Darmok and Gilaad at Tenagra.

[coloradodem2005]

[disgruntled_goat]

1. shaka! his eyes open!

all language is a series of interlocking metaphors. :)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

2. Kitell..his eyes closed.

Chinza at court..the court of silence..CHINZA!

[Lorien]

3. Gawd, I'm so embarrassed

that I knew what that was from!

[fleabert]

4. me too. nt

[Swamp Rat]

7. LOL! Me three! n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

9. Hizzani's children, their eyes red, their faces wet!

translation: "Gawd, I'm so embarrassed" :-)

[lenidog]

14. Why!? It was probably one of the most original episodes of any TV

show in a long time. 99% of what the show on TV today is utter mind numbing crap. At least that episode got you to think.

[Lorien]

16. I agree about 99% of what's on TV today

since Bill Moyers retired I've gotten rid of the cable and now only receive three fuzzy channels, which I almost never watch. Thank goodness for Netflix!

[lenidog]

17. I had to keep it for

watching "Law & Order," "Law & Order SVU," Turner Classic Movies, Disocvery and TLC. besides those two shows their is nothing I regularly watch anymore on TV.

[Salviati]

5. Shaka, when the walls fell.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I thought that was one of the most fascinating and original

Star Trek episodes ever written. A twist to communication that was inspired writing, no doubt.

[Lilith Velkor]

8. Juliet on the balcony.

[Elidor]

10. Gollum with Frodo's finger, dancing on the edge of the precipice

[ltfranklin]

11. "George on the toilet seat, his face strained!"

[RevCheesehead]

12. George, in the classroom, with a pet goat

on edit: (sadly) when the walls fell.

[Elidor]

13. Frank Booth huffing gas: "I'll fuck anything that moves!"

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

15. The Prisoner, on an island, asking

"Who is Number One?"

:evilgrin:

That one episode was special-- it highlights a concept I've always thought about-- just HOW would we start communication with a truly unique intelligence? One needs a Rosetta Stone to translate a new language from noise to intelligence-- Picard's Stone was the being himself telling stories and then ultimately illustrating them so the meaning became clear.

It's the only way it would work. No Universal Translator. No telepath reading minds. No fish in your ear. Just intelligence, inspiration, and a little input.

Who IS Number One?

[lenidog]

19. I think it also spoke of the universality of myth

(Joseph Campbell would be proud) because Picard tells him one of our oldest myth (Gilgamesh and Enkidu) and the alien understands even though he is separated by 5 thousand years and millions of light years from the origin of the tale.

[RevCheesehead]

20. exactly right.

That episode aired just two days before my Old Testament finals in seminary. Simply hearing "Gilgamesh" reduced me to tears. At that moment, my best friend called, with the same reaction. (Our OT professor was an asshole; the Gilgamesh reference gave us hope that at least the REST of the world understood.)

[lenidog]

21. Don't get me started on that or I'll start getting misty eyed

I mean I think it is so great that here we are 5,000 years down the road and we still tell the tale of Gilgamesh or 3,000 years down the road we still talk of Troy. I mean think of it nations have risen and fallen, languages born and died and people today still read the tales and through all those years there is something that still connects us with them. When I was stationed in Europe I made it a point to travel all over on leave. I went to Troy to say that I actually stood on the spot where Hector and Achilles fought. Here I am 3,000 years after the event in a land unknown and a tongue yet unborn in their time. Its very humbling.

[RevCheesehead]

22. Time is but a human creation, my friend.

Eternity is timelessness.

I had the same feeling visiting the John Wesley house in London. I got to sit at the old pump-organ that Charles owned - the place where he wrote his hymns. One of my favored posessions is a photo of me at John Wesley's grave (he was/is the founder of Methodism). I felt an instant connection to something I had only before read about... it became real for me.

Aw, hell - even flying over the ocean connected me with my great-great-grandparents and their boat-journey 160 years earlier. It reminded me of Isaac Watts' hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."

"A thousand ages in thy sight, are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night, before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all who breathe away; they fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day."

Nothing wrong in feeling sentimental. :)

[EstimatedProphet]

18. Abbot, explaining who is on first to Costello

[Lilith Velkor]

23. B*sh lands on the USS Lincoln.

[philosophie_en_rose]

24. Rush, when the pills fell.

x( :hurts: x(

[RevCheesehead]

25. Daryn, her eyes opened wide

:wow: Aaaargh!

[WildEyedLiberal]

26. OMG, I get that reference immediately

A nerd is me.