Treks and Tangents

Charlie X (Star Trek TOS - S1E03)

• Treks and Tangents • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Socially awkward teen? Sex pest? What exactly is Charlie?
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Treks and Tangents - A Star Trek Watchalong Podcast
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[Music] Haleym freaks these open and welcome aboard tracks and tangents. I'm your co-host Brian and I'm your co-host active. I'm your star track movie. You check off on tangents. And I'm your star track expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. In each episode we watch and talk about a different star track episode. And this week we watched the star track, the original series season one episode two Charlie X. And at the end of last week's episode I gave Jackie the title of this week's episode for our elevator pitch or turbo lift tease. And Jackie gave her estimate or guess as to what the episode was. And I quote whenever I hear a name and then an X that means someone doesn't have an identity. So we might be introduced to a young person and then have to help them figure out who they are. I was half right. I'm going to give you half credit not because you were half right because those who tuned in last week you heard Jackie watched part of this episode last week. So she had some insight as to what this episode was going to be. Again, Jackie got confused started watching this week's episode last week instead of last week's episode. And what did we blame it on the weird numbering because of the failed pilot that yes, my fault. Yeah, all the streaming services for star track now show that failed pilot the cage is the first episode, even though it's not really. Yeah, that's the truth now my phone. So we'll give you half credit, but this week we watched Charlie X. What did you think of that episode Jackie? I found it corny. You found it corny. Why? Why did you find Charlie the sex pest corny? Oh my. I thought it was like medical tourists, but every time he got mad he was like a little child and did something weird with his eyes. This is definitely very much the story from the episode of the Twilight Zone where the little kid has powers and when he doesn't get what he wants or someone upset him he banishes them to the cornfield or turns them into a jack in the box or something along those lines. It's the exact same, the exact same story. And if you were not watching and you totally missed whatever face or arm movement he made, you were completely lost because there was like no sound until there was like a boring somewhere else in this sort of the Twilight Zone episode. I've never seen the Twilight. Oh, so I don't know why I would have thought you'd just- In the Charlie act. Yeah, I mean he makes that stupid little face, he rolls his eyes into the back of his head. Only when he's angry. So again, he had like three different facial expressions that you had that were like showing his amount of annoyed or anger or randomness. So yeah, there was like no, what's the word? Connectivity? I don't know. Okay. Does that make sense? Not at all, but thanks for trying. Yeah, no, it's a- it's got some problems this episode for sure. I have some issues with it as I think anyone who watches it would have some issues with it. This is an actor that is generally praised for their performance of Charlie. I'll give him credit. He does portray Charlie very well for what the character is supposed to be. I don't have any issue with his acting abilities. I just have an issue with how the episode was written and how it played out, I think. I mean straight from the beginning when the two people drop them off, there's like, there are supposed to be nervous, anticipation, please take him, but it's all in their face and they're- they look like they have to go to the bathroom. It's a good way to put it. Yeah, there's definitely some- there's some things about the episode that could have been expanded upon. Again, that's very- we'll get to it and talk about it in the episode description or the episode recap. But there's other parts of this episode that suffer for outside reasons and we'll get to it in the fun facts, but this was an episode that was very rushed through production for a variety of reasons. There were a lot of things that were planned for this episode that did not take place and I think the episode ultimately suffers from it. Yeah, big time. Especially for someone who doesn't know what they're- what they're watching. I could see that for sure. So, because I mean, I really enjoyed last week and then we're just supposed to keep me entertained by this week and now all of us in our taming was the pretty bodies. You know, some people were shirtless. Yeah, I mean, we got Janice and a cute little lady. I mean, we got Captain Kirk and his little sexy open v-neck shirt right in the beginning. Yeah, I mean, how do you be hot and- but you have to get ready. Again, watch it. You can't just have it in the background. Sure. Well, with those thoughts in mind, Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode? Happily. So we got our Captain's log and it is Captain's log, 1533.6. I think your impression is getting better of Kirk. Thank you. I'm looking on it and he is talking about moving to a vessel at Tari's and Tari. And, yes, they can't even say anything. And Tari. And I even had the credit, the CC going, so yeah. I don't know that a closed caption service would necessarily get all of the foreign alien non-English names correct, but okay, that's my- that's my- Certainly if you watch this episode or listen to these episodes, I should say watch these episodes and pull up a transcript that we make of these episodes, it does not get half of what we say correct, but I'm also too lazy to go back in and edit the transcript, so got it. Well, we start out though, at the- in the Enterprise Bridge, like right away, and we're told, hey, we're beaming in because we gotta give you this kid. Yeah. Like no discussion, just like, hi, neighbors. We're done, take this 17 year old off our hands. But it's a cargo ship and he's a castaway, so that makes sense, like, you know, you don't want him to die in a cargo. Well, they- they beam them on board, the captain, the first officer of the cargo ship, and Charlie in the transport room, and it's half mentioned that Charlie was found on a planet, and don't really get into a whole lot of detail of why he's there, how he got there, but I would assume that they're not just getting rid of Charlie because of his powers and his abilities that will come to learn he has, but on paper, the reason why Kirk and the Enterprise is accepting Charlie is clearly a 17 year old has no place on a cargo ship, they have different missions, they have different responsibilities, they can't keep track of and care for a 17 year old, so they're turning them over to the Enterprise again on paper so that Charlie can make his way back to his people or relatives, his own kind on colony five. And the captain and the first captain remand, and his first officer, navigator Tom Ellis, are saying all about Charlie's praises, and then while they're talking, Charlie keeps interrupting him, but they're like, never mind, and of course Kirk is like that unacceptable, but okay. Yeah, Kirk's pretty clueless at this point, he doesn't seem to be picking up on how nervous and how anxious the captain and the first officer from the cargo ship are in regards to Charlie and wanting to get the heck out of there. And then Charlie is like, wow, and there's a lot of people on here and Kirk's like 428 to be exact, I thought that was cool. And so they just keep talking about Charlie and Charlie even refuses to shake captain Kirk's hand, I noticed that. And I was like, mmm, naughty kid already. Well, he's got an ego, he's just very fool of himself. He's just spent, let's say, a couple of months on this cargo ship, easily controlling the crew who obviously know that he has powers because while, so would they be nervous about him. So he's just spent the last couple months as a king and doing whatever he wants as a spoiled entitled 17 year old. And I think that is more of the reason why we have Charlie's behavior compared to the argument that well, he's been alone on a planet by himself for many years and he just doesn't have social skills. I think that's part of it, but I think it's more that he just has a giant ego with his powers. That makes sense. And then Kirk learns that he has family relatives on colony five and they agree to take him there. Right. The whole reason for the rendezvous. And so the other captain and navigator Ellis are like, all right, see you later and beam back