Rating: 
Summary: Two Thought Provoking Treks
Review: Volume 32 of Paramount's complete reissue of Classic Trek contains two outstanding third season episodes. The Empath is a sensitive story written by Joyce Muskat. The Vians, like the Talosians from The Cage, are an advanced race possessing superior intellect, but seemingly lacking a moral center. Since most of this episode's budget was spent creating the Vians' makeup, the producers used a minimalist setting--so nearly the entire episode is shrouded in black. Guest Star Kathryn Hays does an excellent job in what is essentially a mime role. The Tholian Web is another great story. The script is scientifically plausible, and features fine dialogue and character conflict. It's interesting to see how the crew interracts in the absence of Captain Kirk. It's equally interesting to observe how, no longer having to compete with William Shatner's broad performance style, the cast alters their performances. James Doohan, in particular, has some subtle moments here. The Tholian Commander's appearance, along with the "web" effects, are some of the best of the series. The picture restoration is excellent here, with deep blacks during much of The Empath, and clear reproduction of the visual effects from The Tholian Web. The sound has been tastefully enhanced for multichannel systems.
Rating:
Summary: TWO WONDERFUL EPISODES FROM STAR TREK'S FINAL SEASON!
Review: Volume 32 of the Star Trek DVD series includes two of the finest episodes from the third season. Both these episodes are extremely well written and are different in there own ways. THE EMPATH is one of Star Trek's most sensitive episodes ever. The Vians are a superior race with a lack of morals who use inferior beings in their tests of the mute empath who can heal. They torture the beings (sometimes to death) and they put the empath's healing abilities to the test. Kirk, Spock and McCoy however end up being the next subjects for the test! This episode is probably the most intimate Star Trek story ever. A well written plot overshadowed the obvious tight budget. There is no doubt that most of this episode's budget went to the Vian's costumes and make-up which ends of leaving the set almost always a completely black background. However the acting in this episode is excellent especially the guest star Kathryn Hays who plays Gem the mute Empath (somewhat of a mime role). THE THOLIAN WEB is another excellent episode. The Enterprise ventures into unknown space territory in search of a fellow starship The Defiant. They find the ship but Cpt.Kirk is lost in space when the crew attempts to return to their own ship. This episode is different cause we get to see the crew function without Cpt.Kirk. William Shatner only appears in the beginning and the end, so he takes a back seat and allows Leonard Nimoy and Deforest Kelley to have most the screen time. We also see character development in the rest of the crew members, particularily Scotty. A great episode, good story, nice effects, great acting and scientifically plausible. Definetly one of the third seasons best. Overall Volume 32 is definetly one of the DVD's from this series to get. Containing two different but both excellent episodes fro Star Trek third season (which is hard to come by, since most of the third season epiosdes were fairly weak). Nonetheless this one is definetly worth a look. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: TWO WONDERFUL EPISODES FROM STAR TREK'S FINAL SEASON!
Review: Volume 32 of the Star Trek DVD series includes two of the finest episodes from the third season. Both these episodes are extremely well written and are different in there own ways. THE EMPATH is one of Star Trek's most sensitive episodes ever. The Vians are a superior race with a lack of morals who use inferior beings in their tests of the mute empath who can heal. They torture the beings (sometimes to death) and they put the empath's healing abilities to the test. Kirk, Spock and McCoy however end up being the next subjects for the test! This episode is probably the most intimate Star Trek story ever. A well written plot overshadowed the obvious tight budget. There is no doubt that most of this episode's budget went to the Vian's costumes and make-up which ends of leaving the set almost always a completely black background. However the acting in this episode is excellent especially the guest star Kathryn Hays who plays Gem the mute Empath (somewhat of a mime role). THE THOLIAN WEB is another excellent episode. The Enterprise ventures into unknown space territory in search of a fellow starship The Defiant. They find the ship but Cpt.Kirk is lost in space when the crew attempts to return to their own ship. This episode is different cause we get to see the crew function without Cpt.Kirk. William Shatner only appears in the beginning and the end, so he takes a back seat and allows Leonard Nimoy and Deforest Kelley to have most the screen time. We also see character development in the rest of the crew members, particularily Scotty. A great episode, good story, nice effects, great acting and scientifically plausible. Definetly one of the third seasons best. Overall Volume 32 is definetly one of the DVD's from this series to get. Containing two different but both excellent episodes fro Star Trek third season (which is hard to come by, since most of the third season epiosdes were fairly weak). Nonetheless this one is definetly worth a look. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Two classics focusing on the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship
