Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Law?

[Kryton]

In the J. Blish adaptation of this episode, he apparently used an earlier title. The "X" may have had something to do with Black Muslim activist (an actual organization) Malcolm X who had been in the news at the time of the episode.

Which works better today? Especially since there's at least a LITTLE Trek revisionism going on these days (which may be a HUGE understatement).

 

[paustin]

Re: Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Way?

wasnt it Charlie's Law at one point?

 

[Kryton]

Re: Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Way?

Yikes! "Charlie's Law" may be exactly what I was thinking of instead of "Charlie's Way". You know...time and all.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Kryton said:
In the J. Blish adaptation of this episode, he apparently used an earlier title. The "X" may have had something to do with Black Muslim activist (an actual organization) Malcolm X who had been in the news at the time of the episode.

They simply preferred a different title.

Blish worked from pre-shooting scripts, especially for the first three or four volumes of his novelizations, and the original title on that script was "Charlie's Law". There was also "The Unreal McCoy" for "The Man Trap".

It's also why some of the Chekov stories became Sulu stories in Blish. Because the scripts he used failed to indicate that George Takei was off filming a movie.

(The Blish version of "Gamesters of Triskelion" also has a red, slimy alien thrall - with movable noseflaps - instead of an Andorian, proof that the makeup budget had to be trimmed at the last minute. On the episode they even forgot to paint the Andorian's hands blue!)

 

[Trekwatcher]

I prefer "Charlie X." The "X" marks him, in the eyes of the viewer, as outside the norm, different in a potentially dangerous way. It played well in the veiwer's mind early in the show, contrasting with the (relatively) benevolent and benign manner in which Charlie is first presented.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

A dialogue reference to "Charlie's law," explaining what it meant, survived well into the final stages of writing. See the synopsis of Charlie X, located at the first link in my sig.

And "X" had nothing to do with Malcolm X. It was, and is, simply a way of noting that something is unknown. Illiterate men (see John Shakespeare, William's father, for example) would often sign with an "X" or a cross.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Esteban]

Wasn't there an even earlier outline by GR called "When Charlie Became God", or something like that?

 

[Esteban]

Oh, I should have consulted Sir Rhosis' reviews. "The Day Charlie Became God".

Speaking of God, God I love those reviews. Absolutely brilliant scholarship, Dave.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^Thanks for the kind compliment, though I daresay they are not "brilliant." But I'm glad you enjoy them. The tantalizing hints of "what might have been" sprinkled throughout Asherman's "Concordance" have always fascinated me. I longed for a site that examined the different drafts and outlines, and when I began collecting the scripts, luckily someone offered me the space to create one.

Sir Rhosis

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Way?

How about...CHARLIE AND THE MALEVOLENCE FACTORY?

CHARLIE'S DEVILS?

 

[ToddPence]

Re: Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Way?

How about "Charly X"? in which the role played by Robert Walker is instead played by Cliff Robertson, who realizes he is about to lose his telekinetic powers when his pet rat Algernon dies.

 

[Outpost4]

Re: Better Title: Charlie X or Charlie's Way?

Maybe Charlie's Chan, in which a really white guy screws up his face and speaks in pidgeon English. As for the plot, he's a detective searching for why his career disappeared.

 

[Shatmandu]

How about "Charlie's Ah Nehw Dah-ling!"

Joe, out in space

 

[Jack Bauer]

charlie X just sounds cool and sci-fi-ish. Charlie's Law sounds like a cop or western show.

 

[cooleddie74]

Charlie and the Psychopathic, Telekinetic Colored Food Cube Factory

 

[UnknownSample]

How could Malcolm X have had anything to do with it? X=unknown.

I always thought "Charlie's Law" was better. It's clearer.