The plot involves Captain Picard's attempts to communicate with an alien captain, with whom he has been stranded on a hostile planet. The story provides an contemporary example of the problems with communication with someone speaking a metaphorical language.
It features Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, and Dathon of the alien Tamarian race, played by Paul Winfield. The Tamarian language, although translated by Picard's universal translator device, is still unintelligible, because it is too deeply rooted in local metaphor to communicate ideas. Eventually Picard grasps the similarities between the alien's references, and make connections to story references in the alien's literature.
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