The Enterprise tries for the eighth time in a century to contact the Children of Tama, a peaceful, well-intentioned advanced race whose language is indecipherable. Their words translate as descriptive phrases of people and places.
When the two races fail again in their attempt to understand each other, the Tamarians beam Picard and their own captain Dathon to a rugged planet nearby. The Tamarian ship blocks all attempts by the Enterprise crew to beam up Captain Picard.
A wary Picard, realizing Dathon means him no harm, accepts help to survive the night. He’s still trying to fathom the Tamarian’s purpose when the two are forced to combine their efforts to fight a predatory electromagnetic creature. Above, Riker and the Tamarians dicker over their captains’ safety and almost go to war when the starship makes a concerted effort to rescue Picard.
That attempt ends in failure, but not before Picard’s momentary dematerialization allows the magnetic creature to critically injure Dathon. Finally Picard catches on: the Tamarians speak in abstract narrative images based in folklore. “Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra” learned to understand each other by facing a common foe ­ just like “Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.”
A second rescue attempt by the Enterprise succeeds in saving Picard from the creature, but the Tamarians are ready to open fire until the Enterprise captain speaks to them, praising their late leader. Contact having been successfully established, Picard is left to wonder if he would knowingly sacrifice his life for the sake of making contact with another race.
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Joe Menosky, who would leave the staff at season’s end for a sabbatical in Italy, drew high praise from Michael Piller for the work he did bringing to life this episode, which Piller said had the longest gestation period of any episode during his tenure. The inability to communicate had been the central theme of a story by Philip Lazebnik, but it was Menosky who worked out the Tamarians’ language of allusion and metaphor. He also changed the story’s focus from a complex and confusing “ant farm” visit to an exploration of the two strong commanders, Picard and Dathon.
Ashley Judd, the youngest sister of Wynnona of the singing Judd family, makes her debut here as Ensign Lefler. She will pick up a first name and a love interest in “The Game”. We also learn that Data has met some 1,754 different races in his twenty-six years with Starfleet.
Outdoor scenes were shot over two days near the Bronson Caves, an area off the canyon below the famous Hollywood sign. Legato said the glowing creature, portrayed by stunt extra Rex Pierson, was realized with a less expensive version of the Terminator 2-type melting effects. Going from tape to film and back again, the creature was shot against a blue screen on fast video and developed on film 10 stops over the exposure.
Though its name is unseen, the Magellan shuttlecraft debuted here, giving the series a long-sought larger shuttle whose miniature matched its full-scale set. And in one of the series’ rare effects bloopers, phaser fire is seen erupting from the forward photon torpedo launcher.
Ambassador T’Pel (Sub-Commander Selok): Sierra Pecheur
Commander Mendak: Alan Scarfe
Transporter Chief Hubbell: April Grace
V’Sal: Shelly Desai
Data’s understanding of human behavior is put to the test when his friend Keiko Ishikawa gets cold feet on the eve of her wedding to Lieutenant O’Brien and calls off the ceremony.
Logically, the android reasons, if calling off the wedding makes her happy it will make O’Brien happy, too. Of course, when Data delivers the news to the transporter chief he quickly discovers otherwise. Geordi, however, assures him the ceremony will take place, so the android purchases a gift with Worf’s assistance and takes dancing lessons from Dr. Crusher.
Meanwhile, the whole crew ­ except for Data ­ is made edgy by the presence of Ambassador T’Pel, a cooler-than-usual Vulcan en route to historic treaty negotiations with the Romulans in the Neutral Zone. But shortly after Data refuses to grant the ambassador access to security information for which she has not been cleared, she is killed in a mysterious transporter accident.
With her death, the treaty negotiations are called off, and the Romulans prepare to depart. But a probe, led by Data in his Sherlock Holmes persona, turns up signs that her death was faked. Confronted with this information, Romulan Commander Mendak reveals the truth: T’Pel was actually a deep-cover spy for his Empire.
The danger passed, the mood turns more joyful. Data walks his friend Keiko down the aisle, and she and O’Brien are married in a ceremony performed by Picard.
