Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves trapped in the laboratory of two callous alien scientists who subject them to experiments to measure their will to live and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for others. At the center of the experiments in Gem, a mute woman with the ability to absorb the injuries of others, but only at great cost to herself. The three Enterprise men discover the experiments are to see if Gem will sacrifice her own life to save them from the tortures the aliens will inflict.
This episode falls just short of a ten. The flaws include the rather silly slo-mo running scene. Also a problem: the aliens' ultimate motive for their experiments. Once the motive is revealed, it seems a little too contrived and strained. The motive could have been handled better. And the aliens' decision to show compassion at the end seems a little too abrupt, but that part probably was unavoidable given the episode's time constraints. Also, the deaths of the two human scientists seem to get forgotten and glossed over by episode's end. Glossing indifferently over the deaths of minor characters by an episode's end, especially the deaths of red shirts, has always been a problem in the scripts of Star Trek. It takes away some of the humanity of the main characters.
But, here, these are minor quibbles. Stacked up against all of that is an excellent script that slowly builds the foreboding and mystery as to what the aliens are up to and where Gem fits in. And we see a wonderful message of compassion and camaraderie in how the show's Big Three interact with each other and with Gem in this episode. Note, especially, how Spock reacts when he realizes McCoy is dying: there is no big change in his usual impassive demeanor, yet Leonard Nimoy manages to convey the real grief Spock must be feeling. This is the episode where the Big Three's friendship is put on full show, and it is awesome to watch.
And at the center of the show is a superb performance by Kathryn Hays as Gem. Her Gem is utterly beautiful, gentle, and heart breaking, and Hays' silent movie style acting a joy to watch, especially in the final scene. Whatever chronic script problems Star Trek TOS ever suffered from, that show frequently got great guest performances.
This episode falls just short of a ten. The flaws include the rather silly slo-mo running scene. Also a problem: the aliens' ultimate motive for their experiments. Once the motive is revealed, it seems a little too contrived and strained. The motive could have been handled better. And the aliens' decision to show compassion at the end seems a little too abrupt, but that part probably was unavoidable given the episode's time constraints. Also, the deaths of the two human scientists seem to get forgotten and glossed over by episode's end. Glossing indifferently over the deaths of minor characters by an episode's end, especially the deaths of red shirts, has always been a problem in the scripts of Star Trek. It takes away some of the humanity of the main characters.
But, here, these are minor quibbles. Stacked up against all of that is an excellent script that slowly builds the foreboding and mystery as to what the aliens are up to and where Gem fits in. And we see a wonderful message of compassion and camaraderie in how the show's Big Three interact with each other and with Gem in this episode. Note, especially, how Spock reacts when he realizes McCoy is dying: there is no big change in his usual impassive demeanor, yet Leonard Nimoy manages to convey the real grief Spock must be feeling. This is the episode where the Big Three's friendship is put on full show, and it is awesome to watch.
And at the center of the show is a superb performance by Kathryn Hays as Gem. Her Gem is utterly beautiful, gentle, and heart breaking, and Hays' silent movie style acting a joy to watch, especially in the final scene. Whatever chronic script problems Star Trek TOS ever suffered from, that show frequently got great guest performances.