2 – Charlie X

Grade: B-

Summary

The Enterprise takes custody of a young man named Charlie who was on board the cargo vessel Antares. He is obviously new to starships, has never seen a girl before, and doesn’t know why the crewmen on the Antares didn’t like him. Later, the Enterprise crew find out that he seems to possess special powers.

Commentary

I have never been terribly impressed with this episode – it seems to have far too much in common with the very next episode and with the Squire of Gothos. All three episodes deal with characters who have developed ESP-type or God-like powers. With only 79 episodes in the Original Series, I wish there were more variety in the kinds of stories that were produced.

But back to Charlie X. I actually was pretty impressed with the actor who played the title role. I didn’t remember seeing him in anything else, so I looked him up on IMDB.com, and found that he had a long career in TV, spanning about 25 years. I’m not surprised, though, because he actually did a pretty good job – I’d say he was easily the best actor in this episode.

Having said that, though, I’m still not that impressed with this episode. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it just seems to be missing something. It reminds me a lot of a cheesy 1950s sci-fi movie. Maybe that’s the best way to describe it.

Of Note

This is the first time we see Spock play his weird harp, and Uhura sings in that same scene. Kirk also beats Spock in 3D Chess. There’s a scene when a few crewmen are practicing something that looks like Parrises Squares, but it’s not actually discussed.