Star Trek (TV Series) Charlie X (1966) User Reviews

I'm Not a Man and I Can Do Anything - you can't

[Bogmeister · 7/10 · 17 June 2006]

Though this was aired in front of "Where No Man Has Gone Before," it's not the first Trek story to feature a human being acquiring extraordinary powers - that would be the aforementioned 2nd pilot for the show. The angle with this episode is that the human being in question is a teenager, 17-year-old Charles Evans (well played by actor Walker, in his mid-twenties at the time). It's bad enough when adults get delusions of godhood; when it's a teen, all bets are off. Kirk brings on a sector worth of trouble on board his ship when he accepts a transfer of a young guest from a smaller ship. The Charlie character spent all his years up to this point on some planet without other human beings. His introduction to the fairer sex (Yeoman Rand - probably Whitney's best episode) is painful in itself; his growing pains are accentuated by his complete ignorance of common social customs.

All this is uncomfortable to watch because Walker imparts an uneasy, twitchy psychosis to his character but then, in the second half of the episode, he reveals his unlimited powers - he literally seems able to do anything, whether making people disappear or transforming them into lizards. The story now begins to take on a more horrific tone; in his frustration, Charlie is not beyond torturing crew members, terrorizing the entire ship. This is alienation taken to the nth degree. The episode makes a strong case for the issue of parental control - even more on the topic of maturing without parents (think of the story of Superman/Clark Kent, for example, and if he'd grown up without the influence of the Kents; this has been on display for the past few years on the series "Smallville"). In this particular episode, the parental duties fall on Kirk, but it's too little too late - far too late. One drawback of this episode: an extended scene of Uhura singing about Spock and then Charlie - the one point that Charlie's surreptitious use of his powers seemed warranted.

As with most of the Trek episodes in the original series, the strongly structured scripts included excellent endings, as is the case here. There are no pat unrealistic conclusions, i.e. a happy ending, where-in Charlie is somehow able to remain with the human race (due to the miraculous removal of his powers, for example). No, even in this sector of space, you reap what you sow and things are not solved for you. There's a genuinely tragic tone to the ending - Charlie's main weakness, after all, was just a great need for other people to like him. That need will never be fulfilled at the end. As with the previously aired "Man Trap," total incompatibility between two sets of entities shows that some things are beyond our ability to set right, even with future technology.

Remember When Teenagers Were Expected To Learn Things and Grow Up?

[Dan1863Sickles · 7/10 · 29 December 2016]

I really hated this episode as a teenager, and it's not hard to figure out why. The teenage "hero" is stereotyped as a big, spoiled baby. Charlie X acts like a weak, whiny brat, (as if all teenagers are like that) and he keeps sulking about how "being a grown up isn't everything" and how he could run the Enterprise if he had the chance. But he never shows any character, intelligence, or leadership. Even when he gets "magic powers" it only serves to underline the fact that he's still a child and not a man.

Now I'm fifty three, and in a way I feel almost nostalgic for this episode. I mean, Charlie X is exactly who I was at that age -- he's totally self-pitying, and he expects things to be handed to him. He has a wonderful role model in Kirk, (a lot better than my old man) but instead of trying to learn and taking his knocks he goes over the top and starts blasting people for no reason! Even Yeoman Rand tries to fix him up with a cute junior girl volunteer (who really was gorgeous, by the way) but Charlie doesn't want to know. Now that I'm in my fifties I no longer feel that Charlie is getting a raw deal. In fact in a lot of ways I think he gets off very lightly! The hard lesson of the show is that growing up means you have to stop thinking of yourself as a victim and start listening to what other people have to teach you.

Now all that is just one man's story, and probably not very interesting to most people. But I have to share something really funny about the way STAR TREK has changed. When I went out and bought the complete original series on Blu Ray, it was one of the happiest days of my life. It's been such a thrill watching all the old episodes in perfect condition! But some discs have these really annoying commercials to start them off. The disc with Charlie X on it has a trailer for one of the new, horrendously bad Star Trek movies -- the kind where a very spoiled, pouting James Dean lookalike (young Jim Kirk, if you please) is zooming around on his motorcycle, blowing off all the grown ups and their stupid rules (like the speed limit), and then suddenly he's in command of the Enterprise because "they" are blown away by his "potential."

I guess you could say Charlie X has got his revenge at last!

The Irksome Adolescent...

