Charlie X (TOS episode)
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| Star Trek: TOS episode | |
| "Charlie X" | |
 The boy with some issues, Charlie X. |
|
| Episode no. | 2 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 008 |
| Airdate | September 15, 1966 |
| Writer(s) | D.C. Fontana story by Gene Roddenberry |
| Director | Lawrence Dobkin |
| Guest star(s) | Robert Walker Jr. Grace Lee Whitney Charles J. Stewart |
| Year | 2266 |
| Stardate | 1533.6 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "The Man Trap" |
| Next | "Where No Man Has Gone Before" |
"Charlie X" is a first season episode of the original series of Star Trek, first broadcast on September 15, 1966. It was repeated by NBC on June 1, 1967. It is episode #2, production #8. It was written by D.C. Fontana, with the story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Lawrence Dobkin.
Overview: The Enterprise picks up an unstable teenage boy with dangerous mental powers.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
On stardate 1533.6, the starship USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk takes charge of Charlie Evans, a teenage boy from a small science vessel called the Antares. As a child he was the sole survivor of a transport ship that crashed on the planet Thesus. For fourteen years Charlie grew up there alone, stranded in the wreckage, and only learned how to talk from the ship's computer systems that somehow remained intact.
The boy was to be transported to his nearest living relatives on planet Alpha V. The crew of the Antares spoke nothing but praises about Charlie, however they seem more than pleased to see this boy removed from their ship as soon as possible. After the transfer, they bid the Enterprise an unusual and very hasty goodbye and quickly proceed on their way. Charlie undergoes a cursory medical examination by Dr. McCoy and Charlie tells the doctor that the crew of the science ship didn't like him very much, and all he wanted is just for people to like him.
Charlie quickly begins to get obnoxious, and shows signs that he possesses strange powers. First he starts to fall in love with Yeoman Janice Rand. Having observed a man in engineering seal an agreement to go to the rec. room with a friendly slap on the rear, he does the same to Rand, to her objection of course. Later as an apology for his rudeness he gives her a bottle of perfume, to her amazement it's her favorite kind. Charlie meets Rand later in the Rec Room, where Mr. Spock, (whom Charlie calls Mr. Ears), plays a Vulcan Lyre, and Lt. Uhura attempts to sing. Charlie is annoyed with Uhura's performance and causes her to abruptly (but temporarily) lose her voice.
When the Antares gets nearly out of sensor range, it transmits a warning message to the Enterprise, but the message gets cut off when the ship suddenly explodes and breaks up. Charlie makes the curious and sinister comment "it wasn't very well constructed." Afterward, more bizarre events begin to take place aboard the Enterprise. For example, a cook (voiced by Roddenberry) reports that the synthetic meatloaf has been transformed into real turkeys.
Back in the Rec Room, Kirk defeats Spock at 3D-Chess, implausibly beating Spock's logic with his own quirky move. Charlie is intrigued with the game and tries to duplicate the same feat but loses. Kirk and Spock leave the room but an angered Charlie stays behind and causes the white chess pieces to melt revealing he has both a bad temper and scary telekinetic abilities.
In an attempt to get Charlie off her back, Rand introduces him to Yeoman third-class Tina Lawton (who is the same age as Charlie), but Charlie only has eyes for Rand and brushes Tina off, angering Rand. Later, Kirk tries his best to instill Charlie with some manly qualities, and attempts to teach the young man how to fight. Sam, Kirk's training partner, laughs at one of Charlie's falls, and Charlie makes him "go away"—as in disappear forever. Sam vanishes into thin air! Shocked by what he has witnessed, Kirk calls for security guards to escort young Charlie to his quarters, but Charlie says he won't let them hurt him –– they soon realize he has made all the phasers on the ship disappear. Kirk suspects Charlie has been given the powers which legend ascribes to the ancient race of Thesians and confronts Charlie about it. Charlie admits he used his power to destroy the Antares, but says the ship would have blown up on its own anyway sooner or later; and "they weren't nice to me".
Charlie discovers Kirk's plans to divert from Alpha V, and he takes control of the Enterprise and members of the crew. He forces Spock to recite poetry: William Blake's "The Tyger" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". He turns Tina into a lizard and chases down Rand. When she resists his advances he gets angry makes her disappear, saying "she wasn't nice to me". Charlie tells everyone that he can make them all go away, anytime he wants to. Kirk and Spock attempt to trap him in a detention cell, but to no avail. Charlie goes on a rampage, turning a young crew member into an old woman and removing the faces of other crew members who are laughing.
Meanwhile, an unseen Thesian ship approaches the Enterprise. The Thesans return Yeoman Rand and fix the messes Charlie has made. They apologize to Kirk and promise to take Charlie to live with them. Charlie begs Kirk for forgiveness and pleads frantically with him to not let the aliens take him away, but when Charlie does vanish, Kirk finally agrees it's for the best.
[edit] Production
The premise for this episode formed part of Gene Roddenberry's original March 1964 pitch for Star Trek, under the name "The Day Charlie Became God". When the series entered production, it was assigned to D. C. Fontana to write. [1]
For a while during production, the episode was known as "Charlie's Law" — a name which survived in the James Blish adaption of the episode for Bantam Books. In the episode Charle's Law is "You'd better be nice to Charlie... or else."
- Gene Roddenberry makes an uncredited audio cameo as the cook who exclaims that the meatloaf has turned into live turkeys.
- It isn't referenced in the episode, but it is assumed that all of the changes to reality that Charlie made onboard the Enterprise were undone by the Thasians, including the physical changes to various crewmembers, the meatloaf-as-turkeys, disappearing phasers, and crewmembers that "go away."
[edit] Notes
- The plot bears many similarities to the Robert A. Heinlein novel Stranger in a Strange Land, as well as to the short story "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby (which was adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone by the same name).
[edit] References
- ^ Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman (1996). Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00974-5.
[edit] External links
- Charlie X article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
| Last produced: "The Naked Time" |
Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 1 |
Next produced: "Balance Of Terror" |
| Last transmitted: "The Man Trap" |
Next transmitted: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" |
