episode #18 - Bem

Air Date: 9/14/74    written by David Gerrold

The titular character is an alien ambassador who accompanies Kirk and Spock on their latest beam down to a planet populated by aboriginal humanoid reptiles. Bem behaves in an off-kilter, irrational manner, as if he's fond of practical jokes: he tampers with the beamdown coordinates so that the Starfleet officers fall into the drink, surreptitiously replaces their communicators with bogus ones and then lets himself be captured by the natives. The gist of this is that alien minds think differently, according to Gerrold, and Bem is also revealed to be a "colony creature" - each of his body parts can seperate and act on its own. There's also the tired plot device of a local godling watching over the natives (very similar to The Apple; this was suggested by Roddenberry and voiced by Nichelle Nichols).