"Darmok" is the 102nd episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second episode of the fifth season.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise is unable to establish meaningful communication with the crew of an alien vessel, which is resolved by the struggle of the ships' captains to defend each other from a vicious beast. It is sometimes cited as one of the best episodes of both The Next Generation series and the entire family of Star Trek television series.
The alien species introduced in this episode is noted for speaking in allegories, 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 of them on the surface of a planet, and must try to communicate.
Primary filming for "Darmok" occurred July 18−26, 1991, on Paramount Stages 8, 9 and 16, as well as on location at Bronson Canyon. An additional day was August 8 for the blue screen unit to film the creature scenes with stuntman Rex Pierson on Paramount Stage 9. Second unit for this episode filmed on August 26 on Paramount Stages 9 and 16. When production for the following episode, "Ensign Ro", returned to location at Bronson Canyon on August 5, another sequence was filmed for "Darmok" involving Pierson and photo doubles Ron Large and Lanier Edwards. Photo double Dana Vitatoe filmed additional second unit shots on August 28 on Paramount Stage 9.
Casting
The episode features Paul Winfield as Dathon, who previously played Captain Terrell in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Ashley Judd in her debut acting performance. The call sheet dated on July 18 featured an "uncast actress" in the role of Lt. Larson; in the final episode, this role became Robin Lefler, who was played by Judd. In his analysis, "something much stranger" is depicted, since the language as depicted is described as "imagery", "metaphor", or "symbolic", and it seems to prevent any distinction between an object (or event) and its figurative representation.
In the paper Darmok and Jalad on the Internet, Kristina Šekrst compares the Tamarian language to Lakoff's and Mark Johnson's theory of metaphors from Metaphors We Live By and Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. It explores how the language illustrates the role of metaphor and metonymy in communication, which was a recent concept in cognitive linguistics. It also explains that metaphors are a challenge in natural language processing, and the lack of information about the language caused the universal translator to fail in much the same way as modern computational translators fail to translate metaphors without sufficient knowledge about the source language.
The book "Hailing Frequencies Open": Communication in Star Trek: The Next Generation by Thomas D. Parham, III says that in "Darmok", the episode focused on epistemology by using interpersonal interactions. They found that several other episodes in the series used interpersonal interactions to explore concepts.
A machine-learning translation by Peter Jansen was employed for English-to-Tamarian translation, assembling a Tamarian-English dictionary of utterances from the original episode and several follow-on novels, as well as an automatic translation system for this language pair.
Reception
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave it a grade "A", and although he finds the core concept improbable he says "the episode is carried by terrific performances, particularly Stewart and Winfield". In his 2012 rewatch, Keith DeCandido of Tor.com rated the episode nine out of ten.
The 1999 book The Music of Star Trek describes composer Jay Chattaway's score as offering "memorable dramatic support" to "Darmok" and other episodes he had worked on.
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"Darmok" is generally regarded as one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek, as well as one of Patrick Stewart's best performances as Captain Picard. In 2016, The Washington Post ranked "Darmok" the second best episode of all Star Trek television. Io9 ranked it as the fifth best episode of all Star Trek in 2011, and again in 2014. In 2016, Empire ranked it sixth of all Star Trek episodes. In 2016, Vox list this as one of the top 25 essential episodes of all Star Trek. In 2019, The Hollywood Reporter listed "Darmok" among the twenty-five best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In 2013, The Guardian recommended this episode as one of six "examples of a smarter version of Star Trek", out of all the episodes of the franchise up to that time. They remarked it was a "beautifully executed episode".
In 2014, Ars Technica triggered an online controversy when one staff member said it was a "bad episode"; in the ensuing discussion they noted that overall it is considered not just a good episode, but a great one.
In 2015, Geek.com rated "Darmok" as the fifth greatest moment in Star Trek.
In 2016, IGN ranked "Darmok" the 19th best episode of all Star Trek series. They call this one of "Picard's finest hours" as he tries to communicate with an alien that despite understanding the words (see universal translator), does not understand the meaning. They are stranded together on an alien planet while threatened, and Picard eventually figures out they are speaking in metaphors. A communication breakthrough comes when he relates their situation to the alien's description "Darmok and Jalad – at Tanagra."
In 2016, Radio Times ranked the interaction between Picard and Dathon in Star Trek, as the 20th best moment in all Star Trek.
In 2017, Screen Rant ranked "Darmok" as the third most optimistic and hopeful episode of all Star Trek episodes up to that time. They also ranked the Tamarians, the alien species featured in this episode, as the fifth most bizarre aliens of Star Trek.
In 2017, Den of Geek ranked this episode as one of the top 25 "must watch" episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They also listed it as one of the top ten ground-breaking episodes of this series. They note how Picard must overcome the failure of the universal translator technology to communicate with an alien culture. They note how these aliens communicate using stories.
In 2018, Entertainment Weekly ranked "Darmok" as one of the top ten moments of Picard. In 2018, Popular Mechanics highlighted "Darmok" as one of the twelve best Picard episodes, and as recommended viewing for audiences to prepare for a new television series based on that character, Star Trek: Picard.
In 2020, Primetimer ranked this one of the top ten episodes for Picard.
In 2020, Screen Rant ranked "Darmok" the third best episode of the series, noting its unique but great take on contact between alien cultures as Picard must contend with failure of Star Treks universal translator technology. They point out the episode features a "harrowing" confrontation, that features some tense situations as they struggle to communicate.
In 2020, The Digital Fix said this was the seventh best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In 2020, Mike Stoklasa of Red Letter Media ranked this episode among his ten most favourite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In 2021, Cinemablend ranked this one of the top ten episodes of TNG.
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A character introduced in this episode, Robin Lefler (played by Ashley Judd), was ranked as the 71st most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe. TV Guide listed Judd's acting role as Ensign Robin Lefler as one of 28 surprising guest acting roles on Star Trek, noting that she appears in this episode "Darmok" and also in "The Game". The future romance between Robin and Wesley's character is also noted.
In 2021, Robert Vaux writing for CBR, said that Paul Winfield was a "terrific" co-star for Stewart, and highlighted this episode among a trio of season five episodes (along with "The Perfect Mate" and "The Inner Light") that he really shined in.
Releases
The episode was later released in the United States on November 5, 2002, as part of the Season 5 DVD box set. The first Blu-ray release was in the United States on November 18, 2013, followed by the United Kingdom the next day.
See also
- Ascian language