used in the television series to allow communication across different languages. Captain Picard is abducted by these aliens and marooned with one other of them on the surface of a planet, and must try to communicate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bb-Af3Dm8E You can read the episode’s transcript here . Here’s a sample:

TAMARIAN [on viewscreen]: Kadir beneath Mo Moteh. DATHON [on viewscreen]: The river Temarc! In winter. (that wipes the smiles off their faces) PICARD: Impressions, Number One? RIKER: It appears they’re trying their best. PICARD: As are we. For what it’s worth. DATHON [on viewscreen]: Shaka, when the walls fell. (to his officer) Darmok. TAMARIAN [on viewscreen]: (aghast) Darmok? Rai and Jiri at Lungha! DATHON [on viewscreen]: Shaka. When the walls fell. TAMARIAN [on viewscreen]: Zima at Anzo. Zima and Bakor. DATHON [on viewscreen]: Darmok at Tanagra. TAMARIAN [on viewscreen]: Shaka! Mirab, his sails unfurled. DATHON [on viewscreen]: Darmok. TAMARIAN [on viewscreen]: Mirab. DATHON [on viewscreen]: Temarc! The river Temarc. (Dathon takes his aides dagger, and his own, and holds them out) DATHON [on viewscreen]: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

Most of the show is about the two captains — Picard and Dathon — alone on an uninhabited planet trying to learn to communicate with one another while surviving a vaguely-defined but terribly dangerous beast. Or rather it’s mostly Picard trying to unravel the metaphors and allegories in which Dathon speaks. Not easy since they are based on the Tamarians’ history and mythology and there is no Federation or Earth parallel. Film critic Jordan Hoffmann deciphers several of the Tamarian metaphors on One Trek Mind , such as:

“Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.” This most famous phrase (which appears on some hilarious T-shirts) means, basically, “working together.” “Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.” Building on the last one, this is when two strangers, or foes, work together against a threat and succeed. “The beast at Tanagra.” This is the foe that Darmok and Jalad fought, but has grown to represent any problem that needs to be solved. The lack of communication between Dathon and Picard is a “beast at Tanagra” of its own. “Temba, his arms open.” This means “take or use this.” A gift. “Temba, at rest.” When a gift has been rebuffed. “Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.” Hearing this means bad news. Something one says when in great pain or very angry. “Kiazi’s children, their faces wet.” This also means pain, but also sadness or frustration. It may also mean “oh, leave me alone!” “Shaka, when the walls fell.” Failure. I’ve decided to start saying this when anything doesn’t go my way. Works just as well as “oy vey.” “Mirab, with sails unfurled.” This means travel or departure. “Uzani, his army with fists open.” A tactical move to lure your enemy closer by spreading out. “Uzani, his army with fists closed.” A tactical move to close-in on an enemy after luring him in. “The river Temarc, in winter.” Be quiet. Possibly based on “freeze,” as in “freeze your thoughts/mouth.” “Sokath, his eyes open.” To translate this to TOS, this means “We Reach!”

You can read some others here on this Fandom site . The entire dialogue of the script has been parsed and analyzed for meanings that were not given or made obvious during the show.

As a writer and aficionado of all forms of language, I was equally delighted to find so many others who delved into this episode and expanded the ideas behind it, explained it, explored the nature of a language so deeply rooted in metaphor. For example, Ian Bogost, writing in The Atlantic , said,

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.

Our own English is rich in metaphor. In fact, we cannot communicate without it. In his book, I Is An Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World , author James Geary describes metaphor as “most familiar as a literary device through which we describe one thing in terms of another.” He later adds that we “utter about one metaphor for every ten to twenty-five words, or about six metaphors a minute.”

The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, as Dr. Marty Grothe tells us in his delightful collection of metaphors, Metaphors Be With You :

The word metaphor derives from two ancient Greek roots: meta, meaning “over, across, beyond,” and “pheiren, meaning “to carry, transfer.” The root sense of the word is “to carry something across” from one conceptual domain to another.

Grothe points out that what makes a metaphor special is “not the act of comparing, but the result of the comparison that makes metaphor so special.” And, as Aristotle defined it (rather fustily, methinks)  in his book, The Poetics :

Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, on the grounds of analogy.

English depends on several related rhetorical devices to convey meaning, including symbolism, metaphor, allusion, allegory, similies, clichés, and synecdoche. Without these, we could not communicate in as abstract and as complex a manner as we do. Metaphors give us volumes of associations and cultural references that mere descriptive words alone cannot. Like the proverbial iceberg, most of their mass is invisible; below the surface.

