Tamarians in the Novelverse

[Unimatrix Q]

Having watched Darmok again and knowing about Dr Sharak being an medical officer in the Voyager fleet, i wonder about if the Tamarians are members of the Federation at the time of these novels or if it is just a similar situation as it was with Worf or Nog.

Would really like to know and speculate about what the situation is like with the Tamarians at the end of the 24th century in the Novelverse.

 

[Damian]

I don't believe the Children of Tama, as they are referred to as well as Tamarians, have joined the Federation at this point. I looked it up on Memory Beta to see if I was missing something but it didn't have much. It noted that diplomatic relations were opened after Picard's contact with them and that was considered a high point of Jaresh-Inyo's Presidency (noted in "Articles of the Federation". According to an SCE story there is a Tamarian Liason office.

And if my memory serves from the Voyager books I don't believe Tama is part of the Federation yet, unless someone remembers otherwise.

 

[valkyrie013]

The Dr is the first one to leard Feddy Standard language, so I'm guessing he's the first in starfleet. You don't have to be a Fed Member to enter starfleet, so I don't know the status of there planet. Its been over 10 years in universe since Picard and Darmok so anything is posible.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Dathon and Picard at El Adrel.
Sharak in Starfleet.
Sharak in the Voyager Fleet.
Sharak at home.
(The rest of the story is yet to be written.)

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Would also be interesting to know how Sharak learned Federation Standard as Tamarians are said to have a different psychological structure and concept of self than most humanoids. From his behavior (having read three of the Voyager relaunch novels) he seems to act not too differently to other starfleet members at all.

 

[Christopher]

Would also be interesting to know how Sharak learned Federation Standard as Tamarians are said to have a different psychological structure and concept of self than most humanoids. From his behavior (having read three of the Voyager relaunch novels) he seems to act not too differently to other starfleet members at all.

Science fiction has an unfortunate tendency to reduce every species to a monolithic stereotype, but realistically, every species and society would have a bell curve, a wide range of different ways of thinking and acting, some farther from the norm than others. I figure that Sharak's psychology is toward the end of the Tamarian bell curve that's more compatible with human ways of thinking, so it's easier for him to make the adaptation than it might be for a more typical Tamarian. (By analogy, a human on the autistic spectrum might take more readily to Vulcan behavior than a more neurotypical human would.)

 

[DonIago]

It's funny, before fully reading Christopher's post I was thinking "I wonder whether Sharak might be considered the equivalent of autistic in Tamarian society..."

 

[valkyrie013]

To take a term from A Mote in God's Eye.. He's a Crazy Eddie

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Would also be interesting to know how Sharak learned Federation Standard as Tamarians are said to have a different psychological structure and concept of self than most humanoids.

At the risk of this being considered a STORY IDEA, I'd love to see the backstory of the Tamarians explored in more detail (I won't say what my own "head-canon" is about this, because that really WOULD be a STORY IDEA.) We did, after all, finally, after over half a century, get that for the First Federation.

 

[Christopher]

At the risk of this being considered a STORY IDEA, I'd love to see the backstory of the Tamarians explored in more detail (I won't say what my own "head-canon" is about this, because that really WOULD be a STORY IDEA.) We did, after all, finally, after over half a century, get that for the First Federation.

I delved into Tamarian culture, psychology, and language in "Friends With the Sparrows" in the TNG: The Sky's the Limit anthology.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Thank you. I'll re-read that. I may take time out from Steven Brill's Tailspin (a slow read, and best taken in small doses; I dispute a lot of his conclusions, most chiefly that the reforms of the early-to-mid 20th century actually caused the abuses of the late 20th and early 21st).

 

[JD]

I've been a little disappointed that the Voyage Relaunch hasn't used Skarak to delve more deeply into The Tamarians.

I delved into Tamarian culture, psychology, and language in "Friends With the Sparrows" in the TNG: The Sky's the Limit anthology.

I knew that one had come up in conversations about Tamarians in the past, but I didn't realize it dealt with them that much. Friends and KRAD's Four Lights are the two stories I'm most looking forward to once I finally get around to The Sky's the Limit.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Science fiction has an unfortunate tendency to reduce every species to a monolithic stereotype, but realistically, every species and society would have a bell curve, a wide range of different ways of thinking and acting, some farther from the norm than others. I figure that Sharak's psychology is toward the end of the Tamarian bell curve that's more compatible with human ways of thinking, so it's easier for him to make the adaptation than it might be for a more typical Tamarian. (By analogy, a human on the autistic spectrum might take more readily to Vulcan behavior than a more neurotypical human would.)

I delved into Tamarian culture, psychology, and language in "Friends With the Sparrows" in the TNG: The Sky's the Limit anthology.

Yes, i also had "Friends With the Sparrows" in mind when i wrote my post. By the way it's really great and one of my favorite short stories in the Star Trek Universe. It's also one of the reasons why i find the depiction of Dr Sharak in the Voyager Relaunch Novels a bit unrealistic. How can a being with such a different psychology like a Tamarian learn to have a similar sense of self as most other known humanoid lifeforms in this universe and act and behave like them? I remember Data really struggling in this story with the programm that was there to help him understand and simulate the tamarian way of existance.

Dr Sharak in contrast made it seem that Tamarians are the same kind of beings like all the others, just with another kind of language and are able to learn other languages with no real problems.

I believe the psychological gap between Humans /other know humanoids and Tamarians is way bigger than between Humans and Vulcans for example. Because of this i doubt the "Crazy Eddie" explanation.

 

[Christopher]

I believe the psychological gap between Humans /other know humanoids and Tamarians is way bigger than between Humans and Vulcans for example. Because of this i doubt the "Crazy Eddie" explanation.

Like I said, you can't mistake the average psychology/behavior of a species for its universal psychology. It's just the center of the bell curve. Even if the centers of two different bell curves are far apart, there's likely to be some overlap on the fringes.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Like I said, you can't mistake the average psychology/behavior of a species for its universal psychology. It's just the center of the bell curve. Even if the centers of two different bell curves are far apart, there's likely to be some overlap on the fringes.

But in this case, wouldn't it have made more sense for the Tamarians to send out those ones to establish a dialogue with the Federation, instead of playing out the tale of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra? Especially as the Tamarians seemed to have an intrinsic need to be able to communicate with others like with the UFP. I guess an understanding could have been reached this way far more early...

 

[Christopher]

But in this case, wouldn't it have made more sense for the Tamarians to send out those ones to establish a dialogue with the Federation, instead of playing out the tale of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra? Especially as the Tamarians seemed to have an intrinsic need to be able to communicate with others like with the UFP.

Maybe they just didn't yet have an appreciation for the value of the neurodiverse members of their society. Hardly an unprecedented blind spot.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

By the way, i wonder what would happen if a Borg Cube encountered a tamarian ship. Would they be able to communicate with them and what would their standard greeting be like in their language?

 

[Snaploud]

By the way, i wonder what would happen if a Borg Cube encountered a tamarian ship. Would they be able to communicate with them and what would their standard greeting be like in their language?

"Picard of the Enterprise and Locutus at Wolf 359."