‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘The Empath’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

A vast majority of stories out there, are looking to provide their audience with a message. Because when a story has meaning and when it is able to teach us something, it becomes supremely important to its reader or viewer. For now, there is something more to the tale, something that speaks to the audience on a fundamental level, allowing for that person to genuinely connect with that story and that’s why Star Trek has managed to stay relevant for fifty-plus years. Because it really does offer up some powerful messages to casual and hardcore fans and the longer its various iterations have been on the air, the better the franchise has been about executing and expressing its message. 
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But when The Original Series was on the air, that wasn’t always the case. Because from time to time, new ideas that needed a little bit more fleshing out in the writers room, made their way to the production schedule, and the end result is a story that clearly wanted to say something, but lost its message by way of poor writing or poor direction. Something we have seen more of in season three, likely due to the fact that everyone was under pressure to deliver so that the five-year mission could reach completion on the small screen. But while it is easy to understand that pressure and being the first saga out of the gate to attempt social commentary and an exploration of the human condition, can indeed lead to mistakes, that doesn’t make sitting through those choppy episodes any easier.

Take the next episode of this series for example. For ‘The Empath’ was clearly designed to be a powerful morality tale, one that should have taught the audience the importance of opening ourselves up to what our fellow human beings are feeling. So that we can be there for one another and make the world a better place in the process, one free from the cold cruelty that currently exists. And it was designed to help carry that message by way of a plot that involved twisted experiments, the kind designed to motivate a genuine empath to sacrifice herself to save another life. All in the hopes of proving her kind worthy to her tormentors so that they would save her species from extinction as the star in her system went nova. Which sounds like a delightful episode of Trek, one that should stand out as a perfect representation of everything we’ve just discussed.

But the execution of this story is what led to some serious mistakes, storytelling wise. Because there is no balance to be found in this tale, instead it focuses upon the cruelty and while one can fully understand how that was paramount to creating some gravity for the message, it simply doesn’t play out that way on screen. Because Kirk and Spock and McCoy constantly find themselves under physical torture to motivate Gem to give her all, and this is… just cruel to watch. Because she’s not learning anything from this mess, she’s just watching some nice men that tried to help her escape, hurt and bleed and come to the brink of death, all in the hopes of saving her species from something she isn’t aware of. Which makes this story far darker than necessary and completely unappealing to the audience.

Which is shame because this episode really did have the potential to be a brilliant tale, but its biggest flaw is the fact that Gem’s species is already benevolent and kind. Because she can tell when someone is suffering, and she knows what to do to heal them, meaning that they already understand a better way through evolution, so there’s no point in pushing them. If anything, a better way to handle this plot, would have been to have Kirk and company work to persuade the mighty Vians to save them without testing or experimentation, since that would have provided this story with a powerful lesson on how those who have more can be served well, by helping those who have less. But alas, what’s done is done, and another misfire from this storied series only explains further why cancellation came to fruition. And it really is a shame to see this series miss a grand opportunity to tell a beautiful and powerful tale and all we can hope for now, is a quick return to form as we enter the back half of this final season. Until next time.   

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