Location shooting can be expensive, depending on where the cast and crew have to go to. I think a ghost town type set would have added some interest to that episode.
We had that. A surreal, abstract sort of Twilight Zone version. I'll admit to one problem, the crew keep being sure this is somehow the real historical West, when we can see the alien horizon through every building. I wonder if that was a glitch between script and set designer. the look, however, is brilliant. It creates exactly the right abstract, jarring feel needed.
Now, for viewers who love Westerns, and can't get enough of them, and enjoy anything set in a familiar Western type town, maybe they'd rather have this story look just like any other Western. For me though, the look makes the episode. I think if it looked like a regular Western I'd get bored fast. Don't undervalue creative design. A straightforward Western town would not have felt surreal, and required no design. You just make one like they're always made. The set they did use is filled with bleak fascinating atmosphere. That required inspiration and design.
I also lov e what was done with The Empath. There are sorts of ideas presented on Trek, on different levels. Here, it was fascinating to me that the space the aliens operated in was a huge space without walls. Some fans want ordinariness, and what's expected. If these creative choices started because of budget cuts, then sometimes a budget cut is exactly what a story needs. It forces the creativity to happen.
