Doctor Linke (played by Jason Wingreen) was a minor character in the third season of Star Trek. Appearing in the episode "The Empath", he was Federation scientist stationed on Minara II to study Minara's development into a nova in 2268. Linke didn't care for his posting, referring to it as a "Godforsaken place".
Linke and his associate, Dr. Ozaba, were kidnapped and tortured by the Vians, who eventually killed the two scientists. The Vians' intentions were to attempt to teach the empath Gem, a native of the Minarian star system, to comprehend compassion and self-sacrifice in order to determine if her planet was worthy of saving from the sun's nova.