"Charlie X"
Season One, Episode Two
Stardate 1533.6
"He's a boy in a man's body, trying to be an adult with the adolescence in him getting in the way."
--James Kirk
*While I am pretty much a walking Star Trek Encyclopedia on my own, I do not have absolute knowledge of Star Trek. So note that I use the real Star Trek Encyclopedia, written by Michael and Denise Okuda, and Memory Alpha for supplemental information regarding behind-the-scenes info and trivia.
Synopsis
A 17-year-old boy, Charles Evans, is transferred to the Enterprise from the U.S.S. Antares. Charlie was the lone survivor of a transport crash on the planet Thasus in 2252, only three years old at the time. He was raised by the Thasians, thought to be only a legend by Starfleet. The Enterprise is transporting Charlie to the Alpha V settlement, on which his closest living relatives reside. En route, Charlie tells Dr. McCoy that he survived on the food in the supply stores but once that ran out, began to eat whatever he could find growing on the planet. He learned to talk by interacting with the ship's memory banks. Unfortunately Charlie has trouble fitting in with the crew of the Enterprise, which is only compounded when it is soon revealed that the Thasians gave Charlie extraordinary mental powers, which Charlie used to destroy the Antares and all 20 crew members aboard the ship, make several of the Enterprise crew disappear, and wreak havoc in other ways when he felt threatened. He took over the Enterprise when Kirk tried to stop him so that they wouldn't deviate from their voyage to Alpha V. Kirk eventually realizes that Charlie's powers have a limit and concocts a plan to sedate Charlie while distracting him by turning on every system on the ship. In the middle of his plan, however, the Thasians show up, apologize for Charlie's misbehavior, and set everything on the Enterprise back to how it was before Charlie showed up. Unfortunately, they were unable to restore the Antares. Despite Charlie wishing to remain with the crew and be taken home, the Thasians ultimately took him back to Thasus with them, realizing that his powers would always pose a danger to humanity -- either he would destroy them all, or they would be forced to kill Charlie to prevent human extinction.
Themes
This episode is basically a teenage melodrama set in space. Charlie is a boy who grew up isolated from his own people, in the company of a non-corporeal race who couldn't teach him how to be human (he couldn't touch them, they can't love, etc.). Charlie was rescued by the Antares and transferred to the Enterprise, but his not having had the benefit of growing up in society and watching others interact with each other put him at an extreme disadvantage when it came to interacting with the crews of both ships. Having the extraordinary mental powers granted him by the Thasians only made matters worse, and alienated him all the more.
Grade: B
Reason for grade: This one was another one that kind of drags, for the most part. They really take a lot of time showing us how alienated Charlie is from other humans, and they wait until the last 12 minutes of the episode before Charlie finally takes over the ship. This is a good concept for the episode, but the main issue I have with most episodes of the original series is that they're just too long. They're roughly eight minutes longer than the later Star Trek series', due to not having as many commercials, but even then they feel really long. I tend to enjoy The Animated Series more, and I've been thinking that episodes of the original series would likely be better if it was a half-hour show, rather than an hour long.
"Charlie X"
Directed by: Lawrence Dobkin
Written by: D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry
Starring:
William Shatner as James Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
Also starring:
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
Robert Walker, Jr. as Charles Evans
Charles J. Stewart as Captain Ramart
Dallas Mitchell as Tom Nellis
Patricia McNulty as Yeoman Tina Lawton
Beau Vandenecker as Sam (Sam's last name is unofficially Ellis, from a non-canonical novelization)
Trivia (if of no interest to you, skip down to the next episode):
1) We learn that the Enterprise has a crew complement of 428 people.
2) We learn here that Spock plays the Vulcan lute, as well as Uhura's ability to sing.
3) We first see Kirk and Spock engage in a game of three-dimensional chess.
4) Gene Roddenberry does the voice of the galley chef, his only on-screen role in the entire franchise.
We also get our first glimpse of the following planets:
1) Alpha V -- nothing is revealed about this planet other than the fact there is a Federation settlement there, where Charlie Evans' closest living relatives resided.
2) Thasus -- A planet where Charlie Evans grew up and home to the Thasians, a non-corporeal species with extraordinary mental powers. They had evolved beyond their need for physical bodies, existing as pure mental energy. The Thasians were thought to be a legend by the Federation, until Spock realized that Charlie couldn't have survived so long on Thasus without help from the natives. The Thasians also showed up to help put everything back to how it was before Charlie's arrival.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
Season One, Episode Three
Stardate: 1312.4
"Man cannot survive if a race of true espers is born."
--Gary Mitchell
Synopsis
The Enterprise has traveled to the edge of the galaxy, on a mission to explore what lies beyond. Before they reach the edge, they discover a recorder from an older vessel, the S.S. Valiant, which tried to cross the barrier at the edge of the galaxy but turned back before they could breach it completely. The ship was destroyed when the captain activated the self-destruct for mysterious reasons. As the Enterprise attempts to cross the barrier, a sequence of events occurs that mirrors the events recorded from the Valiant. Two crewmembers, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner and Kirk's friend, Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell, are zapped by some kind of electrical force, and the ship is damaged beyond their ability to repair. They must turn back before completely breaching the forcefield. They can only fly at impulse, meaning that the closest starbase is years away. They soon discover that they don't have that kind of time to wait, as Commander Mitchell, who has a high ESP rating, starts to become superhuman, able to control material things with his mind. As his power grows, Kirk and Spock recognize the danger he is to the ship and to the universe, at large. They are approaching a planet that could have the supplies necessary to repair the ship's warp engines, but if they are unsuccessful they wouldn't have enough power to leave the planet's orbit. Spock convinces Kirk to give it a try by giving him an ultimatum: either Kirk needs to kill Mitchell now or take the ship into orbit of Delta Vega and maroon Gary Mitchell there. Unwilling to kill his friend, Kirk takes the ship to the planet. Kirk and Spock manage to render Mitchell unconscious and force him down to the planet. The crew successfully repair the ship's engines, but Mitchell has grown too powerful for the crew to contain. Everyone except for Kirk returns to the ship and Kirk leaves to track down Mitchell. He discovers that Dehner, also, has developed superhuman abilities. Mitchell is seducing her with power but Kirk convinces her to help him stop Mitchell. With the help of Dr. Dehner, Kirk is able to kill Gary Mitchell. Unfortunately, Dehner, too, dies in the attempt. Once Kirk is safely back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk records that Dehner and Mitchell gave their lives in the performance of their duties.
