WHY FRIENDLY ALIENS SHOULD NEVER GIVE HUMAN CHILDREN POWERS

Episode Title:  Charlie X

Air Date: 9/15/1966

Written by Dorothy C. Fontana and Gene Rodenberry 

Directed by Lawrence Dobkin

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Ryan                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice Rand       Don Eitner as unnamed Navigator          Patricia McNulty as Yeoman Third Class Tina Lawton        John Bellah as Crewman I               Garland Thompson as Crewman II         Gene Roddenberry as Enterprise Chef                      Ron Veto   as Security Guard                    Laura Wood    as  Prematurely Aged Woman         Robert Walker Jr. as Charles Evans         Charles J. Stewart as Captain Ramart            Dallas Mitchell as Tom Nellis             Abraham Sofaer as The Thasian

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, SS Antares, and Thasian ship

Planets:  None

My Spoiler filled summary and review: This episode’s adventure begins with the Enterprise on rendezvous with the merchant vessel Antares.  Three men from the merchant vessel beam over, and one of them, Captain Ramart, informs Captain Kirk that the youngest among them is a young man named Charlie Evans.  Charlie is a sole survivor of a merchant vessel that crashed on the planet Thasus.  He was stranded there as a small child and had no contact with humans for 14 years. They were trying to get him home to some distant relatives on the nearby Federation colony Alpha V.  Since the Enterprise was already headed to Alpha V and seeing as it’s a faster ship Captain Ramart thought it would be nice if they could see take Charlie along.  Captain Kirk agrees and also offers some accommodations to Captain Ramart and his navigator, but they refuse seemingly very eager to return to their own ship.  This greatly surprises Kirk as normally members a small merchant vessels are grateful for any time they can spend on a larger starship.

He seems so innocent.

                Charlie seems eager to be on the Enterprise he keeps asking how many of humans that were just like him they were on the ship.   Charlie’s excitement leads him to being chastised a small amount by Captain Kirk for interrupting him as Kirk tries to communicate with the two merchants.  This is a sign of things to come both Charlie having been stranded for so long is unaccustomed to human social customs and Captain Kirk being completely unprepared and untrained with how to deal with Charlie’s situation.  This becomes very apparent the moment Charlie lays eyes upon Janice Rand.  When he sees the Yeoman he turns to Kirk and asks, “Is that a girl?”  To which Kirk simply responds “yes” instead of saying something along the line of, “I’m sorry Janice let me that introduce you to Charlie, Charlie has been marooned for 14 years on an uninhabited planet and you are the first women he’s ever met.”  Then Rand would have just understood Charlie’s response as opposed to being taken back, but Kirk just lets the whole thing remain awkward.

                In sick bay Dr. McCoy gives young Charlie a thorough examination. He finds Charlie to be in perfect health, which he finds odd given how long the young man had been marooned alone on the planet. When McCoy asks him about this Charlie just explains that when he ran out of food he ate the food that was around him in his new environment.  He goes on to explain that he developed his patterns of speech place by listening to the machines, speaking to the machines, and machines responding back.  Later Mr. Spock’s research would contradict Charles claims particularly to the vegetation on the planet Thasus that he was marooned on.  Charlie when speaking to McCoy about the Antares mentions to McCoy that the crew did not like him too much and all he wanted was to be liked.  He also noticed that Captain Kirk was a different sort of man from Captain Ramart.  This gives McCoy the wrongheaded idea that Captain Kirk would be a good father figure for Charlie.

Charlie at chess is not good!

                Charlie observes a couple of engineering crewmen doing some work on the ship. As the men talk Charlie notices they make arrangements to socialize later and afterwards one of them slaps the other one lightly on the rear.  Having observed the social custom Charlie then goes to see Yeoman Rand gives her a rare bottle of perfume that he could not possibly have.  She is amazed and agrees to socialize with little bit in the recreation room where other members of the crew will be present.  Excited he tells her she has a deal then slaps her on the rear.  Yeoman Rand harshly tells him what he did was wrong and Charlie is then confused.  Yeoman Rand, mentally reminding herself, that Charlie has been exiled from humanity for so long that he might not understand all of our social customs, tells him to ask Captain Kirk why what he did was wrong.

