Production Order Group Viewing 2018

I like to think it's the barrier again if for no other reason than the footage is exactly the same but this time they get stuck inside it's properties!
JB

 

The Enterprise hit the mysterious energy barrier at warp 9.5. The interaction of these two forces tossed the ship far outside the galaxy, possibly creating a wormhole into an extra dimensional void which causes extreme sensory distortion (similar to the warp engine imbalance that created a wormhole in TMP). To get back, the Enterprise needs to plot a reverse course out of the extra dimensional void and back through the wormhole created by the interaction of the ship with the barrier. The last leg of the reverse course is to cross the barrier at the mouth of the wormhole which requires warp speed (for some reason, maybe there is an energy gap that requires high energy warp drive to overcome/bridge?). Good thing Kollos was aboard.

 

It really is! Kirk handled the situation with his professional cool as always though

 

You mean by seducing the female guest star of the week?

 

Hmmm. I was thinking more of his behaviour on the Bridge, before they decided to go down that route (my thoughts about which I noted upthread). My biggest surprise in this rewatch is remembering just how pointless that whole "seduce Miranda" subplot was anyway, since they ended just trying to persuade her verbally and directly!

 

THE EMPATH

The crew encounter an alien woman who is only able to communicate through the medium of interpretative dance.
Points for an interesting concept, at least!
As for the execution:The minimal cast, the minimal sets, the static nature of the plot, the extended periods of Shatner overacting - come off like a fanfic stage play!
I remember this episode being rather plodding and after a fairly interesting first act, this is exactly the case. McCoy explain’s Gem’s powers twice and many of the scenes feel drawn out. The use of slow-mo on Kirk doesn’t help either and the “Gem theme music” really gets repetitive after a while. And that final scene when she heals McCoy seem to go on forever!
Even the “comedy” tag at the end seems drawn out, as if the actors are speaking slower than usual...

There is a good message buried in there, but it's drawn out and hammered home so many times that this episode actually becomes boring, a label no Star Trek should bear.

Other thoughts:

• That is A LOT of dust on the record tape! Has it really only been 3 months? Did someone leave a window open during a sandstorm?
• Yet again there’s a minimal landing party consisting entirely of the Big Three and the Enterprise unable to help them from orbit. This time though it’s due to a natural phenomenon, which is (like the concept) original.
• The Vian makeup is very good, especially considering the slashed Season 3 budget
• Spock effortlessly diagnoses McCoy’s extensive list of ailments without looking at a single readout display. He’s missed his calling!
• Deforest Kelly has said that this is his favourite episode. Looking solely at it from the perspective of the McCoy character, I think I see why – he gets a lot of good dialogue, meaty scenes and sacrifices his life for his friends!

Finally: I am somewhat confused by the Vians’ plan: They don’t appear to be native to the Minaran star system, so why are they only testing a representative of ONE of the populated planets? Or is the other populated actually where the two Vians are from? If so, why would they (if they’ve lost the ability to feel emotion for others) even consider saving Gem’s world instead of their own? Like many Season 3 stories, this one could use another draft to clear up some confusion, but it also needs its runtime reduced by half.

 

The opening Captain's Log and first scene dialog gives me the impression that the second planet in the Minarian star system has nothing on it except the Starfleet Research Station. No mention or even concern that the other planets in the star system have alien cultures about to be wiped out by the sun's nova. We learn zero about Gem's planet and the other planets in this doomed solar system. Multiple planets about to get nova'ed out of existence is not the Federation's concern, only collecting good research on nova mechanics. The third season prime directive is cold, cold, cold.

 

The more I think about "The Empath," the more I suspect that its extremely long final act (it's probably the longest single act in the entire series - I just checked on Netflix and it's about 15:10 in length) was planned with George Duning in mind, and I surmise that his participation must have been sought once it became clear that the McCoy-healing scene called for several long stretches of music without dialogue and with maximum poignancy that he'd already shown he could provide.

Maybe the result is boring to some viewers. I like it, though. Duning's music is so supple here. I suspect that only a script as weird as "The Empath" could have drawn it out of him. (And it was usefully excerpted in many other episodes, even a few that originally aired before "The Empath" did.)

 

The dialogue talks about 2 populated planets, with the Vians' dilemma that they can only save the population of one of them.

You are right that they sure have TNG'd down on the Prime Directive though!

 

Since the Vians have "interfered" on both planets to some extent on the subject of Extraterrestrials, shouldn't Kirk now make a plea to the Federation to mount a campaign to save the population of the other planet? But nooooo, let's just rib Spock and fly off as usual. I think in all three seasons, only season 3 shows us two episodes where civilizations are left to certain death (the other planet(s) of Minara from this episode, and the last inhabitants of planet Scalos from Wink Of An Eye.)

 

The Empath

Kirk: "Without speech, how's she going to be able to understand us?" Um, the two are not the same, Jim. And indeed, Gem does respond to their words at times. At other times, everyone talks about her like she's not right there, and she doesn't seem to hear them.

These Vians look like wannabe Talosians. They have SUCH a 60's alien look.

Hmm, solar flares strong enough to keep the Enterprise away, but not strong enough to harm our heroes on the surface of the planet. This has "the plot needs for the Enterprise not to be able to help the landing party" written all over it.

Such a minimalist set for this episode like with Spectre of the Gun. Creates such a sense of weirdness. Also points to the budget restrictions. Imagine if they had a generous budget to work with what Season 3 could have been.

Kirks distracts the Vian, and Spock delivers the neck pinch with no words spoken between them. Having worked together for years, they can read each other's minds. Figuratively, although literally in Spock's case.

