Charlie X

But we're still dealing with the same characters here, and they're building off of things that they've picked up from TOS.

We talked about Spock and Uhura last time with Charlie X and how they picked that up and ran with it in the J.J. Abrams Kelvinverse.

When you watch this now, 60 years later, after it aired, does everything that we've been seeing with Chappell and Spock change at all? How you see things in this episode?

No, because I would posit to you that after rewatching this episode that Strange New Worlds makes no sense if this is in the same timeline, right? Because Spock already knows.

So another interesting thing about this episode, and it's really the later episodes that build off of this because of the order in which they were actually made, but th- there's this theme in early TOS where, uh, there are a lot of humans that have unusual or godlike powers.

You know, we had Charlie X last time with- in our discussion where you've got a human who has, uh, godlike powers or...

But i- in all these cases, it's humans being portrayed as having powers and not knowing what to do with them, and those powers ultimately end up being their downfall.

And here, Kirk is talking to Mitchell about the fact that, you know, you need to have compassion because Mitchell really starts looking down on everyone.

Yeah.

So talking about Gary Mitchell in that sense, do you feel like this was always in Gary Mitchell? Is it just human nature that what he turns into, what he does, what he attempts to do is just who humans are at their core without...

We talked about with Charlie X nature versus nurture without, uh, learning how to be part of a society, how to interact with other people, um, how to control those urges to just do you, as you talk about.

Did whatever charges went through Gary Mitchell and gave him these powers or unleashed, did, did, did it unleash powers or tendencies that were embedded in him to begin with?

I know.

How about a Charlie X one with a faceless head?

Oh, yeah.

Oh.

There's like a... 'Cause there's like a character-

Oh, oh, the guy who was uh, Charlie X is in this.

Oh, is that who it is? It's Charlie X.

Okay.

Yeah, Charlie X.

I was thinking it was the guy who played Riley.

I recognize him from early Star Trek.

I mean, some of it feels like it's a greatest hits but of, like, the B side, right? [laughs] So I guess, so it's like there's a little bit of Miri in there.

Um, there's, like, there's just a, there's a little bit of Charlie X in there.

Um, but, a- a- and so it's- it's- it's valid-

[laughs] The B side

They can be good, they're just not hits.

Right? Yeah.

Like, that's what I thought about, like, you know, Miri or Charlie X.

Like, they're good.

I'm gonna go find somebody else to torture.

[laughs] All right, everyone, we're going to continue our 60th anniversary look at TOS today with the second aired episode of the series, which is Charlie X.

And here is a quick rundown of the story.

While investigating the planet Thasus, the crew of the Antares takes in a young crash survivor who had been stranded alone for 14 years.

Yeah.

And that's why w- w- and what's interesting is just how relevant then this is.

Well, that's what's really interesting rewatching this episode, 'cause I, I've seen Charlie X 100 times since I was a kid, but rewatching it for this discussion, as you say, it really struck me how so much of the messaging in this episode is so relevant to today, and not necessarily for the reason that it was then, but it's, it's broadened more.

Because here, just talking about the fixation on Rand, there's- We talked last time about how a lot of people, especially younger viewers today, when they do watch the original series, they watch it through 2026, m- being when we're recording this, 2026 eyes instead of watching it within the context of when it was written in the late 1960s.

So the first season, especially the first 15 episodes, the error date order is not in line with the production order, mainly because of special effects.

Mark Daniels had directed Charlie X, so maybe that was his first episode and that lines up.

Mark Daniels, one of the most prolific original series directors.

Anyway, he visited George Takei in his trailer and asked him to take his shirt off.