Charlie couldn't wait to try this human tradition!

                Charlie does go to Captain Kirk about the situation involving the Yeoman.  Unfortunately Kirk is a not good at explaining to Charlie what he did wrong, although in Kirk’s defense Charlie does not explain his thought process to Kirk very well either. Charlie does successfully physically demonstrate what he did to Rand by doing to Kirk and then asks why it was wrong to which Kirk gives his awkward sounding answer. 

                When Charlie goes to meet Yeoman Rand in the recreation room the place is crowded and he finds Lt. Uhura serenading Mr. Spock while he plays the Vulcan lyrette.  Uhura noticing Charlie has entered the room she begins to sing about him.  However Charlie is not amused he doesn’t like being the subject of Uhura’s song and he wants everyone to be paying attention to him.  So he uses his still unknown powers to make Uhura’s voice go away.  He then starts entertaining everyone with his magic card tricks that look like the real magic. And of all intents and purposes it is real. 

Socializing on the Enterprise 

                As Charlie’s infatuation with Yeoman Rand grows she tries to introduce them to a younger Yeoman named Tina Lawton who might be more realistic dating prospect, being closer to his age.  Charlie spurns the younger woman continues to focus solely on Rand.  This concerns Rand as she sees this obsession as having a very bad ending.  She asks Captain Kirk to intervene.

Really Charlie?  She couldn't hold your interest even for a second?

It is about this time that Dr. McCoy decides that Charlie needs a father figure and that Captain Kirk is the man to do it.  This is such a error-filled conclusion on McCoy’s part if anyone on the ship has the training to help Charlie with his present difficulties it is himself.  Kirk isn’t the father figure sort of mentor anyone needs.  Kirk is more of a he gives you an order and you obey it type of person.  Kirk might be a good mentor for a young Starfleet officer following the same career path.  As a father figure trying to show someone how to operate in society he leaves a lot to be desired.  Just look at his advice to Charlie about how to treat women.  Nevertheless, Kirk agrees to take Charlie under his wing. 

Kirk has a lot of work to Charlie and one of the first things he wants to figure out is what happened to the melted chess pieces.  After losing a game of chess to Mr. Spock in just three moves, instead of asking Captain Kirk who had earlier beat Mr. Spock for some helpful chest tips Charlie instead had a fit with his powers and melted them.  Before Kirk can really get to the bottom of it however he is called to the bridge.  Charlie follows Kirk to the bridge, just in time for the Enterprise to receive a transmission from the Antares.  It seems the little ship is trying to warn the Enterprise about Charlie when suddenly it is destroyed. When they all look at Charlie he responds with “Well it was a poorly designed ship anyway.”

One of Charlie's victims

Charlie wants Kirk to teach them how to fight so Kirk meets him in the gym for his training.  Charlie however gets annoyed when Kirk begins teaching him defense starting with showing him how to take a fall.  Charlie gets more annoyed when one of the gym participants, Sam, starts laughing at him.  So Charlie uses his powers to make the man disappear.  With that Kirk finally understands the threat that Charlie imposes on his ship.  He calls down security and he interrogates briefly Charlie on the location of Sam.  Charlie just acknowledges that he made the man go away and unless everyone was nice to him he will make other people go away.

With that the remainder of the episode is Charlie Evans versus the crew of the Enterprise.  At one point Kirk tries to trick him into going into the brig so they can raise a force field on him, Charlie just makes the force field and the wall around it disappear.  In another instance he uses his power to control Mr. Spock making him say whatever comes to Charlie’s own mind.  Charlie’s ultimate prize however is Yeoman Janice Rand, he approaches her in her quarters to which she objects.  He counters that she didn’t lock the door and she tells him that is not her job to lock the door it is his job not to trespass.  Their encounter ends with Charlie making the Yeoman vanish.

