Summary:
The Enterprise is hosting a Pandronian guest observer named Ari Bn Bem. For the past six weeks, Bem has remained in his personal quarters rather than observing any of the crew's operations. Now, the Enterprise is orbiting a planet whose primitive native population they wish to investigate. To Kirk's chagrin, Bem inisists that he will accompany the landing party on this delicate mission.
Bem prepares the transporter for their beamdown, but Kirk and Spock materialize over water. While submerged, Bem covertly replaces their communicators and phasers with duplicates. Kirk brushes off the transport mishap, but insists to Bem that he leave normal ship operations to the members of his crew. Soon after, Uhura informs Kirk that an anomaly has been identified near their position, leading Kirk to wonder if there is an unknown intelligence on the planet. Unexpectedly, Bem rushes ahead toward the natives, quickly abandoning the away team by disassembling his body parts to pass through the dense brush. When Kirk and Spock catch up to him, Bem has been surrounded by a ring of natives in their ritual hunt.
Due to interference from the anomaly, Uhura has lost contact with Kirk, Spock, and Bem. The rest of the away team is brought back to the ship pending further information on the nature of the anomaly. Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock discover that their communicators and phasers are inoperative copies. Although irritated by Bem's actions, Kirk attempts to rescue him from the cage the natives have placed him in. They too are apprehended by natives however, and placed in cages of their own.
Bem is disdainful of their rescue attempt, which further frustrates Kirk. He states that if Bem had not replaced their communicators and phasers, this would never have happened. Bem maintains that they would have overly simplified their mission, but returns the originals, again disassembling his body to pass through the bars of his cage. Kirk and Spock are astonished by this surprising capability, and Bem explains that he wished to observe their mission from the vantage of a prisoner. Kirk places Bem under arrest for subjecting the Enterprise crew to his own personal experiments.
Kirk and Spock wield their phasers in an escape attempt, but before they succeed, they find themselves immobilized. A voice admonishes them for their use of force on the natives, informing them that the population is under her protection and will not be subject to interference by the Enterprise crew.
In their cages once more, Bem again expresses his disappointment in their handling of the situation, and judges them as inferior beings. He disassembles and flees. Kirk appeals to the intelligence that spoke to them earlier, apologizing for their error and asking to return to his ship so that he may inform his people not to interfere with this planet. The intelligence is impressed with this proposal and agrees. Communications with Enterprise are restored, and a landing party beams down to release Kirk and Spock. Kirk refuses to return to the ship without Bem, however, and goes to retrieve him.
Bem is startled to discover that Kirk and Spock have escaped and dealt successfully with the intelligence. Kirk wishes to return Bem for the sake of the Federation's relations with Pandro, but Bem instead intends to end his life since his previous judgment of the Enterprise crew as inferior has proven defective. The intelligence again appears, however, to encourage Bem to instead embrace this opportunity for learning. Humbled, Bem not only regards Kirk and crew with a newfound respect, but recognizes that in spite of their comparably limited capabilities, they have exercised wisdom beyond his own.
Analysis:
Despite some fine material for Kirk and Uhura, this is really Bem's episode, and your ultimate enjoyment is therefore likely to hinge on how well you warm to his character. His distinctly alien capabilities make for some fascinating contrasts with the humanoid crew, but his judgment is shown not to be equally advanced as he moves from disdain to respect for our heroes over the course of the episode.
The message could perhaps be criticized as a little basic or heavy-handed, but it is a good one: our capacities for reason and compassion can make us the intellectual equals even of beings whose capabilities far exceed our own. That's a particularly satisfying message to receive from a series that so often treats the notion of superior intelligences.
Still, Bem does not make an especially likeable lens for the transmission of this message. That's unfortunate, because the conceptual underpinnings for the character are quite interesting. Much of the blame for failing to better establish Bem as a character we'd like to see grow could be attributed to the brevity of the episode, because the concepts actually seem to be very well-developed.
Verdict:
7/10. While it is difficult to like our protagonist, the events he sets in motion are ultimately rewarding.