In Darmok, the ST:NG show, Counsellor Troi raises the example of “Juliet. On her balcony” as a metaphor for romance. Shakespeare’s plays are replete with metaphor, and his play Romeo and Juliet is chock full of them . For example, Romeo’s soliloquy in Act 2 Sc. 2 when he compares Juliet with the sun:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Personally, I would not assume “Juliet. On her balcony” as a metaphor for romance as much as one for adoration, or unrequited love, given that the two don’t become lovers until later in the play. “Romeo. In Juliet’s garden” might work better for me in Tamarian. Or “Romeo. His words at midnight.”

But one can take it rather too far in analyzing and criticizing the Tamarian language as portrayed. It is, after all, merely a TV show, and has to cram everything into about 40 minutes. The writers gave us an idea, not a fully-fledged language with its grammar and usage rules (which was done for the Klingon language ). What has been done to delve into Tamarian since the show has largely been an intellectual exercise, rather than the further development of the language. No one, as far as I am aware, has developed additional Tamarian metaphors or allegories outside those spoken in the show.

Still, it’s fun to read about them and consider how we might use the Tamarian form to craft our own metaphors. But also to think about our own language in light of what was presented. How do we use metaphors to convey meaning, and how are they translated into another language? I often wonder how translators manage to take metaphors and idioms from one language and turn them into relevant, meaningful words in English. I was wondering about it very recently as I read the latest novel by Murakami. What do we lose in translation? What subtleties, what colloquialisms, what cultural artifacts get glossed over?

In his book, The Dehumanization of Art , José Ortega y Gasset called the metaphor, “probably the most fertile power possessed” by humankind. But p erhaps the last and best words on metaphor should go to Bernard Malamud, in a 1975 article for the Paris Review , said, “I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish.”

Author: Ian Chadwick

https://aeon.co/essays/metaphors-grow-the-mind-and-feed-the-soul-dont-lose-them

Simply put, by the Oxford English Dictionary, a metaphor is ‘a figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable’. From the real to the fanciful, metaphoric comparisons are not only part of the architecture of language and mind but they are elemental to human thought and imagination…

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One of my favorite episodes. I really wish we had seen more of this race, and the Federation’s attempt to get to know them better.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Explores the Legacy of TNG’s ‘The Chase’

T he fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery” is embarking on a thrilling journey that delves into one of the most intriguing mysteries introduced in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG) – the legacy of “The Chase.” This classic TNG episode unveiled profound revelations about the origins of humanoid life in the galaxy, and now, “Discovery” is following up on these revelations in a literal chase across the stars.

In “The Chase,” Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a team of representatives from various galactic powers unearthed a message left by the Progenitors, ancient beings who seeded the primordial oceans of many worlds, kickstarting the evolution of humanoid life. This groundbreaking discovery hinted at a shared ancestry among all humanoid species and offered the promise of galactic unity. However, the implications of this revelation were left largely unexplored in TNG.

Now, “Discovery” season 5 is picking up where TNG left off, as Captain Michael Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of the Progenitors and their advanced technology. Their pursuit takes them to the planet Trill, where they encounter Jinaal Bix, a Trill host who holds vital information about the aftermath of Picard’s discovery.

Jinaal reveals that after Picard’s revelation, the Federation secretly assembled a team of scientists to study the Progenitors and their technology. However, their research took a dark turn when one of the scientists was killed while attempting to activate a mysterious device. In response, the remaining scientists made a pact to keep the Progenitors’ technology hidden until the galaxy was at peace, fearing the consequences of its misuse in a time of conflict.

This narrative thread adds a new layer of complexity to the Star Trek universe, exploring the fallout of Picard’s discovery and the ethical dilemmas it presented to the Federation. The revelation that powerful technology remains hidden raises questions about trust, responsibility, and the potential for misuse in a galaxy torn apart by war and political intrigue.

Moreover, “Discovery” season 5 grapples with the fraught history of Starfleet and the Federation, highlighting past instances of corruption and betrayal that have eroded trust in these institutions. The Dominion War and internal power struggles within Starfleet serve as cautionary tales, illustrating the dangers of unchecked authority and the need for vigilance in safeguarding against tyranny.

