Comic 902: XKCD:TNG

Alt Text: I wonder how often Patrick Stewart has Darmok flashbacks when talking to Star Trek fans.

So we have a reference to an old Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. In case you didn't waste your life watching such programmes, the episode revolves around an encounter with an alien species that uses a language based entirely on cultural references, and (probably unintentionally) makes the whole 'universal translator that helps everyone understand one another' thing look a bit silly. The crew and the aliens have problems understanding one another, and the breakthrough in communication is made when the alien captain kidnaps Picard and transports both of them down to a planet to fight an invisible monster. Through the power of teamwork and friendship, they overcome their ludicrous, self-imposed trial and Picard learns a few phrases. The alien captain, however, dies of stupidity.

This comic may well have worked, if Randall wasn't forcing into a stick-figure format. His original reasoning for using the blank faces – that the reader can better identify with the protagonist – is completely irrelevant here. These are all well-known characters. As such, the attempt to draw the alien is pretty horrific, and the wink has to be identified with a hugely ridiculous... well, sound effect, I guess. If drawn and coloured decently, the comic might have worked.

Randall also seems to be drawing some nerd rage because he 'incorrectly' quoted the episode (it should be 'Tanagra', not 'Kalenda', apparently). This of course ignores the possibility that Randall is just making up a new phrase, one that means something different from the phrase in the episode.

Finally, the alt-text here actually made me laugh. A bit of self-denigration about nerds talking in shitty pop-culture references, wrapped up in a neat little sentence that contains a pop-culture reference? That is probably the best thing he has done in quite some time.