So we skip straight to the cramped research station on a planet where the nearby sun is about to explode into a nova. The place is empty, and the away team of Kirk, McCoy and Spock investigate. It is quickly revealed that the station staff were simply whisked away by special effects, and so too are the away team immediately before the opening credits roll.
Transported under the surface of the nameless planet, the three find themselves in unlit and basically featureless caverns. Most of the sets for this episode are simply blackness, with props and furniture where required, but nothing else. It is an odd look, it works sometimes, and it certainly makes you focus on the events in the foreground simply because there is nothing else to distract you at all, but I still think it makes the episode look very, very cheap. Even dreary rock face would have been better, at least occasionally, just to show it was there.
Anyway, the three find a random mute woman on a random couch in the middle of the darkness. Named Gem by a somewhat fond McCoy, she says nothing and has nothing to really do for now. The masterminds responsible for the kidnapping, the Vians show up. Now, while they use cheap looking prop guns, I think the Vians look excellent. The make-up and costume really works, simple as it is, and indeed the subtlety is probably the strength of the Vian look. They're disconcertingly non-human, obviously alien and sinister, but also not monstrous. For the original series, the Vians look impressive. I guess that is where the budget went on this one.
Amusing Quote: "I'm going to call her Gem." "Gem, Doctor?" "Well, that's better than 'Hey, You'." (McCoy and Spock on the importance of names.)
The Vians seem more interested in Gem than the away team, and trap them in an energy barrier. I'm not sure the wisdom of explaining how the barrier works and thus how to beat it, but Kirk and company don't suss that out until the climax because... Because!
Gem is revealed to be able to empathically heal, absorbing wounds and then healing them herself.
The first act ends when the away team discover the Vian's lab has the missing, and now very dead, station staff in big tubes. The bodies twisted in apparent agony. A grim image, especially since there are tubes ready and waiting for Kirk, McCoy and Spock!
By means of a sneaky Vulcan nerve pinch, Spock disarms a Vian and they all flee. But the escape is just one of many tests by the Vians who use an illusion of Scotty as a lure. Episode time appropriately padded out, everyone is returned to the underground caverns.
A shirtless Kirk is tortured, for no reason than to see his will and courage. Kirk is returned to the couch where his friends are and Gem heals him again, but she suffers considerably to do so.
Amusing Quote: "If my death is to have any meaning, at least tell me what I'm dying for." "If you live, you will have your answer." (Kirk discovers that Vian's really aren't the best conversationalist torturers in the galaxy.)
The Vians say that Kirk must choose to risk the life Spock or the mind of McCoy who will be experimented on... Which is to say tortured horribly next. Despite being healed, Kirk is suffering from the bends and is easily knocked out by McCoy. Taking command, Spock insists he will undergo the Vian's torment, only to be knocked out by McCoy as well.
Amusing Quote: "I'm a Doctor, not a coal miner." (Just in case you forgot.)
True to the threat, McCoy is tortured to the point of madness and death off-screen. Using the Vian device he stole, Spock teleports them to the laboratory. The Vian's are gone, and they rescue the dying Bones.
Amusing Quotes: "You've got a good bedside manner, Spock." (Because McCoy can compliment Spock without his head exploding, honest.)
The final act sees the Vian's test make sense. Gem is the subject, and her willingness or unwillingness to heal another at the cost of her own life will decide whether the Vian's save her species from the nova. Kirk accuses the aliens of being without emotion, nothing but intellect and essentially unworthy of making the decision regarding the lives of others. The aliens recognise the truth to his words, heal McCoy, and depart via bad special effects to save Gem's species.
Positives: The Vians are good looking, and play the dispassionate scientist role well. That what is promised is the saving of a world's people is a good device. McCoy gets some good lines and even if his relationship with Gem is unclear, it is nice to see someone except Kirk get some screen time with the exotic alien girl for once. The music, mostly new material is also quite nice and helps the episode feel a little more unique.
Negatives: It is, without question, too plodding and slow. There just isn't enough plot for 50 minutes. What is there is good. The vians, the threat and the tests, the horrible fate and the ultimate reward are all good, but there just isn't enough to go around. I know this was meant to focus on the core three cast members, but really it needed something more. Also, maybe it is just me, but Gem just doesn't hold my interest outside of her ability to heal. Maybe giving her more personality would have helped the episode. As it is, she's just a blank. Plus, the caves...
Overall: The Empath is flawed, but not a failure. A few problems exist and stop it being a really good episode. Still, I can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity to be a better episode than it was.
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