Star Trek

On a planet inhabited by pre-industrial aborigines a Starfleet landing party is put at risk by a pacifist Federation observer who has secretly  replaced their weapons with non functioning ones. When the Starfleet Officers begin to be captured by the natives the observer is forced to face the consequences of his idealism

I wonder why Bem wanted to be captured and why he didn't want Kirk/Spock to use their tools.

And the big question, why didn't the entity know about Bem until the very end?

And did anyone else think it was Nichelle Nichols doing the voice of the protecting entity?

it was DEFINITELY Nichols.  I wondered about why Bem was opposed to tools and why he wasn't detected too.  I thought maybe he wasn't detected because of being a communal organism.

Bem is an interesting individual.  He talks kinda funny, almost Yoda-like (except he came before Yoda).  I like how he refers to himself as “This One.”  I don’t foresee Kirk trusting his life in the transporter to an alien observer who shouldn’t be working it.  Still, cool how Bem beams them down so he can jump in the water and use his seperatable lower half.  He is a colonial creature, even cooler.  I wish trek had had other colonial organisms, it is a fascinating concept.

“There are times, Mr Spock, when I wish I had become a librarian.”  Funny, but is it a believable Kirk line?

I love it when Arex is asked if he found the landing party.  He provides a long confusing explanation of what he’s done.  Then Scotty retorts, “I think he said . . . maybe.”

Is this episode where Kirk gets the middle name “Tiberius”?

The dialog in this is superior to many of the others, more like TOS in many ways.  It was also nice to have Uhura in command again.  I think Bem is one of the truly best episodes.  It is exploration, it has some really alien concepts, there is social commentary, and Kirk learns a valuable lesson.

The multi partite being is reason enough view this episode as a great example of how animation frees up storytellers to take risks and do interesting things.