[Xstal · 6/10 · 15 February 2022]

Charlie is an irritating youth, easily angered, who then likes to glower, his teenage tantrums and infantile temper, often lead to a display of his power. These powers are super-hero like, so he uses them to intimidate and threaten, but with or without these skills, his power to kill, he's still the most irritating cretin.

A notable episode, if for no other reason than Kirk's inability to explain why smacking the derriere of a lady you've just met is completely unacceptable, no matter when, where or by whom.

A difficult and awkward time of life

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 3 October 2020]

Enterprise transports young passenger Charlie Evans to an Earth colony.

This is an interesting look at adolescence through the frame of sci-fi. Charles Evans had very little contact with human life before coming on board a starship and has to live amongst a community of people. He is 17 years old, a time when teenagers have to find their way in the world and somehow fit into adult communities. What complicates it further is the infatuation he develops for Yeoman Janice Rand, not to mention the uncontrolled psychic power he possesses.

This episode does a good job of portraying how awkward and difficult life can be in these situations. Failure and rejection are tough to deal with at any age but especially at a time when emotional maturity has not developed and confidence levels can be obliterated when things go wrong.

Twenty six year old actor Robert Walker does a pretty good job as Charlie and you cringe for him as he goes from one failed attempt at a human interaction to the next.

William Shatner's Kirk plays the fatherly role model trying to guide him well. "Charlie, there are a million things in this universe you can have and there are a million things you can't have. It's no fun facing that, but that's the way things are."

Yeoman Rand has a much bigger part than most episodes and Grace Lee gives a strong performance as the object of Charlie's unwanted affection.

There are some unusual scenes that we don't see the like of again as the series became more plot driven. The musical numbers in the recreation room being one example. The judo session in the gymnasium was pretty fun but what those female gymnasts were doing flipping out of the ship dojo I have no idea.

This is a pretty good early character driven story with a simple premise. For me it's the type of episode I enjoyed when I saw it, but probably not one I would seek out to watch again.

The Wonder Years

[Bolesroor · 18 May 2012]

A young man with strange powers hitches a ride on the Enterprise. His name is Charles Evans- Charlie to you and me- and as the sole survivor of a crash he has been alone on a deserted planet for fourteen years. But making Charlie's return to society more difficult is his mysterious godlike abilities…

This episode is almost certainly a metaphor for puberty/adolescence: it's the awkward stage taken to the exaggerated extreme. Charlie is the uncertain, stumbling teen- a lusty man one moment and a spiteful child the next. He's flexing his newfound muscles and does not yet realize his own strength. And who should be the object of Charlie's first crush? Why it's none other than Yeoman Janice Rand, intergalactic chew toy and perpetual victim. (Poor Janice- is she cursed?) Charlie reaches for her ample backside but is reprimanded because he has not taken her to Olive Garden first. Kirk is asked to step in as the boy's father figure but he neatly weasels his way out of the job, "delegating" the task back to Spock and Bones.

Next we have the single most mystifying sequence in the first season of the show: Uhura's cafeteria cabaret performance. She's in uniform, in front of the entire crew, singing to Spock's funky harp jam and serenading Charlie until he uses his power to destroy her vocal chords. (We owe you one, Chuck.) Why did anyone think a musical number would be appropriate here? This always stood out as strange to me. Charlie demonstrates his gifts by performing card tricks for Janice, who suddenly seems less upset about the ass-grabbing in Corridor B.

If Kirk's advice to Charlie ("There's no right way to hit a woman") is less than romantic at least it's well-intentioned, but father-son time is over as the ship which brought Charlie aboard is suddenly- and mysteriously- destroyed. Next Charlie loses to Spock at chess and melts the pieces in frustration. At this point it's impossible not to draw a parallel between this story and the "It's A Good Life" episode of The Twilight Zone, in which a small town is terrorized by a young boy with unlimited powers. Were the Trek writers unconsciously copying that story? Consciously copying it? We may never know. Back on the ship Charlie pursues Janice and her giant beehive because she "smells like a girl" and she makes him "hungry, all over." Down, boy.

Kirk pulls Charlie aside for a verbal hose-down and then tries to beat the puberty out of him with a gymnastics routine that evidently consists of slamming your body against the mat as hard as you possibly can. (This is the secret to the Captain's bodacious physique.) Charlie doesn't seem to enjoy it and begins to vanquish crew members to oblivion, and in short order he's taken command of the Enterprise.