to their ship. Very quickly. They turn down. They turn down a meal and rest and everything. And access to the enterprises, entertainment, quote unquote tapes. I'm assuming we don't see them, but that's going to be the version of leisure and recreation on a starship at this point. And they very much are no, no, no, thank you very much, but we have duties. We have to go. Thank you. Take off by leave us alone. And you're right. They get the hell out of there. And so Captain Kirk asked Yaman Janis, who we love and who just entered the transport room. Yes. And Captain Kirk just asked, can you show, you know, this is Charlie, can you show him where to go? And of course, Charlie is just enamored. Is that a girl? And Kirk's like, yes, that's a woman. Respect her, you know, you know, under lane. Don't be mean to my gal. Yeah. And I think this is where we see a little bit of, it's not, this is an ego yet. Charlie obviously hasn't had any interaction with any women. I assume the crew members of the cargo ship are all men. And he wouldn't have had any other survivors on the planet. He wouldn't have any other female humans on the planet. So depending on his memories, when they crash landed, this may be the first woman he's encountered that he has any memory of whatsoever. Yeah. And she's beautiful. So yeah, is also a little bit of inconsistency in this episode at this moment because Kirk, what Kirk tells Janice is that Janice should show Charlie to his quarters and drop his medical records off at sick bay, the infirmary. However, they never make it to his quarters. They just go straight to sick bay, just a little writing inconsistency. Oh, yeah. I did notice that. Yeah. I had to go back and remind myself that that was what happened, but. Yeah. And his papers or histories call the dossier, it was like a little book. Yep. We have those here too on earth. Oh, well, it's really cute. So we have the opening credits and then we find ourselves. I really liked the opening credits this round. I don't know what was different, but as a musician, I rewound it twice. Okay. I don't know why it was different, but I really, really liked it. I don't have the fun fact to the opening credits for this one. I do know that in these early episodes, the opening credits are a little inconsistent with how they give recognition to some of the actors and actresses with the title cards. I know some of the episodes show a different model of the enterprise and are shot a little bit different. I believe this is one of the first episodes we see that is using a more modern and becomes a standardized opening credits, which is probably why you liked it better. Okay. But we find ourselves finally in the sick bag. Yes. And Dr. McCoy is. And again, with our addition to our captain's log, that's where we do learn that Charlie was three when his plane, I know it's gonna plane, but his aircraft, his ship crashed or exploded, whatever. He was three years old and he lived all by himself, assuming for 14 years. And we're in the sick bag. And Dr. McCoy is asking him, how did you survive that long? What do you have any memories? What happened? And Charlie ignores him. He's like a normal 17 year old kid. Yeah. McCoy is focusing specifically on how did you survive? How did you eat? And Charlie gives a non-committal vague answer of there were food rations for a while. And then when those ran out, I just found things on the planet to eat. And McCoy is not really buying the story. He's definitely skeptical that a pre-teenager once he runs out of food rations would be able to find edible things on the planet and not end up poisoning himself or getting sick. And he notated how immature he is. I thought that was funny. Yes. Yes. And we get that first kind of unsettling moment from Charlie where he asks McCoy if McCoy likes him and commenting that the crew of the cargo ship didn't like him. That's why they wanted to get rid of them. McCoy kind of shrugs it off again is just the awkwardness of a 17 year old boy with no social skills. So we and again, I did not take that. We never make it to his quarters because we're in a hallway and crewmen are doing work. Like one dude is putting a whole a stick down a hole. Yep. And Charlie is just watching him with a giant smile in his face. Yeah. One, it's kind of weird that he is free reign of the ship. Kind of awkward. Yeah. Especially because he's part of this scene is he's watching people climb out of access hatchways and stuff and that seems kind of like that might be a more restricted area. No idea. It's they're doing busy work, but he's super excited. He gets to see new things. He gets to interact with new people. Again, who knows how long he was on that cargo ship several months at least and he probably got very bored. And then two people kind of come out of like a slide. I imagine I slide at the playground. Yeah. Like an access hatch. And they're like, yeah. Like good job. Guy, let's go do something else and like a general dude on a football team, one of them slaps their butt as they walk out. And Charlie is like, cool. New, new thing to do. Yeah. Knowledge unlocked. Ash slapping, which comes into play in just a moment. And so he thinks it's normal. So a normal thing to do. Why not? So, doesn't he runs back into our gal Janice in the hallway? And he is just like, hmm, I have a gift for you. And what exactly is it that he gives her though? It's like, it looks like a jewel, but then it's like a perfume. It's a perfume bottle. It's a specifically a perfume bottle or a scent that he seems to instinctively know is Janice's favorite. And she tells them that she's like, why don't you come to the rep room with us? Well, specifically she says it's her favorite, but she's confused because replicators are not a thing yet. Everything is still physically produced. What's a replicator? So a replicator you'll learn in later episodes is technology that can literally transform matter into whatever you want. So I want one of those if you with some limitations, but most specifically it's used for food. So you walk up to a little cubby in the wall and you tell it, I want mac and cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich and it just materializes it for you and you eat it. That sounds fantastic. It is, but it is not a thing yet. So if replicators had been a thing, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Charlie would have just gone to the replicator and said, make this perfume, but because replicators are not a thing and because Yo Man Janice knows that they don't have that perfume on the ship in the ship stores in their inventory, she questions where he got it from and he doesn't answer. He doesn't tell her where he got it from, but she kind of shrugs it off and you're right. There's the awkward back and forth where he wants to spend time with her and talk with her. She has to work, but she brushes them off with an invitation to join her after she's off work in the, oh yes, she's off work at 1400. Right. So like this, he know military time. I would assume so. On the cargo ship, they probably would have used military time. Is it called military time in Star Trek? I don't know. I have, I have no idea what the official term for military time is in Star Trek. I am stumped, congratulations. Yay. Well, anyways, she starts to walk off and he laps around the bum and she's like, oh my, we don't do that to ladies and you should go ask Captain Kirk or Dr. McCoy just why? Yeah, she very much avoids telling him why it's inappropriate. She does stress that it isn't appropriate. He shouldn't do that, but as to the why, she pushes that question off for him to go ask McCoy or Kirk. Yeah, it's not her job to tell him he said no better. And her brain, I'm assuming. I think she knows. I assume that Janice is smart enough to know his background, his lack of interaction with other humans. So I'm going to assume that Janice doesn't place that burden on Charlie to know how to act, but she is very firm in letting him know this is inappropriate. And I think that's why she's firm, but she's not angry. She doesn't yell at him. No, she's just very much, you can't do that. That's not appropriate to do. And a strong male figure could help straighten him out. Strong male figures, what saves everyone in the end. I already know. I can see the future, but anyways, we are back on the bridge and Captain Kirk, Fox and McCoy are there chatting. They're like, what, what are we going to do with Charlie? Oh, it reminds me of like the sound of music. What are we going to do with Maria and us the wrong words, but they're reminded me of that. I'm glad that we got the song slightly wrong so that we don't get a copyright strike. No, can't