Charlie X
How do you follow up a classic “weirdo wanders the regular sets, spooking the main characters” episode like ‘The Man Trap’? Clearly, you don’t want to alienate the viewers. Star Trek wisely chose to continue the theme by inviting yet another loopy creature prone to staring anxiously into space on board.
Charlie is a peculiar young boy, the sole survivor of a spaceship crash, left to his own devices for 14 years. His awkward attempts to fit in on the Enterprise at first seem to be typical adolescent mishaps, but it becomes apparent that he’s got bigger issues than talking to girls and sucking at chess — he seems to be turning into some kind of god…
The idea of a moody teenager with absolute power over everything and everyone around him may seem quite scary to you, but that may only be because you’ve never seen Captain Kirk walking about in the tightest of tight red leggings.1 When Kirk isn’t showing off his visible panty line to young boys, he’s giving young Charlie awkward advice about human relationships. These scenes — and the ones in which McCoy forces Kirk into acting as role model in the first place — are probably the best of the story, along with the surprisingly unheroic ending.2
A lot of the episode though is as awkward and peculiar as Charlie himself. There’s a rather unexpected musical number from Uhura and Spock. There’s a set of apparently rational crew members who don’t object to Charlie’s clearly impossible magic tricks. The crew are relieved when the not-in-fact-dead Janice reappears at the end, but no one seems interested in checking that Chuckling Sam from the gym has managed to recorporealise. Meanwhile, we actually have girls getting to wear pants this week, but in an effort to balance the universal scale of fashion victims, the ear-mounted receiver used by Spock is a giant freaking antenna that sticks horizontally out of his ear.
Things are a little faster paced and a little funnier this episode, which is nice, and Kirk, Bones and Spock get to discuss something a little more interesting that the Monster Who Came For Your Salt. Perhaps the next episode will depart a little from this weirdo theme…
- The original Captain Tightpants, if you will. ↩
- I didn’t immediately think “sequel!” when I watched this story, but apparently a whole bunch of Star Trek alumni did. ↩
Andy Cocker
May 26th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Don’t they quarantine the people they pick up? Also aren’t they a military vessel?
Tom Charman
May 26th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
They don’t seem totally military. They’re more explorers. Think of them as the English or the Spanish back when those guys were wandering the seas.
They might have been more cautious, but I believe the boy who could control everything made them take him on board. I could be wrong.
Jackson
May 29th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Starfleet is some weird multifunctional organisation that serves as a military fleet, diplomats, explorers and science vessels all at once. Clearly they can’t be too concerned with fighting because there ships are bright shiny and covered with flashing lights. Hardly stealthy.
The Enterprise is on a five year exploration mission though. A five year, sexist exploration mission. In that since they are completely explorers. Sexist explorers.
Now excuse me while I try and finish up my Star Trek review. Sorry it’s taken so long. It’s my project for the weekend.
Scot
January 1st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
“A five year, sexist exploration mission. In that since (I assume you mean ‘sense’) they are completely explorers. Sexist explorers.”
Give me a break here! You’re accusing a TV show made in 1966 of not being made in 2009. In fact, Star Trek was groundbreaking and advanced for its time in having a future military, or quasi-military, spaceship crewed by a mix of races and nationalities, with one-third being female.
Gene Roddenberry’s original pilot had a woman as First Officer, but both the network executives and preview audiences nixed that character. Even female viewers didn’t like the idea of a tough, strong-willed woman with command responsibilites. That was the 1960s for you.
“The ear-mounted receiver used by Spock is a giant freaking antenna that sticks horizontally out of his ear.” Well, what did you expect in 1966? A friggin’ Bluetooth?
Tom Charman
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:50 am
Welcome Scot! I think the problem here is that you think we’re saying “They have silly looking antennas in their ears and are 60’s level sexist, therefore the show sucks.” I certainly wasn’t trying to say that, and I doubt Jackson was. I’ve been watching TOS from the start on the new Blu-Rays and loving it. Part of the fun of it has been observing how the culture of the 1960s informs it all. I didn’t mean to demean Star Trek‘s considerable achievements in sex and race equality. Despite having Number One nixed there are still some excellent female characters in the series so far. However there’s also most of the girls running round in skirts that barely cover their arses. As you say, it’s a product of its time.
Still, the thingy in the ear does look silly. :) I’ve seen other SF TV from the same period where they’d put communicator things in watches without giant radars sticking out. I feel a small tease is appropriate there.
Scot
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:22 am
Point taken and understood. As a confirmed Trek geek who got hooked on the show during its original 1966-1969 network run (yes, I’m that old), I tend to get hyper-defensive about anything that seems to mock the more dated aspects of the show — even if it’s just meant as good-natured ribbing.
As for the earpiece receiver looking silly, a lot of people thought — and still think — that Spock’s ears looked a lot sillier.