Charlie X

Right away things seem fishy. The Enterprise takes aboard a 17-year-old boy who spent most of his life stranded alone on a planet. But when the crew of the Antares – the ship that picked him up – drops him off, their glowing praise of the young man has a certain “Much better than Cats. I want to see it again and again” quality to it.

Turns out that Charlie reeks of the “little dude with all the gnarly powers” episode of The Twilight Zone. He can make things appear and disappear with the power of his mind, but he lacks the maturity and socialization to control his amazing ability. Plus he’s really awkward with women. So the good captain takes matters into his own hands and tries to instill a little discipline in the kid.

And hoo boy does he make a bad choice of sports for the boy to try. It’s bad enough that Kirk tries to teach judo throws to a dangerous psychic with a bad case of raging hormones. He also manages to wrench the guts of the audience by appearing on the mat wearing nothing but a bright orange leotard. Honestly, in this get-up Shatner looks like a Thanksgiving turkey crammed into an upside-down safety cone.

Once this unsightly scene draws to a close, the episode moves forward rapidly. Charlie uses his powers to take over the ship and steer it toward a colony full of fresh people for him to play with. But by turning on everything everywhere – right down to the blenders in the galley – they manage to overload him. The stand-off is resolved when the god-like aliens that brought him up come to reclaim him.

I got a brief chill out of one scene in which Charlie, irked by the sound of laughter, makes a woman’s face disappear. Otherwise, however, I’ll stick with the Serling original or maybe the movie version thereof.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 1533.6

Episode type: Powerful alien

Written by: D.C. Fontana (story by Gene Roddenberry)

Original air date: Sept. 15, 1966

The Man Trap / Where No Man Has Gone Before

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