sing music. Well, it just reminded me of that. So, back to outer space. And this is one know we learn about is like a race. I'm assuming the bastions, fazeans, his, his people. No, not his people. It's not very well. That's what it made me think. Yeah, it's not very well explained. Spock, Spock is speaking of a group of aliens that are theorized. They exist in legend or they exist in myth. They'll hint on it a couple times. They supposedly inhabited the planet that Charlie was found on, but there's no evidence of the fazeans themselves. Spock in this scene, if I recall, is half pitching this idea of Charlie didn't survive on his own. He wasn't smart enough and incredibly lucky to be able to find food and nourishment and shelter and all the things needed to survive on the planet by himself. He clearly had to have had help, which is evidence that the fazeans in fact exist, but we are diving far deeper into that than the show ever does in this episode. That makes sense because he, he didn't, Spock does go, "Why lie if you had help?" And then he discusses, then he just moves on to, "There's no disturbances in the area." He doesn't see how anything can happen. Yeah, so he's just working on the whole history of the last 14 years. Right. Well, and we will eventually piece together why Charlie doesn't mention the fazeans in any form whatsoever because he doesn't want to go back with to them. And then, and then Dr. McCoy does is told that he needs to educate Charlie on the human body and then Spock again reminds us that the planet would not have the proper plant matter to support humans. Right. Because he's pushing this theory about the fazeans. I thought, I mean, I really like that conversation because I thought these people were real and but now you tell me they're not though. No, I said that there was no evidence up to this point in the Star Trek universe to support their existence. They are in fact real. We know they're, we know they're real. Spoiler, spoiler, who shows up and takes Charlie at the end of the episode. Oh, is that who it is? Yes. Oh, I am so, just kidding. Yes. They chase Charlie down. Charlie was stolen from them or Charlie escaped from them. Oh, I just thought Charlie was not rescued. I thought they found a foster family. Oh my god. Spoiler alert for those who haven't watched the episode. So then we just like jump right into the bedroom. Well, we have to assume that a certain amount of time has passed because Spock can't immediately be on the bridge and then in the rec room. So this is implied that a certain amount of time has passed. Spock is now in the rec room. Janice is off work. She's in the rec room with, with your favorite, the spacevixen, you hurrah or oh, hurrah, whatever. Oh, hurrah. Oh, hurrah. Why love her? But anyways, oh, another thing about this episode is we see a lot of recreation. I know that sounds them, but like they're not just doing dumps, they're doing fun things. You're right. There's a lot more life and there's also, we'll get to a little bit of those reasons in the fun facts is to why the episode looks the way that it looks. And this is an episode that takes place entirely on the enterprise. There is no scene that takes place not on the enterprise. So, right, I thought it was a good thing that we got to see more like that slide thing. I know it's on the slide, but like different ways of moving around, not just the beaming and the turbo lift. Yeah. So they're definitely using, from a production point, they're using more of the set or their re will find out reusing parts of the set to pat out the episode, which is why you are seeing more of the enterprise. Oh, interesting. Well, this one, it is a musical because my gal, first of all, it's opening up and spark is playing this stringed instrument. And first it's like a dark, rocky sound. And then, hurrah is like whatever, I'm gonna sing whatever I want. So she starts singing and spark, it was her annoyed look, but then he changes key and makes it beautiful and melodic. And she sings another song all about the enterprise itself. And it was just like, wow, this one is very talented. She's very comfortable in the spotlight. And I think wants to be in the spotlight. Yeah. She's entertainment for everybody. She says social butterfly. The actress, her, her self is very talented. Yeah. I mean, I would imagine she's singing, not lip singing. No, she's, she's definitely singing. But then Charlie pops in, he interrupts everything and Jan is just like, oh, this guy. Well, he tries to interrupt everything. He very quickly looks around the room, fails to read the room. And then as the song is going on and everyone's listening to the song, he wants Janus's attention. So he tries to get her attention by tapping around the shoulder and she very much is like, oh, yeah, it's nice to see you. And then turns her attention back to everyone else. And you can tell Charlie's a little annoyed at that. Because then Ohra has changed her tune and is making a cute little song about Charlie. Which I don't think Charlie liked. No, he stole her voice like Ursula. Yeah. So I don't think Charlie enjoyed, I don't necessarily think it was entirely the, he didn't get the compliment. He didn't get the compliment. He, I don't think it was the, the context or the, the content of the song. I think it was more that he didn't like to be forced into the center of attention. He himself did not invite the attention. Therefore, he did not want the attention. Again, a teenage boy because in just a moment, it flips. He invites the attention. He controls the attention and he enjoys it. Oh, I still were saying because I was like, wait, he was playing cards and he made it magic that three of them had pictures of Janice on it. And then he changed it to Kings and then the ace was down Janice's shirt and all the kinds of things. Yeah. And again, I think that's because he A, he's entertaining Janice. He now has Janice's attention, which is what he wants to begin with. But B, everyone else is paying him attention. And he's controlling it. It's a good kind of attention versus when the song was being sung about him. Oh, and he thought I was an insult. He felt it was an insult. He felt he was the butt of the joke. He felt he was being played with a little bit. And so I don't think he enjoyed that attention because it's important to point out here. I have it in my notes. He uses his power to take away a horror's voice. Therefore, everyone's attention goes back to him. And can we just talk about that for half a second? One of their crew members and friends mysteriously can't talk anymore and loses her voice. No, that's her throat and grabs her throat like this is clearly a problem. And no one does anything. Spock, look at her. He looks at her, but no one rushes to her help. No one tries to help her or figure out what's going on. And then later she has her voice back. And it's never mentioned again like wow, that was really weird. I was singing and suddenly I physically did not have the ability to speak. Well, she's a strong, powerful woman. She probably said don't, you know, waved everybody off and got a drink of water. And poof, we're in the hallway. And we are then Kirk tells us that it's going to be Thanksgiving on Earth soon. He does not tell us the audience directly. He doesn't break the fourth wall. He tells that it kind of cool though. No, that would not be cool. That would be way corny. He tells the clerk or the storm in who's in charge of the food on the enterprise that it's going to be Thanksgiving on Earth. Or it is Thanksgiving on Earth. I think he says it is Thanksgiving on Earth. Well, then he should have put the turkeys in a long time ago, but speaking of turkeys, he wants since they're being made out of meatloaf, he'd rather his crew have real turkey. No, no, I lie. He mentions that because it's going to be Thanksgiving on Earth, and because the crew is stuck eating meatloaf on Thanksgiving, he wants the meatloaf to be in the shape and look like turkeys. Yes, that's what I meant a whole time. And then Charlie comes back in. Sex, pest, Charlie. And he asks Kirk, why can't I not tap a lady on the bottom? Tap a lady on the bottom. Well, you know, I want to be nice. I'm going to translate. Why can't I slap her booty? Yeah, daddy Kirk, why can't I slap a woman on the ass? And Kirk very awkwardly explains why. It's not nice. It's a little weird that Kirk is so hesitant to have any sort of dialogue or interaction with Charlie until later, but his whole interaction with Charlie up until a certain point, this moment in particular, he's just awkward around Charlie. He doesn't know how to explain. This is why you don't put your hands on