Charlie X (episode)

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“Charlie X”
Star Trek: The Original Series  Episode
Charles Evans.jpg
Details
Stardate1533.6
Date21 Nov 2266  (Terran)
LocationUSS Enterprise
QuadrantAlpha
Chronology
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The Enterprise takes seventeen-year-old Charles Evans aboard for transport after he spent fourteen years alone on a deserted planet, but his inability to reintegrate with his fellow Humans is compounded by his very un-Human powers.

Teaser[edit | edit source]

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) makes a rendezvous with the Antares, a small cargo ship. While investigating the planet Thasus, the Antares discovered an adolescent boy named Charles Evans, the sole survivor of a ship crash who has lived on his own since age three. Evans transfers to the Enterprise, which is on its way to Colony Alpha 5, where Evans' only relatives live.

Captain Ramart and his navigator and first officer, Tom Nellis, are eager to be on their way after beaming aboard the Enterprise, even refusing Captain Kirk's offer of Saurian brandy, as well as entertainment tapes. But they are also effusive in their praise of Charlie. Charlie interrupts Ramart and Nellis a couple of times, which prompts Kirk to say to him, "You keep interrupting, Mr. Evans. That's considered wrong." Yeoman Janice Rand enters the transporter room and Kirk asks her to show Charlie to his quarters and to drop off his medical records at sickbay. Innocently, Charlie asks Captain Kirk if Yeoman Rand is a girl. "That's a girl," the captain replies. Rand escorts Charlie out, much to Kirk's amusement.

Act One[edit | edit source]

Charlie's first crush – Yeoman Janice Rand

After a routine check-up by Dr. McCoy, Charlie attempts to learn and integrate, demonstrating the effect of his years away from all Human contact. At the same time, strange incidents occur in his vicinity. Charlie is also struggling mightily with adolescence and with his first crush -the Captain's beautiful Yeoman Rand. After observing Crewman Wilson and a sciences division crewman slapping each other casually, Charlie does the same to Yeoman Rand's behind in a corridor, angering her. After calming down, Rand advises Charlie to tell Captain Kirk or Dr. McCoy what he had just done and ask them for advice. Afterwards, in the Enterprise's recreation room on deck three, Uhura is singing "Oh, On the Starship Enterprise" to a rapt Rand and other crewmembers. Rand ignores Charlie's card tricks; he secretly uses his power to silence Uhura's voice, as well as the sounds coming from Spock's Vulcan lute, so that he can have Rand's undivided attention. He then proceeds with a few card tricks that amuse Rand and others in the crews' lounge, who applaud appreciatively.

Later, in a corridor, Kirk is advising a galley chef that on Earth today it is Thanksgiving, and if the crew of the Enterprise has to eat synthetic meat loaf, he wants it to look like turkey. Just then, Charlie arrives and tells Kirk of the trouble he had interacting with Rand earlier. Kirk awkwardly attempts to explain that men and women do things differently but before he can elaborate further to Charlie, Kirk is asked to come up to the bridge by Uhura.

At extreme range, Captain Ramart attempts to contact the Enterprise and speak to Captain Kirk, but before he can say more than "I've got to warn…", his ship is destroyed. Charlie advises Kirk that "It wasn't very well constructed" – a strange comment, since it comes before Spock actually confirms the Antares's destruction.

Kirk is then hailed by the Enterprise's chef, who tells the captain that he had put meat loaf in the ovens, but there are turkeys in them now – real turkeys. Charlie laughs at hearing this, then leaves the bridge abruptly, leaving Kirk feeling that Charlie is hiding something.

Act Two[edit | edit source]

"She's not the girl, Charlie"

Kirk and Spock are pondering the destruction of the Antares during a game of three-dimensional chess when Charlie walks in and asks to play. After defeating Spock in an "illogical approach" to the game, Kirk turns it over to Charlie, during which Spock easily beats him in two moves. When Charlie gets angry, Spock leaves and then Charlie uses his powers to melt the white chess pieces. Afterwards, Rand introduces Charlie to Yeoman Tina Lawton, who is near Charlie's age. Charlie ignores Lawton, hurting her feelings, after which Rand tells Charlie that he was rude to her. Charlie then makes his feelings known to Rand that he wants her and only her, which makes the yeoman feel very uneasy. Rand goes to the bridge and wants Kirk to have a talk with Charlie before she asks the young man to leave her alone, which will hurt his feelings. Calling Charlie to his quarters, Kirk takes pity on the young man and attempts to befriend him, taking him to the physical training room for some light sparring. Initially refusing to participate, Charlie falls awkwardly and prompts laughter from Sam, Kirk's sparring partner. Humiliated and angry, Charlie makes Sam disappear, revealing his powers.

