Darmok

DVD, TNG S5 (Darmok)

A starship Captain transported against his will to a planet where an alien Captain is also stranded; a lack of communication at first, and an understanding reached before the death of the alien... this must have taken strong inspiration from 'Arena' in 'TOS' in which Kirk battles the Gorn, before refusing to kill him, only this is the story told in a more cerebral way to suit this series, just as the action adventure suited 'TOS'. The circumstances and resolution are, for the most part the only similarities, indeed, the Gorn Captain had the complete opposite intention to the Tamarian - the first wanted to kill the human Captain, while the second was willing to die to get his message across and begin the road to understanding between their peoples. And a good job is done by Paul Winfield in the role - he had also played Captain Terrell in 'Star Trek II'.

There are problems with the concept. What kind of alien race could survive with a language of examples, of metaphor? No wonder they had never made much sense when they stumbled across other Federation ships (seven times in a hundred years, was it?), and makes you think they were an isolationist race, and one that had no wish or need for interaction with others. Why did this change, and why was the Tamarian Captain (I keep wanting to call him Darmok!), prepared to risk so much to change this state of affairs? Perhaps there were internal troubles with his people, just as the Klingons only resorted to calling on the Federation when their moon blew up.

It all makes you wonder about the state of the Tamarians and how they might have gone on to form relations with the Federation. Maybe they saw the Federation as an obvious target to begin friendly talks with in the quadrant because it would mean access to so many races within it. I do question why no other starship crew had managed to make the leap to metaphor, but the previous encounters may have been brief and not advocated by such a staunch supporter as this Captain was. I would have liked to know what the result of his death was, and whether an alliance was successfully formed, but the episode was really just a showcase for one idea, though a good one, and I imagine they could have become irritating if seen in other stories.

The main idea wasn't the only thing to like, there were plenty of little things, and one big thing in the ugly shape of the invisible creature, an Excalbian-like being, that was very well realised, its brief appearances and attacks, bringing real danger to bear on the Captains. Its savage blows unfortunately didn't make material damage to the Tamarian, I imagine they were more like energy attacks than a beast's claws, but he could have done with a bit of roughing up in the makeup department. Not that the Tamarians looked particularly good, it was only the intelligence and bravery of their Captain that makes them believable and sympathetic so that when he dies it is a sad moment. But it's Picard's excitement at deducing their way of speaking and his connection with the alien that makes the story come alive, and his translation that saves the ship from destruction and ends the episode on a high - we understand as well as the Captain and the Tamarians, and the words take on new meaning and leave a warm feeling.

Riker comes across as a less Starfleet Captain than expected, resorting to violence and precipitating such a conflict that his ship is almost destroyed, though the Tamarian ship didn't look like it was ever going to trouble the Enterprise - in fact it was a rather well-used model having been seen before and after the episode on this and other series', back when models were physical items that had to be built at great expense. The scenes on the Enterprise are actually what let the side down to some degree, as they are just treading water, waiting for Picard's breakthrough, seeing the character's go through their various motions (and why couldn't Data reach Picard's conclusion?) that they must do to ensure their Captain's safety, but do we need to see that? Maybe if Picard's beaming to the planet had been part of the plan, then a B-story could have occurred on the ship, where they would have had no knowledge of his difficulties, but it would have been a hard task to do that and keep the jeopardy, thus losing the strong ending.

Picard's fancy new uniform jacket makes its debut here, and a good job too, or he'd have been even colder down on the planet. Good timing for Starfleet Wardrobe (if such a department exists). The jacket may have been the inspiration for the film/late-'DS9' era uniforms, the best ever made, so maybe we have more to thank the episode for than expected? Jacket on Picard in 'Darmok', you might say.

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