a woman. I don't get it. He's supposed to be the captain. He's supposed to have communication skills. Why can't he tell a 17-year-old? This is why you don't do something, especially because they have no inclination that Charlie has these powers yet. That's true. And he's very weak around him. Yeah, so again, until later, but again, it's just super awkward. I don't understand it. They all tiptoe around Charlie to be when you think about it, except for Janice. Even Janice really tiptoes around him. When he first slaps her on the butt, oh yeah, she doesn't really get into why it's inappropriate. She ponds him off on Kirk or McCoy. When later, Charlie gets really creepy and really up in her face. She doesn't try to pawn him off. She, I should say, she does pawn him off. She doesn't tell him anything. She goes to Kirk and says, you need to be the one to tell him to leave me alone. Even just from the scene before in the"Recruem" with the cards, Charlie makes a card appear in her "Brasier" basically, and she just kind of takes it and stride. I don't know. It's super awkward. Yeah, it's like they're all used to this, everyone has their line of order, and they don't know what to do with this random person. Yeah, I mean, I guess there's no kids on this enterprise, so maybe they all are just super awkward around a kid. And again, this all comes before they know that Charlie has these powers and can make their lives hell. So it, again, it just doesn't fit. So Kirk has to go, he's called to the bridge, and then Charlie just invites himself and pops on the turbo lift with him. Yeah, because he's, again, curious. He obviously had free reign on the cargo ship. He very much wants to learn everything and be involved in everything, and just doesn't listen to Kirk and says, "Nope, I'm going to come to the bridge with you." So back onto the bridge, and they receive a warning, they're trying to communicate with the cargo ship and with the Captain Rampert, but for some reason, all communication just gets cut off, and Spock comments that the only thing left is debris from the ship. Yeah, there's, there's a little bit of, again, awkward handling of dialogue. The message cuts off, and Charlie makes a very specific comment, as everyone's staring around trying to figure out what happened and where the communication signal went from the cargo ship. Charlie makes the comment that the cargo ship was not built well or was not in good shape anyway. And then Spock is ordered to scan for the ship. Spock is able to pick up a debris field, which is identified as the cargo ship. So it blew up, it disintegrated, it was destroyed. But Charlie's comment very much outs him is knowing that that cargo ship was destroyed before he had any real reason to know that. And had you not been watching the show, you wouldn't have seen his face do some weird scrunch? His little eye roll. Yeah, so you'd have no idea. But anyways, then there's, then it just goes back to our Thanksgiving. And Kirk is told that the meatloafs are actual turkeys now in the oven. Yeah, the clerk or the store room person calls up to the bridge to report that all the meatloaf in the ovens are now turkeys. And then a weird ass laugh and Charlie just leaves. Yeah. And then we're back in the back room. I think it's the same rec room. It's a different camera angle. So I don't know if this is the rec room or private quarters. I'm assuming it's some kind of communal space. Yeah, like a, I would envision like a giant gymnasium, you know, like a gym. Yeah, different places over here. This is where we have our weird chest set that has three levels. And some of the pieces look like butt plugs. Yeah. Yeah, I was very concerned. I think they just look like regular chest pieces, but no. No, I mean, yes, they do have, yes, they have that profile. But these are not special chest pieces. These are in fact chest pieces that are just standard chest pieces. Okay, some of them look weird. Very. And it's three literally three like three tiered cake. It's several levels. Yeah, it's 3d chest, which is something that continues on throughout all of Star Trek. Okay, I imagine that. I think you can buy 3d chest. There's actual 3d chest sets and rules for 3d chest that have been created out of this. Oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah. I mean, it was really beautiful until I watched it again. I was like, Oh, because, you know, I'm obviously weird. And it's actually Kirk and Spock. They're they're the ones that are playing chest with the butt plugs. Yes. And Spock, they're discussing Charlie. And Spock actually thinks that Charlie knew ahead of time why that the cargo ship was gonna explode or, you know, VMS. Yeah, sure. Something's wrong with Charlie. Spock picked up on that and is pointed it out to Kirk. I think Spock was the only one that really understood the meaning of Charlie making that comment. I think Spock is just special because he doesn't have that human empathy kind of thing. Does that make sense? Yeah. Because I mean, the last episode he picked up on things also that the humans didn't. Yeah. Well, I mean, in that Spock, that's his Vulcan mindset. That's his ability to think outside of the box and very logically and problem solve without the burden of emotion or other other things to get in the way of analyzing the situation and logically coming to a conclusion. But then Charlie is like, it's like Charlie knows they're talking about him and he just arrives, doesn't knock, just walks in and Kirk is like, well, after he loses this Spock, he offers that Charlie play. Well, no, Kirk wins the game of chess. Did he? Yeah, Kirk wins the game of chess and Spock makes the comment that Kirk plays in a very chaotic and unpredictable illogical way and that has the advantage over Spock because Spock is trying to analyze him on what a skilled chess player would do. This happens in poker when professional poker players play amateur poker players and the professional poker players seem to know how they all would play certain hands. So when they're trying to analyze what the other person's hand is an amateur won't exactly do what a professional would do. They'll do something unpredictable, which means that the professional poker player has to almost guess and it takes away the advantage of what they perceive to be the right move. So yeah, Kirk wins that game over Spock. Huh, interesting. Well, anyways, Kirk gives up his seat and Charlie takes it and you know, here Spock teaches Charlie how to play chess and Charlie is like, I already know how to play, you know, got to teach me. Yeah, and Kirk is very egotistical now. Like he's getting more and more jerk faith. Yeah. And Kirk leaves. Charlie was excited to play chess and interact, but he wanted to interrupt Kirk exactly. And he's disappointed when Kirk says, yeah, you can play chess and it turns out he means you can play chess with Spock. I'm going to fuck off and I'm going to leave. And so Charlie is grumpy and moody that he doesn't get to play with Kirk. So they do end up playing, but Charlie cannot stand to lose. Like he is angry that he loses. In four moves, he's checkmate by Spock. And Spock was like, us the wrong move. You, like he was going to give him a chance to change it. And he's like, no, I chose this. Oh, well, you lost then. And Spock leaves and our dear friend Charlie melts all the pieces, all the white pieces, which were his. Yeah, it's his pieces. The pieces that Charlie played. Yeah, Charlie was playing white. Spock was playing black. So he only melted the pieces that he was playing. So why would he do that? I don't know. I found that to be an odd choice too. I would assume he would have either melted all the pieces or just Spock's pieces. The thought I had was it was a production choice to have him melt the white pieces because that was more it visually stood out more. That's true. The white pieces. Yeah, versus the bunch of melted black pieces. I just see that. So he storms out and runs into his love, beauty, love, Janice, who has a cute little thing with her. That cute little thing is a woman. And her name is Tina. Tina Lon. And Janice is like, hi Charlie. I thought you'd like to meet someone your own kind of age. And this is her name is Tina. Have a nice day. And Charlie is the jerk face again. And the poor girl runs away with embarrassment. She doesn't run away. She very much calls out Charlie for being rude. Charlie specifically ignores Tina and just focuses on Janice and says Janice can I talk to you alone? I need to talk to you. Oh yeah. And is dismissive of Tina and Tina calls him out on it. I have better things to do. Yeah. And she leaves. She just storms off. But Janice does finally