Burnham and Tilly encounter a fascinating new alien language in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, reminding us of a classic TNG episode.
Summary
- “Whistlespeak” in Star Trek: Discovery pays homage to TNG’s “Darmok” with a unique language element.
- Despite a promising setup, Discovery’s use of whistlespeak was abandoned early in the episode.
- The episode missed an opportunity to use whistlespeak creatively to resolve the story’s conflict.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, “Whistlespeak” contains a welcome reminder of a classic episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Discovery season 5 is a sequel to TNG season 6, episode 20, “The Chase”, and so connections to the iconic Star Trek show are expected. Discovery season 5, episode 6, written by Kenneth Lin and Brandon Schultz, and directed by Chris Byrne, is a reminder of a completely different TNG episode, however. In “Whistlespeak”, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) visit the pre-warp planet of Halem’no, where Burnham’s forced to break the Prime Directive.
While the story of a pre-warp society forming a religion around failing technology is a well-worn Star Trek trope now, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6 makes a good stab at bringing something new to the table. One of the most interesting aspects of “Whistlespeak” is the titular language spoken by the Halem’nites. At the start of the episode, Burnham explains to Tilly that the Halem’nites have two languages, a phonetic language for day-to-day interactions, and whistlespeak for communication across distances. This completely alien language is a reminder of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 2, “Darmok”.
How Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 6 Recalls TNG’s “Darmok”
In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 2, “Darmok”, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is stranded on an alien world with a Tamarian captain whose complex language of metaphors is incompatible with the universal translator. It’s only through unpicking the alien language of Captain Dathon (Paul Winfield) that Picard can find a way off the planet. “Darmok” is one of Captain Picard’s best TNG episodes, and a wonderful Star Trek story about the importance of communication, no matter how alien the other person’s language is.
“Darmok” marked Starfleet’s official First Contact with the Tamarians, leading to at least one member of the species, Kayshon, becoming a Starfleet officer in Star Trek: Lower Decks .
From the opening, it appeared that Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, “Whistlespeak” was going to tell a similar story. However, Burnham and Tilly’s universal translators quickly translate the Halem’nites’ second language before they even beam down to the surface. It’s odd that understanding and using Halem’nite whistlespeak isn’t a key part of the story, especially as Tilly becomes stranded inside the High Summit weather station with Ravah (June Laporte). Despite this great distance, Burnham doesn’t deploy any whistlespeak to help Ravah and Tilly with their predicament, instead opting to beam directly into the weather station’s control room.
Why Discovery Season 5, Episode 6 Didn’t Do More With Whistlespeak
Star Trek‘s Tamarians unique language of metaphors was certainly easier to write in the script for Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Darmok”. Lines like “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” are more poetic and enigmatic than increasingly complicated whistling. It’s likely for this reason that Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6 abandoned whistlespeak almost immediately, barring the coda at the end of the episode. There was perhaps a feeling among Discovery‘s writers that having Burnham and Tilly communicate purely by whistling would undermine the life-threatening drama of the situation.
The weather station in which Tilly and Ravah were trapped was designed by Star Trek: Enterprise ‘s Denobulans, who installed them on Halem’no to help its people cope with the punishing dust storms.
Given that the whistespeak was a unique element of Star Trek: Discovery‘s formulaic pre-warp planet, it feels disappointing that the episode didn’t do more with it. Burnham could have saved herself from breaking the Prime Directive by using whistlespeak to communicate some means to stop the weather tower from suffocating Ravah and Tilly to death. Instead, “Whistlespeak” opted for an abrupt conclusion that just beamed Burnham into the heart of the action to save the day. However, given that Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Darmok” is an unimpeachable classic, it may have been wise for Star Trek: Discovery to avoid remaking it.
