Charlie X aired on September 15, 1966, the second episode the public would see. To be honest, Charlie X has never been one of my favorite episodes. The teenage angst in a human with god-like powers seemed like a throw-away idea. After re-watching with the eye of 1966 and realizing the public had only seen The Man Trap, I see the decision to air Charlie X as risky at best.
There are scenes that even in today give me the creeps when Charlie generally stalks Janice Rand. Grace Lee Whitney wrote about this episode in her autobiography. She said the actor that played Charlie, Robert Walker, was a method actor. He avoided the cast on set to stay in character and remain alien. I must admit, he creeped me out!
The Plot
The show opens with the Captain and his first officer of the Antares beaming onto the Enterprise along with a passenger, Charlie Evans. Charlie was the sole survivor of of a crash on Alpha 5. He was 3 when the crash occurred. Now, 14 years later, the Antares transports him to Enterprise so he can be reunited with his family on Colony 5. The Captain of the Antares can’t get away fast enough.
Enter Yeoman Rand. Charlie asks Kirk if she is a girl. We get the Captain’s knowing nod, Yes Charlie, that’s a girl.
We see Charlie interacting with the crew in the corridor. He observes the male crew members agree to meet up later and as one leaves, he slaps the other on the rear. Charlie then sees Yeoman Rand walk by, he hurries after her and presents her with a gift of perfume. Yeoman Rand is surprised because this perfume is not in the ship’s stores. She has to leave but tells him to meet her in the Rec Room later. He repeats the behavior of the men and Yeoman Rand lets him know slapping a girl on the behind is not acceptable. She tells him to talk with Dr. McCoy or Captain Kirk.
On the bridge, Spock provides a piece of the puzzle asking if Charlie said anything about the Thasians. The basic story is that the food ran out in about a year and at age 4 Charlie started eating the natural berries on the planet. He learned to talk by talking with the computer. We get the first conversation among Spock, McCoy, and Kirk about teaching Charlie about the birds and bees. The conversation shows reticence to discuss the relationships between genders. Kirk and McCoy both exhibit unease.
In the Rec Room, Spock is playing his space-age harp. Uhura begins an ad lib song that is a roast on Spock and how female astronauts are enamored with him. We see Spock exhibit some un-vulcan like smirks at her roast. Charlie walks in and tries to get Yeoman Rand’s attention, but she signals him to watch Uhura and calls for another verse. Uhura’s next verse is about Charlie seeking his first embrace from Yeoman Rand. At the end of the verse, a glance from Charlie silences the singing and he performs card tricks.
Cut to Kirk talking with the Chef. “If the crew has to eat synthetic meatloaf for Thanksgiving, I want it to look like turkeys.” and Charlie walks up. Charlie asks Kirk about the rear slap, and once again, Kirk is somewhat unable to express with ease the gender differences. He gets a call from Uhura that the Captain of the Antares is trying reach him. Charlie follows Kirk to the Bridge. We hear the Antares Captain saying, “… barely in range, I got to warn …” and the connection is lost.
Charlie states, “It wasn’t very well constructed.” Then Spock informs us the debris on the scanners consists of what is left of the Antares. The galley calls to tell Kirk he put meatloaf in the overs and there are real turkeys in the oven now. Charlie snickers.
By now we are getting the impression that Charlie is not your typical teenager, but the crew has not put 2 and 2 together yet. In the Rec Room, Kirk and Spock are playing 3D chess. Kirk checkmates Spock. We are getting glimpses into the Vulcan culture as Spock replies, “Your illogical approach has advantages.” In walks Charlie. Kirk leaves Charlie to learn 3D chess from Spock. In two moves, Charlie looses the game. Exit Spock. The angry Charlie look melts the chess pieces! Yep, it’s official now — this kid is trouble.
In the corridor (lots of stuff happens in the Enterprises’ corridors), Janice introduces Tina to Charlie. Charlie dismisses Tina and Janice tells him he was rude. Charlie then declares his love for her. He does in in a really creepy, stalky way too. Janice tells Kirk about the incident and that he needs to talk to Charlie or she will have to hurt him. She means emotionally, not physically.
Kirk steps up to his fatherly duties to have “the talk” with Charlie. He starts out asking him about the chess pieces. Charlie denies knowing anything. So Kirk moves the to the main topic, Janice. Charlie expresses the same feelings of most teenagers, “Everything I do and say is wrong! When you care for someone what do you do?”
Kirk provides wisdom of relations that are true for any age, “Go slow. Be Gentle. It’s not just how you feel. It’s how she feels too.” Charlie tries to convince Kirk that he can win Janice’s love. But Kirk tells him he can’t and Charlie gets mad. We get more parenting wisdom from Kirk, and one of my favorite quotes.
There are a million things in this universe you can have and a million you can’t have. It’s no fun facing that, but that’s the way things are.
James T. Kirk, Charlie X
So Kirk decides to teach Charlie how to fight in the gym. The gym appears to be the universal place for men to go to manage the dilemma they face with women. The lesson is not quite a success and one of the crewmen laughs when Charlie is thrown to the ground. Charlie gets angry and makes him disappear. Finally! Kirk sees it first hand. Yeah, this ain’t no ordinary kid.