chastise him and say that was a rude. You again should be nice to people. Ladies in general. I mean, be nice to people. You're not on your own anymore. If you want people to like you, you should at least try. And then he continues to go on about how much greater she is. And blah blah blah. This is the scene where Charlie earns his title sex best. Charlie is a sex best because every time he talks to Janice, it's very much I want to be with you. And in this scene, he is over the line inappropriate talks about how infatuated he is with her, how much in love he is with her makes the very inappropriate comment that all the other women are just women. But you, you are Janice and you smell like a woman and I was like, well, that's the wrong thing to say, buddy. But oh yeah, that was really weird too. Like how do you know what a woman smells like when you've been out by yourself for almost 20 years? Yeah. He's trying to he's trying to express to Janice that in his mind, she is above every other woman on that spaceship. But boy does he dream gown. But boy does he not pick up the clues that she's not into him and boy does he not pick up the fact that he is being very inappropriate. But and then we jump back onto the bridge and Janice and Kirk are discussing how bad Charlie is. Janice is like Kirk, you need to do something about this. Yeah, this is I mentioned or earlier, this is the part where Janice doesn't really stand up to Charlie in a way that I think she should. She definitely, her excuse is he's been alone, he's anti-social. I'm his first crush. I don't even want to, I don't even think letting him down gently is going to be received well. I can't be a part of that equation as all. Someone else needs to tell him to leave me alone. So then we jump to Kirk's quarters and this is how much jumping around. Yeah. And this is going to be the first time that Kirk really gets up in Charlie's face. He does confront Charlie about the melted chest pieces that have been discovered and Charlie doesn't know anything about it. He says and he tries to leave but Kirk sits him down and Kirk very much lays it out and tries to have that talk with him about women and how Charlie can act around women and take it slow, how not to be such a sex pest and gives him a little bit of advice and then Charlie says great, I'll apply that toward Janice and then Kirk drops the bomb and says no, you can use that information and act that way toward women and be successful in courting and dating someone but it's never going to be Janice. And he gives reasons because of the age difference is the big one but also that Janice just isn't interested in him and Charlie does not take that well at all. He doesn't take it well so but they pop into the gym another part of the bedroom I guess and I think it's a separate room but yeah. Yeah like it's another area to you know get their juices flowing. Yeah and this is Kirk's big plan is he's a teenage boy with a lot of hormones and a lot of emotions and energy so let's funnel that into something more productive than chasing Janice around the ship. And this is where we get the sea captain Kirk and all those muscles. Yes and all the boys are in tight. Yes and Kirk has a shaved chest. But so they're going to tussle. Let's get that pent up stuff out and the girls are just doing cartwheels I don't know why the ladies only cartwheel but it's padding it's fluff. Okay so we're cartwheeling while we are by the boys are fighting because Charlie doesn't want to just do semisalts. Yeah Charlie doesn't want to learn from Kirk initially because Kirk is just showing him how to fall and Charlie says I don't want to learn how to fall like you told me you were going to teach me at a fight which I guess was mentioned off camera but Kirk is trying to explain to him it's you got to build a foundation of knowledge before we can teach you how to fight you have to learn how to tumble you have to learn how to fall safely so that when you're in a fight you can not harm yourself if you're knocked over but when Charlie doesn't respond well to that Kirk says well then fine if you don't want to learn how to fall and I don't want to teach you how to fight and be unsafe let's at least show you some grappling moves and how you can throw your opponent maybe you'll maybe you'll be into that kid and then but he's in he's in barris because he gets thrown he gets thrown hard well I wouldn't even say hard he just he he gets into a position with Kirk where Kirk and him are grappling and Charlie has no knowledge so he's obviously not going to be able to successfully throw Kirk and so Kirk just does what he does he just throws Charlie is part of the move and another crewman that's in there doing his own workout damn he laughs he's like oh that's funny and Charlie is pissed off and Sam disappears Charlie makes Sam disappear with his mind powers which is that's when we get like that weird fake like until now we haven't seen these weird rollback eyes and then it just is like rollback eyes if you weren't watching that you'd miss it and Sam poof gone yeah and this is the turning point of the episode because this is the first time that Charlie uses his mind powers in such a way that is so obvious to someone else that there's no denying it that Charlie is the cause of all of these strange things happening and Kirk is like no that's not happening and calls for security and again security gone well he makes their phaser disappear oh yeah like they were disappeared throughout the entire ship not just that one that was pulled out right I thought that was weird well I think it shows that Charlie has the ability to affect and use his use his mind powers on a much broader scale than what is directly in front of them but we already kind of knew that because he was able to reach out through space and cause the cargo ship to explode oh yeah that's true yeah so yeah and Kirk is like that is not going to happen but for some reason Charlie has some respect and does not make Kirk disappear no it's explained a little later but in this instant when Kirk stands up to Charlie because clearly he doesn't want to go with security to be confined in his quarters Kirk stands up to Charlie it's never mentioned but my theory my theory is is Kirk views Charlie as a bully and what's the best way to deal with a bully especially a teenage boy but to stand up to them to show that the only power that you have over other people is when they allow you to have power over you and if you stand up to the bully they in fact have no power because there's nothing else coming behind that oh look at you get now like the obstacle I've watched a lot of TV what can I tell you so but now we pop back into the meeting room though and Spock McCoy and Kirk they like the three amigos the rulers they're talking about Charlie again what are we gonna do about him and but they say he is not an alien he's definitely humanoid yeah because Spock is again pushing this idea of the Thasians and Spock briefly entertains or puts forth the hypothesis maybe he has these powers because he is a Thasian that's in legend in myth the Thasians have this ability to but yet they're human no they just they look human they have they're humanoid in form but they are not humans they are aliens just like Spock is humanoid in form but he's a Vulcan he's an alien that's really weird how they say oh well but they confirmed that Charlie is not a Thasian because McCoy did that exam on him all the way in the beginning and so McCoy is the one to rule out that theory to say no he's human he just has these powers for some reason like a marvel person yes like a superhero and then somehow Charlie enters the meeting room again because he has no boundaries and he does confess that he blew up the cargo ship and maybe he'll blow up the enterprise yeah he's not quite sure one check yeah he said he blew up the cargo ship again saying that the cargo ship crew didn't like him and wanted to get rid of him and of course they would he's a jerk he has this undeniable power to end people to kill them to control them with the threat of killing them and so who would like Charlie when he uses his powers that way so when they disappear they do die no because we find out later they're just suspended but he probably could kill them if he wanted to I would imagine Charlie would have the ability to directly kill someone by a wide means and methods such as making their lungs disappear okay but he doesn't do that I think he's I don't even know if he has that control over the power he just is a lot of his a lot of his reaction with his power seems to be just that a reaction to something it doesn't seem to be very well thought out as