Captain of a Tamarian starship who made a heroic attempt to establish communication with the Federation in 2368. Past efforts between the "Children of Tama" and Federation ships to start a dialog over the course of a century failed due to their "incomprehensible" form of language. So Dathon isolated himself and Enterprise-D Captain Picard on the surface of planet El-Adrel IV, where he hoped that face-to-face contact and a shared danger would enable Picard to grasp the unusual nature of Tamarian speech. Although Dathon died from wounds inflicted by a beast on El-Adrel IV, Dathon was ultimately successful in his quest as Picard came to understand the fact that Tamarian speech was based entirely on metaphors.