WHY FRIENDLY ALIENS SHOULD NEVER GIVE HUMAN CHILDREN POWERS

Episode Title:  Charlie X

Air Date: 9/15/1966

Written by Dorothy C. Fontana and Gene Rodenberry 

Directed by Lawrence Dobkin

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Ryan                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice Rand       Don Eitner as unnamed Navigator          Patricia McNulty as Yeoman Third Class Tina Lawton        John Bellah as Crewman I               Garland Thompson as Crewman II         Gene Roddenberry as Enterprise Chef                      Ron Veto   as Security Guard                    Laura Wood    as  Prematurely Aged Woman         Robert Walker Jr. as Charles Evans         Charles J. Stewart as Captain Ramart            Dallas Mitchell as Tom Nellis             Abraham Sofaer as The Thasian

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, SS Antares, and Thasian ship

Planets:  None

My Spoiler filled summary and review: This episode’s adventure begins with the Enterprise on rendezvous with the merchant vessel Antares.  Three men from the merchant vessel beam over, and one of them, Captain Ramart, informs Captain Kirk that the youngest among them is a young man named Charlie Evans.  Charlie is a sole survivor of a merchant vessel that crashed on the planet Thasus.  He was stranded there as a small child and had no contact with humans for 14 years. They were trying to get him home to some distant relatives on the nearby Federation colony Alpha V.  Since the Enterprise was already headed to Alpha V and seeing as it’s a faster ship Captain Ramart thought it would be nice if they could see take Charlie along.  Captain Kirk agrees and also offers some accommodations to Captain Ramart and his navigator, but they refuse seemingly very eager to return to their own ship.  This greatly surprises Kirk as normally members a small merchant vessels are grateful for any time they can spend on a larger starship.

He seems so innocent.

                Charlie seems eager to be on the Enterprise he keeps asking how many of humans that were just like him they were on the ship.   Charlie’s excitement leads him to being chastised a small amount by Captain Kirk for interrupting him as Kirk tries to communicate with the two merchants.  This is a sign of things to come both Charlie having been stranded for so long is unaccustomed to human social customs and Captain Kirk being completely unprepared and untrained with how to deal with Charlie’s situation.  This becomes very apparent the moment Charlie lays eyes upon Janice Rand.  When he sees the Yeoman he turns to Kirk and asks, “Is that a girl?”  To which Kirk simply responds “yes” instead of saying something along the line of, “I’m sorry Janice let me that introduce you to Charlie, Charlie has been marooned for 14 years on an uninhabited planet and you are the first women he’s ever met.”  Then Rand would have just understood Charlie’s response as opposed to being taken back, but Kirk just lets the whole thing remain awkward.

                In sick bay Dr. McCoy gives young Charlie a thorough examination. He finds Charlie to be in perfect health, which he finds odd given how long the young man had been marooned alone on the planet. When McCoy asks him about this Charlie just explains that when he ran out of food he ate the food that was around him in his new environment.  He goes on to explain that he developed his patterns of speech place by listening to the machines, speaking to the machines, and machines responding back.  Later Mr. Spock’s research would contradict Charles claims particularly to the vegetation on the planet Thasus that he was marooned on.  Charlie when speaking to McCoy about the Antares mentions to McCoy that the crew did not like him too much and all he wanted was to be liked.  He also noticed that Captain Kirk was a different sort of man from Captain Ramart.  This gives McCoy the wrongheaded idea that Captain Kirk would be a good father figure for Charlie.

Charlie at chess is not good!

                Charlie observes a couple of engineering crewmen doing some work on the ship. As the men talk Charlie notices they make arrangements to socialize later and afterwards one of them slaps the other one lightly on the rear.  Having observed the social custom Charlie then goes to see Yeoman Rand gives her a rare bottle of perfume that he could not possibly have.  She is amazed and agrees to socialize with little bit in the recreation room where other members of the crew will be present.  Excited he tells her she has a deal then slaps her on the rear.  Yeoman Rand harshly tells him what he did was wrong and Charlie is then confused.  Yeoman Rand, mentally reminding herself, that Charlie has been exiled from humanity for so long that he might not understand all of our social customs, tells him to ask Captain Kirk why what he did was wrong.

Charlie couldn't wait to try this human tradition!

