SHE FEELS TOO MUCH!

 

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