We cut to Janice in her quarters: she's alone, in her nightie, writing a letter to Starfleet requesting a transfer to another ship. Then Charlie comes barging in, cornering her, hitting on her hard, and wishing her away when she rejects him. Next the boy goes on a ship-wide tirade, forcing a female crew member through a one-minute menopause and punishing another for laughing by evidently gluing a pancake to her face. (Tough but fair.) Kirk tries to overwhelm Charlie's abilities but suddenly an alien vessel appears and power is restored to the ship, with missing crew members magically returned.

In this final act an almost literal deus ex machina is used to resolve the plot: a "god" appears on the bridge and simply takes Charlie away. It is a disappointing and confusing resolution to an otherwise fine episode, and raises some major plot questions. (If these aliens gave Charlie magic powers in order to survive why didn't they just rescue him? If they're omnipotent why did they allow him to get out of control in the first place?) You can't write a story this good and then just press the Reset button when you run out of time... it's too bad because "Charlie X" deserved an ending.

GRADE: B-

A Psychotic Adolescent Run Amok

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 23 April 2014]

A strange young man is dropped off on the Enterprise. At first, he is just rude and childish. As time goes along, he begins to alienate the crew. The ship that left him off is destroyed. Signs are pointing to this kid having something to do with these things. As things play out, he becomes more and more impatient and reactionary. When laughed at during judo training, he makes his teacher disappear. He terrorizes the crew and needs to be controlled. Robert Walker, Jr. is startlingly spooky as Charlie. If one wants to find a bit of a comparison, think of the Twilight Zone episode where the little boy can send people off to a cornfield. People begin to speak to him differently because they are frightened. The use of creatures who know no bounds creates issues. The petulance of this person makes him ten times more terrifying. While it's an interesting episode, it depends on forces beyond the scope of the crew and the ship.

"You've got my ship and I want it back!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 25 September 2010]

One of the cool things about watching Star Trek in series order so many years after their original airing is watching the character development from show to show. I say this as a casual fan and not a Trekkie per se, who probably have all this stuff down pat. The curious thing I found here is Uhura's follow up to her flirtation with Spock in the series opener, 'The Man Trap'. This time she has some fun at Spock's expense by serenading him in 'Satan's guise - with devil's ears and devil's eyes'. The rest of the crew present seem to get a kick out of it too; I guess they weren't ready yet for Spock's logical and non-emotional character that would begin to emerge in the next episode.

But this one's about Charlie X (Robert Walker Jr.) and the Enterprise's first challenge in the far reaches of outer space. The story provides Captain Kirk's first 'Whoa' moment when he stares down potential annihilation and makes Charlie blink to his authority. Which in retrospect, makes me wonder why Kirk couldn't offer a convincing argument to why a seventeen year old shouldn't be slapping an older woman on the butt. And why he couldn't effectively read the body language of Charlie and the cargo vessel captain when the story opened. You would expect him to be sharper than that.

The story uses a device other reviewers on this board have commented on, the one used in the third season episode of The Twilight Zone in 'It's a Good Life'. Billy Mumy sent his victims into the 'corn field', but no explanation is offered here as to where Charlie sent the Enterprise folks. That was handled a bit too sloppily for my taste - was only Yeoman Rand brought back from oblivion? I guess Charlie's first crush deserved special treatment.

Well we learn a couple of cool things in this episode. There are four hundred twenty eight crew members on the Enterprise, and we see the three dimensional chess game for the first time. There was also Kirk's reference to UESPA - not being up on my Star Trek lore, I'll have to wait to find out what that stands for. I'm also curious how Kirk's going to replace all those phasers that Charlie made disappear!

The danger of having an adolescent with godlike powers aboard the Enterprise

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 28 August 2015]

Kirk should have been suspicious of his new passenger, seventeen year old Charlie, as soon as he beamed aboard; the two men who escorted him seemed unusually keen to get off the Enterprise. Charlie was the sole survivor when a cargo ship crashed on the planet Thasus fourteen years previously; he claims to have survived by eating wild fruit and learnt about how to live from the ship's computer. McCoy is sceptical and suggests that somebody must have raised him. Charlie doesn't know how to behave in company and is soon making inappropriate advances towards Yeoman Rand. Sometime later the ship that brought him to the Enterprise tries to make contact but explodes before it can deliver a message. Charlie clearly has telekinetic powers but it takes a while before this becomes obvious to the crew. By then it is obvious that he is very dangerous; he makes those who upset him disappear and being a teenaged boy it doesn't take much to upset him.

