Mike Hardisty

Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel

Mike Hardisty -

Lessons in storytelling from Star Trek: The Next Generation

First, you'll need some context

To understand this post, you need to watch the episode or read the spoiler.

Watch the episode

The episode is called Darmok. It is Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 2. In the US, the show is available on Netflix, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video.

Read my brief spoiler

The main characters of the show, led by Captain Picard, encounter an alien race called the Tamarians (or the Children of Tama). No one can understand the Tamarians as they seem to speak gibberish.


Some examples:

  • Rai and Jiri at Lungha
  • Kadir beneath Mo Moteh
  • The river Temarc in winter
  • Shaka. When the walls fell...
  • Mirab. His sails unfurled.

Even in the fantastical Star Trek universe, these names and places are meaningless. No progress is made. Both sides are frustrated until eventually, the Tamarian captain pulls out two knives and says, "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." The Tamarian captain and Captain Picard are teleported away to a planet called El-Adrel IV. Through the episode, they are forced to work together to fight a dangerous beast.


The critical turning point of the episode is when Captain Picard realizes the Tamarians speak only in allegory. In Tamarian history, Darmok and Jalad were two foes who were forced to fight a common enemy on an island called Tanagra. By bringing Captain Picard to the planet, Captain Dathon replicates the story.


Of course, without the context of Tamarian history, communication was impossible. It's as if you were to say "Romeo and Juliet at the balcony" or "Jonah and the whale" to an alien race. We know those are a Shakespearean play and a bible story. We have the context.

Could this actually work as a language?

Probably not. As Picard and his crew discover, this form of communication depends on knowing the stories behind each of the phrases. It's not far off though.

There are dozens of real world examples that could be translated into the Tamarian way of speaking. These can be drawn from the bible (David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale) or Aesop's fables (The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf). Each of these carries its own standalone idea.

In the same way, we use proverbial phrases like "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and "don't rock the boat". There are dozens of these sayings. Wikipedia even maintains this list. These shortcuts let us communicate more effectively, assuming the listener understands the meaning of the phrase.

You have also probably heard of mental models. Academics don't seem to agree on a single definitions so I'll provide my own. A mental model is a representation of the world that shortcuts complexity with simpler, true-most-of-the-time principles.

If you are a die-hard productivity nerd, you have probably heard of the Eisenhower matrix, the Pareto principle, or the POSEC method. Each of these models represents a time-management philosophy meant to help prioritize and organize your life. You could think of these models as the fables of the business world.

So what?

What Star Trek shows us through Darmok is that our shared history is part of our language. If we use those stories as a framework, they can carry our meaning with little explanation.

For example, engineers frequently employ Murphy's law (If anything can go wrong, it will) to motivate design decisions and testing strategies. They don't need to convince each other. If someone has doubts about a particular part failing under some special condition, they can cite Murphy's Law and get help to fix the possible failure condition.

Our shared experience isn't static

In one of the closing scenes of this episode, the first officer of the opposing ship says, "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel" to acknowledge that Picard and Dathon's experience can itself be shared as a lesson among the Children of Tama.

What does it mean though? Maybe "Picard and Dathon" will be a lesson about communicating with other intelligent species or a warning about the dangers of forcing someone into a dangerous situation. Either way, Picard's experience is added to the Tamarian vernacular.