Kirk calls for security. They show up with phasers in hand. Kirk tells them to escort Charlie to his quarters. With a look, Charlie throws the security officers against the wall and makes the phasers disappear. Now we see how gutsy a starship captain really is. Kirk looks Charlie straight in the eye and tells him to go to his quarters or “I’ll pick up you and carry you there.”
In the Briefing Room, Spock tells the officers the Thasians were reported to have powers demonstrated by Charlie. Charlie is brought in and confesses to making the Antares blow up because they were not nice to him. After Charlie leaves, Spock sums up the situation succinctly. “We’re in the hands of an adolescent.”
The decision is to not proceed to Colony 5. However, on the bridge, Uhura cannot raise Colony 5 on the communication system and the helm won’t accept the course change. Charlie enters the bridge and he makes Spock quote poetry. He let’s Kirk know that he wants to go to Colony 5 and he’s in control of the ship. He stalks off the bridge, sees Tina in the corridor and turns her into a reptile.
Charlie walks into Janice Rand’s quarters without knocking. Janice tells him that it’s not correct to enter her quarters without her permission. He gets all creepy stalker with Janice telling her to not ever lock her door on him and gives her a pink flower. Janice backs up against the intercom system and signals the bridge. They hear Janice tell Charlie that she will lock her door any time she feels like it. Kirk and Spock run to Janice’s quarters. Charlie slams them against the wall with a look and paralyzes them. Charlie advances on Janice, who slaps him. Charlie makes her disappear.
Charlie releases Kirk and Spock because he needs them to run the Enterprise. It’s a bit bigger than the Antares. After a botched plot to entrap Charlie behind a force field, Kirk, Spock and McCoy realize Charlie may have taken on more than he could manage. Enter Charlie who sits in the captain’s chair. Spock and McCoy start turning on all of the panels. Kirk confronts Charlie, “You got my ship and I want it back. I want my crew back.”
Charlie appears to be winning the confrontation, when a ship appears off the starboard bow. The Thasians ship appears and we see a wavering image which speaks. The Thasian apologizes that Charlie left before they knew and they could not bring back the Antares, but have restored the Enterprise’s crew. Yeoman Rand appears on the bridge in her pink gown.
Charlie does not want to go. He begs Kirk, “Don’t let them take me!” In true, Star Trek fashion, Kirk tells the Thasian, he’s human. He belongs with his own kind. We can teach him not to use the power. The Thasian tells Kirk, Charlie will always use his powers and cannot live among humans. With that Charlie disappears from the bridge.
Themes and Thoughts
There are three themes that run through Charlie X:
- Relationships between men and women
- Adolescence angst
- God-like mind power
Gender Roles in the 1960s
The 1960s represented a time when women’s roles were changing and consequently society struggled to re-define the relationship between men and women. In the early 1960s, we see women in roles such as home makers and teachers. The first birth control pill became available in 1960 allowing women to have control over when they would have children. Also in the early 1960s, many publications began to expound upon the idea that a woman’s role did not center around marriage, children, and husbands. Women had more to contribute to society that mere biology. With more women in the workforce, the call for equality was answer by the Equal Pay Act in 1963. It is also in the 1960s that sexual harassment becomes a topic of conversation. In 1964, Title II of the Civil Rights Act made the unwanted sexual advances at work legally actionable.
Considering the cultural norms of 1960s, what Janice Rand faced with Charlie’s advances gave women of the 1960s a role model on how to deal with unwanted advances. She spoke to her boss. She documented the problems. She stood her ground. Women in the 1960s were just then learning how to deal with this issue.
Men were also have to learn their behavior needed to change also. Kirk’s discussion with Charlie provided the men of 1960 with a new model. It’s not all about what he wants, it’s about what she wants also. Equality among genders was a new concept.
Teenagers of the 1960s
I’m not sure what I can say about adolescence angst, other than it hasn’t changed. I found an interesting article at Guff.com (https://guff.com/this-is-what-it-was-like-to-be-a-teenager-in-every-decade-from-the-1950s-to-today) about teenagers through the decades. I hadn’t hit the teen years in 1960s, that was 1970 for me. The hippie movement began in the 1960s. Yet, I think that each decade, teenagers were doing what teenagers do — they make a statement about what their generation is going to accomplish. In the 1960s, it was revolution …
Yet parents of every generation have to figure out how to deal with their unruly teenagers. Hence, we see Kirk and McCoy wavering on who should take the parental father role before they knew of Charlie’s powers. Let’s face it, being a parent of a teenager, even a well behaved one, is a challenge!
Mind Control and Power
The most interesting theme is the consistent message about extraordinary mind power and control. We saw this theme in the Pilot with the Talosians and with the creature in The Man Trap. A bit of Googling revealed some interesting facts about Mind Control Experiments conducted by the CIA in the 1960s called MK-Ultra. MK-Ultra was a clandestine project of the CIA from 1953 to 1973 where they used LSD and other drugs on US Citizens. The purpose was to develop techniques to use against the Soviets to control human behavior with drugs and other psychological manipulations.
You can read more about MK Ultra at History.com (https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/history-of-mk-ultra). Although I doubt the writers of Star Trek knew about MK Ultra, obviously the concern about mind control and the powers of the mind was a topic of concern in the 1960s.