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A marvelous and ambitious show relished by trivia fans, this day-in-the-life plot was the first attempted in any of Trek’s various incarnations. Harold Apter first pitched the story during the third season, and various viewpoints including Picard’s and that of the ship itself were considered for the narrative. Ronald D. Moore recalled that Data was the final choice because “he’s the only one who’s up twenty-four hours a day.” Michael Piller then agreed with Rick Berman that at least one plot arc should run through the story, and the Romulan-Vulcan spy intrigue was added.
Director Robert Wiemer revealed that Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden worked up their own dialogue as well as their dance routine during after-hours rehearsals, and the lines they created were later accepted by the scriptwriters. The director, though, took credit for Data’s “pasted-on” smile at the end of the dancing scene. Spiner ­ who, Wiener said, did “99 percent” of his own tap routine ­ was as good as his double but was modest enough to let the double perform to ensure the routine’s quality.
The writing staff had toyed with the idea of a shipboard marriage for some time. Piller at one point even quietly inquired about marrying Picard off to provide some new story dynamics. Pairing O’Brien with the female conn officer slated to replace Wesley was also considered. Finally a wedding was proposed for the day-in-the-life story and Keiko was conceived. The part is played by Rosalind Chao, a close friend of Elizabeth “Shelby” Dennehy and an earlier candidate for a recurring role on the show. Chao is probably best remembered as Corporal Klinger’s war bride on M*A*S*H and After M*A*S*H Loads of Enterprise trivia can be found in this story. On SD 44390, for example, the 1,550th day since the starship’s commissioning (SD 40759.5 ­ or October 4, 2363, according to Okuda and Sternbach’s technical manual, Data is still writing to Commander Bruce Maddox at the Daystrom Institute. For the first time, we see the android’s cat, an idea Spiner proposed; the cat would get a name later, in “In Theory”. Data records that the starship’s day included four birthdays, two transfers, four promotions, two chess tournaments, a secondary school play, a celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights, various accidents, the birth of the Juarezes’ baby, and the O’Brien-Ishikawa wedding.
Meanwhile, fans of the original series will notice that Picard’s wedding remarks are the same, word for word, as those with which Kirk began in 1966’s “Balance of Terror.” Also, the Murasaki Quasar mentioned here may be the same as Murasaki 312, which appeared in 1967’s “The Galileo Seven.” The Andorians are mentioned for the first time since “The Offspring” a year earlier in a reference to their bizarre wedding ritual; likewise, the Bolians reappear (“Conspiracy”; “Allegiance”) with Shelly Desai playing the first in a string of Bolian barbers (“The Host”, “Ensign Ro”). And the USS Zhukov, which ferries the Romulan spy, was earlier referred to as Barclay’s last assignment (“Hollow Pursuits”).
The ship’s arboretum, mentioned on several other occasions as a socializing site, makes its debut here ­ but as a work site for Keiko, a biologist. Another first is this show’s glimpse of people “shopping” at the ship’s replication center, where we discover Worf’s appreciation of fine glass bird sculpture.
Data experiences an almost human expectancy when the Enterprise returns to his “home” planet in Omicron Theta to discover the secret behind the disappearance of its 411 colonists twenty-six years before.
An away team finds the lab of the reclusive Dr. Noonian Soong, a renegade Earth scientist who originally built a “twin” of Data’s named Lore. Over time, the crew learns that Lore was disassembled at the demand of the colonists for being “too perfect.” Data was the second model.
Lore’s disassembled parts are found, rebuilt, and reanimated aboard the ship. But the reason for the android’s original disassembly soon becomes clear ­ he turns Data off and assumes his identity. He then summons the huge life-draining crystal entity that destroyed the colony years before after being lured there by him as revenge for his disassembly.
Wesley senses the switch, but no one listens to him until it’s almost too late. Finally his mother learns the truth and reactivates Data, but by then the crystalline being is almost upon the ship.