Review: Volume 32 of the Star Trek DVD series presents two of the finest episodes from the series' third and final season. "The Empath" is one of the most intimate episodes of Star Trek on so many levels. The Enterprise arrives at a star system that is about to go nova to pick up a scientific team. Kirk, Spock and McCoy have just found the station abandoned when they are transported to a cavern. There they find the corpses of the scientists and a mute empath, who McCoy names Gem. The mystery is solved when two Vians appear and explain they are doing experiments. This consists of torturing Kirk and letting Gem heal him with her empathic abilities. When the Vians return for more tests, McCoy sedates the others and goes in their place. Kirk and Spock awake to find the doctor dying, with Gem his only hope. There have been a lot of Star Trek episodes where superior aliens test humans, but in "The Empath" the Vians provide a surprise and interesting twist. It seems they can transport the inhabitants of ONE planet from the Minaran system before its star explodes and while Gem's people are the most promising, the Vians must learn if she can sacrifice her self for another, which they call one of the highest qualities. So all the torturing has not been in the name of sadism, but rather to justify the horrendous choice of which planet of people to save. Of course, the two Earthlings and the Vulcan get high marks for their performance during the experiments. The strength of "The Empath" is the clear evidence of the strong relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Probably no other episode in the series focuses on the trio as much as this particular one. "The Tholian Web" is a nice choice as the companion episode on this DVD because it basically removes Kirk from the equation and gives us the Star Trek episode that most focuses on interactions between Spock and McCoy. The Enterprise has found the USS Defiant with all of its crew dead, apparently having killed themselves. But this area of space is unstable and before Kirk can be beamed back, he becomes trapped in a parallel universe/dimension. While Spock waits for the next opportunity to rescue the captain, the Tholians show up and demand an explanation. Spock explains, but the presence of the Tholian ship throws off his equations. When Kirk does not reappear the Tholains cripple the Enterprise and begin to spin a web of tractor field filaments. To make things even more interesting, the unstable space is beginning to after the sanity of the Enterprise crew. The best scenes of "The Tholian Web" are clearly between Spock and McCoy, who get to hear the taped message Kirk has left for them in the event of his death. Their interaction is at the heart of this episode, because the idea of taking several hours to make a giant web around a damaged starship is pretty far out there. I mean, come on, with all the energy they are expending they could surely finish the Enterprise off, or at least they could make a SMALLER web. But if you always enjoyed the bickering between Spock and McCoy, then this is a truly enjoyable episode.
Rating:
Summary: Two classics focusing on the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship
Review: Volume 32 of the Star Trek DVD series presents two of the finest episodes from the series' third and final season. "The Empath" is one of the most intimate episodes of Star Trek on so many levels. The Enterprise arrives at a star system that is about to go nova to pick up a scientific team. Kirk, Spock and McCoy have just found the station abandoned when they are transported to a cavern. There they find the corpses of the scientists and a mute empath, who McCoy names Gem. The mystery is solved when two Vians appear and explain they are doing experiments. This consists of torturing Kirk and letting Gem heal him with her empathic abilities. When the Vians return for more tests, McCoy sedates the others and goes in their place. Kirk and Spock awake to find the doctor dying, with Gem his only hope. There have been a lot of Star Trek episodes where superior aliens test humans, but in "The Empath" the Vians provide a surprise and interesting twist. It seems they can transport the inhabitants of ONE planet from the Minaran system before its star explodes and while Gem's people are the most promising, the Vians must learn if she can sacrifice her self for another, which they call one of the highest qualities. So all the torturing has not been in the name of sadism, but rather to justify the horrendous choice of which planet of people to save. Of course, the two Earthlings and the Vulcan get high marks for their performance during the experiments. The strength of "The Empath" is the clear evidence of the strong relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Probably no other episode in the series focuses on the trio as much as this particular one. "The Tholian Web" is a nice choice as the companion episode on this DVD because it basically removes Kirk from the equation and gives us the Star Trek episode that most focuses on interactions between Spock and McCoy. The Enterprise has found the USS Defiant with all of its crew dead, apparently having killed themselves. But this area of space is unstable and before Kirk can be beamed back, he becomes trapped in a parallel universe/dimension. While Spock waits for the next opportunity to rescue the captain, the Tholians show up and demand an explanation. Spock explains, but the presence of the Tholian ship throws off his equations. When Kirk does not reappear the Tholains cripple the Enterprise and begin to spin a web of tractor field filaments. To make things even more interesting, the unstable space is beginning to after the sanity of the Enterprise crew. The best scenes of "The Tholian Web" are clearly between Spock and McCoy, who get to hear the taped message Kirk has left for them in the event of his death. Their interaction is at the heart of this episode, because the idea of taking several hours to make a giant web around a damaged starship is pretty far out there. I mean, come on, with all the energy they are expending they could surely finish the Enterprise off, or at least they could make a SMALLER web. But if you always enjoyed the bickering between Spock and McCoy, then this is a truly enjoyable episode.
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