By wiping away Yeoman Rand Charlie’s now remaining goal is to get to the planet Alpha V and join the Federation colony.  He goes on a rampage throughout the ship transforming people into animals, causing one individual age and making another’s face disappear.  However, Captain Kirk notices something.   He points out that ever since Charlie took control the ship he hasn’t meet anyone disappear and he concludes that controlling the ship is a drain on him.  The answer is to overwhelm him.  Kirk orders every system on the ship to be turned on and activated.  In a final confrontation with Charlie on the bridge McCoy and Spock perform Kirk’s orders turning everything on overwhelming Charlie.  His plan works and Captain Kirk can now challenge Charlie physically with his fierce unequaled fighting skills.

"Now you're going to be glad I taught you how to fall!"

It turns out Kirk doesn't have to because once Charlie is defeated a Thasian ship shows up looking for him. Communicating in the form of a disembodied head, the Thasian, explained that they found Charlie stranded and they gave him his power so he could survive.  However they realized that in giving Charlie the power changed him in a way that meant he could no longer live among humans. So they kept him.  He was with them until he recently escaped.   Charlie begs not be sent back he explains the Thasians are all non-corporal and if he was with them he wouldn't be able to touch or feel anyone.   Despite all he’s done Kirk still tries to advocate for Charlie, maybe a bit of unenthusiastically.  The Thasian makes it clear that Charlie remaining is not possible.  He does undo the damage that Charlie did to the Enterprise and her crew; this allows Yeoman Rand to reappear on the bridge.  What Charlie did to the Antares can’t be undone however because he didn’t make them disappear he simply made a vital piece of their engine disappear causing their destruction.  The Thasian removes Charlie by force and then their ship departs.

Additional thoughts: As a character Charlie Evans is a fascinating creation.  The power of a God in the body of a teenage boy who has the maturity of a toddler, someone who only wanted to fit in but whose lack of maturity and empathy combined with his amazing abilities made that impossible.  Charlie does horrible things to people because of his lack of empathy and is consistent demands for affection that makes him easy to dislike but the viewer can’t help but feel somewhat sorry for him.  He reminds me of some experiments done in the decades after this episode was made on monkeys and chimpanzees who were raised to be human and taught sign language.  These apes never became human but with the way they were conditioned it was impossible for them to live as apes in the wild.  Charlie is like that he isn’t Thasian despite his abilities, but because of them he can’t be human either.  In the end I do feel annoyance with the Thasians, the fact they showed up in a ship shows they had the ability to reach out one wonders why they couldn’t have returned him to humanity when he was still a small child instead of giving him these superpowers.

                With the exception to the sexual fascination with Yeoman Rand, Charlie is a result I think we would get if we gave such magnificent power to any two-year-old. Think of the age as they start to push their boundaries their parents set for them.   They fly across the emotional spectrum at any moment the be very loving then two seconds later be screaming “I hate you” because you wouldn’t let them have candy or because their fellow toddler took their crayon.  If they could make people disappear with a thought how many parents and fellow toddlers would go missing?

Charlie taken away!

                I really like the way Yeoman Rand was written for of this episode of all the characters she was in the toughest position and she handled it magnificently even if it didn’t end well before the Thasians came and rescued her.  The words of another starship captain nearly 80 years later sometimes you can do everything right and still lose.  It was in a really hard position for her to be the object of Charlie’s affections particularly once the true extent of his power was revealed.  Yet in every situation she was in with him it was very clear who the adult was and who was the child. Despite that she was compassionate for his situation even tried to help him develop socially by introducing him to other members of the crew particularly a young woman who could’ve actually been real potential romantic interest.   Rand was always firm with him; never lead him on while simultaneously not belittling him for his feelings or telling him that they were invalid.  The episode makes it very clear that everything that happens between Rand and Charlie is Charlie’s fault not Rand’s.