This is a really good early Star Trek episode; Charlie is a distinctly creepy antagonist… even before his god-like powers are revealed he slaps Yeoman Rand on the backside, although this could be put down to him not knowing what behaviour is acceptable and what isn't. Guest star Robert Walker Jr. does a good job portraying this troubled and dangerous youth. Grace Lee Whitney also puts in a notable performance as Ensign Rand; it was nice to see her playing a major role in the story. The ending is a little surprising; after it is revealed that Charlie was taught how to use these powers by beings on Thasus they come to take him back and Kirk argues that he should grow up with his own kind… an odd suggestion given how dangerous he has proved to be… and regular humans are hardly his kind any more. Overall an interesting story and a disturbing antagonist make for a fine episode.

Corny, but good

[bernlin2000 · 7/10 · 4 January 2016]

Every time Charlie scrunches his face up to use his "powers", I laughed inside a bit, it's some very canny acting, for sure, and a reminder of how different, tonally, sci-fi was in the 60s compared to today. This is great stuff, either way: the character of Charlie was well-written for what was needed and plays out well (if predictable...I've definitely seen this sort of character before, and he certainly didn't scare me). After a pilot and first episode with female-led guests (both as potential girlfriends for various members of the crew), I enjoyed seeing a male guest star whose romantic interactions are less successful than in previous episodes :-P

Bit of a naughty boy, that Charlie...

[MaxBorg89 · 8/10 · 28 March 2009]

After the salt-eating "monster" of The Man Trap, the original Star Trek deals with the concept of psychic powers for the first time, an element that occurs on several occasions throughout the series. The first story to deal with that topic, Charlie X, lacks the philosophical relevance of later episodes (it's just a traditional monster-of-the-week tale), but succeeds in delivering thrills and suspense.

Continuing its travels through space, the Enterprise picks up a young boy, Charlie Evans, who's used to having everything his way, a fact that becomes a source of embarrassment when he gets too interested in Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney). Kirk tries to explain that such behavior is inappropriate, but has to face a greater danger than he imagined when he discovers the boy's powers enable him to create - and destroy - anything.

With hindsight, Charlie X can be seen as a tamer version of Stephen King's novel Carrie, which was memorably brought to the screen by Brian De Palma. Like King's story, this Trek episode uses the gimmick of mental abilities to deal with a teenager's inner struggles and confusion. Unlike Carrie, however, Charlie is underdeveloped and occasionally annoying, his actions bordering on stereotype. Luckily, the thriller pace of the episode keeps things from getting boring, and there's always the Shatner/Nimoy double act to rely on. In other words, it's vintage Star Trek.

Teenage Angst

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 11 May 2017]

In this episode, Charlie learns a few valuable lessons that all young adults must learn: you're not as important as you believe yourself to be, your actions have consequences, and you're not invincible. Even at the height of his power, Charlie still has someone above him who causes his empire to come crashing down on top of him as all these lessons hit home.

As young adults, we often consider ourselves practically invincible, with no regard for the feelings of others. During our first years a freedom, many become narcissistically self-focused and act rashly, similarly to how Charlie is. Who knows how the world would be different today if we had a bunch of young Charlies running around.

One problem with this episode is that we never really find out if Charlie understands what he did was wrong. He gets whisked away by the Thasian ship, complaining of their lack of physical substance. Does he have the capabilities to become a changed, more mature man or will he always be this man-child who bullies his way to get what he wants?

This episode's a bit corny, especially when the camera zooms in on Charlie as his eyes roll back but it's still enjoyable to watch and shows young viewers the consequences of reckless actions.

Strange Charlie

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 19 December 2016]

1st season, 2nd episode. The Antares spaceship rescues a 17-year old survivor named Charlie. Charlie was left alone on planet Thasus at the age of 3 years old and when the Antares finds him they quickly pass him off onto the crew of the Enterprise. Charlie is a psychic boy with a gift - to transmute objects. What happens next are some very strange occurrences when Charlie X gets angry or upset. What are Kirk, Spock and McCoy to do with a boy of such destructive power? What Charlie really needs is a father image but can Captain Kirk handle it?

A really interesting episode with Yeoman Janis Rand given a lot of screen time with Charlie very interested in her as a girlfriend. Kirk gets a chance to reluctantly play the role of Charlie's "adoptive father".

