Star Trek: Charlie X

Original Airdate: 9/15/1966
Synopsis (from the official Star Trek website):

Charles Evans, the lone survivor of a crashed colonizing expedition to the planet Thasus, comes aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise from the S.S. Antares. But when the Antares' Captain Ramart contacts Kirk in regards to Charlie, the Antares suddenly explodes.

Fortunately for my Project, Charlie X is an excellent episode of Trek. It features a story heavy on morals and social commentary which would quickly become the standard for Star Trek and help make it a cultural icon.

17 year old Charlie is an orphaned survivor of a shipwreck that survived for nearly his entirely life on a planet with almost nothing to keep him alive. He is transferred to the Enterprise for delivery to an Earth colony and almost immediately begins causing trouble. Charlie is human, but was given super-human powers by a nearly extinct alien race to help him surive alone.

Charlie has no concept of human morals and no understanding of right and wrong and finds it difficult to adapt to life aboard the Enterprise. More than anything he wants to be liked and loved, but he abuses his powers to fulfill his desires and when spurned, he turns dangerous quickly, and wreaks havoc on the crew of the Enterprise.

The writers of this episode do an excellent job of portraying Charlie in a sympathetic light-the boy is not evil or malicious, he simply has no concept of morality. This would be the first in a long line of Star Trek episodes that dealt with morality, social consciousness, and paralleled Earth's history with events in individual episodes. The surprisingly unhappy resolution of the episode also illustrates Trek's willingness to break from the Hollywood norm.

Continuity:
- Spock smiles during the scene in the recreation room, another example of human emotion from his not yet fully conceived character.
- Sulu's role on the ship is not yet fully fleshed out, and he acts as much as security chief as helm officer at times in this episode.
- Scotty does not appear in this episode.

Random Facts:
- The attitude towards women is very obviously 1960's flavored, and would in many instances be considered politically incorrect.