The Vians must be telepathic themselves to be able to duplicate Scotty and the landing party. Or how did they know what Scotty looked like?

The Vians have Kirk hanging shirtless. Damn, Shatner's got biceps. And along those lines, I am impressed by Shatner's physical strength during the series. In Wolf in the Fold, Shatner carries John Fiedler over his shoulder. In Day of the Dove, he carries Walter Koenig bridal style as he does De Kelley in this episode. And he gets no help from Koenig or Kelley such as them hanging onto his neck, they are just dead weight. Good strength feats by Shatner.

What a weird 60's camera angle when the Vians come to give Kirk his choice.

"I'm a doctor not a coal miner." Nice.

It gets talked about here from time to time, but it is nice to see our heroes sacrifice for each other.

The Vians keep McCoy's shirt on when they torture him. Clearly they could not resist Kirk's manly chest when they tortured him, but they are less impressed with McCoy's.

The concern Spock shows McCoy when he's dying is very poignant and will be seen again in FTWIHAIHTTS (what a long freakin' acronym).

"Of all the planets of Minara, we have the power to transport the inhabitants of only one to safety. " Interesting. Apparently this system has several planets with sentient life. And they're all doomed but one.

They have the resources to relocate all of the inhabitants of a planet? Huh.

So Gem absorbed personality traits from Kirk as well as absorbing his illness including courage, compassion, willingness to sacrifice.

Her healing is quite strong to be able to improve McCoy as much as she did.

Kirk speechifies and convinces the Vians to end their test, save McCoy, and save Gem's planet. They can no more resist Kirk's speeches than his manly chest.

What a weird ending with the Vians and Gem just flying away.

What is the relevance of the Pearl of Great Price parable other than to call Gem a pearl of great price?

I was going to say that it's not an inappropriate humorous ending since noone died, but Linke and Ozaba did. Plus the fact billions/trillions of people are going to die.

So let me see if I understand this. The star is going nova, there are several inhabited planets in the system, the Vians want to save one, but have to decide which is worthy. Spock implies they could have caused the Enterprise to come along. Be that as it may, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down. The Vians need to intentionally make them progressively sicker and more injured to give Gem a real test. When she absorbs their injuries, she also absorbs their passion for life, compassion, courage, willingness to sacrifice, traits which she can presumably pass on to the rest of her people. Her people acquiring these traits makes them worthy of saving to the Vians. Apparently they were going to make her fully cure McCoy and nearly die in the process, but Kirk's speechifying convinces them that she's done enough and they decide to save her people. A happy ending for her. Not so much for the rest of the inhabitants of the Minara system. And Linke and Ozaba died because their fear overcame them and they didn't have the same passion and will to live necessary to survive their tests.

It's a nice ending to know that Gem's people will survive, and it's nice to see our heroes demonstrating compassion, courage, willingness to sacrifice for each other. Still, this episode was never one of my favorites. Nice in places, but not exactly my cup of tea.

Alien Watch! Another species of bumpy-headed aliens!

Season 1
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers
The Cloud from the Tycho system.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

Cage match! Two Talosians and these two Vians in an MME arena in a fight to the death. Who wins?

 

It's possible that there's nothing the Federation can do. They can't stop the nova, and they can't relocate an entire planet's population like the Vians.

 

Probably right; it is too late at this phase of the story.

Enterprise was scheduled to retrieve the scientists up to the point where it would be no longer safe, i.e. the nova phase would be starting soon. So, the Federation knew about the system's nova long ago and probably the civilizations on the planets. Federation action: they built a research station and manned it six months ago.

The Federation has seen many examples of whole worlds and solar systems killed off by natural and unnatural phenomena: planetary disease and starvation (which they rescued), enslaved by machine (which they killed, twice), sterilizing robot (which they kill), the space ameba (which they killed), the Doomsday Machine (which they killed), the flying brain cells (which they killed), big asteroids (which they diverted), and now nova (which they do nothing). Later in another nova story (All Our Yesterdays), Enterprise only went to investigate why the population disappeared prior to the nova; they were thinking mass suicide because they did not have space flight. Otherwise, they were content to watch the nova kill off another inhabited planet.

Other thoughts: novae, according to Wiki, the Milky Way galaxy averages 10 novae per year. It would be expected for the Federation to experience one nova every couple of years. Enterprise encounters two in Season 3. Maybe they were on special nova-watch duty.

I guess due to the viewing angles in both episodes, we didn't see either systems' companion star.

 

IMO The Vians look more like the DISCOVERY Talosians than the TOS ones.

 

I can't put my finger on it but I've never cared for the Empath. I think part of it is Gem's exaggerated miming and part of it is I just find that I miss interactions with the wider crew when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go off on a jolly.

 

I know why never cared for the Empath: BORING.

 

What else could they do? Pluck a few hundred off the planet and high-tail it out of there?

 

Sure, it's better than nothing. With enough warning, several hundred colony ship runs may have occurred. In The Empath, Kirk says in the log that they knew for a long time about the nova situation. In All Our Yesterdays, he says in the log:

Time could be short, but usually "reports" are longer in the past. I bet they could relocate millions. And the latter planet was not country bun-kin's, they were well aware of their nova situation and developed TIME TRAVEL! as their escape plan. If they knew of advanced races with FLT and planets to colonize, they may have chosen that path, instead.

 

Could people really survive on a planet right up until the minute their sun "goes nova"? Wouldn't the star become a red giant and incinerate the inner planets long before then?

 

Were the Minarans also testing the other representatives of the other planets elsewhere? It seemed to me that they must have been doing something rather than just pick one race to save from impending death! This was one of the legendary three banned episodes on the BBC right up until 1994 I understand!
JB