Episode Title: The Empath
Air Date: 12/6/1968
Written by Joyce
Muskat
Directed by John
Erman
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”
George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley Dick Geary as unnamed security
guard Davis Roberts as Dr. Ozaba Jason Wingreen as Dr. Linke Kathryn Hays as Gem Alan Bergmann as Lal Willard Sage as Thann
Ships: USS Enterprise
NCC-1701
Planets: Minara II
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The Enterprise
is on a simple mission to pick up some scientists that were observing the end
of a star. They head to the planet
Minara II where the scientists are stationed. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to pick them
up. As they enter the facility they find
no one there. The landing party gets a
call from the ship and Scotty reports that they need to leave because of intense
solar flares. The ship will have to be
gone for about 72 hours. Kirk elects for
the landing party to stay on the planet as the atmosphere will protect
them.
After the Enterprise leaves
they get a video recording on the station’s security system. The moment they saw it they must have
immediately regretted sending the Enterprise
away. In the recording an annoying noise
goes off forcing the scientists in the footage to cover their ears. In a short time they both disappear. As soon as the two men disappear on screen the
landing party starts hearing it live.
The three of them vanish like the scientists.Finding Gem underground!
The landing party find themselves transported to an underground
facility. While there they discover a
woman lying on a bed. She wakes but says
nothing to them. McCoy quickly discovers
that she is mute and that is a natural condition of her species. She seems friendly enough and McCoy decides
to nickname her “Gem.” At this point two
figures appear. They identify themselves
as Vians and their names are Thann and Lal.
They demand the Enterprise trio
not interfere and they have the ability to create powerful force fields that
draw power directly from the victim’s body’s metabolism. Kirk injures himself trying to resist but
Gem using a special ability absorbs Kirk’s injury onto herself and then her
body cures it completely. Two really weird guys!
The Vians leave and Spock begins getting new readings from his tricorder
that he didn’t have before. They
investigate and discover a lab of horrors.
For in the lab are the dead bodies of the two scientists in giant jars
and frozen in pain. If there was any
doubt to their identity their names are on the jars. In addition there are three empty jars with
the name “Kirk,” “Spock,” and “McCoy.” Humans used in science experiments!
Thann appeared and when Kirk demands and explanation he claims that those
scientists died because of their own imperfections. Spock delvers Thann a nerve pinch and the
four take off, as they leave Thann wakes up rather quickly. It doesn’t seem like it has been 72 hours
but they are looking to get back to the Enterprise. They think they see Scotty leading a second
landing party. However it turns out to
be a mirage and Scotty and party were never there. The
landing party is the transported back underground.Kirk's shirtless torture scenes
Since Kirk separated from the other three when he saw the two Vians
watching them, he was not transported back to the same underground facility
that the other three were. Instead we
are now getting shirtless Kirk bondage scenes.
Kirk is tortured and sent back, now fully dressed, to the others. The
Vians restrain Spock and McCoy with their force field. McCoy calls out to Gem to help Kirk; she does
with great pains to herself. After it is
over the Vians leave and McCoy attends to both Kirk and Gem. Although Kirk is cured from the majority of
his injuries he is still suffering from McCoy says is an equivalent of the
bends. Gem was the one who saved
him. They go over the possibility that
Gem could kill herself trying to heal someone but McCoy believes that
self-preservation would win out.McCoy's self-sacrifice
The Vians return and demand that Kirk choose either Spock or McCoy as next to receive torture. How they are set up to torture will mostly kill the one who goes. Spock may survive but he would certainly go insane. While Kirk is thinking McCoy knocks both he and Spock out with hypos and goes when the Vians return.
McCoy gets tortured but gets to keep his shirt on, it doesn’t help and he
is sent back dying to his friends. Kirk
and Spock are restrained by the force field.
Gem seems to give her all to save McCoy.
Spock realizes the force fields can be broken with controlled emotions. They escape but it doesn’t matter because Gem
passed the test. McCoy returned from being tortured!
We are then told that the supernova is going to destroy two planets with
advanced life on them. The Vians have
the technology to save one. They wanted
to make sure the one they were going to save would be worthy of survival. So they decided to test one of their species
to see if she would be willing to sacrifice herself to have another. Since she was she passed and her species will
survive. After taking McCoy's injuries but not yet healing them!
They Vians let the landing party go and all is well that ends well, unless of course you are the two tortured to death scientists or the people of the losing planet who have now been guaranteed death topped with extinction.
Additional thoughts: This episode was probably pretty cheap to
make. Through the vast majority of it
they are just running around in a dark empty studio. I also think McCoy should have been less shy
while being tortured. Kirk was willing
to get tortured with his shirt off and as his reward he still had his shirt
intact by the end of the episode. While
McCoy who clearly insisted on being tortured with his shirt on, had his uniform
all torn up when he was returned to his friends and Gem. If he had been less shy he wouldn’t have lost
that uniform.
For some reason I have a real hard time with the idea that a solar flare
could threaten the Enterprise, isn’t
that what shields and deflector dishes are for? Also it didn’t seem like 72
hours had expired from the events in the episode. In The Paradise Syndrome we know months have
gone by not only because they tell us but we also see time passing on the
planet and on the ship. This episode
makes it seem like they were only gone for maybe twelve hours at best.
So what about the people on that other planet? Do they get a test too? Or does only a one species get tested and
they pass they are saved and their failure means the other group is saved. Or were the people of the other planet already
tested with the dead scientists? Maybe
if instead of using Starfleet and other Federation personal as guinea pigs,
they could have reached out for help and combined resources allowing them to
save the people of both worlds. I hope
we never see the Vians again.
FINAL GRADE 3 of 5
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