^Think they first did that in "The Enemy Within."
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
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Star Trek
"Charlie X"
Stardate 1533.6
I was thinking of this post when watching the episode. This was indeed a bottle show...and for a first-time viewer who was getting invested in the show 50 years ago tonight, it must have been a very rich and fascinating look at shipboard life on this strange spacefaring vessel. As a "second episode," this is chock full of details about the Enterprise and the setting that it journeys through.
We learn about the ship's population; the distinguished position of starships as opposed to other space vessels; food concentrates and synthetic meatloaf being prepared in the ship's galley; a brief mention of UESPA, which wouldn't have meant anything to the audience. The mention of sending Charlie to an Earth colony, rather than Earth itself, would have given the final frontier a sense of scale. We see a Jeffries Tube, as well as that bit of business with somebody moving some sort of pole down through the decks of the ship...always wondered what was up with that. And of course, we get scenes in the gym and the rec room, complete with 3D chess, card games, Uhura improv-singing, and that guy with the pointy ears (who's still prone to smiling) playing his weird harp!
I have to wonder if scenes were rearranged, or if the rec room scene was added late, as it seems odd that Charlie has another encounter with Janice between slapping her on the ass and asking Kirk why it was wrong to slap her on the ass. Evidently the men on the Antares didn't slap each other on the ass, as it seemed like a revelation to Charlie.
The other thing that first-time viewers were likely thinking 50 years ago was that they liked this one better the first time, when it starred that kid from Lost in Space...especially after Charlie started sending people to the cornfield. You don't slap women on the ass, Charlie...and you definitely don't send them to the cornfield! Once Charlie started manifesting his powers, Kirk's as-yet-unseen first-hand experience dealing with god-beings came in handy. (Tune in next week for more on that!) Kirk even exhibits an ability to partially resist the direct effect of Charlie's powers when he manages to bobble around quite a bit while frozen in the corridor.
I remember as a kid, when I wasn't yet watching the show, seeing just the part where Charlie made the woman faceless. Freaked me out. We need a plan to distract this kid so we can tranquilize him...or maybe smash him on the back of the head with a lamp. If only the timing had been different, they could have gotten in some cross-promotion by having Charlie force Spock to sing a song about Bilbo Baggins. Well, at least he didn't turn Spock into a jack-in-the-box....
"When I came aboard!"
And this is two out of two episodes with somber endings instead of the much-maligned laugh lines.
"Charlie X"
Stardate 1533.6
I was thinking of this post when watching the episode. This was indeed a bottle show...and for a first-time viewer who was getting invested in the show 50 years ago tonight, it must have been a very rich and fascinating look at shipboard life on this strange spacefaring vessel. As a "second episode," this is chock full of details about the Enterprise and the setting that it journeys through.
We learn about the ship's population; the distinguished position of starships as opposed to other space vessels; food concentrates and synthetic meatloaf being prepared in the ship's galley; a brief mention of UESPA, which wouldn't have meant anything to the audience. The mention of sending Charlie to an Earth colony, rather than Earth itself, would have given the final frontier a sense of scale. We see a Jeffries Tube, as well as that bit of business with somebody moving some sort of pole down through the decks of the ship...always wondered what was up with that. And of course, we get scenes in the gym and the rec room, complete with 3D chess, card games, Uhura improv-singing, and that guy with the pointy ears (who's still prone to smiling) playing his weird harp!
I have to wonder if scenes were rearranged, or if the rec room scene was added late, as it seems odd that Charlie has another encounter with Janice between slapping her on the ass and asking Kirk why it was wrong to slap her on the ass. Evidently the men on the Antares didn't slap each other on the ass, as it seemed like a revelation to Charlie.
