Rev Bem

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Rev Bem, also known as Reverend Behemial Far Traveller, is a fictional character in the television series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, played by actor Brent Stait. The name "Bem" refers to "bug-eyed monster", a nickname for science fiction aliens. Brent Stait had to leave the role during the second season after developing an allergy to the prosthetics he wore.

Biography

He is a Magog and a devout member of the Wayist religion, therefore he has to control his baser instincts to kill other living beings for food, or forcibly infest them with Magog eggs for reproduction. His full Wayist name is Reverend Behemial Far Traveler, shortened to Rev Bem. His original name is a series of loud screeches in his native Magog tongue. The closest English translation is Red Plague.

Rev Bem is kind and understanding when most beings he encounters greet him with a shriek of terror and aim a weapon at him; indeed, Dylan once said that Rev was the closest thing to a savior he had ever met. He commonly served as the ship's physicist and psychiatrist during his time on the ship, providing someone for the crew to talk to about their problems and performing scientific analysis of recent discoveries. The only frustrating detail about his personality is his refusal to fire weapons or kill any beings despite the danger the crew face; when he was once forced to kill Magog in self-defence when the Andromeda first encountered the Magog worldship and the Spirit of the Abyss, he subsequently starved himself for several weeks to make up for his actions.

During a visit to a people with perfect genetic memory who were being taught the values of Wayism and faced threat from slavers, Rev Bem's genetic material was extracted by a woman who infested herself with his larval offspring. Although he was an unwilling participant in the event, Rev nevertheless allowed the children to be born, hoping that the 'mother's' genetic memory would result in the creation of Magog with some degree of innocence. After the birth, this hope was proved to be correct; while the children were initially indiscriminately violent, they demonstrated a willingness to cooperate with humans shortly after birth that had never been seen in a Magog before.

Rev Bem's last appearance as a regular cast member was in the mid-second season episode "Ouroboros", where he departed to try and find himself, his faith tested after the confrontation with the Abyss. He guest starred in the third season episode "What Happens To A Rev Deferred?", in which he undergoes a final transformation that purges his Magog nature, and in the fourth season episode "Fear Burns Down to Ashes".

Appearances

Andromeda: Season One
Under the Night	An Affirming Flame	To Loose the Fateful Lightning	D Minus Zero	Double Helix	Angel Dark, Demon Bright
The Ties That Blind	The Banks of the Lethe	A Rose in the Ashes	All Great Neptune's Ocean	The Pearls That Were His Eyes	The Mathematics of Tears
Music of a Distant Drum	Harper 2.0	Forced Perspective	The Sum of Its Parts	Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way	The Devil Take the Hindmost
	The Honey Offering	Star-Crossed	It Makes a Lovely Light	It's Hour Come ‘Round at Last

Andromeda: Season Two
The Widening Gyre	Exit Strategies	A Heart for Falsehood Framed	Pitiless as the Sun	Last Call at the Broken Hammer	All Too Human
Una Salus Victus	Home Fires	Into the Labyrinth	The Prince	Bunker Hill	Ouroboros
Lava and Rockets	Be All My Sins Remembered	Dance of the Mayflies	In Heaven Now Are Three	The Things We Cannot Change	The Fair Unknown
	Belly of the Beast	The Knight, Death, and the Devil	Immaculate Perception	Tunnel At The End Of The Light

Andromeda: Season Three
If The Wheel Is Fixed	The Shards Of Rimni	Mad To Be Saved	Cui Bono	The Lone And Level Sands	Slipfighter The Dogs of War
The Leper's Kiss	For Whom The Bell Tolls	And Your Heart Will Fly Away	The Unconquerable Man	Delenda Est	The Dark Backward
The Risk-All Point	The Right Horse	What Happens To A Rev Deferred?	Point of the Spear	Vault of the Heavens	Deep Midnight's Voice
	The Illusion of Majesty	Twilight of the Idols	Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath	Shadows Cast By a Final Salute

Andromeda: Season Four
Answers Given to Questions Never Asked	Pieces of Eight	Waking The Tyrant's Device	Double or Nothingness	Harper/Delete	Soon the Nearing Vortex
The World Turns All Around Her	Conduit to Destiny	Machinery of the Mind	Exalted Reason, Resplendent Daughter	The Torment, The Release	The Spider's Stratagem
The Warmth of an Invisible Light	The Others	Fear Burns Down to Ashes	Lost in a Space that Isn't There	Abridging the Devil's Divide	Trusting the Gordian Maze
	Symmetry of Imperfection	Time Out of Mind	The Dissonant Interval (Part 1)	The Dissonant Interval (Part 2)