Star Trek episode "The Empath"

"The Empath"

Season 3, Episode 12.

What a horrible episode.

Boring.

A sun is about to go nova and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are beamed away from their mission on the alien planet by alien tech. They are kidnapped by aliens with big heads and robes who look remarkably similar to the aliens on Talos IV in "The Menagerie." I guess they were bored in coming up with a new-looking alien.

There is also an "empath" being there, mute but healing injuries with a touch. These aliens, the Vians, are testing the girl empath--according to Memory-alpha: "they explain to Kirk, Spock, and the dying McCoy that they have been part of an experiment. They have the power to save one species from the impending nova, and so they wished to test whether Gem's species is worthy of being saved. Apparently the Vians want to be certain that she has learned the principles of self-sacrifice, the will to survive, the passion to know, and the love of life from her contact with the Humans. These qualities, they say, make a civilization worthy to survive."

I guess the whole thing is about the value of a species being its emotions, like compassion and self-sacrifice.

But then the episode just ends--what the heck happened? Did the Vians survive? Did the empath's race survive? Where did they go? Does Starfleet do anything about this?

The whole time I was watching this episode, I was bored. I wanted to shut it off at the halfway point.