In the late eighties, I had many episodes of TOS recorded, including this one, and would sometimes (as I had two VCR's) copy them, dubbed with different sounds. At the time, Clive Barker's Hellraiser was quite popular, so naturally I dubbed some of the music and torture sounds from Hellraiser onto selected "Kirk torture" scenes from this ep...I must admit it really worked! Perhaps a young Clive Barker saw this episode and was given a few ideas? I think the only other Star Trek episodes that might work better for dubbing a Hellraiser soundtrack onto would be The Cage, and, of course, the TNG double-episode Best of Both Worlds, where Picard is tortured by and turned into a Borg (I actually did that one, but sadly all of those dub-tapes were lost or recorded over). If you think about it, the Borg do travel in cubes (like the Cenobites' puzzle box), and do resemble the Cenobites...hmmm, maybe Berman was in turn inspired by Hellraiser? Perhaps the Borg are merely an advanced form of Cenobite! Resistance is never futile when they sick the chains and hooks on you!
Review of The Empath
