Episode 2 - Charlie X

Charlie X is the story of a boy named Anthony, who lives in Peaksville, Ohio, and has the ability to wish away those who displease him…

No, wait.

Charlie X is the story of a young man who, using the power of his mind, can make people obey his wishes, manipulate them like puppets, and alter reality at his whim. It is a story of the confusion and anger of adolescence, manifested in a man/boy who has never known human company and has been given god-like powers with no moral compass to guide him. It is a story about rejection, and unrequited love, and oh, yeah, wishing people into the cornfield.

A very big drop off from The Man Trap, in my opinion. I know Charlie X is one of the more well-known of TOS episodes, but then again, so is the space hippie episode. Being well-known doesn’t mean good, and in this case, I think that IS the case.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t unwatchable. It was just that watching Charlie get his dander up, then get talked down by Kirk, then get mad, then get talked down by Kirk, then get confused, then get talked down by Kirk…

You get the idea.

To make matters worse, for an hour of screen-time we see several attempts by Kirk to turn the boy onto a more reasonable path, which subsequently get swept aside when someone else does something that displeases the godling (a theme that I have a feeling we’ll be coming back to in later episodes…). At the end of the day, Charlie isn’t changed one bit, and the only thing that saves the Enterprise and her crew is the Deus Ex Machina of his alien “parents”, the Thasians, arriving and taking him away. There was no growth in this episode, no character arc, and no lessons learned, except that – just maybe – a spoiled brat will always be a spoiled brat. This is somewhat surprising as it was written by D.C. Fontana, from an “original” idea by Gene himself – and it just plain falls flat, with me at least.

Still and all, there were some good bits.

The soon-to-become famous Spock and Bones Banter is on display early on, during a scene with Kirk on the bridge where they are debating how to handle their new young passenger. Spock derisively but gently asks Bones if he is basing his decisions on logic or emotion. The dialog between the three is quite unforced and natural, even talking over each other a bit as friends are wont to do in real life.

Then we have the Rec Room sequence, where Spock plays his lyre, Uhura sings, and Charlie shows up to perform some card tricks for Yeoman Rand (who he developed a crush on at first sight). One again, we have a somewhat-charged interaction between Spock and Uhura, as she sings of his “Satan’s guise” and “Devil’s eyes”, warning women to beware as she slinks around him. Spock is trying hard to keep a straight face during this scene, but it isn’t easy, you can tell. He clearly doesn’t mind her attentions.

When Charlie shows up, Uhura sings a song about him, somewhat playfully, that makes some crewmen laugh. He isn’t used to not being the center of attention, so he makes his first overt use of godlike powers to rob Uhura of speech, ending her singing, and then proceeds to dazzle everyone with some card tricks. Why nobody seemed overly concerned about Uhura’s sudden lack of voice, or did anything about it… a mystery. Or was it Charlie?

Hey, what do you know, it just happens to be Thanksgiving Day, on top of all the other excitement. A “holiday back on Earth” Kirk advises the ship’s chef, who presumably doesn’t know about it. Also, is it now a planetary holiday? No matter – he advises that if the crew is going to have to eat meatloaf, he at least wants it to look like turkey. The chef goes off, presumably to comply with the request.

We have our first attempted “role model-to-all-powerful-being” heart to heart chat about why it is unacceptable to swat Rand on the ass (other crewmen did it to each other, Charlie just assumed it was normal). Kirk struggles with this, but is thankfully interrupted by a call from the bridge. The captain of the ship that brought Charlie to the Enterprise is attempting to call them with a message. Needless to say, the message never comes through as Charlie blows it up with his mind (unknown to Kirk and crew of course). He mentions that it wasn’t very well constructed, and Spock confirms the debris field with his sensors. Dubious glances ensue.

Then there is a call from the galley – the meatloaf in the ovens has turned into real turkeys ((insert spooky music here)). Note that nothing about turkey was mentioned in front of Charlie, so apparently we’re 2-for-2 with creatures who can read minds. Charlie’s ability to do so seems to make more sense, as it appears there is little that he can’t do.

3-D Chess makes its debut. I actually played that a couple of times when I was a kid! Charlie plays Spock, loses on move three, and then melts the pieces out of frustration and anger after Spock leaves.

Rand tries to introduce Charlie to a hottie Ensign, Tina Laughton, but he only has eyes for Rand. She is growing concerned about his fixation – who wouldn’t? – but thinks at this point it is still a mostly-harmless crush.

A Good Line From Charlie: “When I see you, it’s like I’m hungry all over.” – nice description of total infatuation, I think. Also, creepy.

Observation: From certain camera angles, Rand looks a bit like Chloe from 24.

Time for another attempted “fatherly” talk from Kirk. He’s really bad at this, as we see in later episodes and movies - remember David from Wrath of Kahn? I like the fact that this trait shows up early, and is maintained for the entirety of the character’s life. It must be the result of his growing up without a father. So, being bad at talking, he takes the godling to the gym to work out some aggression with some Judo practice – always a good idea. Charlie is really bad at it, being scrawny and blinded by the way-to-tight tights Kirk is wearing, and ends up being thrown easily. A nearby crewman laughs, Charlie zaps him to the cornfield in front of Kirk, and it allll starts to come together for our intrepid Captain. Charlie evaporates some security crewmen’s phasers (and all phasers on the ship it turns out), but Kirk confronts him and sends him to his room – the first time Charlie has backed down.

Ah, maybe there’s some hope for this boy yet! A stern hand, someone he looks up to…

Nah.

On the bridge, discussions about what to do with the superbeing. It is discovered that the ship’s course to Colony 5 can’t be changed – Charlie wouldn’t like that, since he wants to meet all of the people there who he just KNOWS will be his friend – then he arrives on the bridge and causes Spock to start spouting poetry when he dares to be less than cordial. “Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…”

Another Good Charlie Line: “Very nice, Mr. Ears.”

Kirk confronts him again, and again he backs down and leaves. Confused, angry, and hurt, he stalks through the halls of the ship making people’s faces disappear, turning them into iguanas, and aging them decades at a glance. He’s having a bad day, it seems.

Charlie goes into Rand’s quarters without knocking, Kirk and Spock arrive to stop him, and Charlie mind-blasts them across the room. Quite a blast, apparently, as Spock’s shoulder makes a hole in the wall behind him. Thankfully, it is fixed between shots.

Rand smacks Charlie, and he wishes her into the warp field.

More fun ensues as Spock and Kirk try to lock Charlie in the brig. He just makes the walls go away (surprise!). At this point, he is essentially controlling the entire ship. Kirk, McCoy, and Spock speculate that it might be taxing his powers to the limit, as he has never done this before – maybe they could overload his abilities? It’s a last-ditch ploy, since it is clear nothing else will work.

So, they go to the bridge, confront the gloating Charlie, and begin to turn on every switch, system, and object on the bridge and, presumably, the whole ship. Sure enough, it works, Charlie overextends himself and loses his powers for a time.

When suddenly, wouldn’t you know it, along comes the Thasian’s ship, and the Wizard of Oz appears on the bridge and tells Charlie its time to go home. He begs the humans to let him stay, saying the Thasians have no emotions, and he can’t even touch them. Rand looks a bit sad for him in a suitably girlish way, but in the end, Charlie’s pathetic whining is to no avail. The Thasians leave, and we’re left without so much as a thoughtful line from Kirk, just a slow pullback shot of the bridge with everyone looking contemplative as Rand stands there in her pink mumu.

Not a great episode on many levels – this one only gets a two redshirt rating. Hopefully things will pick up again with Where No Man Has Gone Before.