Themes:
The major theme of this episode is one that has been done repeatedly in literature: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mitchell was a good Starfleet officer, but when he got zapped by the barrier at the edge of the galaxy, as his power grew his desire to rule a planet grew, as well. In the end, Kirk had to stop him, otherwise because he was still human and had his human frailties to contend with, there would be no end to the malevolence that Gary Mitchell would cause to the universe.
There is also a theme of rationality ruling over the emotions, a personal favorite theme of mine. Mitchell was Kirk's friend. Kirk didn't want to kill or maroon his friend, even scolding Spock for not being able to feel anything about Mitchell and his plight. In the end, however, Kirk knew that Spock was right, and he had to maroon, and ultimately kill, Mitchell on the planet below.
Grade: A-
Reason for grade: This was a worthy second pilot for Star Trek. It was an interesting episode, even if the theme had been done often before. As most Star Trek episodes do, it tended to slow down a bit in the middle. I really think Star Trek would have been better as a half-hour show (but then again, the hour format allowed the later shows to be an hour long, so I'm not really complaining).
"Where No One Has Gone Before"
Directed by: James Goldstone
Written by: Samuel A. Peeples
Starring:
William Shatner as James Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Also starring:
George Takei as Sulu
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Paul Fix as Doctor Mark Piper
Gary Lockwood as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell
Sally Kellerman as Doctor Elizabeth Dehner
Paul Carr as Lieutenant Lee Kelso
Lloyd Hanes as Lieutenant Alden
Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith
Eddie Paskey as Mr. Leslie
Trivia:
-"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the second pilot episode for Star Trek, and the episode that convinced NBC to buy Star Trek as a weekly series. The only crew member to return from the original pilot was Spock. Even though this was the pilot for the new Star Trek show, it was aired as the third episode of the series.
-This episode saw the first usage of the tractor beam and of red alert.
-We learn that Spock has humans in his ancestry.
-This is Mr. Scott's first appearance. Neither McCoy nor Uhura appear in this episode.
-As mentioned, Dr. McCoy is not in this episode. Another doctor, Doctor Mark Piper, is the chief medical officer of the Enterprise, marking at least two doctors the Enterprise had before McCoy, Doctor Piper and Doctor Boyce from the first pilot. This also marks something of a continuity error, since McCoy was in the two episodes prior to this one (which, of course, was unintentional due to the order of episodes that were aired versus the order they were actually filmed in).
-Crewman Darnell was the first crewmember killed in Star Trek, if we go by airdate order. However, if we go by production order, then Lieutenant Kelso has the dubious distinction of being the first crewman killed in Star Trek. Mitchell and Dehner also died in this episode.
-We learn that there's an energy barrier at the edge of our galaxy. The Enterprise suffers heavy damage and is forced to turn around in this episode. However, in Star Trek V, the Enterprise-A manages to pass completely through the barrier, even in a compromised state. Presumably what Kirk and crew learned in this episode was put to good use in getting the ship through the barrier in the fifth feature film.
-Sulu was a physicist in this episode instead of being assigned to the conn, as he is in future episodes.
-It is established in this episode that Vulcans don't feel emotions like humans do. In later episodes, this is clarified that Vulcans do have emotions, they just go through a ritual known as the Kolinahr to suppress them.
-This is the first appearance of the phaser rifle.
-There is another continuity error. When Mitchell creates a gravestone for Captain Kirk, it lists his name as James R. Kirk. However, later his middle name was established as Tiberius.
We also get our first glimpse of the following planets:
1) Aldebaran -- A star system on which a Starfleet colony has been established. Doctor Dehner joined the Enterprise crew from this colony.
2) Deneb IV -- A class-M planet. The star Deneb is part of the constellation Cygnus (the swan) visible from Earth.
3) Canopus planet -- A planet where Phineas Tarbolde wrote "The Nightingale Woman," considered one of the most passionate love sonnets written in the past two centuries. The star Canopus, also known as Alpha Carinae, is a red supergiant visible from Earth.
4) Delta Vega -- A class-M planet, slightly smaller than Earth. It is completely uninhabited and desolate, rich in crystalline minerals. It is the planet Kirk attempted to maroon Gary Mitchell on, eventually forcing him to kill Commander Mitchell. It is the final resting place of Mitchell and Dehner, and possibly Lieutenant Kelso (it was not revealed if he was buried there or taken back to the ship).
5) Dimorus -- A planet Kirk and Mitchell once visited before their time on the Enterprise. This planet has an indigenous rodent which can shoot poison darts. Mitchell saved Kirk's life by blocking one, almost dying as a result.
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