TNG Rewatch: 5x02: "Darmok"

[Trekker4747]

As a general rule in the series we see species named from the perspective of our human characters and a Starfleet/Earth-centric basis. For example, it's unlikely in their own language Romulans, Vulcans, Ferengi and so forth don't call themselves that or at least don't call themselves the same name as the planet they live on which also happens to be the name of the star their planet orbits. Humans in the series don't call themselves "Sunians" or "Solians" though on occasion we've seen the Sun referred to as "Terra" and, this, at times humans referred to as "Terrans" but that seems to mostly be a rare alien name for us. More often than not our characters are called "Humans."

Hell, I think the only alien race in the series granted a name to their planet is the Klingons, their planet being Qo'nos. And that's ignoring the name "Kling" given to it in TOS.

So given how we've been shown to see how aliens are named in the Star Trek universe the Tamarians are from a habitable planet around the star called Tama. "Children of Tama", then, may be pejorative term for the aliens. Or could just be the way the UT translated the local name for the aliens into "English" and it came out in the same rather goofy manner the rest of their language does.

Picard conversing in the Tamarian language with the Tamarian First Officer, who says, "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel," is one of my favorite scenes in TNG.

Yeah, I like that line too, showing the significance of the events, entering what happened in the episode into Tamarian lore.

 

[Timo]

The name Kling wasn't actually given to the Klingon homeworld in TOS - the word "Kling" or perhaps "Klin" was only ever spoken in TNG "Heart of Glory". And in a context that makes it unlikely it is the name of a location: Korris refers to "the traitors of Kling", probably meaning "the people who betrayed Kling". We can speculate on what this Kling is, but the obvious interpretation is that it's the Klingon equivalent of "humanity" or "mankind"...

Also, funnily enough, the Romulans are called Romulans even in their own language: in ENT "Minefield" the universal translator and Hoshi Sato together manage to interpret the hail of a Romulan ship, sans one proper name, and T'Pol provides more data on that:

Sato: "They say they've annexed this planet in the name of something called The Romalin Star Empire."
T'Pol: "Romulan. It's pronounced Romulan."

So what we learn here is that

1) the Romulans call their realm the Romalin Star Empire nowadays, and
2) T'Pol insists on the older Vulcan pronunciation which wholly coincidentally matches an old Earth name that again wholly coincidentally is strangely apt for the sort of culture the Romulans have.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The only strange little thing I didn't like about the end of Darmok is that, after the Tamarian first officer recognizes "Picard and Dethan at El' Adrel" the Tamarians stop attacking the Enterprise.. and when they do, the bridge lights get brighter and Data remarks "power has been restored."

What?

Just because they stop shooting doesn't mean that the Tamarians have control over the power levels of the Enterprise.

 

[Trekker4747]

Just because they stop shooting doesn't mean that the Tamarians have control over the power levels of the Enterprise.

No, but it does mean the damage was superficial and the engineering crews had repaired the damage in the intervening time.