Episode of the Week : The Empath
- Thread starter Botany Bay
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Is it just me or does it look like they broke into one of the "Lost in Space" sound stages and shot this episode after hours?
This is one of my favorite third-season episodes, even though the Vians seem to be the poor man's Talosians. I gave it an 8.
If the George Duning archive is still at the USC library, where I studied its contents for a day in July 1985, there's some interesting material there about early versions of both this episode and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?," which were produced (and the music written and recorded) in tandem.
I don't know where my notes are (only pencil was permitted) but I do recall the notation "CLOSED SET" on the call sheet for the final act of "The Empath," unlike those for the other shooting days.
That final act includes what is surely the longest stretch of any Trek episode with no spoken dialogue at all. Good work, George. I know this music grates on some people, but I always thought it was perfect for the story and could only have been inspired by such a damn weird script.
I don't know where my notes are (only pencil was permitted) but I do recall the notation "CLOSED SET" on the call sheet for the final act of "The Empath," unlike those for the other shooting days.
That final act includes what is surely the longest stretch of any Trek episode with no spoken dialogue at all. Good work, George. I know this music grates on some people, but I always thought it was perfect for the story and could only have been inspired by such a damn weird script.
This is one of the rare TOS episodes that really dragged for me. It commits the cardinal crime of being boring, something more "traditionally bad" episodes like Spock's Brain or The Way To Eden could certainly not be accused of! The plain sets, the discount Talosians, the same message being hammered over and over again - no thanks!
I always liked the effect of the blacked-out soundstage in this episode. Along with Spock's description, it does suggest a massive underground space, without having to actually show it, another example of Trek doing more with less.
I also enjoyed Kirk's slo-mo running sequence, and even the shots on the planet surface seem to suggest an area larger than we typically saw in other soundstage-based planetscapes.
I also enjoyed Kirk's slo-mo running sequence, and even the shots on the planet surface seem to suggest an area larger than we typically saw in other soundstage-based planetscapes.
This is the only TOS episode I've never seen all the way through. Why? Because it literally puts me to sleep every single time.
Something about the lush score and the long stretch with no dialogue is a lethal combination. I have to agree with Mytran that it is fatally boring. Even though it necessarily ranks as my least favorite episode, I give it a 3 for the beautiful music and for being a sure-fire sedative.
Something about the lush score and the long stretch with no dialogue is a lethal combination. I have to agree with Mytran that it is fatally boring. Even though it necessarily ranks as my least favorite episode, I give it a 3 for the beautiful music and for being a sure-fire sedative.
I gave it a 10. A great look into the Kirk-Spock-McCoy friendship and how they would lay down their lives for each other. The hypo scene really knocks it out of the park with Gem touching Spock and seeing past his stoic exterior and the tear running down her face after McCoy sacrifices himself by going with the Vians.
I'm always interested in the different reactions that people have to different episodes. I really do not like this episode and rate it as a 1. Boring for sure, but in addition there is something annoying about it. I think it is Gem, the fake Talosians, the dark sound-stage set, the cheesy fly-away on a cloud that the aliens do and to me it looks like an episode done on the cheap. I have not seen it for years so perhaps I need to re-watch. For me this is right there with "And the Children Shall Lead" in contention for the worst episode.
No argument here. I've always found Gem annoying in much the way that Mon Mothma as a mime would be annoying. And the whole thing does look like a way of making up a budget overrun.
This is one I can never connect with. I didn't catch it till my late teens and hated it then, and it hasn't grown on me. The music and the mime acting end up feeling heavy and manipulative. I don't like being concious of watching someone ACTING, and the aliens' plan just seems like a pretext to show a lot of bad things the cast can react to. The pacing drags. The minimal black set isn't bad, but in this ep it just seems dull. I give this one a 2.
I haven't seen this one in a while. But if the two fat headed aliens were as completely emotionless as they claim. Why would they even consider saving Gem's people.
Secondly, these aliens are obviously capable of interstellar spaceflight (i.e. warp capability). So they should be able to detect the communications of the nearby Federation and other star faring civilizations. Why didn't they just send out a distress call?
The aliens said that they had the ability to evacuate the entire civilization of just one of their system's worlds. This would suggest either a huge capacity to move an entire planetary population by a fleet of spacecraft. Or a hugely powerful version of the interstellar transporter. Which means they should have been to neighboring habitable systems. And should be aware there's other interstellar civilizations out there.
