Still, my question remains. Janeway couldn’t get one of her crew to rig up a photon torpedo with a timer, beam it over to the array and get the hell out of there?
And there was a voyager episode where they did something exactly like that.
Refer to my first post and the ones following it characterizing Janeway as bipolar. 
I’m sure that if the writers had thought of that, they would’ve come up with a reason why it wouldn’t work.
In one episode of DS9 a race called IIRC the Skrians comes through the wormhole. The Skrian language has nothing in common with any languages in the translator database and it takes the computer a few days to translate it. Prior to that, the Skrians speak in gibberish.
The real goof is not that we hear English, but that aliens mouths move in sync with it.
I always assumed that the Federation exchanged information such as language files with friendly species or traded for them with folks like the Ferrengi. So even when meeting a species for the first time, it’s possible that their language is already programmed into the UT.
Actually, I found Janeways decisions as to when to apply the Prime Directive to be amazingly consistent.
Every time, without fail, she chose whether or not to violate the Prime Directive based on whichever option would guarantee that the ship wouldn’t make it home easily. :rolleyes:
Well, yes. But the impression I got was that the use was formulaic enough that when he wanted to express [emotion] he said “Huj aracki an kupla de” and the phrase had become equivalent to a word for [emotion]. It’s like presumably ‘odds’ and ‘ends’ meant something but now a meaning is only attatched to ‘odds and ends’.
However, it suddenly occurs to me the translator probably had knowledge of related languages so could get the literal meaning, but hadn’t had time to work out the full translation yet.
Anyway, I spoke quickly. I retract my comment. There’s still many things wrong, but that isn’t necessarily the glaring example I first guesed it was.
The problem with Darmok’s people (Tamarians?) was that they spoke in metaphor and that the subject changed according to the circumstances in which it was said. It’d be similar to Americans only speaking in colloquialisms like “he kicked the bucket” but it doesn’t always mean someone died.
Or that you will, in fact, find a boot print on the bucket.
Those boots will stick to them like a pair of Tamarian bats.
You know, I thought “Darmok” was a great episode and all, but I don’t think that language would have worked. How the heck did they tell the stories in the first place?
I saw the Voyager pilot episode, but only when it was first aired. Can someone refresh my memory about the Array? Was it technology created by the Caretaker, or was it created by some other entity/civilization?
Well, I never said the language made sense. This is the same series where Barclay, a human, “de-evolved” into some sort of arachnid creature, after all.
The metaphors used came from their mythology. I don’t recall any plot point about the idioms changing in regards to circumstances. The problem was not knowing anything about their ancient mythology. Witness the brainstorming session that Troi, Riker, and Data were doing where they were slowly picking it up.
My previous post was to Archernar.
The Array was the Caretaker’s creation, so far as I remember, Lagomorph. It was never hinted at that it had other origions.
I’ve often wondered the same thing.
How in the heck do you get somebody to understand “Juliet on the balcony” without first telling them the story of Romeo and Juliet? And how do you do that when you can only speak in metaphors?
A Pakled attempting algebra.
How else would you explain him saying the same few phrases over and over then? If the meaning didn’t change, then he might as well been telling Picard he found hairless simians sexually attractive ad nauseum.
The Caretaker was a higher advanced noncorporeal lifeform (known as the Nacene), who came from another galaxy. They were explorers to an extraordinary degree. The array was simply one tool made by them. Other info about them is shrouded in mystery (except to Kes).
Thanks much.
Re: “Darmok”, I remember there was a scene (after they figure the aliens’ language out) where Picard is telling the other Captain some of OUR myths…so they could use those metaphors in the future. But I also always wondered how the aliens told the stories in the first place too.
Point me to where your assumption is even hinted at in the episode and I’ll grant it to you. Otherwise, your explanation makes little practical sense.
But, hey. I’m always open to new ideas…
Watch it again.
At the end, when Picard is back on the bridge using their language. When he says “Darmok and Jilahd, on the ocean”
The alien captain says “Picard and (I can’t remember) at Il Adril.”