8/10

A very good, and surprisingly poignant, early Trek

[aaustin-10 · 7/10 · 23 July 2009]

In this episode the standard monster-of-the-week plot line is tweaked with pathos and a fascinating guest character. Charles Evans grew up without exposure to other humans, and so he has no social skills, a desperate need to be liked, a sincere desire to do good, and a growing frustration about not succeeding among his own kind. But he also has godlike abilities imparted on him by the benevolent aliens who raised him. When his frustrations and neurosis boil over, he acts out, using his powers to hurt, until finally he becomes a vicious tyrant because, in his eyes, everybody around him deserves it. The Enterprise crew has a problem for which the only real solution is the sad ending Charlie inevitably arrives at.

It's such a good episode because his character makes it work: he wants everything to work out well but he doesn't know how to do it. It's also good because it presents a realistic, sad resolution to the problem: Kirk and company want to help him, but like most of us they do not know the right way to address Charlie's problems. Nobody gets to be the hero and save the day: all anybody can do is helplessly watch as poor Charlie gets taken back by the aliens to the lonely, unhappy life he had before. Watch William Shatner carefully in the final moments of the episode: grieved for the kid he couldn't save. It's science fiction at it's most heart-tugging.

The episode has one pretty jarring drawback: the scene where Uhura sings to Spock is awkward and difficult to sit through without feeling embarrassed for Nichelle Nichols; it could have been played better.

Terrible episode

[intp · 2/10 · 25 February 2014]

I really disliked this episode. While this wasn't the worst TV episode I've ever seen and is not even the worst episode of the series, it's still, well, pretty bad, however you slice it.

The basic premise here is that the Enterprise encounters a young Earth human (age 17) who has largely lived in isolation, and through unexplained alien manipulations, has immense (nearly infinite) powers. Unfortunately, he's also an immature and arrogant punk kid who casually commits murder and enjoys manipulating others, whom he can directly control to say or do as he pleases.

Roddenberry had some sort of odd obsession with omnipotence or near-omnipotence. The theme returns again and again in this series and in Star Trek: TNG. Many examples: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (absolute power corrupting absolutely), "The Squire of Gothos" (very similar story to this one with a punk kid running amok), "The Changeling" (with Nomad, a nearly all-powerful probe), Star Trek: the Motion Picture (Vejur, a near-retread of the Nomad episode), and even "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot for TNG, with the absurd and annoying "Q" character.

While I generally am a fan of, and admire, Roddenberry's work and his vision of tolerance and decency in the future, I have to say that his peculiar obsession with all-powerful beings really wears thin, fast. Here, Charlie is basically an out-of-control teenager with absolutely no regard for others (casually kills an entire ship's crew of 20, to prevent the captain of that ship from warning the Enterprise about Charlie).

There's really very little of this episode to like. Charlie is malevolent and deadly, killing, maiming, or destroying on a whim, with zero patience or tolerance and no respect whatsoever for others, and the crew is very nearly powerless to do a thing against him.

This episode featured Yeoman Rand once again in her role as ship temptress, being sinisterly stalked by out-of-control Charlie. This is much worse than just having a stalker-- this is a stalker with near-infinite power and absolutely no patience or impulse control.

In the end, the aliens return but, for unknown reasons, fail to just 'neuter' the vicious punk and remove his powers (which would have been the ideal solution and might have allowed for at least the remote chance for salvaging the kid). But, barring that, there really was no choice but to get rid of him. He evokes very little in the way of sympathy-- more of a feeling of 'good riddance to bad rubbish'.

Hang on Tight and Survive. Everybody Does

[Aaronb00 · 6/10 · 14 November 2021]

Stardate 1533.6 through 1535.8 Approximately 2266 AD

"Is that a girl?" asks Charlie when he sees a girl for the first time in his 17 year old life. This question should probably set off some alarms in Captain Kirk's head but of course if he knew something was wrong this early in the episode there wouldn't be as much drama. Kirk and crew just picked up a mysterious young man named Charlie from the cargo vessel Antares and has been tasked to transport him to colony Alpha V. The crew of the Antares found Charlie on planet Thasus where he was the sole survivor of an accident and, consequently, raised himself from age 3. Charlie claimed to have taught himself to speak from the crashed ship's memory and fed himself off of the food stores. We learn later that Mr. Spock does not believe this story.