As Captain Burnham and her crew navigate this treacherous landscape, they confront the legacy of “The Chase” and the moral complexities it raises. The pursuit of the Progenitors’ technology becomes not only a race against time but also a test of character and integrity, as they wrestle with the responsibility of wielding such power in a galaxy fraught with conflict.

In revisiting the themes and ideas introduced in “The Chase,” “Star Trek: Discovery” season 5 continues the tradition of thought-provoking storytelling that has defined the Star Trek franchise for decades. With its blend of high-stakes adventure and philosophical inquiry, the series explores the enduring quest for knowledge and understanding in a universe filled with mysteries waiting to be uncovered.

What is “The Chase,” and why is it significant in the Star Trek universe?

“The Chase” is an episode from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG) where Captain Jean-Luc Picard and a team of representatives from various galactic powers discover a message left by the Progenitors, ancient beings who seeded humanoid life in the galaxy. This revelation hinted at a shared ancestry among humanoid species and the potential for galactic unity.

How does “Star Trek: Discovery” season 5 connect to “The Chase”?

“Star Trek: Discovery” season 5 follows up on the revelations of “The Chase” by exploring the aftermath of Picard’s discovery and the legacy of the Progenitors. Captain Michael Burnham and her crew embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of the Progenitors’ technology, setting the stage for a thrilling adventure across the stars.

What new information does “Discovery” season 5 reveal about the Progenitors and their technology?

In “Discovery” season 5, viewers learn that after Picard’s discovery, the Federation assembled a team of scientists to study the Progenitors and their technology. However, their research took a dark turn when one scientist was killed while attempting to activate a mysterious device. This led the remaining scientists to keep the Progenitors’ technology hidden until the galaxy was at peace.

How does “Discovery” season 5 address ethical dilemmas raised by “The Chase”?

The season grapples with the ethical implications of wielding powerful technology in a galaxy torn apart by war and political intrigue. It raises questions about trust, responsibility, and the potential for misuse, drawing parallels to past instances of corruption and betrayal within Starfleet and the Federation.

What themes and ideas from “The Chase” are explored in “Discovery” season 5?

“Discovery” season 5 revisits themes of unity, exploration, and the quest for knowledge that were introduced in “The Chase.” It continues the tradition of thought-provoking storytelling in the Star Trek franchise, blending high-stakes adventure with philosophical inquiry.

How does “Discovery” season 5 contribute to the broader Star Trek narrative?

By exploring the legacy of “The Chase” and the aftermath of Picard’s discovery, “Discovery” season 5 adds depth to the Star Trek universe and sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of its history. It continues the tradition of pushing boundaries and challenging viewers to consider the ethical implications of scientific advancement.

Watch CBS News

Sonequa Martin-Green bids farewell to historic role on "Star Trek: Discovery"

By Analisa Novak

April 4, 2024 / 12:07 PM EDT / CBS News

As "Star Trek: Discovery " ventures into its fifth and final season, Sonequa Martin-Green is preparing to say goodbye to her groundbreaking role as Captain Michael Burnham, the first Black female captain in the franchise's storied history.

Martin-Green recalls the weight of realizing she was making television history. 

"It was overwhelming at the time. And I it was heavy, but God really blessed me with it, and I learned so much from it. I learned so much about who I am as a Black woman. And I learned that I don't have to fight for my value or my worth, because I definitely felt that way," she said.

When she first started in the role in 2017, Martin-Green said she still had a lot of internalized racism she had to navigate. But just like the show, Martin-Green said she has always been about pushing forward with hope. 

"At the time, I thought, 'This is all about hope.' Hope is at the center of this franchise. It's our responsibility to keep that moving forward. People can think what they want to think but they need a chance to grow," she said.

In addition to her on-screen achievements, Martin-Green has also made significant strides behind the camera, ascending from lead actor to executive producer. Her dual role has allowed her to shape the series' direction.

Martin-Green said that the final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" will go "bigger than we had ever done before." Despite not knowing it would be their last season, the team, led by showrunners Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman, fought for and received the opportunity reshoot the series' finale.

As "Discovery" comes to a close, Martin-Green hints at the possibility of continuing the story through a feature film.

"We love these characters. We love the people. We love the story," she said. 

Analisa Novak is a content producer for CBS News and the Emmy-award-winning "CBS Mornings." Based in Chicago, she specializes in covering live events and exclusive interviews for the show. Beyond her media work, Analisa is a United States Army veteran and holds a master's degree in strategic communication from Quinnipiac University.

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