The other thing that first-time viewers were likely thinking 50 years ago was that they liked this one better the first time, when it starred that kid from Lost in Space...especially after Charlie started sending people to the cornfield. You don't slap women on the ass, Charlie...and you definitely don't send them to the cornfield! Once Charlie started manifesting his powers, Kirk's as-yet-unseen first-hand experience dealing with god-beings came in handy. (Tune in next week for more on that!) Kirk even exhibits an ability to partially resist the direct effect of Charlie's powers when he manages to bobble around quite a bit while frozen in the corridor.
I remember as a kid, when I wasn't yet watching the show, seeing just the part where Charlie made the woman faceless. Freaked me out. We need a plan to distract this kid so we can tranquilize him...or maybe smash him on the back of the head with a lamp. If only the timing had been different, they could have gotten in some cross-promotion by having Charlie force Spock to sing a song about Bilbo Baggins. Well, at least he didn't turn Spock into a jack-in-the-box....
"When I came aboard!"
And this is two out of two episodes with somber endings instead of the much-maligned laugh lines.
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The giant in the attic wanted a drink, but all the orange juice was in a tank in the basement, so they were guiding a giant straw for him. I think that's the only logical explanation.
Scenes from shipboard life are some of my favourite parts of these early episodes.
... and that is why they had to die.
Also because they couldn't decide what their job was, Kirk refers to the Antares as a cargo vessel, a science probe ship and a survey ship. Those 20 guys were apparently so overworked that it's no wonder they didn't have time to check their baffle plates.
I noticed that too, and WNMHGB is up next. So the first three episodes that the viewers saw in 1966 ended on the crew of the Enterprise exterminating the buffalo, condemning a kid to eternal torment, and forcing captain Kirk to kill his best friend. How on Earth did this get a reputation for being an optimistic series?
Yeah, you can tell Gene Coon hadn't joined the show yet. Star Trek began very dry and serious, Coon gave it a sense of fun, and then Freiberger tried to make it dry and serious again after Coon left. Nonethless, I enjoyed Charlie X a lot, and I think it's a good early effort by Roddenberry. For me, what makes the episode work is Robert Walker Jr. who, despite being 26 when it was shot (in July of '66), gives a compelling performance as a 17 year old caught between being a boy and a man.
This scene, and another in The Man Trap, to me, hint rather strongly at some sort of attraction between Uhura and Spock, which I assume is where the Abramsverse got the idea.
There are more scenes later to come that at least show that Spock has a respect and appreciation for Uhura that no one else seems to.
Spock / Uhura was never totally out of left field for me.
I cite those points, too as I was very welcome to the notion. It played into a sense of romantic nostalgia. Around 1973 to 74, a couple of friends and I did the Trek equivalent to "cops and robbers", running around the apartment neighborhood acting as our heroes. I played Spock and in real life I had something of a crush on the girl who played Uhura (and all other female roles from whatever entertainment property we were aping). No, sadly nothing came of that. She moved away and while we did "pen pal" each other for a couple of years, our letters became less frequent until they finally stopped.. But occasionally I still think of her, especially when I see scenes like these from the original series (and, yeah, the three latest films as well).
Sigh....
I remember not liking this ep as a kid when I saw it in syndication in the 70s, and now I realize that it was because Charlie's bratty, spoiled behavior reminded me of my own.
The guy who laughed at him so hard, was kind of weird too.
Yeah, seeing the two episodes back-to-back, I noticed that we got another Spock/Uhura moment in this one. Going somewhere with that could have been a heck of a lot more interesting than Spock/Chapel, I'm afraid to say.
I also noticed that this episode reminds me somewhat of "The Naked Time" in that both episodes have lots of little bits of plot-relevant business in the corridors...the various acts of random insanity committed by afflicted crew members in TNT, and Charlie's various uses of his powers on crew members in this one.
I also noticed that this episode reminds me somewhat of "The Naked Time" in that both episodes have lots of little bits of plot-relevant business in the corridors...the various acts of random insanity committed by afflicted crew members in TNT, and Charlie's various uses of his powers on crew members in this one.
