For many Trekkies, Star Trek: The Next Generation is the high point of the long-running sci-fi franchise. Within this super series, there are highlight episodes that can be found on pretty much every respectable best list. Who Owns Data?, for example, is a gripping courtroom drama that negotiates the personal status of the Enterprise android, Q episodes are good just for the bickering between Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the almighty space god – and who doesn’t love the temporally turbulent series finale Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow?
And then there is Darmok from the 5th season of the series, which is airing on German television tonight. A cerebral episode that will particularly appeal to fans of the film Arrival, because it is also all about complicated communication.
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In Darmok by episode director Winrich Kolbe, the crew of the Enterprise makes contact with the Tamarians, with whom communication is difficult. Even the universal translator capitulates to a foreign language that only works with metaphors. When Captain Picard speaks to the captain of the Tamarian ship (Paul Winfield)
is beamed to a planet’s surface, he must demonstrate not only diplomatic but also linguistic sensitivity in order to master the situation.
The episode, which was in development for two years, is based on an idea by Philip LaZebnik, which was finally put on paper by Joe Menosky, to whom we also owe the two-parter Danger from the 19th century. The allegorical language with which the aliens refer to cultural references to communicate ideas and feelings was particularly impressive. There is hardly a Trekkie who is not familiar with the phrase “Darmok and Jalad on Tanagra” which the well-read Picard ultimately deciphers through similarities to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
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When is the Star Trek episode Darmok on TV?
The Darmok episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation aired today, Tuesday, September 9, 2024 at 19:05 on Tele 5 Alternatively, you can stream it at any time on Netflix or Paramount+.