Trivia / Star Trek S3 E12 "The Empath"

• The Cameo: Kathryn Hays, better known as Kim Hughes of As the World Turns, turns in an extremely moving and beautiful performance as Gem, all without uttering a word or any other sound.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Interestingly, this is DeForest Kelley's favorite episode of the series.
• Hostility on the Set: The guest director was bemused at both Nimoy and Shatner demanding the limelight. (Nimoy would later say he and Shatner had something of a sibling rivalry about limelight in general.)
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: This episode was written by Joyce Muskat, one of only four fans who were able to sell scripts to the original series. Co-producer Robert Justman read her unsolicited script and recommended it be bought. It was Muskat's only script sale.
• Prop Recycling: The couch itself is a gigantic version of the agonizers seen in "Mirror, Mirror" and "Day of the Dove". It was first seen as the Eymorg's table in "Spock's Brain".
• Recycled Script: The episode has similarities to the The Outer Limits (1963) episode "Nightmare". In that episode, humans are brutally interrogated by aliens on a minimalistic set. John Erman also directed "Nightmare", Willard Sage (Thann) was one of those behind the interrogations, and Robert Justman was, at that time, an assistant director on the series.
• Working Title: The Answerer. A reference to Egyptian mythology. On your way to the afterlife, you will be confronted by judges who ask about your morality and good or evil deeds. The answerer is one who stands with you, speaking as your character witness. Gem was the answerer for the three Enterprise men; seeing their friendship, she knows she must help them even if she dies for it.

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