Bem

I'm sorry. This is beyond stupid. Kirk and the Gang and an alien named Ben try to do research on a planet. Kirk relents when the alien keeps at him about going to the surface. Once there, he screws up everything they try to do. He looks like a Grinch in a space suit. He speaks a kind of baby talk. He has the ability to split himself into several pieces which allows him to escape from things. Just a poor excuse for an episode.

Kirk Captain becomes Captain Irk as a multifaceted observer aboard the Enterprise causes mayhem and chaos when forming part of a landing party on an unexplored planet populated by lizard aboriginals and protected by a sentient god.

"Bem" is episode 18 of the Star Trek animated series and it first aired in September 1974. It was written by Hugo and Nebula winner David Gerrold, most famous for being the author of the original series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." Like that episode, this one involved an alien creature of questionable use. Bem is from the planet Pandro, a planet recently contacted by the Federation, and his species is interested in witnessing how the captain and crew of the Enterprise conduct their missions. That mission is to a planet inhabited by reptilian creatures that have a primitive non-industrial society; therefore, their mission is to observe without being seen. Bem proves to be a nuisance, getting captain Kirk and Spock into extreme difficulty. It also turns out that the creatures are under the protection of a powerful non-corporeal entity that calls them her "children." Her words are spoken with tenderness, but she makes it clear that no violence against her charges will be tolerated. The episode has a powerful religious overtone, it is clear from the perspective of the creatures, the entity is a god. For that matter, there are hints that the crew of the Enterprise should think so too. One strong feature of the episode is the actions of Lieutenant Uhura. When Kirk, Spock and Scotty are on the surface, she directly contradicts Scotty in insisting that they must follow orders. Despite the crudity of the animation compared to what can be done now, this episode illustrates that there were things that could be done in animation that were impossible in live action. Something that makes all science fiction stories stronger if it is properly done.

As usual, the animation quality of the show is sub-par--even by 1970s standards (which were extremely low to begin with). The cell count (which controls the fluidity and realism of the animation) is terrible, the drawings amateurish (as if done by children) and the show is an abomination to lovers of animation. Trek fans might be more forgiving of this than most because of their love of the franchise, but objectively speaking it is a lousy looking episode.

As for the plot, a Mr. BEM is serving, temporarily, aboard the Enterprise. This weird looking alien starts behaving strangely on a landing party and he's replaced Kirk and Spock's communicators with non-working fakes. It turns out he's testing the two to determine if the Federation is civilized or not--and there is a strange disembodied voice who gets involved as well. Do they pass? And who is that weird voice?

This show is kind of weird, as Mr. BEM can split in pieces and do really weird things! As it's a cartoon, this is possible--but there is no way such a character would have been possible on the live action show! Was it good? Not especially good but watchable if you are a die-hard Trek fan. Otherwise, easy to skip--mostly because the BEM character is so stupid and annoying.