2.2 — “Bem”
Plot: Kirk and a landing party beam down to explore a planet inhabited by aboriginal life forms, taking with them a guest alien observer, Honorary Commander Ari bn Bem, who has been visting the Enterprise. “Bem” turns out to have his own agenda, which mostly involves exasperating the Captain. On top of that, the aborigines turn out to be dangerous, and there’s a strange power on the planet lurking unseen….
Thoughts: This episode has quite a bit of droll humor, courtesy of screenwriter David Gerrold, of “Tribbles” fame. I like “How do we always end up like this?” and “There are times, Mister Spock, when I think I should have been a librarian.” He is very good at writing interplay between the main characters.
Bem’s legs separating from his body is certainly a memorable idea, although I don’t know how the body parts float through the air (or water). Gerrold reveals in an audio commentary included with my DVD set that his original conception was to create a character so illogical that Spock would become “prejudiced” against it. This seems to have shifted in the writing, as Bem spends most of the eipsode aggravating Kirk instead.
This is the episode that establishes that Kirk’s middle name is Tiberius. Gene Roddenberry said that he didn’t think events in TAS should be considered canon (although I believe a new consensus on this point has developed since his death), but this delicious middle name was confirmed when it was used again in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Despite the middle name and the teleplay’s authorship by David Gerrold, I don’t think this is a great episode. Part of the reason may be that, according to Gerrold, Gene Roddenberry told him during the story development process that he should include a scene in which the crew finds “God” on the planet. Gerrold says his reaction was to groan–haven’t we done that idea to death already? I agree. To make matters worse, the artistic execution of the God entity, while creative, also wound up looking just like the (arguably less powerful) entity in TOS 3.18, “The Lights of Zetar.”
2 out of 5 cages made out of sticks.
Leave a Reply