Charlie quickly becomes infatuated with Youman Janice Rand (honestly though, who hasn't?) who makes it abundantly clear to Charlie that she is not interested. But Charlie insists, managing to know exactly what Janice's favorite things are and making them appear out of thin air. Turns out Charlie acquired psychic powers from the Thasusians which allow him to read thoughts(?), and make people and things appear and disappear.

While I am a big fan of Captain Kirk, I am moderately disappointed in Kirk as a captain in this episode. We learn early on that Charlie looks up to Kirk as a father figure, unfortunately for Charlie Kirk is a really bad father figure, at least he is in this episode. When Charlie asks Kirk about basic developmental things like, why is it bad to slap Janice Rand on the butt? Captain Kirk clams up and is utterly incapable of explaining important life lessons. This is actually kind of disconcerting considering Kirk is a captain of a starship that is home to 428 people. You would think that Kirk's basic duties are being a leader and father figure. Aside from not being nurturing to poor Charlie, captain Kirk can certainly be an authority, managing to subdue Charlie with his sweaty stare down on multiple occasions. This further lends to the idea that poor Charlie needs this kind of person in his life

The ending is actually kind of sad. Charlie is a 17 year old with the emotional maturity of a 3 year old. While he did an egregious crime halfway through the episode I can't help but feel bad for Charlie as he has never had the opportunity to develop and learn around real people. Unfortunately Captain Kirk's awkward attempts at being a father figure and inability to understand Charlie's developmental stage didn't really help. I suppose this character flaw in Kirk can be forgiven as this is a very early episode and the writers are still trying to figure out who this Kirk fellow is.

One of the more interesting episodes

[drystyx · 7/10 · 10 October 2021]

Always interesting is Robert Walker Jr.. He gives a very sensitive look at any role he plays, particularly in his youth.

Often, he's innocent, and sometimes he's the wolf in sheep's clothing.

Here, he's the wolf in sheep's clothing, playing a much used character type in the series, a young man who has godlike powers and is immature with the power.

His immaturity with power and talent leads more to Billy Mummy's Twilight Zone classic than to Max Baer Jr.'s Jethro Bodine, so beware.

Taking a re watch of what was re runs, though...

[jtsjtssmokey-703-366973 · 7/10 · 14 March 2017]

even with the re runs on 1st time viewing, as I was hatched in 74, did not have full memory of all epis, though prob did not see all either. Did start a re watch once before, but so much was going on that still missed some and then had my TV series dvds and few movies (other items too) "liberated" by, well thought was a friend to whom I open my door to live in spare room with my daughter and I. Son was not happy with missing stuff as he was one of many who help buy for b days and Christmas, and couple series were his. OK over sharing, but when I buy, despite Netflix and such, I like the extras added to dvds/blurays, still only have part of my former collection, sadly Star Trek TOS, and TNG plus couple of the original movies have not replaced. Will say that TNG is my fav but TOS is next with the movies that follow the TOS series, the 4th movie is my top, though when watching, like to see all in order.

Love the fact that for several of my fav real TV shows (HATE reality crap) that a 25/26 yr old playing 17 is the same as Buffy and Roswell. He played the part not to bad and really when thinking about it, the way the show was done, made sense.

He was "raised" and not, by beings that gave him power to survive completely alone. Being completely isolated from any other human set the stage that when he was "rescued" still having power and never having interacted with another human, yes he was a child, still was though so close to being "adult" as hey if 16 and 17 yr old can serve a country and even tried as adult, there really was not much chance for him to really live among others his age or even other humans less they too had power. When he was begging to stay, you could feel for him, see that Kirk and the rest of the crew did too, and as the beings could not take the power away, well he would use them again no matter what he said as the power was completely part of him, a danger to everyone as he could not really stop being who he was.

Hope my thoughts made some sense despite run on and horrid editing, never have been good at editing, though I try. Have a good day/night where ever you are.

One of the best episodes

[SusanJL · 9/10 · 5 February 2019]

I really enjoyed this episode! No sexy space babe in a ridiculous Halloween costume. No 11th hour rescue by either Kirk, Spock, McCoy or Scotty. Just a teenager who with unlimited power runs amok. And Spock actually smiled a few times when he played his Vulcan instrument and Uhura sings!!! An unusual episode.

Little sympathy for the God-Child.