we see in just a little bit and all of his interactions thus far it's very much just a Charlie doesn't like something or Charlie needs to protect himself from something so Charlie Charlie doesn't like the guy laughing at him poof makes him disappear Charlie sees that a phaser a weapon is drawn on him he makes not only that weapon disappear he instinctively makes all the weapons disappear so okay that makes sense so Kirk you know we're out of the meeting room we're back on the bridge we got places to go people to see and he tells our good friend Ahura oh yeah to message colony five and let's let's get this kid over to them nope take two Kirk tells Ahura to contact colony five yes but he tells Ahura to tell colony five we're not coming and he tells oh comes or the the the other crew member to change course away from colony five they don't want to take Charlie to colony five and pawn him off on another colony and make him their problem because it's just gonna be worse he's gonna have access to a bigger group of people he's gonna get more ecotistical a plan so they got to figure out what to do with Charlie without dumping him off somewhere else but he makes her bored explode yes because Charlie wants to go to colony five just like Charlie was excited to upgrade in life from a cargo ship with 20 people to a starship with 428 people now he's trying to upgrade his life again and go to a colony with thousands of people and while they're doing that Charlie pops in and interrupts what spark is saying and now spark is reciting poetry for no reason yeah because again he's being stupid being mean he's trying to keep control of the situation spark was going to report some kind of readings that would possibly I don't even know what the readings would have been because it's obvious that Charlie's doing this and but it's just a way I think for a funny moment to show the audience that Charlie has the ability to control others that he has these abilities but he's knocked out their calm system so they can't call anyone he's taking control of the navigation of the enterprise so they're gonna continue on to colony five and he very much makes it apparent that he is in charge but he goes after Kirk and again Kirk stands up to Charlie and doesn't win anything over but at least forces the stalemate that Charlie leaves the bridge but he runs into our girl Tina in the hallway and she it's turned into a lizard and a guana and a guana yep that makes no sense again I think it's just fluff I mean at least she is still with us as far as we know but she's now green yeah but Charlie goes to Janice because that's been his goal the whole time and he just walks in he's like hello and she is surprised and he gives her a flower yeah specifically she's in her pajamas and she Janice is my happy she activates her comms trying to get to the bridge saying what's happening and Kirk and Spocker on their way to rescue her but he solves them they are up against the wall and she I love it Janice slaps him Charlie yes the first time that Janice really stands up to Charlie but then she disappears he got mad Charlie gets mad Charlie has another reaction to a situation without thinking and he uses his mind powers to make Janice disappear and then he and then he threatens Kirk that you better be that you know play with my rules or I'll make more people disappear yeah he he tells Kirk that he could make Kirk disappear just like Janice but he needs Kirk to run the enterprise he can't Charlie can't run it by himself he could control the cargo ship by himself because it was smaller there were less systems there were less things for Charlie to control so Charlie probably had more free reign to do what he wanted on the cargo ship than on the enterprise and he tells Kirk you need to you need to be nice and you need to help me run the enterprise the way I want to run it and get where I'm want to go call any five or I'm just going to start making other people disappear and instead he but he doesn't make him disappear he is just mean and he's in the hallway he makes one lady super old and she is crying and then another one we see that she he removed her face it's like bubble gum across her entire face as she walks around the corner and these poor ladies I it's it makes me mad and then poof we're back on the bridge again and my gal uhura gets a message so obviously she picks her calms really quickly and the message is coming through and Charlie looks nervous it's I think it's important to point out to the plot that's very uh yeah who could get through that broken calms system that in it's very calculated that this is not just another typical message uh he looks nervous but he then immediately uses his mind powers to block the message and runs away like a child and he's running running running but then he decides he's just gonna freeze all the crew members he runs past and push his past out of there so this is where I put in my notes he freezes one crew member a female crew member and then he encounters women he does this thank you he turns Tina into a lizard he makes a woman's face disappear he makes a woman grow old and he freezes a crew member he's using all of his mind powers on women and disappears the dude that one dude will Sam well the Sam was a was a reactionary thing okay but he when he gets when he encounters those three guys in the hallway immediately after freezing the woman in the scene he just pushes past them like a spoiled kid he doesn't do anything to them it's also up for interpretation but when he takes away the woman's face in the hallway a couple scenes prior she's laughing and talking with other crew members who are men and you're right it's open to interpretation we only see the female crew member lose a face does he do anything to those guys because they never come into frame or do they just stand there shocked he did nothing to them he only took it out on the woman I just found it very interesting that Charlie's going through all this and these are not reactionary in the sense of preservation he's not trying to protect himself he's not trying to he's not mean them he's lashing out and he's only subconsciously I think choosing to lash out against women because they're quote unquote the weaker sets I don't know or this is just the source of his frustration it's that or it's the Janice won't accept them it's like this is the biggest source of frustration for him is the rejection by Janice I mean I'm sure he's annoyed about a bunch of things but I don't know I just found it interesting well he does manipulate Janice her oh yes we could get there so we're back on the bridge after Charlie's little temper tantrum storming down the hallway and again we're back to a meeting of as Jackie dubbed them the three musketeers and power Kirk formulates this plan that because Kirk observes that Charlie hasn't made anyone disappear since he took control of the ship jumping back a little bit when they got the message from or they tried to message colony five Charlie broke the comm system he is now running the ship full navigation to keep it on course to colony five Kirk makes the observation he hasn't made anyone else disappear and so Kirk hypothesizes that Charlie has a limit to his powers and what he can do all at once so they come up with this plan that Kirk stands up to Charlie and they stretch out his powers or they force him to focus on so many different things that it creates little holes in his control and they can knock him out or tranquilize him in someone that's really weird because all this time he's been taking away lady features yeah but maybe that takes less of do yeah less power less concentration I have no idea okay but yeah but Charlie arrives back all egotistical Kirk stands up to Charlie and while Charlie is forced to focus on Kirk Spock and McCoy are turning on and manipulating all these extra systems on the on the bridge in the background again this theory if they start manipulating things Charlie has to undo what Kirk sorry what Spock and McCoy are doing so it again stretches out his powers it thins out his powers it distracts him I see what you mean now I get it I get it okay so they're doing that but he they're still trying to distract him even so and then all of a sudden this giant green head appears well can I like the Wizard of Oz kind of like the Wizard of Oz slightly before that to catch catch up to the green head Kirk's plan works Charlie's powers are stretched so thin they finally get through the message that had been cut off by Charlie and it is the other ship it is the Thasians coming back to get Charlie yes the green head is the Thasian oh I get it now they but they look like the human just the