Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Charlie X

ST "Charlie X"

"Charlie X" was the second Star Trek episode ever to air (though the eighth produced), and it is an early example of a familiar type of Trek story: the godlike being episode. The titular Charlie is an outwardly average teenage human, but who mysteriously survived on a desolate planet for years - to dispel the mystery, the near-omnipotent powers given to him by the local non-corporeal life-forms helped. So the hook of the episode is, what if a raging hormonal teenager, and one who grew up in near-isolation at that, had great power?

The potential of the premise is undermined by Charlie himself. There's nothing appealing about his (intentionally) awkward screen presence; he has no particular redeeming qualities as a person or as a villain worth watching. Charlie's mood swings over an unrequited first crush prove to be uncomfortable to watch. In one typically cliched moment, he makes a female crew member rapidly age, so she can scream for her lost youth. (And in one atypically horrifying moment, he relieves a crew member of her face.) The ending is tonally confused; it's unclear whether it's going for relief, tragedy, or horror.

What does distinguish "Charlie X" is that it's essentially a hang-out episode. Everyone's shown during leisure time. With Spock backing on his Vulcan lyre, Uhura sings of his "devil ears and devil eyes". This irreverent, impromptu musical revue feels like something that would go on a solo Nichelle Nichols tie-in novelty album. Characters are seen to play three-dimensional chess and solitaire, practice martial arts, and generally socialize.

Stray observations:
- This is early in the series, so it's not Starfleet but UESPA, the United Earth Space Probe Agency.
- The show predicts synthetic meat.
- The finale, where a mischievous godlike being is called home by his "parents", will be repeated in "The Squire of Gothos". Here, the Thasian who takes Charlie looks like something out of The Haunted Mansion.
- The Thasian also declaims in a deep voice, "Everything is as it was". The Guardian of Forever will later say the same thing in the same tone of voice in "The City on the Edge of Forever".

An episode called "Charlie X" would do well to portray a more compelling Charlie X. 3/10.