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Star Trek TAS - Season 2 - Episode 02

Star Trek TAS - 2x02 - Bem

Originally Aired: 1974-9-14

Synopsis:
Starfleet, eager to open diplomatic relations with the medically advanced Pandronians, assigns Enterprise to host one of their representatives. [Blu-ray] [DVD]

My Rating - 2

Fan Rating Average - 4.84

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Problems
- How are Bem's body parts able to float?

Factoids
- This is the first episode to mention Kirk's middle name, Tiberius. (Four times even.)

Remarkable Scenes
- Kirk and Spock being beamed into midair, then falling into the water below.
- Kirk regarding being captured: "How come we always end up like this?"

My Review
This episode is remarkable in that it once again takes full advantage of the show being of an animated nature. It shows us truly alien aliens; first Bem, then the natives on the planet. Unfortunately very little of interest actually happens in this episode. It's basically the familiar "cast beams down to primitive planet and gets captured" plot, adding nothing new except Bem the pacifist, who adds very little of value to the plot. While I liked our truly alien aliens, they were completely misused.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Terry A. Hurlbut on 2016-07-15 at 6:19pm:
    Alan Dean Foster, who adapted all the animated episodes to prose, realized the one redeeming value of this particular episode. He expanded on the Bem narrative--greatly. In his version, the Enterprise travels to Pandro (Bem's home world), where Bem and Captain Kirk both have to stretch themselves to the limit to deal with a uniquely Pandronian crisis. (See "Star Trek Long Nine," New York: Del Rey Books, 1977.)

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