3x12 The Empath

[8.0/10] You can only do the “god-like aliens spare our heroes because they recognize the vitality/creativity/kindness of humans at the last minute” routine so many times before it starts to lose much of its impact. Still, this is, for the most part, a nice incarnation of the formula, one with some interesting design and direction choices, a notable wrinkle with the guest character, and some creative challenges. It’s just a shame that “The Empath” stumbles in an overextended final act, leaving a sour taste in the viewer’s mouth.

It’s funny though; there is certainly a longstanding trend in the Star Trek franchise of various other species recognizing that there is something special about humans, particularly the humans that happen to be at the center of a Star Trek series. Whether it’s their ingenuity or their capacity for lateral thinking or, more often than not in The Original Series, their ability to show mercy, the franchise is always depicting aliens as duly impressed with mankind’s capacities.

It sort of makes sense. Star Trek has an optimistic bent, one that posits mankind will set aside things like war and want and become great explorers of the stars. It takes a certain greatness to achieve such things and it’s not hard to see Roddenberry, Coon, and Friedberger trying to sell the audience on the notion that there was an inherent quality to humanity that would allow for such a thing. By the same token, it’s also not hard to want to flatter the audience (or for the writers to flatter themselves) by imagining that even in a universe of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, there is something essentially special about we humble humans.

Whatever the reasons, “Empath” offers an interesting take on that formula, with a basic premise that our heroes (Kirk, Spock, and Bones) find themselves transported underground on a planet soon to be destroyed by a nearby star about to go supernova. There, they meet a mute empath they nickname Gem, and a pair of bulbous-cranium’d, glittery mumu-wearing super advanced aliens who killed their Starfleet compatriots and aim to perform experiments on Kirk and company.

To that end, “Empath” feels a lot like a redo of the menagerie, right down to the look of the experimenting aliens. (Though in the opening act, between the random disappearances and the hum that accompanied them, I thought the show was repeating “Wink of an Eye” already.) The aliens have the same sort of detachment, their experiments and powers bear a certain amount of resemblance, and the trapped but refusing to cooperate bent of the folks in Starfleet is of a piece with Captain Pike’s efforts.

But what distinguishes “Empath” is the presence of Gem. Kathryn Hays is given a unique challenge as an actress, having to express all the emotional connections to Kirk and company and her reactions to the strange situation she’s in without the benefit of any dialogue. At times, Hays goes a little too modern dance in her responses to everything that’s going on, but in the many close-ups, she shows subtle changes in expression that convey understanding, concern, or affection in nice ways. Hays also proves herself capable of using body language, hands on shoulders, curled fingertips, and the like to communicate her character’s feelings. It’s a little overwrought at times, but on the whole Gem is one of the unique and distinguishing features of the episode.

She also provides the wrinkle to the usual “prove yourself to the aliens” story. Here, it’s less about Kirk forbearing from killing his enemy or showing how clever he is, but rather the crew modeling the noble behavior that this individual who communicates through perceived emotions and thoughts will interpret. To that end, it’s the main trio’s willingness to sacrifice for one another, with Kirk sending his crewmen on to what he thinks is escape, Spock taking Kirk’s incapacity as a chance to volunteer to be the aliens’ guinea pig so that his friends will be spared, and Bones tranquilizing Spock so that he can do the same. So much of Star Trek is repeating the same tune, but “Empath” has the good sense to play it in a different key.

That extends to the aliens themselves. While there’s analogues to the alien experimenters we meet here (some combination of the ones from “The Menagerie”, the ones from “By Any Other Name,” and The Preservers mention in “The Paradise Syndrome), I like the fact that there’s something dispassionate and single-minded, not to mention a little heady (no pun intended) about these guys, rather than just being evil antagonizers. Their mission, to save certain planets but also to do experiments to decide whether the species on them are worthy of saving, is distinctive and gives them motivations that conflict with our heroes in meaningful ways. They are scientific more than cruel, uncaring rather than unkind, which makes them unique as foils.

There’s also some unique production design in the episode. As with “Spectre of the Gun”, what I imagine was a product of budget restrictions leads to some distinctive design choices. The minimalist nature of the set no doubt saved money, but also speaks to the aliens who created only as much as they needed. The blackness surrounded by glimpses of alien structures made for a sterile but novel atmosphere. By the same token, the episode used the cinematography to good ends, shooting the aliens with interesting blocking and angles that made them seem more imposing, or positioning them next to Kirk or Bones hanging from chains in a striking image.

The story takes advantage of that and advances nicely, until it sputter to an end, going about one fully story beat too far. “Empath” has a nice reveal when the aliens announce their mission and explain to Kirk and Spock that to prove worthy, Gem must use her empathic powers to give her life to save McCoy’s. While their speech is a little cheesy, their words heard over Hays going to save Spock lends to the impact of Gem as a messianic figure in this story.

But rather than ending the story there, Gem can’t quite go through with it, and rather than making this a story about Gem learning to care and sacrifice from seeing the way Kirk, Spock, and Bones were willing to, it turns into yet another Kirk speech about the merits of emotion and feeling and altruism that the aliens themselves have lost. I think I could watch a hundred more episodes of Star Trek without ever needing to hear another “you people are doing it all wrong” speech from Kirk.

What’s worse is that “Empath” features something the show has managed to avoid for a while -- a closing scene where the crew sits on the bridge, sums up the message of the episode, and throws in a corny joke for good measure. The turn in the story was bad enough without Bones piling on about “for all their power, it turned out to be human emotion that saved the day” and Scotty throwing in an obvious metaphor.

Still, 90% of the episode is a well done, almost spiritual exploration of those notions of empathy and sacrifice, with a minimalist setup, a novel twist on the old “prove yourself, human” blueprint, and some nice scoring to accentuate Gem’s movements and sentiments to boot. The quality of the episode falls off a cliff at a certain point, but it’s still a worthwhile outing for the show.

That's the worst stage in Trek history. It's literally a virtually empty, black void. Hays' acting skills are impeccable but that's probably the only commendable aspect of this episode. They recycled the costumes, make-up and prosthetics from the aliens in the TOS' original pilot The Cage. 'Cause there's surely only one possible way how such telepathic beings are supposed to look like, right? It's that obvious that I'm actually surprised they tried to conceal the similarities by introducing the abductors as an entirely different race. What's also similar to previous episodes: the girl knows instinctively that the Captain needs some caressing and "womanly" love. He continues to attract women - even in a state of dizziness. McCoy wasn't healed by her with the same level of affection.

The episode is too silly to be taken serious or to be entertaining. There's a moral tale hidden in a mediocre execution but this can't save the episode imho. From a historical perspective, the whole premise is maybe interesting (although The Cage has already introduced this concept). It's another episode in which powerful, cruel and curious beings abduct [Yes! They are abducted AGAIN!] crew members and do experiments on them (and - primarily - on Gem). Later shows have always expanded on this idea.

Kirk-topless-counter: +1 (oiled chest!!!! hand-cuffed!! literally suspended!!! It's like a glimpse into gay s/m culture)

McCoy: I'm a Doctor, not a coal miner!"