Act Three[edit | edit source]

Uhura's communication console explodes

Kirk immediately calls for security to escort Charlie back to his quarters. But Charlie resists, knocking down the two security officers with his powers. One of them draws his phaser but Charlie makes it disappear but finally agrees to go to his quarters after Kirk tells the young man that he will personally pick him up and take him there himself if he does not. After Charlie and security leaves Kirk is informed by Uhura that ALL phasers on board the Enterprise have disappeared. Later, in the briefing room discussing Charlie to McCoy and Spock following the incident in the gymnasium, Kirk speculates that Charlie might be a Thasian, but McCoy doubts this based on his medical analysis results.

Charlie then enters and Kirk asks him outright if he was responsible for the Antares' destruction. Confronted, Charlie admits to destroying the Antares by making a warped baffle plate in its energy pile "go away". He defends his action by claiming that the ship would have blown up anyway, and that the crew weren't nice to him and tried to get rid of him. He leaves and Spock tells Kirk and McCoy, "We're in the hands of an adolescent."

Yeoman Lawton turned into an iguana

Charlie, his powers now common knowledge, takes over control of the Enterprise, starting with Charlie causing Uhura's communication console to explode, preventing Kirk from sending a distress signal and causing Uhura second-degree burns on her hands. He wants to go to Colony 5; Kirk knows that the mayhem he would create in that unstructured setting would be far worse than what he's done so far on the Enterprise. Charlie then begins his reign of terror. Passing Yeoman Lawton in the corridor, he turns her into an iguana. He enters Rand's quarters with a pink rose (because he found out that pink was the yeoman's favorite color). When Rand tells Charlie to go away, he moves closer toward her, saying he only wants her. Rand is able to surreptitiously activate a communication device; on the bridge, Kirk and Spock hear the conversation and leave the bridge to rescue Yeoman Rand.

Act Four[edit | edit source]

Crew woman loses her face
A Thasian appearing on the bridge

Kirk and Spock rush to Rand's quarters and try to stop Charlie, but the teenager throws them against the wall, breaking Spock's legs in the process. A shocked Rand slaps Charlie, to which he responds by making her disappear. Charlie then releases both Kirk and Spock after he realizes that he needs Kirk's help to run the Enterprise. Rigging a force field, the crew attempt to trap and hold Charlie in his own quarters, but once he realizes an attempt has been made to confine him, Charlie easily escapes. He then goes on a rampage: he turns a young crewmember into an old lady and removes a young woman's face, leaving her groping in a corridor and still able to vocalize her terror.

Determined to stop Charlie before he can reach Colony 5, Kirk speculates that in taking over the ship, Charlie may have reached his limit. He thus attempts, with the help of Spock and McCoy, to overload the boy's abilities, ordering more and more of the ship's systems to be activated. In the midst of this struggle, a ship from Thasus appears. It is at this point that Charlie begs to stay with the Enterprise crew. The Thasians restore the Enterprise back to normal and return a confused Rand on the bridge. The Thasian explains to the bridge crew that they granted Charlie immense powers so he could live – powers that they cannot, or will not, remove. The Thasian expresses regret at the loss of the Antares, but at least can assure Kirk that his own crew, and ship, have been fully restored to him. Certain it would be impossible for Charlie to live a normal life with his own people, and despite Charlie's own pleas to stay with the crew, and even Kirk reconsidering his position that Charlie would never fit in among Humans, the Thasians remove him to their vessel and depart. Rand, with tears in her eyes, moves over to Kirk, seated in his captain's chair. "It's all right, yeoman. It's all over now," he says as the Enterprise moves on in space.

Previous episode produced:
The Naked Time
 
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1
Next episode produced:
Balance of Terror
Previous episode aired:
The Man Trap
Next episode aired:
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Previous remastered episode aired:
Return to Tomorrow
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The Squire of Gothos
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The Man Trap
Next event:
The Enemy Within