Not only that, but Abramsstarwarsverse got the idea for Kylo Ren from Charlie X as well.
Spock smiles again and Uhura flirts with him again. Janice has a big role in this episode. Robert Walker does a good job playing a troubled teenager. In spite of what Charlie did to the crew and the Antares I felt sorry for him at the end of the episode. If only they could have taken his powers away from him, then he could have stayed with his fellow humans.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before", Season 1 - Episode 3, September 22nd
Tonight's Episode: Watch the crew of the Enterprise go through an inexplicable one-week-only costume (and doctor) change as they encounter never before seen psychic abilities that corrupt and turn a person power hungry, totally unlike last week's never before seen psychic abilities that corrupt and turn a person power hungry.
Tonight's Episode: Watch the crew of the Enterprise go through an inexplicable one-week-only costume (and doctor) change as they encounter never before seen psychic abilities that corrupt and turn a person power hungry, totally unlike last week's never before seen psychic abilities that corrupt and turn a person power hungry.
I love this one!
TOS first misogynistic slur : "Walking freezer unit"....
TOS first misogynistic slur : "Walking freezer unit"....
I've always been fond of this transitional episode. Men wore turtlenecks, and women still wore pants. Smirky shouty Spock is still here, though his cold calculated Vulcan logic is shining through. We have a different blonde yeoman and a dude version of Uhura. And last, but not least, Scotty finally shows up!
But what puzzles me is how people often use this episode as proof that Star Trek did "real" Sci-Fi, when most of the actual science in this episode is pure fancy, human ESP has consistently been proven to be bullshit, and that Starfleet would test everybody for it has luckily never been mentioned again. We know there isn't a giant purple wall surrounding our galaxy, properties of which were rather vague(or as Spock would put it "Negative!") and Delta Vega being conveniently so close to the edge that a damaged Enterprise could crawl back there on impulse, but that nobody who visited it before had decided to peek out of the Galaxy, or noticed the giant purple thing is implausible(ironically Abramsverse used the name Delta Vega for another implausibly positioned planet )
They did have Mitchell read from a version of Space Kindle, so I'll give them technology prediction points on that.
Otherwise the episode was really rather good, it was set up nicely, the friendly camaraderie established at the beginning of the episode made Mitchell's descent into madness more tragic, the gradual build up his powers and the threat to the inevitable end with the fisticuffs and a torn shirts worked well. The spacey elements were also intriguing (if implausible) and I can certainly see why this got a standing ovation at that convention thingy a few days prior to the show airing.
But what puzzles me is how people often use this episode as proof that Star Trek did "real" Sci-Fi, when most of the actual science in this episode is pure fancy, human ESP has consistently been proven to be bullshit, and that Starfleet would test everybody for it has luckily never been mentioned again. We know there isn't a giant purple wall surrounding our galaxy, properties of which were rather vague(or as Spock would put it "Negative!") and Delta Vega being conveniently so close to the edge that a damaged Enterprise could crawl back there on impulse, but that nobody who visited it before had decided to peek out of the Galaxy, or noticed the giant purple thing is implausible(ironically Abramsverse used the name Delta Vega for another implausibly positioned planet
)They did have Mitchell read from a version of Space Kindle, so I'll give them technology prediction points on that.
Otherwise the episode was really rather good, it was set up nicely, the friendly camaraderie established at the beginning of the episode made Mitchell's descent into madness more tragic, the gradual build up his powers and the threat to the inevitable end with the fisticuffs and a torn shirts worked well. The spacey elements were also intriguing (if implausible) and I can certainly see why this got a standing ovation at that convention thingy a few days prior to the show airing.
Haven't watched yet, so my review will come later, but I'm curious...your original idea was to watch in production order, so why use episode numbers based on airdate order, when the actual numbers of the episodes were the numbers indicating production order? E.g., "The Man Trap" is episode 6, "Charlie X" is episode 8, WNMHGB is episode 2.
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