Ari Ben Bem: Wtf?

[F. King Daniel]

"BEM". He's a "colony creature" unity from Pandro. Each part of his body can levitate (is this a first and only in the Trekverse?) and operate independently. His buttocks and legs even have their own long, thin arms.

What the what? I mean, I know it's a cartoon for kids, but let's try and make some sense of this. Because I keep imagining his legs going leg school and a planet of random floating torsos.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

David Gerrold probably had too much Tranya writing that script.

 

[Valenti]

He had a guy (Sarek - Mark Leonard) that came apart in Buck Rogers too and then he has a guy out of sync with himself and who folded himself.Geez.

 

[Phaser Two]

Huh?

 

[Maurice]

BEM from TAS is WTH.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

He had a guy (Sarek - Mark Leonard) that came apart in Buck Rogers too and then he has a guy out of sync with himself and who folded himself.Geez.

Did David Gerrold have anything to do with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century? The Mark Lenard episode is called "Journey to Oasis" and it was written by Robert & Esther Mitchell.

 

[Valenti]

OK, Sorry, I just thought they were similar so they must have been by the same author. Woops.

 

[Timo]

What Bem was all about was left a bit vague. Thankfully enough.

- Does Bem consist of the three parts we saw? Or perhaps hundreds, thousands or millions, only here assembling into a coarse humanoid shape for the sake of the mission, and then splitting in three, again for the sake of the requirements of the day?
- When Bem speaks of needing to disassemble because of being defective, are we facing him reverting to three (or more) lesser animals for good? Or reassembling in a different mixture of components, for more success in life? Shades of Asimov's Gods Themselves or Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep there: colonial creatures aren't divided into physiologically distinct components for division of labor, but instead form small intimate "tribes" of psychologically distinct components for greater mental acuity and innovation.
- Do Kirk's superiors know more than Kirk here? Is Kirk being used as a part of an experiment, or is the entire Starfleet being had? The former sort of suggests itself, as this whole deal with "honorary Commanders" and observers plenipotentiary is so exceptional and apparently requires quite a bit of clearance or indeed effort from on high.
- Why does Bem get to do this gig? Does his species or culture have something exceptional to offer, or does the UFP want to study the exotic way of life, either just because, or to find out if it indeed has something exceptional to offer?

Plenty of potential there. And I don't mind it looking silly on screen, as the somber bits of an encounter like this would have been duller watching than the comical bits.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

Has any other species in Trek demonstrated the ability to hover or fly as Bem's... parts?... do?

Other than the Skorr or other winged creatures, I mean. Because this is Superman flying. Any ideas about the science behind floating torsos and heads, @Timo?

 

[Timo]

We have seen avians with "wings" that really shouldn't work too well - the flying pancakes of "Operation: Annihilate!", say. There might be something to their method of flight that is pure aerodynamics but still more efficient than current scientific wisdom would have us believe. Or then there's natural antigravity there in the Trek universe.

I mean, something non-Newtonian appears to be pushing all those space-dwelling lifeforms around, with decent accelerations. Why shouldn't it also work on the surface of a planet? Although then one wonders why Odo didn't levitate more when Laas had the space propulsion down pat. But then again, Odo would need to levitate if he retained his "heavier than he looks" humanoid mass when becoming a seagull, let alone a drinking glass on a tray.

I'm sort of imaging Bem as a community of (almost) microscopically small components, so that the macroscopic bits could have microscopic elements to them that give functionality the audience cannot easily spot by sight. Those slender legs of the novelization, say. Or lots of invisibly thin aerodynamic propulsion extensions.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

David Gerrold probably had too much Tranya writing that script.

Or maybe he was consuming something else. It was the early 70s after all. Far out, man, far out.

 

[Christopher]

Has any other species in Trek demonstrated the ability to hover or fly as Bem's... parts?... do?

