Thus far, the lowest I have rated a Star Trek episode is 2/10: I knew there would be an occasion where I had to go lower, and The Empath is it.
Two ugly aliens with massive heads: check! A beautiful woman for Kirk to swoon over: check! William Shatner shirtless: check! On the surface, this seems like fairly formulaic stuff, but it is the execution that really drags The Empath down. The production values are terrible: the episode looks like it has been shot in a warehouse, the lighting is sparse, and the props are minimal and cheap looking, giving the whole thing the look and feel of a poverty-stricken avant-garde theatre production. The titular character, an empath named Gem, is also a mute, and actress Kathryn Hays puts in a performance reminiscent of French mime Marcel Marceau, her movements exaggerated and dance-like, making this feel more like a pretentious piece of performance art than an episode of Star Trek. Worst of all is the music: a sickeningly saccharine lilting tune whenever Gem is on screen, it is truly horrendous.
On top of all this is some serious sadism: the aliens torture Kirk - nothing new there... the captain is used to being roughed up by now - but McCoy gets it far worse, bludgeoned to within an inch of his life, part of an experiment by the big-headed E. T.s to see if Gem is willing to risk her life to save another. I'm not usually averse to a spot of the old ultra-violence, but it seems so out of place in a show like Star Trek, especially when perpetrated against poor old Bones.
1/10 - surely it can't get any worse than this.
Two ugly aliens with massive heads: check! A beautiful woman for Kirk to swoon over: check! William Shatner shirtless: check! On the surface, this seems like fairly formulaic stuff, but it is the execution that really drags The Empath down. The production values are terrible: the episode looks like it has been shot in a warehouse, the lighting is sparse, and the props are minimal and cheap looking, giving the whole thing the look and feel of a poverty-stricken avant-garde theatre production. The titular character, an empath named Gem, is also a mute, and actress Kathryn Hays puts in a performance reminiscent of French mime Marcel Marceau, her movements exaggerated and dance-like, making this feel more like a pretentious piece of performance art than an episode of Star Trek. Worst of all is the music: a sickeningly saccharine lilting tune whenever Gem is on screen, it is truly horrendous.
On top of all this is some serious sadism: the aliens torture Kirk - nothing new there... the captain is used to being roughed up by now - but McCoy gets it far worse, bludgeoned to within an inch of his life, part of an experiment by the big-headed E. T.s to see if Gem is willing to risk her life to save another. I'm not usually averse to a spot of the old ultra-violence, but it seems so out of place in a show like Star Trek, especially when perpetrated against poor old Bones.
1/10 - surely it can't get any worse than this.