                I primarily enjoyed how Captain Kirk was used throughout this episode.  It showed both his flaws and his strength as a leader.  Kirk was the wrong choice try to be Charlie’s father figure.  As I pointed out earlier Kirk would probably be a great mentor to have for a young Starfleet officer looking to make his or her way in the fleet.   But being someone’s dad he isn’t cut out for it, heck as we later learn is never even there for his real kid.  His attempts to mentor Charlie always come up short though they are somewhat amusing.  However he’s quick to identify the threat that Charlie possesses and is quick to act.  The best part of Kirk in this episode is when he demonstrates what a great tactician he is and how is always looking for his opponent’s weakness.  In the midst of the horror of the reign of Charlie, Kirk is the one who notices that when Charlie took control he had stopped using his power to make people or things vanish.  He may have altered or controlled them but Kirk noticed he didn’t make them disappear.  He correctly identifies that Charlie’s power is limited and that it can be strained. Kirk and crew are not rescued by the Thasian.  Charlie is already beaten by the time he shows up.  Now the Thasian does restore to the Enterprise what Charlie had taken away.  However Kirk defeated Charlie.  And in the next episode we really get to see what type of tactician Kirk really is.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5 

MR. SULU CHASES EVERYONE WITH A SWORD

Episode Title:  The Naked Time

Air Date: 9/29/1966

Written by John D.F. Black

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          Bruce Hyde as    Lieutenant Kevin Thomas Riley            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Ryan                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Stewart Moss as Lieutenant (junior grade) Joe Tormolen             Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice Rand       William Knight as Amorous  Crewman            John Belleh as the Laughing Crewman

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Psi 2000

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The Enterprise is in orbit around the planet PSI 2000, a world in a solar system whose star had gone dark.  With the absence of a warm sun the once Earth-like planet turned into a frozen wasteland, and now that frozen wasteland itself was about to collapse as the planet was on the verge of breaking up.  The Enterprise arrives to pick up some scientists who have been studying the phenomenon and to join them in observing the final stages of a world ending.  The dying planet’s shifting gravity is a danger to a starship trying to maintain orbit around it.  However with the crew is experienced and well-trained is the crew of the Enterprise they have this covered, unless of course the crew in large sections start getting unexpectedly drunk.

                The adventure begins when Mr. Spock and Lt. Tormolen beam down to the science station. When they materialize they discovered to their horror that everyone on the science station is dead! Not only are they dead but they died of the most bizarre, extreme, and unusual ways.  It was like their all overtaken with madness.  The engineer’s body was sitting at the station as if nothing was wrong, yet he turned off the life-support controls causing them all to freeze.  Prior to freezing however one of the scientists, a woman, was strangled and another was taking a shower fully dressed.  Spock and Tormolen investigate this disaster and while doing so Tormolen removes the glove of his environmental suit to scratch his nose.  He forgets to put back on right away and continues to work and unbeknownst to him a strange liquid like substance reaches out and sticks his bare hand.  At this point Mr. Spock comes out and warns him not to contaminate anything; showing that Spock while he is a master of many things timing isn’t one of them. Spock calls up to the Enterprise explains what they found.

I  really like how he places his glove right on the dead man's frozen head.

                As the two men returned the ship they go through the decontamination process then report the sick bay to be checked out by Dr. McCoy.  Both of which appear to be rather useless as the rest of the show will demonstrate.  As far as McCoy can see they’re both fine, and he teases Mr. Spock a little bit for his Vulcan anatomy which pleases Mr. Spock to no end.  The young Lieutenant is taken aback by the horror which he saw on the planet surface, and Kirk gives them some reassuring words and sends along his way.

                In the briefing room Captain Kirk and his the senior staff are trying to tackle the dual problems of figuring out what happened to this team of scientists and to safely monitor the breakup of the planet.  Although they have to be careful Scotty is confident that the engines of the Enterprise will have no problem being safe throughout this mission.  As far as the dead scientists go Spock theorizes this could be some form of space madness but they need to determine the cause.

                In one of the ship's cafeterias Tormolen is getting his lunch and still feeling depressed about what happened on the surface and his feelings are getting worse.  Although Dr. McCoy gave him a clean bill of health McCoy can only check for and guard against known conditions and Tormolen is infected by an unknown substance.   Lts. Sulu and Riley show up and Sulu is trying to get Riley to take up fencing, the two men try to involve Tormolen in their conversation but for the young man blows them off.  When they show concern he gets irritated reminding them that they don’t rank him they don’t have pointed ears they can’t tell him what to do.  At this point either Sulu or Riley could have said that they are full lieutenants while he’s just a JG so they in fact do rank him that he should show more respect.  But as caring officers of the Enterprise they don't do that and instead try to help him.  Unfortunately, Tormolen is it up for being helped instead he grabs a butter knife and threatens Sulu and Riley with it.  