[amusinghandle · 6/10 · 24 October 2023]

I think I would have enjoyed this episode more if the writers had managed to successfully establish Charlie as a sympathetic character. We humans are just not ready for the power of a God? That is the message of this episode, right? Maybe it is a low key commentary on teenagers being sex crazy emotion driven creatures?

There are a few highlights in this episode ---- the first being the duet of Uhura's singing and Spock's Vulcan harp.... the ladies just love Spock! The other highlight is Kirk fumbling his way around explaining the birds and the bee's to Charlie.

I did get a few laughs out of the Enterprise gym. I love the idea that this highly professional group of explorers has specified time to release that pent up energy in Roman gladiator competitions as a form of adult recess.

Why this is a great episode

[jeep44444 · 10/10 · 7 May 2006]

Pacing. Yes Pacing. That is what makes this and other first year Trex episodes seem real. Yeah! Real! Like you are really there. Like, You are a person in our time privileged to see into the future. It may seem trivial, but that is what so many of the modern Treks lack. They don't give you the feeling you are in the future or in space or anything. Just a PC college campus at Halloween. The right pacing makes the people come alive as real - like me and you. Makes Charlie seem like any other teenager until his -well- quirks show up. And it makes it a real tragedy when they have to get rid of him. A real boy, one of me and you, has to get sent to hell. And we really don't want to do it. And it makes us ask were we like Charlie when we were teenagers? This is a great episode and it is why Star Trek lives forty years later.

"Emile, or On Education" but in Star Trek

[Thecuchix · 6/10 · 27 November 2023]

This looks like an alegory or at least a reference to the Emile from Rousseau, a young person who can do fantastic thing for himself, but then society comes to him and things change and he need to develop other stuff who he dosen't need before.

Or... That is what I thought at first moment.

Don't take me wrong, I'm kinda sure they take that as reference, but the thing is they don't make Charles Evans to understand the world and try to become better, he is presented as a treat and even if an start Captain Kirk is worry about him, the true is the Thasians comes to take him kindly or using the needed force so there is no choice.

Maybe the Original Series are not for me...

Charlie X

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 5 September 2011]

"In the hands of an adolescent.."

The survey ship Antaris brings aboard a rather weird 17 year old who somehow survived on the planet Thesis for several years, even though food supplies had exhausted. This teenager, Charlie, is anti-social and more than a bit strange (he just has this air of awkwardness about him), but it doesn't stop there: he has powers that are dangerous, particularly considering he's an immature, easily tempered, quick to punish kid, seemingly unable to control his anger when someone pushes his buttons (notice what he does to Uhura who sings a ditty about him in the recreation room or the Antaris ship when the captain tries to send a warning to Kirk and the Enterprise about their unusual passenger). Spock calls Charlie's ability transmutation, a power to render objects (or humans) invisible, or to destroy if he feels threatened or angered.

What a great plot! I think this is a fine of example of great storytelling. Imagine the weapon to destroy anyone or thing that aggravates, annoys, or bothers you—now, imagine a boy inside a man's body equipped with such a dangerous weapon (uh oh, is right). You have to wonder how in the dickens Kirk will get out of this difficult situation. Yep, Kirk finally figures it out, but not before Charlie runs rampant, using his powers to short circuit Uhura's console (causing a nice shock which send her reeling), force Spock against his will to quote nursery rhymes and poetry (not to mention, break his legs at one point!), cause crew members to "go away", turn a cute teenage girl into an iguana, age an adult female into an elderly woman, and remove a laughing officer's face(!)—Kirk has his hands full with this kid! Kirk thinks Charlie has a *limit*, that he can actually tax himself if there is an overuse of his powers. I definitely think this episode cleverly comments on the difficulty of puberty, especially if a teenager has grown up in an environment absent the human experience, his dysfunction deriving from the lack of social interaction over an extended period of time. Without the Thesian power Charlie would not have survived, but how can such a "human anomaly" function among others when even the least little incident causes him to kill or harm? Solid script by the always reliable DC Fontana, Robert Walker perfect as the titular character (something about him just gives you the creeps) who doesn't handle conflict or embarrassment very well. I would hate not to mention Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand, a stunning woman Walker's Charlie is enamored with. Janice tries various methods to convince him she isn't the girl for him, to no avail. This plot thread is important as it pertains to Charlie's stunted emotional handling of rejection, how he hasn't the capability to process this in a mature way, his power not helping matters.