green head nobody humanoid is the term we're looking for that said that earlier so but in general if he's just showing is it like a hologram or is that how he is it's because he's like yelling at him like the Wizard of Oz you know before you see the hand the curtain and so I'm gonna take him back I'm gonna guess that that is the form that the Thasians have that it's not a projection it it is a projection but it's not a projection of a solid form person got it he makes the comment that they took on that form I think he says centuries ago which makes no sense but I think that's how he exists they don't have a solid form they want to take Charlie back that it's way too dangerous to have him away from them like he look all this ruckus he did yeah it's communicated that well first and foremost the the Thasian does mention that they fixed or corrected everything that Charlie did so Tina is no longer a lizard the woman who lost her face presumably has her face back the only thing these so proving that those who disappeared are in fact not dead it would have to mean that Charlie was using his mind powers to keep them removed from reality again another example of stretching his powers out too thin he's made multiple people disappear he has to focus on keeping Tina a lizard keeping the woman with no face that's probably why uh ohora got her voice back was Charlie just stopped focusing on taking her voice away so and also of note the Thasians mentioned that they gave Charlie this power when they found him on their planet in order that he would have the ability to survive like a gift and now he's using it for bad yep because I don't think they ever thought he would be rescued and who knows he may not have been rescued they did say that he's that Charlie slipped away from them so he could have just escaped he could have forced his way somehow onto the cargo vessel he was a cast a cast away not a cast away what's it called stole away they called him a stole away at the beginning that's why the first ship couldn't have him they have room yep so that all makes sense he wasn't rescued he somehow snuck away from the Thasians I don't know how I don't know if the cargo ship was on the planet or he stole a Thasian ship and I have no idea they don't get into it but that confirms he did in fact escape that makes a lot of sense now yeah and he was having a way too much fun with his powers yep so but Kirk's like oh but you know he can stay it's okay and Charlie begs I don't want to go back with the green heads the Thasians but oh he goes he goes way further than that he is desperate he is terrified to go back to the Thasians he talked it was bad he was a big astro face I don't think he's scared about being punished in any way I don't think the Thasians care to punish him the Thasians just want him to exist on the planet and oh he would be lonely Charlie makes the comment that he can't even touch them he can't interact with them he's going back to the planet alone not to rejoin the Thasians but to be alone and that terrifies him hmm I see what you I see that I see it now I didn't get it until now but I mean I say bye Jackie's cold-hearted by the the Thasians override Kirk's objections cannot be swayed to let Kirk and the humans find a way to teach him to use his powers it's too much of a risk and the Thasians make the decision to take Charlie back they in their own form beam him back to their ship but it's the same special effect is when Charlie made people disappear it's terrifying it's haunting yeah it's scared it's almost horror it's almost like a horror movie type moment it is really really gut-wrenching watching Charlie beg basically for his life and get taken away well perhaps we'll see him again as a grown-up when he's learned to use his powers for good and he can join them on the ship somewhere spoiler alert from the Star Trek expert we never see Charlie again in any Star Trek episode up to the time of this recording well there are a lot of Star Trek and shows yeah no pop in somewhere maybe he'll be a Marvel character doesn't he does appear in some books and comic books very briefly as like alternative stories but no I I had to stop and think when we when I was watching this to go do we ever see Charlie again do we ever get to have any sort of alternative conclusion to his story nope never come the character that never comes back so well let this be a lesson be nice and you can come back be mean Janice will not let you come back that's the lesson we'll take away and roll credits so Jackie what did you think about season one episode two Charlie X? I did not like it as much as the first one I again you know I watch these things multiple times these episodes because I don't know what I'm watching I'm learning still and even though I catch more things as I watch if I look down to pick up something that I dropped on the floor and I missed one of those eye rolls I have no idea what Charlie just did and I have to rewind so it was kind of annoying really overall yeah I really hope the next one is more exciting because then I mean if this is a new show series this is not really the best one to catch a viewer's attention no and I definitely think that's that was a decision that the network made of course not to air this episode but I like learning about all the activities though yeah I also don't think this what this I should backtrack this was not going to be the second episode we'll talk about it in a minute but this is this episode played is the second episode for other factors and other reasons I did like the um stronger uniform so they're getting better they are getting better so uh but yeah I didn't like this episode quite this is not my favorite episode this is not in my opinion a great episode it's got some it's got some problems for me I I also I think my biggest problem I have from a plot perspective is the destruction of the cargo ship it's very weird to me that Charlie would have the ability to we didn't touch on it in too much detail during the episode but Charlie confesses he made the ship blow up by using his powers on an already weakened bulkhead on the ship but again across such a huge distance it's just very improbable to me that Charlie would have the ability to do that and I he knew about it I would have preferred Charlie make the cargo ship explode in the very beginning of the episode as just after he's dropped off on the enterprise as they're leaving he makes the cargo ship blow up while it's still there next to the enterprise as a big mystery to then unfold throughout the episode I think wait is the same cargo ship that they originally got them from I thought it was a completely different one no it's that cargo ship they for whatever reason decided to radio the enterprise to try to warn Kirk about Charlie something they couldn't do in the transport of room because Charlie was standing right there why they decided to do that why they waited so long it unravels again I think it would have been a better writing moment if yes it was right up yeah and with you if Charlie makes the ship blow up in the very beginning and that is kind of this any and maybe he makes a similar comment or it wasn't very well constructed in the beginning to immediately plant the seed that something is up with Charlie to give that initial hint to his mind powers to the crew to spark McCoy Kirk so that they can unravel that mystery throughout because you go back and look re listen to this episode we talk a lot about this episode and plot but it's not until the moment in the gym when Sam is made to disappear that is the turning point of the episode far too late into the episode at the end you're right yeah okay so oh my gosh but uh boo yeah but despite despite not being our favorite episode I do have some triple tidbits or fun facts to the episode and Jackie why do we call them triple tidbits because they're the best and are fuzzy yeah um this episode first aired September remember that September 15th 1966 Robert walking junior who played Charlie the actor who played Charlie had training as an actor as a method actor so Robert the actor chose to remain in his dressing room between takes and not interact with any of the other cast members this helped develop his character as being a loop and mysterious and everyone on set praised the decision and praised him as an actor as a method actor I think it comes across in the acting again I think the actor did a very good job yeah acting a character and it's the writing that makes the episode suffer but that's just me no I'm with you yeah he did a great job but it was a lot of face and body so if you weren't watching you missed a lot of it yeah this is the first and