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Lal is one of the two main antagonists of the Star Trek episode "The Empath", along with Thann.
He was portrayed by the late Alan Bergmann.
Biography[]
Lal and his colleague Thann were two Vians who were assigned to assess the situation in the Minarian system, which was about go nova and destroy a number of inhabited planets. They invaded a Federation research station in the system, abducting the two scientists there, Linke and Ozaba. They subjected them to torture until they did, but insisted they did not kill them but their own fears and imperfections did.
When Kirk, Spock and McCoy arrived looking for the scientists, Lal and Thann abducted them and imprisoned them with a mute woman from one of the system's planets, who McCoy named Gem. The Vians had the power to save the population of one planet in the system and Lal and Thann wanted to test Gem's potential to see if her people were worthy, hoping her exposure to the Enterprise trio would teach her new qualities. Gem had the ability to heal wounds but doing so caused her great pain, as she took the injuries on herself before absorbing them.
Spock knocked out Lal and took his control device as part of an escape attempt. Lal and Thann confronted the quartet on the surface and Lal offered to let Spock and McCoy go if Kirk agreed to return with them. Kirk agreed but his friends were returned to captivity anyway. Kirk was then tortured with Gem healing the wounds. Lal then told Kirk that he had to choose Spock or McCoy for the next round, with a strong likelihood that McCoy would die or Spock would be driven insane.
McCoy ended up volunteering while the others were unconscious, sustaining life-threatening injuries. Lal and Thann trapped him and Gem together to see what she would do. McCoy refused to let Gem sacrifice herself to save him and Lal declared the test must be completed. Kirk and Spock intervened, with Spock insisting Gem's offer to sacrifice herself was proof enough. Kirk told the Vians they had lost the same compassion that they believed important in others. Accepting the argument, Lal healed McCoy's wounds, then he and Thann departed with Gem.
