Charlie X

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: TOS episode
"Charlie X"
Charlie Evans uses his dangerous powers
Episode no.	2
Prod. code	008
Remastered no.	38
Airdate	September 15, 1966
Writer(s)	D.C. Fontana story by Gene Roddenberry
Director	Lawrence Dobkin
Guest star(s)	Robert Walker Jr. Charles J. Stewart Abraham Sofaer
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.

[edit] Plot

On stardate 1533.6, the starship USS Enterprise, commanded by 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 Thasus. 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 is to be transported to his nearest living relatives on planet Alpha V and the crew of the Antares speak nothing but praises about Charlie. They seem, however, more than pleased to see the boy removed from their ship as soon as possible and 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, who evidently was the first human female he had ever seen. 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, which turns out to be her favorite kind, even though there was none of it in the ship's stores. Charlie meets Rand later in the rec room, where Mr. Spock (whom Charlie calls Mr. Ears) plays a Vulcan Lyre, and Lt. Uhura sings. 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. Charlie makes the curious and sinister comment "it wasn't very well constructed", shortly before Spock determines that the Antares has blown up. 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 powerful telekinetic abilities. Amusingly, he melted his own pieces.

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"—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; he then makes their phasers disappear. Kirk suspects Charlie has been given the powers which legend ascribes to the ancient race of Thasians 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, turns Tina into a lizard, and chases down Rand. When she resists his advances he gets angry and 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, a Thasian ship approaches the Enterprise. The Thasian commander appears on the bridge, saying that they had given Charlie his powers to help him to survive on their world, and that it would be too dangerous for Charlie to live among humans. The Thasians 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] 40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was re-mastered in 2006 and was first aired July 14, 2007 as part of the remastered 40th Anniversary original series. It was preceded one week earlier by the remastered version of "Return to Tomorrow" and followed a week later by "The Squire of Gothos". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

• The Antares is shown for the first time alongside the Enterprise in the opening sequence, and was not seen at all in the original episode. The design of the ship is reminiscent of the drone cargo ships (shown in Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles") with the addition of a forward section for the Antares crew.
• The Thasian ship has been given a slightly more solid shape as opposed to the shapeless glow that originally appeared.

[edit] Episode history

• 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 Charlie's Law is "You'd better be nice to Charlie... or else."
• Gene Roddenberry made an uncredited audio cameo as the cook who exclaims that the meatloaf has turned into real turkeys.

[edit] Non-canon sequel

The character Charlie Evans reappeared in the unofficial mini-series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, (played by William Wellman) still bearing resentment towards Kirk after forty years for handing him over to the Thasians. He used the Guardian of Forever to go back in time and change history.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Review of Charlie X remaster at TrekMovie.com
• 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"