"Please Joey, I know you feel guilty about using a frozen man's head as clothes hanger but we won't tell!" 

                Now in the 20^th century when this was made butter knives were not threatening weapons unless you tried to jam it into someone’s eye.  However by the time the 23^rd century the butter knives of the future have become incredibly more powerful and Riley and Sulu are immediately concerned.  They ask him to put down the knife but he aims the slayer of butter at himself.  Sulu and Riley try to stop him but they fail he stabbed himself with the common utensil  puncturing his chest as if it were warm butter—which really must’ve hurt considering it’s a dull butter knife—Riley calls in a medical emergency.  Both Riley and Sulu are now infected.

                Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel race to save the young man’s life, even though his surgery is going routinely well the young man’s vitals fail and he dies anyway.  McCoy later says to Captain Kirk that he can’t explain it, and he never lost a patient like he just lost Tormolen.  Kirk orders McCoy to keep investigating from both the possible and the impossible.  Which is kind of a point haired boss thing for Kirk to say but he felt he had to say something, and I guess it was his version of “work smarter, not harder.” To be fair if I was a captain and I was told one of my men killed himself with a butter knife I would start saying stupid things too.

                On the bridge Mr. Sulu, infected with the same virus, gets bored with doing his helmsman job and tries to get a Riley to sneak down to the gym with him.  Riley, whose infection has not yet caught up with him, refuses and Sulu sneaks off by himself while Mr. Spock’s back is turned like a little boy playing hooky.  This of course puts the ship in danger since the fluctuating gravity of the dying planet can threaten the starship and any moment.  As ship gets into danger Mr. Spock notices in time for the bridge crew to right the ship.  Mr. Spock’s reputation for timing has been restored from the start of the episode.  When Spock turns to Riley for explanation Riley now flush with Irish pride magnified by the space virus tells Spock that there is need no fear for he was here to save them and that as an Irishman he was worth 1000 Vulcans.  Spock then kicks Riley off the bridge and Riley happily leaves.

Riley standing up to Spock in a drunken manner.

                In this episode’s most famous scene, and the one that must be George Takei ‘s husband Brad’s favorite, Mr. Sulu is now running around the ship half naked attacking people with the sword, considering how dangerous butter knives are now a man with a sword is a serious concern.  Not to mention walking around shirtless and sweating helps spread the virus.  Riley stops in the sick bay to check on Tormolen, and ends up infecting Nurse Chapel.   Uhura gets reports from the ship of Mr. Sulu and his sword as well as other outbursts throughout the ship.  Kirk on the bridge tries to get a handle on the situation only to discover that Lt. Riley has lock himself in the engineering room and from there taken control of the ship.  He proclaims himself Captain, declares free ice cream for all, and a dance in the bowling alley.  (Which on a side note wish we could see the ships bowling alley, is bowling the same in the 23^rd century or has it changed like chess?)  Riley also wants the women of the Enterprise wear their hair down more and less make up.  He doesn’t say anything about the miniskirts so they're still cool.  Then he begins to sing his favorite Irish song, which was actually written by an American, “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen!”    

Kirk leaves Mr. Spock in charge on the bridge and heads down to deal with his crazy navigator and take control of the ship back.  Riley must’ve done something to the engine room to prevent the use of the transporter from beaming anyone in.  That is the only thing I can think of to why they just wouldn’t just use the transporter to beam directly into the ship’s engine room.  Scotty realized they had to get in the old-fashioned way and cut section of the wall so that they can rig the engine room door to open.

One intoxicated man can take control of the whose ship from a single room! That is a design flaw.

At this time Sulu appears on the bridge attacking his fellow officers and nearly kidnapping Lt. Uhura, however Mr. Spock uses his famous Vulcan nerve pinch to take down the wild swordsman.  Spock order Sulu to be delivered to sick bay where Dr. McCoy is working furiously to find an antidote.  McCoy discovers that the virus has something to do with the water on the planet that’s about to die, it acts like a type of alcohol removing all inhibitions from its victims.  In other words everyone acting weird on the Enterprise is involuntarily deeply drunk.  McCoy needs to find a way to get everyone to sober up.  