                Charlie does go to Captain Kirk about the situation involving the Yeoman.  Unfortunately Kirk is a not good at explaining to Charlie what he did wrong, although in Kirk’s defense Charlie does not explain his thought process to Kirk very well either. Charlie does successfully physically demonstrate what he did to Rand by doing to Kirk and then asks why it was wrong to which Kirk gives his awkward sounding answer. 

                When Charlie goes to meet Yeoman Rand in the recreation room the place is crowded and he finds Lt. Uhura serenading Mr. Spock while he plays the Vulcan lyrette.  Uhura noticing Charlie has entered the room she begins to sing about him.  However Charlie is not amused he doesn’t like being the subject of Uhura’s song and he wants everyone to be paying attention to him.  So he uses his still unknown powers to make Uhura’s voice go away.  He then starts entertaining everyone with his magic card tricks that look like the real magic. And of all intents and purposes it is real. 

Socializing on the Enterprise 

                As Charlie’s infatuation with Yeoman Rand grows she tries to introduce them to a younger Yeoman named Tina Lawton who might be more realistic dating prospect, being closer to his age.  Charlie spurns the younger woman continues to focus solely on Rand.  This concerns Rand as she sees this obsession as having a very bad ending.  She asks Captain Kirk to intervene.

Really Charlie?  She couldn't hold your interest even for a second?

It is about this time that Dr. McCoy decides that Charlie needs a father figure and that Captain Kirk is the man to do it.  This is such a error-filled conclusion on McCoy’s part if anyone on the ship has the training to help Charlie with his present difficulties it is himself.  Kirk isn’t the father figure sort of mentor anyone needs.  Kirk is more of a he gives you an order and you obey it type of person.  Kirk might be a good mentor for a young Starfleet officer following the same career path.  As a father figure trying to show someone how to operate in society he leaves a lot to be desired.  Just look at his advice to Charlie about how to treat women.  Nevertheless, Kirk agrees to take Charlie under his wing. 

Kirk has a lot of work to Charlie and one of the first things he wants to figure out is what happened to the melted chess pieces.  After losing a game of chess to Mr. Spock in just three moves, instead of asking Captain Kirk who had earlier beat Mr. Spock for some helpful chest tips Charlie instead had a fit with his powers and melted them.  Before Kirk can really get to the bottom of it however he is called to the bridge.  Charlie follows Kirk to the bridge, just in time for the Enterprise to receive a transmission from the Antares.  It seems the little ship is trying to warn the Enterprise about Charlie when suddenly it is destroyed. When they all look at Charlie he responds with “Well it was a poorly designed ship anyway.”

One of Charlie's victims

Charlie wants Kirk to teach them how to fight so Kirk meets him in the gym for his training.  Charlie however gets annoyed when Kirk begins teaching him defense starting with showing him how to take a fall.  Charlie gets more annoyed when one of the gym participants, Sam, starts laughing at him.  So Charlie uses his powers to make the man disappear.  With that Kirk finally understands the threat that Charlie imposes on his ship.  He calls down security and he interrogates briefly Charlie on the location of Sam.  Charlie just acknowledges that he made the man go away and unless everyone was nice to him he will make other people go away.

With that the remainder of the episode is Charlie Evans versus the crew of the Enterprise.  At one point Kirk tries to trick him into going into the brig so they can raise a force field on him, Charlie just makes the force field and the wall around it disappear.  In another instance he uses his power to control Mr. Spock making him say whatever comes to Charlie’s own mind.  Charlie’s ultimate prize however is Yeoman Janice Rand, he approaches her in her quarters to which she objects.  He counters that she didn’t lock the door and she tells him that is not her job to lock the door it is his job not to trespass.  Their encounter ends with Charlie making the Yeoman vanish.

By wiping away Yeoman Rand Charlie’s now remaining goal is to get to the planet Alpha V and join the Federation colony.  He goes on a rampage throughout the ship transforming people into animals, causing one individual age and making another’s face disappear.  However, Captain Kirk notices something.   He points out that ever since Charlie took control the ship he hasn’t meet anyone disappear and he concludes that controlling the ship is a drain on him.  The answer is to overwhelm him.  Kirk orders every system on the ship to be turned on and activated.  In a final confrontation with Charlie on the bridge McCoy and Spock perform Kirk’s orders turning everything on overwhelming Charlie.  His plan works and Captain Kirk can now challenge Charlie physically with his fierce unequaled fighting skills.

