Bem

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (Bem)

A promising episode let down by a confused ending, but I'll get to that. The Bem of the title is an outlandish alien who looks like a cross between a Cardassian, a Talaxian and an Orion (if the first couple of races had existed in Trek back then, which they didn't), and is an independent observer from the planet Pandronia, or was it Pandro, I forget. Anyway, he, or they as might be better to say when we find out the nature of him/it, is quite alien and unknown to the Enterprise crew because of being part of a recently contacted race, a handy idea so they can get away with not knowing the race's true nature in the story, but in reality it's hard to believe Starfleet would allow an outsider as a visitor on the ship for any length of time without first vetting the species - they could be allies of the Klingons, or have dangerous attitudes that could get others killed! However this came about, and I do like the idea of guest observers on starships for all its security implications, it was always interesting when done in later Trek (I think of the Benzite, or Riker doing an officer transfer on a Klingon ship, both in 'TNG'), it sets up the pattern of the episode: Bem has his own ideas about testing Kirk and is dishonest from the start.

It was amusing to see the Transporter make a 'mistake' and when the Landing Party beams down (inadvisedly comprised of the first four command-ranked officers going by who takes the Bridge when Kirk's away: Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Sulu), Kirk and Spock materialise over open water while the others appear on solid ground. It's an idea that at first seems fun, then you think the Transporter would surely have programming to prevent such a potentially embarrassing, at the least, deadly, at the worst, eventuality from occurring. Fortunately it was down to Bem's interference with the technology, all done so he can sneak the Captain and First Officer's Phasers and Communicators away and replace them with duds as part of his test. This is where the episode first betrays its wacky intentions: Bem, as Spock later describes, is a 'colony creature' made up of various parts which can come apart to operate independently. If this wasn't a cartoon I'd be complaining it was cartoonish, but it is a cartoon, so you just have to accept its silliness (one reason it remains important not to acknowledge 'TAS' as canonical, other than the bits and pieces worth making so).

Bem deliberately disobeys orders and runs off on this planet of aboriginal nappy-wearing Gorn types with the intention of seeing how Kirk reacts, I suppose, it's not entirely clear exactly what he wants to see, other than how they survive without their technology. The plan was a little bonkers, just as Bem is, or shall I say alien in his thinking (and even in speech - although even that is confusing because if Bem is actually a group of creatures why does he/it still refer to themselves as 'this one,' other than so as not to give away its nature to Kirk and crew?), because it relied on Kirk and Spock being separated and choosing to pursue him on their own. It does happen, for dramatic purposes, but it needn't have. Anyway, once they're all captured it's still not really clear what Bem wants to see from Kirk, is he disappointed the Captain was captured, does he want to observe his interactions with the native race? At least there is a little wry commentary on Kirk and Spock's penchant for being held captive: Kirk actually wonders aloud how they always end up like this, Spock replying, I assume ironically or even a touch sarcastically, that it's fate, because I'm not sure he'd actually believe in such a concept which is why it seemed more likely he's as close to being flippant as a Vulcan would be. Still, we get a great line from him after Kirk considers changing careers to that of librarian (perhaps in reference to his Academy days when he was thought of as a stack of books on legs?), and Spock replies that job would be no less challenging, but a lot less dangerous!

There was a puzzling situation about the hierarchy of the Enterprise - as I mentioned before, the four top officers beam down (a real no-no, I'd have thought), so it's not clear who was in charge, though Uhura's the one they talk to on the Bridge, even though she stays at her post instead of taking the Captain's Chair. Until a little later when she does hover near it and we see M'Ress has taken her comms station, so she does seem to be the boss. It's odd, because Scotty wants to go after the Captain when he follows Bem, but Uhura is adamant that his orders must be obeyed and wants Scotty and Sulu (who appears right from the Briefing Room scene at the start and throughout, but never gets a single line), to beam back. But once Scotty's back aboard he's in charge, we see him in the Captain's Chair, so is he only in command when he's aboard ship? It's an intriguing little set of hierarchy questions and even though it's irrelevant to the story I found it to be one of the more interesting parts of the story. Both Uhura and Scotty, or I should say Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan, get more to do than usual, with Nichols as the voice of the Organian-like non-corporeal guardian of this world who oversees the aboriginal population and ensures no outside harm comes to them, while Doohan as usual performs multiple roles: he's the main guest character, Bem, as well as Arex, and as Scotty talks to himself through both of those characters, which is always entertaining!

Scotty also suffers with light coloured hair during his beam down for Kirk and Spock's rescue - did losing his Captain turn him prematurely grey? Or was it the fact that he couldn't find the Phaser Rifles which we earlier heard him ordering a security team to be equipped with, but when they actually beam down it's just standard Phasers, disappointingly? The message at first seems to be that Starfleet shouldn't be so arrogant to think they can go around the galaxy classifying planets and peoples as much as they like ('this planet is not for your use'), effectively trespassing on other races' homes, and that is a subject that could do with some exploration in Trek - in 'Beyond,' before it came out it seemed as if it would be about the final frontier pushing back and not happy about the Federation being so nosy or spreading their ways, but of course it degenerated into something far less engaging. It's a subject I can't remember being much examined, but then it wouldn't work too well if Starfleet decided to pack it in and stay within their own borders, and anyway, we know what they do is with the best intentions and sometimes even for a planet's own good, though I suppose that's drifting into Prime Directive territory which is where this angle usually goes. I suppose there was supposed to be parallels between Kirk classifying the planet and Bem testing him, but it's not all that solid.

The ending is also a little bit confused (or maybe it was just me), with the idea that Bem becomes guilty and remorseful for getting them into this mess in the first place and decides what I can only assume was meant to be a metaphor for suicide, that he, or they, should 'disassemble' as punishment. Was it that he felt bad for getting Kirk into the mess or was it that he got caught at the end by the reptile people? It was a bit extreme to suggest suicide as a punishment! The God-like Uhura voice says punishment is only necessary where learning cannot occur without it, but I'm not sure that's entirely true, the punishment itself can be a learning experience, and punishments come in all sizes, you don't have to leap to extremes. It could be read as an anti-suicide message, I suppose, but the ending was the weakest part of the episode. Perhaps episode writer David Gerrold (he of the Tribbles), was overreaching himself for what was possible in a children's cartoon? On the whole it's a reasonably entertaining story with a fun alien design, but I don't think it was capable of fully exploring the ideas that Gerrold wanted to and it comes off a bit messy. The best things about it are the technical ideas: the Transporter mistake, the ship hierarchy and a way to boost Communicators by connecting two of them together (though even there, would a powerful entity only respond when Kirk uses a boosted device to call it: 'entity, this is Captain Kirk, please respond' - that was comical).

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