Dearie, dearie me.
Well I was planning to write a few words about something else, but first off …
I’m always suspicious of mass mail-outs — even though I’ll admit I’m as guilty as anyone of sending a few out, occasionally. But I had a good one, today. One that told me, specifically, it wasn’t spam.
Yeah …
After I’d waded through the lord knows how many email addresses that the sender — galabs2000@gmail.com — had sent it to.
And then proceed to tell me that actress Scarlett Johansenn is a clone controlled by the US military …
Yeah, ok …
I believe him.
Thousands wouldn’t.
And does Scarlett Johansenn know about this … ?
But, at any rate, I managed to catch “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, last night. And was very pleased to find it was episode 2 of series 5.
“Darmok”.
Which is actually one of the spin-off’s better efforts, I think. And one of the more popular episodes, amongst fans of the series — one that usually comes second only to the third season “Sarek”.
It’s a nicely put together “Star Trek” story … and a good piece of science fiction, with a very simple idea at its heart.
Aliens have alien languages that we can’t speak.
Which is obvious when you think about it. Although I know I’m probably not the only one to overlook this.
After all, both “Doctor Who” and “Star Trek” have some sort of gadget to explain why every alien race on the two shows always seem to speak English — “Star Trek” has a Universal Translator, and “Doctor Who” has the TARDIS’ on-board telepathic circuits.
So it’s nice to see a “Star Trek” episode that makes the fact an apparently friendly alien species has an equally alien language a major part of its plot.
Which is what “Darmok” does.
Captain Picard is kidnapped by Captain — called Dathon — of an alien ship and taken to a nearby planet, where the two officers have to learn to communicate with each other, in order to survive attacks by a rampaging — and invisible — native creature.
The episode’s title refers to one of the phrases used by Captain Dathon; “Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra” and alludes to Dathon’s people’s belief that two heroes can learn to communicate, if they face danger together.
Even if one of the heroes dies in the attempt …
Which sounds like a possible tragedy, but although Dathon dies, he does so safe in the knowledge that Captain Picard has worked out how the two captains can communicate; can take this knowledge back to his ship and improve the lives of both peoples. And learning, before he does, something of the epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu as well.
“Soketh, his eyes uncovered”.
To quote the episode, itself …
And in spite of that, “Darmok” is a very upbeat episode; it shows us we can we form friendships, and do something worth doing, even if it’s a tough job.
And that’s worth reinforcing, occasionally …
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