Secondly, these aliens are obviously capable of interstellar spaceflight (i.e. warp capability). So they should be able to detect the communications of the nearby Federation and other star faring civilizations. Why didn't they just send out a distress call?
The aliens said that they had the ability to evacuate the entire civilization of just one of their system's worlds. This would suggest either a huge capacity to move an entire planetary population by a fleet of spacecraft. Or a hugely powerful version of the interstellar transporter. Which means they should have been to neighboring habitable systems. And should be aware there's other interstellar civilizations out there.
This episode probably doesn't really deserve much rationalizing, but OTOH it may well be the only thing it deserves... So here goes.
Is Minara anywhere near the UFP? That's the key question here. The star has been observed for a long time, and we know the UFP generally doesn't do long range observations in real time (it can't tell if planets in distant star systems get eaten by Doomsday Machines, say). But a star is easier to observe than a planet, and the observations need not be in real time: light that is five thousand years late may still tell enough of the story to allow the UFP to send its observation team to the far end of known space at just the right moment to catch the fiery finale.
An outpost was established six months ago; now it is being evacuated. Is that "on schedule", or because of a "distress call"? If the former, then MInara is far away, or else some sort of a mundane shuttlebus would be sent for the pickup, rather than a valuable deep space starship. If the latter, the haste might warrant sending a fast starship even if Minara is right next door. The teaser does not really establish which scenario we're talking about - it just says the star entered a critical phase, something that might have been known decades in advance.
So our argument here could be that Mintaka is far too distant to be saved by UFP-sponsored starlift. Especially as multiple planets around the star are supposedly inhabited, the minimum supposedly being three (Gem's, the competition's, and the Vians' own).
What do the Vians mean by "transport to safety" anyway? Crude physical spaceflight, or advanced transporter beaming? Taking people to a safer plane of existence? Burying everybody in a bunker within the system (even though Kirk seems convinced the nova will consume the Vians' planet altogether, some other planets in the system may be safe enough for underground survival arks). It might be Vians don't do interstellar after all, and what they do does limit either the number of people to be saved (say, the capacity of their bunker); the number of entire planets to be saved (plopping one into a wormhole created by destroying all the others or whatever); or the nature of the people to be saved (only one kind can be accepted into the local Heaven).
Timo Saloniemi
Is Minara anywhere near the UFP? That's the key question here. The star has been observed for a long time, and we know the UFP generally doesn't do long range observations in real time (it can't tell if planets in distant star systems get eaten by Doomsday Machines, say). But a star is easier to observe than a planet, and the observations need not be in real time: light that is five thousand years late may still tell enough of the story to allow the UFP to send its observation team to the far end of known space at just the right moment to catch the fiery finale.
An outpost was established six months ago; now it is being evacuated. Is that "on schedule", or because of a "distress call"? If the former, then MInara is far away, or else some sort of a mundane shuttlebus would be sent for the pickup, rather than a valuable deep space starship. If the latter, the haste might warrant sending a fast starship even if Minara is right next door. The teaser does not really establish which scenario we're talking about - it just says the star entered a critical phase, something that might have been known decades in advance.
So our argument here could be that Mintaka is far too distant to be saved by UFP-sponsored starlift. Especially as multiple planets around the star are supposedly inhabited, the minimum supposedly being three (Gem's, the competition's, and the Vians' own).
What do the Vians mean by "transport to safety" anyway? Crude physical spaceflight, or advanced transporter beaming? Taking people to a safer plane of existence? Burying everybody in a bunker within the system (even though Kirk seems convinced the nova will consume the Vians' planet altogether, some other planets in the system may be safe enough for underground survival arks). It might be Vians don't do interstellar after all, and what they do does limit either the number of people to be saved (say, the capacity of their bunker); the number of entire planets to be saved (plopping one into a wormhole created by destroying all the others or whatever); or the nature of the people to be saved (only one kind can be accepted into the local Heaven).
Timo Saloniemi
Agree. The scenes with the three of them make the episode worth it.
Oddly, that's why I don't like it. I would have liked more from the supporting cast. Much as I like them, too much pure troika bores me. They should have had Helen Noel down there.
The music is pretty memorable (I'm listening to it in my head right now) but it mostly serves to remind me of just how boring this episode is.
Good idea.
I'd probably have stayed awake in that case.
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