The Enterprise is dispatched to meet with the Children of Tama, an inscrutable alien race who have apparently made a peace overture to the Federation. "Apparently," because no one has ever been able to actually understand their nonsensical language. When talks stall due to the language barrier, the aliens abduct Captain Picard, beaming him and their own captain down to a primitive planet where a strange creature threatens both their lives. As the two captains band together against this common foe, Picard finally begins to understand -- the Tamarian language is one of metaphor, every sentence a reference to some story from their culture's deep mythic history.
Show runner Michael Piller once revealed that "Darmok" had been in the pipeline longer than any other script during his entire tenure on the show. Perhaps because of this lengthy gestation, executive producer Rick Berman reportedly hated the idea. The production had bought a pitch from an outside writer, involving a difficulty in communicating with a group of "ant farm"-like aliens, but it took two years before a finished script went before the cameras. That script came from staff writer Joe Menosky, who finally cracked the troublesome story when he came up with the concept of the metaphorical language.
The scope of what Menosky did is truly remarkable. This episode really does depict one of Star Trek's most plausibly alien cultures. Not only is their language meticulously thought out, but there are moments of ritual and ceremony, and a true sense of nobility in the captain. Dathon gives his life for the goal of making peaceful contact with another people, a Star Trek ideal taken to an amazing extreme.
Menosky's script was something everyone recognized as special -- even Berman, who recanted and ultimately named this one of his favorite episodes of the series. Piller thought it was the model of everything Star Trek should be, raving "it had the philosophy dealing with language and what it does for us, two great acting performances, it had a monster and a space battle – it had everything." Episode director Winrich Kolbe called it "almost flawless" (though he likened shooting it to making a movie in a foreign language he did not speak). Patrick Stewart, who has frequently complained about the lack of award recognition for the series just because it was in the science fiction genre, offered up this script as a keen example of that unfairness.
The episode also had many fans outside the production. There are stories of college language professors using it to illustrate to new students how languages operate and evolve. There's also the curious reaction of Russell T. Davies, writer and producer of the new Doctor Who. When he heard the synopsis of this episode, "Captain Picard is trapped on a planet with an alien who can only talk in metaphors," he found the mere idea so compelling that he chose not to spoil the magic by actually watching the episode! It resonated with him so much that he ultimately decided to base a Doctor Who episode on his own interpretation of the premise. (For curious Whovians, the episode was "Midnight.") Davies claims not to know to this day if his episode actually bears any resemblance to "Darmok," but he specifically cited it as his inspiration.
But it's not just the script that makes a strong impression here -- it's the perfect work by Patrick Stewart and guest star Paul Winfield. The latter was no stranger to Star Trek, having played the ill-fated Captain Terrell in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Here, he infuses everything his character Dathon does and says with an internal logic. His emotions range wide, from frustration when Picard doesn't understand him to near euphoria when finally he does. And Patrick Stewart is impeccable. His gradual understanding of the alien is compelling, his recounting of the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu is moving, and his final moment (in which he mimics the ritual gesture of the fallen Dathon) is filled with true sorrow and reverence.
Perhaps knowing what they had even at the time of filming, the production apparently spent some extra money here. There's rare filming on location -- the location in this instance being Bronson Canyon, in Griffin Park. There are effective and suspenseful visual effects used to realize the strange creature that attacks Picard and Dathon. There were also expenditures that simply came with the start of a new season: a new jacketed uniform for the captain makes its first appearance, as does a new shuttlecraft design. (The series had long been hoping to redesign their multi-person shuttle, as the exterior model didn't match the shape of the interior set.)
Other observations:
- In the teaser, Worf makes a suggestion for aggressive posture that Picard -- as is tradition -- shoots down. But the two seem to be on the same page when Picard is first beamed down to the planet; both expect some sort of one-on-one contest between ships' captains. (They both must have seen Kirk battle the Gorn in the original series episode "Arena.")
- Though Picard is actually able to learn some of the stories behind the Tamarian language, it's nice that Data and Troi are at least able to figure out how the language works. They don't have to look dumb for Picard to look smart.
- The story Picard tells Dathon, of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, is itself a metaphor for what happens to the two captains. It's also one of the earliest known stories in our history, coming from a Babylonian poem that dates to some time before 2000 BC.
- Look out for Ashley Judd, before she became a star. (She's so pre-star here, in fact, that she doesn't even make the credits at the beginning of the episode.) While Judd would appear a few episodes later in a larger role, her character of Robin Lefler actually makes her first appearance here.
- Eagle-eyed and detail-minded fans noted a mistake in this episode: at one point, when the Enterprise fires its phasers, the beam comes from the photon torpedo launcher. In the remastered Blu-ray version of the episode, a shot was stolen from "The Best of Both Worlds" to correct this error.
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