only appearance of the ship's gym no the gymnasium itself is the same as the engineering set so the engineering room with a little bit of redressing and the tumbling room with all the female acrobatics doing all the cartwheeling is just the briefing room again they just redress it and change the camera angle well it's good they know how to use their environment yep Robert Walker junior again the actor who played Charlie was 26 during the filming when he is portraying the 17 year old Charlie for comparison the actress who played Tina his supposed same age friend that actress was 23 and Grace Lee Whitney who plays Yom and Janice is 36 interesting the original title of this episode was the day Charlie became God or just Charlie is God it was changed to avoid potentially upsetting network sensors again 1966 don't want to ruffle too many feathers so the name was changed to Charlie's law and then it became Charlie's ex I'm sorry Charlie ex not Charlie's ex girlfriend the secondary working title Charlie's law was later used as the title of the book form tie-in novelization when they wrote a book okay you said that you liked the sets of this episode they used if you go back and look there's not a lot of gray when it came to the hallways and the enterprise a lot of the backgrounds and the walls were brightly lit in different colors this was a specific choice to help promote the sale of color televisions at the time this aired as the second episode not because of the script of the plot but because all of the scenes as I mentioned took place on recycled sets or sets that had already been built on the enterprise they needed no new sets it shortened the port post production schedule and that was needed because they they immediately hit a deadline to finish the episode to get it to air in we know this also because I mentioned it aired in September but it was supposed to air in November around Thanksgiving that's why they that's why they have the reference to Thanksgiving and the turkeys but as they were filmed they filmed it and they started running into these production problems in the scheduling so they said wait a minute this one doesn't need any extra work it's all done on the enterprise we can get that out quicker so they switched up the order and kicked it out in September well I don't I mean I could see that it was creative because then you got to learn about it the enterprise yeah when Charlie throws Spock and Kirk against the wall when they rush into Janice's quarters to save her Spock actually cracks the wall of the set literally literally he he he creates a giant crack in the sheet rock on the set and that's why I break his legs exactly because he's that's we didn't mention it but Spock they he had a broken leg so he couldn't stand up they wrote that in in the moment because there was no time to fix the set and there was no other way to hide that crack in the wall without changing a whole bunch of stuff it was just easier to have Spock sit and lay in that position to block the the giant crack on the wall so in September so does a body count of 20 but those are all members of the cargo ship that are blown up off camera and finally Gene Rodden Berry the creator of Star Trek is the one who voiced the calm message about all the meatloafs turning into turkeys the oven that was Gene and this that one line is the only speaking role he has in Star Trek before he dies but he created it yeah Gene Rodd Berry is the creator of Star Trek wow and those are your triple tidbits this is the part of the episode where we rank the episode we this is where we pretend the episode is a member of a crew of a fictitious starship that we each have one starship per season and we rank all of the different episodes we have five regular rankings Captain Commander Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant Junior Grade we also have room for one 10 10 15 out of 10 perfect episode for the season of Admiral and then we have the bottom of the barrel the zero out of 10 the Ensign we will post a graphical representation of our ranking as we progressed through the season on our patreon at patreon.com/treksantangents and we'll post that the day after the episode airs but Jackie you blurted it out but we kind of hold it in what would you rank Charlie X and send and why would you rank it an Ensign because like it yes it was educational but I didn't like I could have done without it could have done without it and on a scale of zero to 10 the Ensign is a zero or one out of 10 it is the one since Charlie did a good job and I'm going to rank the episode a lieutenant junior grade oh lordy this is the worst ranking that I've given an episode so far it is one rank above Jackie's Ensign it is a two or three out of ten um yeah I don't like the episode very much it's it's a it's a story or a plot that is done better in the Twilight Zone episode and so there really is a Twilight Zone yeah and I think the episode of the Twilight the Twilight Zone episode definitely airs before Star Trek but it's the same idea a small kid comes up with these powers to do what he wants and everyone has to be nice to him everyone has to play with him everyone has to like him it and I think why I like the episode of the Twilight Zone better than Star Trek is in the Twilight Zone episode the little kid has the ability to read minds and so the kid clearly knows when people are thinking bad thoughts about him when they are trying to come up with a plan to knock him out or get away and escape and he's punishing people for their thoughts it makes it even more scary because these people have to force themselves to think happy thoughts so that they don't get punished by the little kid and the little kid sends him out to the cornfield to disappear and never be seen from again I think Charlie has the ability to read minds otherwise he wouldn't have known Janice's favorite perfume you mentioned that he has the ability he seems to have the ability to know when anyone is talking about him but at the same time there's other examples where he should have been able to read their minds and know what was going on he should have known about the plan to stretch his resources then he should have read someone else's mind a couple times won't go too far into it for time but again they don't address it in the episode whether he can or cannot read minds I think it weakens the episode overall and that's why I give it a rank of lieutenant junior grade this is the part where we close out the episode and we give our turbo lift tease or elevator pitch and we do so by giving Jackie the title of the next episode for next week and Jackie with no other information we'll give a brief pitch to the plot and next week we start off by seeing if she was right Jackie next week's episode is entitled where no man has gone before well the moon hello no I'm kidding um well I mean the title alone says they're going to head off into some place or maybe it's gonna be like an amazonian woman conference and the men have to go in tippy toe to save someone we'll go with that and we'll see if you're right next week you never know I kind of am getting good this we'll see if you want more show information you can find and directly support our podcast on patreon at patreon.com/treksintangins again we'll post our graphical representation of our episode ranking as we go we also have available for members at patreon our recordings of test episodes for this podcast where we did some test recording episodes for the format and to work out the bugs we did some episodes with fringe we did some episodes with stargate sg1 and we've got other fun things planned as well you can also follow us on x at treks underscored tangents were on instagram and blue sky at treks and tangent Jackie where can people find you and what you're up to I am on instagram as jibbume jibb o o m and I am jumping on the laboo boo craze but I make their cute little necklaces because why not and everybody has close for the version three but my necklaces fit everybody so go check them out along with all my music my dog training you name it I got it and you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv/pyretpoundtown on youtube i post video games and other random content on my main channel at pyretpoundtown and coin collecting and hobby content at my secondary channel pyret treasur hunting also on youtube i post socially on blue sky at pyretpoundtown and finally i can be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal because i am banned as pyretpoundtown on instagram links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode we hope you had fun like we did we will see you all and transmission you(upbeat music)