"Charlie X" | |
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Star Trek: The Original Series episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 2 |
Directed by | Lawrence Dobkin |
Story by | Gene Roddenberry |
Teleplay by | Dorothy C. Fontana |
Featured music | Fred Steiner |
Cinematography by | Jerry Finnerman |
Production code | 8 |
Original air date | September 15, 1966 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Charlie X" is a first season episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek first broadcast on September 15, 1966. It was repeated by NBC on June 1, 1967. It is episode #2, production #8. It was dramatized for television by Dorothy C. Fontana from a story written by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Lawrence Dobkin.
The Enterprise picks up an unstable 17-year-old boy with dangerous mental powers who lacks the training and restraint to handle them wisely.
The eponymous character Charlie Evans is featured as an adult in the fan created mini-series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.
The USS Enterprise meets the Antares to take charge of Charlie Evans (Robert Walker Jr.), sole survivor of a transport ship that crashed on the planet Thasus. For 14 years, Charlie grew up there alone, stranded in the wreckage, learning how to talk from the ship's computer systems which remained intact.
He is to be transported to his nearest relatives on the colony Alpha V. Crew members of the Antares speak praises about Charlie, but seem pleased to see the boy removed from their ship. After the transfer, they bid the Enterprise an unusually hasty goodbye and depart. Charlie undergoes a medical examination by Dr. McCoy. He tells the doctor the crew of the Antares did not like him very much, and that all he wants is for people to like him.
When the Antares gets nearly out of sensor range, it transmits a warning message to the Enterprise, but the message gets cut off before it can give the warning. Shortly after, Spock determines that the Antares has blown up.
Charlie quickly becomes obnoxious and shows signs that he possesses strange powers. First, he develops an infatuation with Yeoman Janice Rand. He presents her with a bottle of perfume, which turns out to be her favorite scent. Having observed a man in engineering seal an agreement to go to the recreation room with a slap on the rear, he does the same to Rand.