The two androids fight each other in a cargo bay until Lore is thrown into a wide-dispersal transporter beam. The crystalline being now has no contact with the Enterprise, and it departs.
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By the end of season one, this episode was being cited by Berman as the one that changed the most from its inception. Lore was originally a female android, a non-lookalike love interest for Data. Her job was to go out and repair dangerous situations a la Red Adair, the oil well fire fighter. It was Spiner who suggested the old “evil twin” concept.
Because of the delays caused by rewrites, Rob Bowman landed this segment instead of its predecessor, switching with Joe Scanlan when the two stories traded places in the shooting schedule. Though he regretted losing a chance to direct “The Big Goodbye,” Bowman and Spiner met the challenge of “Datalore” and its troubled history head on. They produced a winner, thanks in no small part to an extra eighth day of shooting and to Spiner’s virtuosity in the dual role.
The original back story of Data’s creation by an alien race was tossed out. What emerged in its stead was the story of an android who originated in the laboratories of the Federation’s most brilliant cybernetics expert, Dr. Noonian Soong. Data’s positronic brain ­ an homage to the late sci-fi writer, Isaac Asimov ­ was foreshadowed as early as October 28, 1986, when Justman suggested in a memo that the author’s “Laws of Robotics” be used and that a spoken credit be given. We discover in this episode that Data spent four years at Starfleet Academy, three years as an ensign, and ten or twelve years in the lieutenant grades. We also learn that only Beverly Crusher knows about his off switch. Two additional stories, “Brothers” and “Silicon Anatar” eventually stemmed from this episode. In addition, we learn that there is an “emergency close” vocal command that can shut the turbolift doors in a second, and that a phaser beam can be trapped within a transporter beam if timed just right. This episode would be the last of Yeager’s three stints as Chief Engineer Argyle.
In a rare verbal blooper, Riker drops a digit from his away team log stardate, giving the date as 4124.5 ­ the style used in the original Trek’s stardates.
A diplomatic mission provides the setting for Wesley’s first romance when the ship must ferry home a princess and her overprotective guardian.
As Troi worries that the two passengers are not what they seem, Wesley seeks advice on how to handle his emotions. Meanwhile, the princess’s guardian Anya grows irrational at any hint of danger to Salia.
When Anya transforms herself into a dangerously violent creature to challenge Worf, Dr. Pulaski realizes that Salia’s people are allasomorphs, or shape-changers.
To avoid a fight, Picard orders Wesley to stay away from Salia, but Wesley cannot, and their meetings continue until Anya discovers them. When Salia matches Anya’s transformation with one of her own, Wesley is stunned, and he deserts her.
Wes at first rebuffs Salia’s apologies for having deceived him, but he finally overcomes his pride and brings her a peace offering: another bowl of the chocolate mousse they once enjoyed together.
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This simple story by the early-season story editors at last gives Wesley a contemporary problem and his first romance. It was a special thrill for Wil Wheaton: not only was it the sixteen-year-old’s first screen kiss but actress Jamie Hubbard was ten years his senior! “Dauphin” (pronounced doe-fan), incidentally, was the title given to the eldest son of the king of France from 1349 to 1830. The original Trek had included at least two references to shape-shifters: the people of Antos IV in “Whom Gods Destroy” and the Vendorians in “The Survivor,” an episode of the animated series.
Seen only briefly here, Madchen Amick ­ Hubbard’s runner-up for the role of Salia ­ would go on to much more exposure as Leo Johnson’s unfortunate wife Shelly on Twin Peaks.
The folks at the Post Group stayed extra busy with “The Dauphin,” adding a seventh twenty-hour day to their week to create the shape transformations and the world the young couple visits on the holodeck. Two of the ten shots required for the Rousseau V asteroid ring required over 110 layers each, while some twenty-five steps were needed for each of the allasomorphs’ seven transformations. Still, Rob Bowman thought the monster outfits looked cheap and reduced their screen time as much as possible.
An unusual touch is seen in Wes Crusher’s quarters: just as Anya resumes her shape, you can see on the shelf behind her a display cube with an old-style Kirk-era phaser and communicator.