"Now you're going to be glad I taught you how to fall!"

It turns out Kirk doesn't have to because once Charlie is defeated a Thasian ship shows up looking for him. Communicating in the form of a disembodied head, the Thasian, explained that they found Charlie stranded and they gave him his power so he could survive.  However they realized that in giving Charlie the power changed him in a way that meant he could no longer live among humans. So they kept him.  He was with them until he recently escaped.   Charlie begs not be sent back he explains the Thasians are all non-corporal and if he was with them he wouldn't be able to touch or feel anyone.   Despite all he’s done Kirk still tries to advocate for Charlie, maybe a bit of unenthusiastically.  The Thasian makes it clear that Charlie remaining is not possible.  He does undo the damage that Charlie did to the Enterprise and her crew; this allows Yeoman Rand to reappear on the bridge.  What Charlie did to the Antares can’t be undone however because he didn’t make them disappear he simply made a vital piece of their engine disappear causing their destruction.  The Thasian removes Charlie by force and then their ship departs.

Additional thoughts: As a character Charlie Evans is a fascinating creation.  The power of a God in the body of a teenage boy who has the maturity of a toddler, someone who only wanted to fit in but whose lack of maturity and empathy combined with his amazing abilities made that impossible.  Charlie does horrible things to people because of his lack of empathy and is consistent demands for affection that makes him easy to dislike but the viewer can’t help but feel somewhat sorry for him.  He reminds me of some experiments done in the decades after this episode was made on monkeys and chimpanzees who were raised to be human and taught sign language.  These apes never became human but with the way they were conditioned it was impossible for them to live as apes in the wild.  Charlie is like that he isn’t Thasian despite his abilities, but because of them he can’t be human either.  In the end I do feel annoyance with the Thasians, the fact they showed up in a ship shows they had the ability to reach out one wonders why they couldn’t have returned him to humanity when he was still a small child instead of giving him these superpowers.

                With the exception to the sexual fascination with Yeoman Rand, Charlie is a result I think we would get if we gave such magnificent power to any two-year-old. Think of the age as they start to push their boundaries their parents set for them.   They fly across the emotional spectrum at any moment the be very loving then two seconds later be screaming “I hate you” because you wouldn’t let them have candy or because their fellow toddler took their crayon.  If they could make people disappear with a thought how many parents and fellow toddlers would go missing?

Charlie taken away!

                I really like the way Yeoman Rand was written for of this episode of all the characters she was in the toughest position and she handled it magnificently even if it didn’t end well before the Thasians came and rescued her.  The words of another starship captain nearly 80 years later sometimes you can do everything right and still lose.  It was in a really hard position for her to be the object of Charlie’s affections particularly once the true extent of his power was revealed.  Yet in every situation she was in with him it was very clear who the adult was and who was the child. Despite that she was compassionate for his situation even tried to help him develop socially by introducing him to other members of the crew particularly a young woman who could’ve actually been real potential romantic interest.   Rand was always firm with him; never lead him on while simultaneously not belittling him for his feelings or telling him that they were invalid.  The episode makes it very clear that everything that happens between Rand and Charlie is Charlie’s fault not Rand’s.

                I primarily enjoyed how Captain Kirk was used throughout this episode.  It showed both his flaws and his strength as a leader.  Kirk was the wrong choice try to be Charlie’s father figure.  As I pointed out earlier Kirk would probably be a great mentor to have for a young Starfleet officer looking to make his or her way in the fleet.   But being someone’s dad he isn’t cut out for it, heck as we later learn is never even there for his real kid.  His attempts to mentor Charlie always come up short though they are somewhat amusing.  However he’s quick to identify the threat that Charlie possesses and is quick to act.  The best part of Kirk in this episode is when he demonstrates what a great tactician he is and how is always looking for his opponent’s weakness.  In the midst of the horror of the reign of Charlie, Kirk is the one who notices that when Charlie took control he had stopped using his power to make people or things vanish.  He may have altered or controlled them but Kirk noticed he didn’t make them disappear.  He correctly identifies that Charlie’s power is limited and that it can be strained. Kirk and crew are not rescued by the Thasian.  Charlie is already beaten by the time he shows up.  Now the Thasian does restore to the Enterprise what Charlie had taken away.  However Kirk defeated Charlie.  And in the next episode we really get to see what type of tactician Kirk really is.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5