The Enterprise is hosting a Pandronian guest observer named Ari Bn Bem. For the past six weeks, Bem has remained in his personal quarters rather than observing any of the crew's operations. Now, the Enterprise is orbiting a planet whose primitive native population they wish to investigate. To Kirk's chagrin, Bem inisists that he will accompany the landing party on this delicate mission.
Bem prepares the transporter for their beamdown, but Kirk and Spock materialize over water. While submerged, Bem covertly replaces their communicators and phasers with duplicates. Kirk brushes off the transport mishap, but insists to Bem that he leave normal ship operations to the members of his crew. Soon after, Uhura informs Kirk that an anomaly has been identified near their position, leading Kirk to wonder if there is an unknown intelligence on the planet. Unexpectedly, Bem rushes ahead toward the natives, quickly abandoning the away team by disassembling his body parts to pass through the dense brush. When Kirk and Spock catch up to him, Bem has been surrounded by a ring of natives in their ritual hunt.
Due to interference from the anomaly, Uhura has lost contact with Kirk, Spock, and Bem. The rest of the away team is brought back to the ship pending further information on the nature of the anomaly. Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock discover that their communicators and phasers are inoperative copies. Although irritated by Bem's actions, Kirk attempts to rescue him from the cage the natives have placed him in. They too are apprehended by natives however, and placed in cages of their own.
Bem is disdainful of their rescue attempt, which further frustrates Kirk. He states that if Bem had not replaced their communicators and phasers, this would never have happened. Bem maintains that they would have overly simplified their mission, but returns the originals, again disassembling his body to pass through the bars of his cage. Kirk and Spock are astonished by this surprising capability, and Bem explains that he wished to observe their mission from the vantage of a prisoner. Kirk places Bem under arrest for subjecting the Enterprise crew to his own personal experiments.
Kirk and Spock wield their phasers in an escape attempt, but before they succeed, they find themselves immobilized. A voice admonishes them for their use of force on the natives, informing them that the population is under her protection and will not be subject to interference by the Enterprise crew.
In their cages once more, Bem again expresses his disappointment in their handling of the situation, and judges them as inferior beings. He disassembles and flees. Kirk appeals to the intelligence that spoke to them earlier, apologizing for their error and asking to return to his ship so that he may inform his people not to interfere with this planet. The intelligence is impressed with this proposal and agrees. Communications with Enterprise are restored, and a landing party beams down to release Kirk and Spock. Kirk refuses to return to the ship without Bem, however, and goes to retrieve him.
Bem is startled to discover that Kirk and Spock have escaped and dealt successfully with the intelligence. Kirk wishes to return Bem for the sake of the Federation's relations with Pandro, but Bem instead intends to end his life since his previous judgment of the Enterprise crew as inferior has proven defective. The intelligence again appears, however, to encourage Bem to instead embrace this opportunity for learning. Humbled, Bem not only regards Kirk and crew with a newfound respect, but recognizes that in spite of their comparably limited capabilities, they have exercised wisdom beyond his own.
Analysis:
Despite some fine material for Kirk and Uhura, this is really Bem's episode, and your ultimate enjoyment is therefore likely to hinge on how well you warm to his character. His distinctly alien capabilities make for some fascinating contrasts with the humanoid crew, but his judgment is shown not to be equally advanced as he moves from disdain to respect for our heroes over the course of the episode.
The message could perhaps be criticized as a little basic or heavy-handed, but it is a good one: our capacities for reason and compassion can make us the intellectual equals even of beings whose capabilities far exceed our own. That's a particularly satisfying message to receive from a series that so often treats the notion of superior intelligences.
Still, Bem does not make an especially likeable lens for the transmission of this message. That's unfortunate, because the conceptual underpinnings for the character are quite interesting. Much of the blame for failing to better establish Bem as a character we'd like to see grow could be attributed to the brevity of the episode, because the concepts actually seem to be very well-developed.
Verdict:
7/10. While it is difficult to like our protagonist, the events he sets in motion are ultimately rewarding.