Sub-Lieutenant Setal (Admiral Jarok): James Sloyan
Commander Tomalak: Andreas Katsulas
Admiral Haden: John Hancock
John Bates: S. A. Templeman
Michael Williams: Patrick Stewart
While fleeing his own people across the Neutral Zone in a small scout, a low-level Romulan tactical clerk asks for asylum, bringing with him shocking news: the Romulans plan to retake that buffer area after almost two hundred years.
Can Picard trust the defector? A probe finds some cloaklike spatial disturbances at the Nelvana III site mentioned by Setal, the defector, but this evidence of his good faith is fragile at best ­ certainly not reason enough to justify crossing the Neutral Zone and risking war.
Then the lowly clerk reveals himself as the Romulan admiral Jarok, and provides Picard with defense and planning data he has seen. His defection, he says, was prompted by the blind aggression of the new Romulan command ­ and by concern for his daughter’s future if a senseless war breaks out.
But the truth is revealed when the Enterprise risks a Neutral Zone encounter: no invasion is planned; the signs of activity were faked. Three warbirds decloak and demand that the Enterprise surrender. Jarok, already in disfavor for his protests, has been used.
All seems lost until, on a prearranged signal, three Klingon ships appear. With the odds reversed, the warbirds leave, but the Romulan admiral knows what his fate will be. He is found in his cabin, dead by suicide, leaving only a letter that Picard wistfully hopes can be delivered to his home someday ­ in peace.
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Surprisingly enough, what writer Ronald D. Moore calls “the Cuban Missile Crisis at the Neutral Zone” at one point during rewrites became a love story between Crusher and Jarok. That angle was eventually written out except for the scene in which she treats the Romulan in sickbay. A planned Sherlock Holmes teaser with Data was cut just two days before filming began due to a lawsuit, Piller recalled, and he turned to Stewart as company scholar for help in picking out a replacement. They decided on Henry V, with a heavily made-up Stewart in the role of Michael Williams, one of the soldiers.
Adding to the tension and tragic nature of James Sloyan’s performance and the story were the visual effects, which gave us for the first time in any Trek a glimpse ­ almost a travelogue ­ of Romulus. Also new for this episode were the Romulan scout vessel and the third and final version of the Starfleet admiral’s uniform.
A puzzling reference into Trek’s own history is the mention of renewed Romulan bitterness over their “humiliating” defeat at the Battle of Cheron, apparently fought during the original Earth-Romulan War a century before Kirk’s time and first mentioned in “Balance of Terror” in 1966. Two seasons later, however, in 1969’s “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” Cheron was an unknown but long-dead world where two advanced native races had destroyed each other over racial bigotry.
More trivia: Jarok is unable to synthesize Romulan ale, referred to as illegal decades earlier in Star Trek II. The Hood, spoken of here, was Riker’s prior assignment, as mentioned in “Farpoint” and an original Kirk-era starship, from 1968’s “The Ultimate Computer.” And in a rare verbal homage to anime, the alleged base site, Nelvana III, takes its name from a famous Canadian animation studio.
As if Picard didn’t have enough headaches trying to keep Bre’el IV’s moon from crashing into the planet, Q shows up, claiming to be powerless. The alien says he’s been evicted by the Q Continuum for his past mischief.
Data is assigned to keep an eye on Q, whose story no one believes ­ until a gaseous Calamarain life-form catches up with Q to exact a little revenge. Realizing Q really is defenseless, Data gets a severe electrical shock trying to protect him from the Calamarain.
Q is moved by the android’s sacrifice for him and steals a shuttlecraft to lure away the Calamarain so the Enterprise can lower its shields and get on with trying to save Bre’el IV.
But just as Picard tries to talk Q out of sacrificing himself, another Q arrives in the shuttle to say the Continuum was pleased with Q1’s selfless act. The visitor restores his powers ­ on a probationary basis.