It just occurred to me: some may see parallels between "Charlie X" and the iconic Billy Mumy Twilight Zone tale "It's a Good Life."

Not quite human.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 9 February 2022]

An interesting episode following the development of a human who has been raised by a non human incorporeal species.

Somewhat sad ---- This kid had a bad hand dealt to him and has no experience in the sociological components of being a human.

The episodes ending suggests that Charlie goes back to live with the incorporeal species (not by choice) because rehabilitation does not seem to be a option?

"That wasn't nice..."

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 26 August 2009]

I never liked this one. So far, this is the first one I shut it off halfway thru, and watched the rest the following day.

I have a lot of trouble believing Robert Walker as a 17-year-old. He looks more like 25 to me-- at least.

One thing I will say... like a number of early ST episodes, this is works MUCH better if you see the thing UNCUT. There is SO MUCH detail in Gene Roddenberry's half-year run as producer that completely went by the wayside when Gene Coon took over and made the show more "adventure" style, more "viewer-friendly", more network-budget-conscious. ("Do we really need all these extras walking around the sets all the time? See if you can cut them out and save a few thousand a week.")

CHARLIE X seems to be one of several variations of a theme running thru a number of sci-fi series, that of someone with uncanny power who can't control themselves or their power. One of the most well-known is no doubt IT'S A GOOD LIFE from THE TWILIGHT ZONE (which was remade as part of the '83 feature film). It almost feels like a thematic "sequel" to WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE, showing what might have happened if Gary Mitchell had remained on board The Enterprise longer. It was monstrously STUPID of NBC to schedule these 2 similar stories back-to-back, with the 2nd one being run 1st! (Doing so must have completely undercut the impact of WHERE NO MAN..., just as having an atomic bomb in the film GOLDFINGER, I feel, undercuts the entire plot of the follow-up film THUNDERBALL.)

The theme was returned to half a year later with THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS, with the punch line being nobody realized until the end they were dealing with an adolescent (or was it just a "child" there who just happened to look like a middle-aged man?). I never cared for that when it first aired, but as the decades have gone by, I've come to enjoy it more and more. I usually find myself wondering, COULD someone have gotten along with Trelane with the right attitude about the situation? Maybe not... but maybe.

Charlie strikes me as much more arrogant and annoying in his attitude even than Trelane. He keeps saying things like, "That wasn't nice..." I wonder why nobody didn't say those exact words to HIM??? I have the feeling the only proper course with him would have been , EARLY on, to have given him a lesson in morality that seems to be MISSING from the vast majority of today's young people. "Treat others as you would be treated." Surely, ALL rules of society behavior stem from that single, important, simple concept. Yet countless people seem completely unaware of it. Including this "boy".

For at least the 2nd episode in the run, Uhura was seen to be flirting with Spock, when she sings to him in the rec room as he plays (our first view of his lyre). I LIKE this early Spock who can be seen smiling at moments when he's relaxed and with friends. To me, it makes the inner "conflict" spoken of in WHERE NO MAN..., NAKED TIME, etc. all the more obvious. Later, it seems he was completely repressing his human side, controlling it. Here, he seems more comfortable with it. He only shows it when he's around certain people, like Jim, or Uhura (never McCoy though-- heh).

Uhura got the short shrift when Coon took over. No wonder she wanted to quit the show after the 1st season. All her best scenes on the series were in that first half-season!

Add to her Janice Rand and Christine Chapel, and you had 3 very different, very dynamic women characters on the show at once. Clearly, too much for the networks. Janice is all femininity and sex appeal; Christine is more intelligence and sensitivity; Uhuru is playful and earthy at the same time.

This episode, by the way, was remade the following year on LOST IN SPACE as THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE. (I'm not kidding!) Naturally, the LIS version had a happier ending.

Nyota Uhura is our Darling

[ygwerin1 · 6/10 · 1 February 2022]

This voyage of the USS Enterprise continues to contain only four of what becomes the principal crew members, of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr Spock, Dr Bones McCoy and Uhura. While Engineer Scotty, Hikaru Sulu, and Pavel Chekov continue to remain unreasonably redundant to the cretinous series writers.

We get to hear the beautiful singing voice of the simply gorgeous, Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura serenading a rather sheepish Mr Spock.

The episodes continue to explore matters that I for one have not seen even attempted in any other TV show before let alone combined, here it's youthful adolescence and psychic abilities.