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Well, I don't think a language barrier is something that doesn't exist in the ST universe. They have the universal translator, and I only remember a couple of e

Well, I don't think a language barrier is something that doesn't exist in the ST universe. They have the universal translator, and I only remember a couple of episodes where it didn't work. Certainly they ran into completely different life forms, such as silicate based and energy based where presumably communication would be a challenge. This episode explored the language barrier as the other language was referentially based and unlike our own language. It was difficult for Picard to learn. To make that the basis of an episode was unique, I thought. My other favorite episode was where Picard got shocked by a probe and lived an entire life in only a few minutes. The probe was a device to teach others about a lost culture.

thaumasiotes 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)#Critical_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(Star_Trek:_Th... But Darmok doesn't work. To say "the other language is referentially based" is conceptually incoherent. What you're really saying is that "Shaka, when the walls fell" is a very long word for "sad". If the Tamarians really don't speak except in these references, then they aren't references -- they have no internal structure and no meaning other than the surface one. The universal translator wouldn't have them saying "Shaka, when the walls fell." or "Temba, his arms wide.", it would have them saying "Sad." or "Welcome.". That's what a word is. If the Tamarians can understand a language that isn't just "references", for example because they have to teach their children to speak, then the events of the episode are nonsense, because Picard is speaking perfectly intelligibly.