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TOS season 1 episode 8 — Charlie X
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
As good an actor as he was, I can't see Pollard in the role. He was just too offbeat, quirky and unconventional-looking to play a character we're meant to identify and sympathize with.

Besides, Pollard was 27 at the time and looked his age. I could never buy him as a preadolescent in "Miri."

Frankly I thought the same thing when I read Pow's post above.

Pollard has never demonstrated the ability to portray a handsome-but-immature teenager.

However, Walker's performance depicted an attractive young man who desperately wanted to appeal to a lovely lady like Janice Rand — but who was far too young and inexperienced to do so.

All Charlie needed was a few more years to gain the maturity required to be the kind of man Yeoman Rand needed.

Hey, that idea suggests a great concept for a sequel to this story! Wink

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:49 am; edited 1 time in total
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trekriffic
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My contribution is to caption this with the faceless crew member contest . . .

“Hey, why the blank expression?”

(Instant applause)

Thank you! Thank you very much!

(Bows)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see Michael J. Pollard as a possibility in the Charles Evans role had GR followed DCF's original desire to present an awkward and innocent teenager as opposed to an awkward horn-dog teen. And yes, odd. Odd due to his growing up with-out fellow humans and society that would normalize him.

MJP could capture that easily. His turn as a decent simple country boy in Disney's Summer Magic showed that he could play a sympathetic character.

Had "Charlie X" gone in that direction I think the episode could have worked fine.
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess the Thasians kept a more watchful eye (if they have them?) on Charlie when they returned to Thasus because we never saw him or them ever again in an episode or series!!! I wonder if there has ever been a book or fanfiction relating to what happened to him when he got back 'home'?
JB
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

johnnybear wrote:
. . .we never saw him or them ever again in an episode or series!!!

As I mentioned earlier, it would be fascinating to see a story about an older, more mature Charlie who has been taught to govern his emotions and control his temper, a man who he can trusted among humans and aliens.

If Charlie became aware of some threat to the Enterprise or some human-occupied planet, he might convince the Thasians that he should be allowed to use his powers to help them.

Charlie could plead with the Thasians to let him make up for the harm he did during this episode.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2022 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey gang, let's see what the Nitpicker's Guide has to say about this episode.

Captain Kirk identifies the ship that brings Charles Evans as the cargo vessel Antares. Then the ship explodes and Kirk notifies his superiors of the mysterious loss of "the science probe vessel Antares." (yes, these two statements can be reconciled. It just seems like an awfully wide swing in assignments.)

Sidebar: [One of the nifty things about the remastered episodes is that they've been able to provide us with never before seen spaceships. On the original episode, we never are shown the Antares at all, just the captain and his first officer when they beam over to the Enterprise with Charlie.]

[The new visual effects give us a look at just what the Antares was like. I'm sure it was a budgetary consideration regarding having to construct a pricey model for the Antares. So the production just never showed it, I understand their reasoning and don't mean to dump on 'em. It's just a lot of fun to see the remastered artist be able to finally show us a different kind of starship in the Star Trek Universe.]

Nitpicker's: It's true that Charlie disposed of the phasers, but couldn't Dr. McCoy put him under with a sedative?

Sidebar:[ Ah, like they did with Gary Mitchell when he was growing omnipotent in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Why not an attempt at least with Charlie? Naturally they'd have to fail or you'd end up with a thirty-minute episode.]

Nitpicker's: Trying to regain some control over the situation, Kirk and Mr. Spock manage to trap Charlie in a room equipped with a force field.

What's the point of this? Charlie's powers are mental in nature.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Night Terrors," Lieutenant Commander Data states there is no known technology for blocking telepathic transmissions. Presumably, telepathic transmissions operate in the same domain as transmutational powers. If there is no known technology in the twenty-fourth century, there is no known technology in the twenty-third century, and Spock should know this. Sure enough, Charlie simply dissolves away the whole wall and walks out!

Sidebar: [Isn't that always the problem with science fiction television shows? They establish specific rules and parameters about their futuristic technology, and then ignore (or forget it) when it gets in the way of another plot.]

[I get it alright, it is incredibly hard to keep track of all these technologies over the course of a SF TV show.]

[And in this case, ST: TNG establishes this telepathic fact years after the original series aired.]

Continuity Problem: Charlie meets up with Kirk in the passageway where Kirk is wearing his gold uniform shirt with the black collar.

Kirk immediately boards the turbolift with Charlie as they both head to the bridge. When the turbolift doors open on the bridge, Kirk walks out now wearing his green V-neck captain's shirt.

Sidebar: [But isn't it fun to catch these inconsistencies in films and television for we fans?]

[I was watching the western movie "Rooster Cogburn," the inferior but nonetheless entertaining sequel to "True Grit," starring John Wayne as he reprises his role from the classic "True Grit."]

[In the RC film, Cogburn is wearing a heavy yellow winter coat as he mounts his horse and rides hard. During the ride we now see him without his coat. When he finishes this ride he's back in his coat again. I've seen this movie a number of times but it was only last week that I caught it.
Fun!]
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2022 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From the October 10, 1966, issue of TV Guide:

"Charlie X." Spock is suspicious of Charlie Evans. The 17-year old says he was the sole survivor of a spaceship crash when he was three--and that he managed to live completely on his own.

Sidebar: Charlie X utilizes the same science fiction concept as was seen in the second pilot for Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before. What happens to a normal human being when they gain omnipotent powers? Can they handle it given their emotional status which remains essentially unchanged? Awesome power without commensurate wisdom, empathy, compassion to go along with that power can only result in tragedy.

Some may criticize that Charlie X is merely a repeat of what happened earlier on Where No Man Has Gone Before, so therefore Star Trek is only rehashing previously done ideas.

In regards to the core theme of unprepared humans gaining phenomenal power, you do indeed have a similarity. No doubts about it.

What these episodes managed to achieve is that you can repeat story subject matter and still execute it differently so that the details are original and fresh. Each episode is entertaining and unlike one another enough, so as to have the audience view them within their own context.

Here we have two episodes that while sharing similarities, also explore the differences of the specific circumstances of those individual episodes. And it makes both episodes some of the finest ones ever produced by the series.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On this episode, Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock walk Charlie into an empty room with no doors. It's a trap they have sprung to contain Charlie with a force field.

In the James Blish novel adaptation, it is Charlie's own cabin on board the Enterprise that they have specially rigged up with a force field.

Blish's novel does have a more practical dimension to it. While Charlie wouldn't think anything was out of the ordinary as he was walked to the ship cabin he's been billeted in since he came on board the Enterprise, he could have suspected something was amiss as he was being escorted to a small & empty room.

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