The Empath

Though most hale "Amok Time", "The Naked Time", "The Man Trap", and "The City on the Edge of Forever", as the best episodes, and maybe they are, but I would have to say that is the most underrated story of all three seasons. It is an over-looked treasure I couldn't wait to get on DVD. The whole story takes place pretty much in one main facility. There are no back-and-forth to the ship or to other planets and stuff, which means the writing had to be extra clever to keep our attention. The big three of Kirk, Spock, and Bones, are forced to show an alien female what it means to sacrifice your life for someone else. The experiment is conducted by two superior alien beings who lose the meaning of life themselves in the midst of all the testing. With all the bickering Spoke and Bones do, you really see how much compassion they have for each other and their captain.

This is definitely one of my favorite episodes of all the Star Trek series.

It introduced to me as a young lad, the notion of empathy, and took it to a level which has at times been debated as possible or not, physical empathy. To be able to take the pain and suffering from someone and transfer it onto oneself while removing that pain and suffering from another is an incredible concept. It made me wonder - Were any of the great healers in ancient times physical empaths?

The actress playing Gem I thought was excellent,watching her throughout the episode was as Spock would say, fascinating.

Sometimes we don't need million dollar special effects and wild chase scenes to have a beautiful episode. And where would we be as human beings without empathy ?

Yes, it has shortcomings. It is done on the cheap. It is also an intriguing, interesting episode with a message we need to learn from. It has a marvelous performance from the young woman playing Gem. She has one of the most expressive faces I have ever encountered. Granted, it is difficult to watch. The scenes of torture are really quite unnerving. The beings that are testing the young empath are cruel and have lost their right to make judgments. Nevertheless, to react with such rage about this episode. Unless it is some throwaway summer B horror movie to throw a one rating at it is like spitting on someone's birthday cake. Let's consider what else was on in those days, the vapid sitcoms and crummy cop shows. At least let's consider the effort to confront philosophical issues and stretch our minds a bit.

Thought this was an above average episode. Sometimes less is more, IMO the lack of the usual cheesy and laughable special effects, props and costumes was a huge plus. I found Gem's performance absolutely mesmerizing.

While the third season of Star Trek was its lowest in terms of quality and budget, the episode The Empath delivers a great Ethical situation wrapped in dramatic story that manages to keep us entertained while only taking place in a black void. It shows how the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and Mccoy helped them survive along with even helping others. While the Vians only want to help as many people as possible, we don't figure this out until the end and just assume that they are evil villains who only want to do an experiments. I like how Kirk is able to show them that they have lost some of the feelings that they are trying to give Gem. This is a very solid episode.