The flying parasites in "Operation: Annihilate" did so. The Melkot in "Spectre of the Gun" appeared to hover in midair. Not to mention hovering cloud creatures like the Companion from "Metamorphosis" (described as "vaguely like a cloud of ionized hydrogen") and the vampire cloud from "Obsession," and hovering energy beings like Trelane's parents, the Organians, the Evil Pinwheel Thingy from "Day of the Dove," etc.


Anyway, Alan Dean Foster's novelization of "Bem" handled Pandronian biology more plausibly. They weren't so humanoid in shape; they only had three segments, head, torso, and legs; and they couldn't hover. The head crawled on neck cilia and the torso walked on its arms.

Since TAS is animated, it's pretty much a given that it's an artistic interpretation of events rather than a direct depiction. That makes it particularly amenable to the Doylist interpretation that some of the anomalies we see are the result of storyteller error or artistic license rather than actually existing in-universe. I tend to assume that the "truth" of TAS is somewhere between the onscreen version and the Foster version, and when the Foster version makes more sense, I generally go with it. So I don't take Bem's floating body parts literally and assume they're just an animator shortcut. But since we did see other hovering species in TOS, I suppose it's at least possible.

 

[Marsden]

I always assumed it's an animation error, or lack of animation actually, they just have parts floating over static background in so many shots, Bem isn't really exceptional in that regard.
But a life form could potentially have hydrogen or helium gas pockets inside it that could facilitate floating. Helium would be less likely because its very nonreactive but hydrogen would be potentially very dangerous because it's highly reactive with oxygen, but maybe it breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen and stores it to float.

It makes as much sense as a creature eating salt to live.

 

[Christopher]

We've seen a number of Trek characters with telekinesis -- Mitchell and Dehner, the Platonians, the Vorta Eris, Kes, etc. If it's possible for beings in the Trek universe to levitate other objects, it follows that it's possible for them to levitate themselves.

 

[Lance]

I've often thought, if TAS had followed the path of many an animated-show-based-on-live-action-show, and had a "cute buddy" type character (eg. Slimer, Batmite, etc) on the Enterprise, then BEM could've been it. Thank God it wasn't, though.

 

[Timo]

...Where would TAS have gone, had there been a second half to the season, and perhaps a third season? Would we have gotten a broader selection of alien aliens? Or just more copy-pasting of the aliens we already got, with the relevant animation recolored and repurposed?

Having Bem around as a semi-regular might have worked fine. And if adding one character worked out, then adding more might have followed. Perhaps those kids that had already been considered? I mean, the scenario where TAS would get a third season would implicitly involve budgets for additional voice cast, and other fantasy elements like that...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

I've often thought, if TAS had followed the path of many an animated-show-based-on-live-action-show, and had a "cute buddy" type character (eg. Slimer, Batmite, etc) on the Enterprise, then BEM could've been it. Thank God it wasn't, though.

Part of the reason Roddenberry went with Filmation was because they were the one animation studio that didn't want to do that.

 

[Shawnster]

I vaguely recall reading something that went into more detail about Bem and the concept of a colony creature. The impression I have is that the idea just didn't translate well in screen

 

[GNDN18]

Wasn’t “BEM” originally a treatment written by Gerrold for TOS?

ETA I must be getting senile; I confused “Bem” with one of the five treatments pitched by Gerrold to Coon, the one involving the Bandi.

Thanks, .

 

[Christopher]

I vaguely recall reading something that went into more detail about Bem and the concept of a colony creature.

Probably the Alan Dean Foster adaptation in Star Trek Log Nine. As far as I know, that's the only written work connected to the episode. And it goes into a ton more detail; in order to expand a single episode to novel length, it added a whole new sequel adventure where the Enterprise returned Bem home to Pandro and discovered a Klingon plot to exploit Pandronian life forms' combining ability to create giant monsters. So it has a lot of in-depth exploration of Pandronian biology and how it works. (Oddly, the lead Klingon in that story was named Kor, but it was not the same Kor from "Errand of Mercy" and "The Time Trap.")