Revisiting TOS by Stardate order.....

[Mytran]

I love early Star Trek. I don't mean simply the original series as a whole, but those early episodes of the first season where they made such a concerted effort to establish the setting of the Enterprise and its crew. I really like the interaction amongst the secondary characters as well as the wonderful character moments and exchanges. There's also the effort to create the sense of being far from familiar territory. This attention to detail doesn't really go away throughout the series, but it's not as prominent as it is in these first season episodes.

Very well put. The first dozen episodes also shows us areas of the ship that were rarely seen afterwards such as the gym/theatre, botany lab, chapel, phaser control, guest quarters etc. I realise it was an extra effort for the production staff to be constantly redressing the sets like this, but it really adds to the flavour and diversity of this "whole city in space".

 

[Warped9]

This story could have been played with a bit more horror and made today it might be.

I don't understand why Spock waited to activate the forcefield until Charlie was about to walk out of the room. That struck me us needlessly poking the bear. And there's no real effort made here to try reasoning with Charlie once they understand the situation. It isn't until the end when Charlie is about to be retaken by the Thasians that there's any mention of reasoning with the boy.

Of course Charlie didn't make it any easier for them and the resultant reflexive fear response on the part of the Enterpise crew is understandable as things escalated quickly. Charlie really was a loose cannon with next to no self-control or empathy for others.

Any one of us can have numerous impulsive and petty thoughts in a given day, but our sense of self-control and measure of consideration for others are inhibitors that allow us to co-exist with each other. Chaos would reign without such self-control.

 

[Warped9]

Oh, and what kind of fashion sense dictated the style of the coat Charlie is wearing when he comes aboard the Enterprise?

Could that have been tribble fur?

 

[Pauln6]

I love early Star Trek. I don't mean simply the original series as a whole, but those early episodes of the first season where they made such a concerted effort to establish the setting of the Enterprise and its crew. I really like the interaction amongst the secondary characters as well as the wonderful character moments and exchanges. There's also the effort to create the sense of being far from familiar territory. This attention to detail doesn't really go away throughout the series, but it's not as prominant as it is in these first season episodes.

In this episode Uhura is now in her familiar red uniform. And one little oddity--in the opening bridge shot we her at Navigation. Then later she's back at her regular station. Later still, when they're conducting their "intruder alert" search we see Uhura at the Science console and Sulu at Communications. It's a good scene and a sample of Nichelle Nichols having a lot more than usual to do in this episode. Wish we could have seen more like this later in the series.

100% agree with all of this.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Stardate 1533.6 “Charlie X” ***

Unlike previous episodes there is nothing but exterior stock shots from WNMHGB used.

This makes it the only episode of the series proper to not use series model of the Enterprise. A great trivia question, somewhat negated by the TOS-R enhancements.

A lot of the really early episodes are edited sloppily. Wonky sound effects, mismatched footage for close ups and so on. I am guessing it was because of the newness of the series and how rushed it all was. It's not a jab, but an interesting observation.

For example, toward the end of Charlie X, when Kirk is on the bridge talking to Spock and McCoy about stopping Charlie, after McCoy says "you don't have any special immunity. Not anymore. Pushed far enough, he'd send you off to oblivion, too." Kirk turns to Spock for his opinion and when they go to a close up of Nimoy. His hair is cut differently and his face has a completely different expression from the medium shot. Like it was pulled from a totally different episode. There's another shot of Uhura after Charlie storms out which was pulled from the end of the episode, so she looks heartbroken for no reason. Add that to the Kirk uniform mix up and the classic "when I came aboard!" I guess it was a mad dash to get these episodes ready to air. The Man Trap has some editorial gaffes too, but the list would grow tiresome.