Overjoyed, Q celebrates by providing a mariachi band, cigars, and women for the bridge crew. Furious again, Picard orders him off the Enterprise ­ but not before Q rewards Data with a one-time belly laugh as a lesson in humanity.
As Picard is wondering whether Q is finally going to learn a lesson himself, the impish being returns with a warning: “Don’t bet on it.”
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This story, midyear staff writer Richard Danus’s only solo effort, provided some of the best comic scenes in either Trek series. After five appearances, de Lancie said his hardest TNG scenes yet to film were the bridge scenes, which went on from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving eve. Not only did his simulated trumpet playing require several takes, but after finding no way to fake the scene in which he appears suspended in the nude, he finally just did it au naturel.
The script originally told the story of a looming Klingon-Federation war that was actually caused by Q, who faked his loss of powers and then later rushed in to become a hero. Piller said GR suggested the portrayal of a godlike creature cut down to size. Most scenes are played for laughs, especially that ending, with the mariachi band, blondes, and cigars ­ although Q’s reunion with Guinan leaves the viewer with chills when Guinan tries to stab Q with a fork.
Best known for his well-regarded performances as divorce attorney Arnie Becker on L.A. Law, Corbin Bernsen has said he took the role of Q2 not so much as a fan of Trek but to be a part of its legacy and its humanistic outlook.
The Berthold rays used by the Calamarain’s scanning beam were previously referred to in original Trek’s 1967 segment, “This Side of Paradise.” We also learn in this story that Data requires no food but occasionally “eats” semiorganic nutrient suspension in a silicone-based liquid medium to lubricate his biofunctions.
Story by Philip Lazebnick and William Douglas Lansford
GUEST CAST
Ardra: Marta Dubois
Dr. Clarke: Paul Lambert
Jared: Marcello Tubert
Devil Monster: Thad Lamey
Klingon Monster: Tom Magee
Marley: William Glover
An emergency transmission from a Federation science station sends the Enterprise to Ventax II, where Picard and crew discover a peaceful but meek people about to hand over their world to a woman who claims she is the planet’s devil, Ardra.
It seems the pollution-plagued, war-torn Ventaxians generations ago made a pact with Ardra: a thousand years of peace and health in return for their eternal slavery. The Ventaxians had long thought the tale a legend until the shape-changing Ardra showed up.
Picard draws Ardra’s wrath when he refuses her sexual advances, and she makes the starship “disappear.” As La Forge races to discover a power source behind her “special effects,” Ardra agrees to a legal contest on the real-enough contracts and her identity, with Data as magistrate.
Picard tries to convince the Ventaxian leader, Jared, that his people are responsible for their own prosperity, but when Ardra runs through her illusions again, Jared agrees to submit to her judgment.
Finally, La Forge locates her cloaked orbiting ship and enables Picard to tap into its power systems, revealing Ardra as just another con artist.
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Like “The Child”, this story predates TNG ­ to at least August 16, 1977, when the Lansford story turned up in a status memo for the 1970’s Star Trek II TV series. Its “Devil and Daniel Webster” plot, originally unearthed during TNG’s third-season story pinch, eventually bore the mark of a score of TNG staff writers. In the end, it was Trek fan and Wings staff writer Philip Lazebnick’s comic touches that survived, along with Piller’s idea of making the “devil” a female.
The 1977 outline reads like a 1960’s Trek episode. In it a demonstrative Captain Kirk fast-talks planet Neuterr out of falling for an impostor’s scam, exposing the “devil” as merely the mental energy of a surviving planetary elder and his original fellow council members.
Although familiar actresses like Stella Stevens and Adrienne Barbeau were considered, the role of Ardra went to Marta DuBois, Magnum’s estranged wife on Magnum P.I., after her several earlier TNG auditions were well received but did not fit the character at hand.
Though some may regard it as the Klingon devil, Fek’lhr as seen here is carefully described as the guardian of Gre’thor, the hereafter where the Klingon dishonored go after they die. This is consistent with the fact that Klingons have no devil ­ a detail that was revealed in 1969’s “Day of the Dove.”