Sulu vs Everybody!  This is no butter knife be afraid very afraid. 

When Spock comes to check on his progress, after getting Scotty to hurry up on the engine room door because is taking longer than they have, he is approached by the infected Nurse Chapel who full of virus courage makes a pass at him.  Spock becomes infected and his response to the virus is to go off and cry about heat how he never told his mother that he loved her.

Kirk and Scotty get into the engine room and detain Lt. Riley.  Then they discover the horrible truth not only did Riley take control the ship but he shut the engine down.  It takes thirty minutes to start the engine up from cold and they only have about twelve.  Kirk and Scotty talk shop for a minute and as the Chief Engineer continues it to insist that you can’t mix matter and antimatter cold and starting it up earlier is impossible, Kirk reminds him that instead of firing up for explosion they could instead do a controlled implosion.  Scotty reacts negatively saying is only a theory and I imagine Kirk suggestion would be the equivalent of the 20^th or 21^st century scientist saying “That’s okay let’s use Cold Fusion.”  Kirk points out is all they have and goes to find Spock to help out.

When he finds Spock, he finds the weeping Vulcan still upset over his mother.  Kirk decides a bitch slap the Vulcan a couple of times to get him to realize how silly he’s being, surprisingly after a few slaps Spock does regain his composure and realizes what has to be done.  Unfortunately Kirk is now infected from Spock slapping back and almost falls knees crying about how he doesn’t have a girlfriend and that how the Enterprise takes up his entire life.  He wants to find a nice girl to walk along the beach with.  Shortly however Kirk regains his composure through sheer force of will.

McCoy by this point is actually discovers a cure for the virus and is using it to bring the Enterprise crewmembers back to their senses.  It’s nice to see Dr. McCoy get to be the miracle worker to make up for him completely missing the virus.  He gives Kirk a dose just in case even though he was apparently fully recovered, although he does look at Yeoman Rand once longingly.  Spock and Scotty do their thing and the controlled implosion works blasting the Enterprise away from the planet.  However something else is happened.  They find out as the ship moved father way from the planet they were also going backward in time.  When they finally stop Spock notices that they went back in time three days.  He tells the Captain they have three days live again.  To which Kirk replies, “Those three days!?!”

Additional thoughts: Okay, I am going to talk about the end a little first.  The excitement of discovering a way to go back in time is cooled by the fact that this never really amounts to anything.  It was supposed to lead into another episode but it never did after all that would interfere with the whole episodic formula the series was using.  They start doing that they might have the start airing them in order.  Ultimately the crew of the Enterprise does time travel but they do so using alternative methods. 

                Despite Kirk’s concerns it’s a good thing they have those three days to live over again because if I were a betting man I would bet they did not take proper scans and readings of the breakup of that planet while they were trying to escape a starship nose dive with their lives. This way they can observe the planet breakup again and they can do the job right this time without having half the crew involuntarily intoxicated.  

                

Yes, some members of the crew are  just plain weird.

                 Of course it would’ve been a little bit nicer if they had not stopped when they did an instead went back in time a few more days.   Then they could’ve used McCoy’s formula to save the scientists on that station.  Kirk said they may use that time traveling formula again someday, well why not today?  I’m assuming the whole cold implosion thing is very dangerous and that’s why they don’t do it.  I also assume that this time travel method becomes really top-secret and that’s why we never see the method tried again and any Star Trek series; at least that I can remember.  It also would become a problem for the writers if every time the Enterprise encountered a tough situation they would just do a cold implosion and go back and fix it.  Of course they do later learn of more efficient methods of time traveling that doesn’t involve staring at the ships clock slowing move backward.

                This episode is a lot of fun.  There are shows that are made to be funny and the shows are made to be serious.  There are also shows that are serious but do have some funny moments of or at least have an episode that’s overly humorous.  Even “the Sopranos” had quite a few episodes and moments in it that made me chuckle. Star Trek is generally a show that serious science fiction but it does have it light-hearted moments and episodes like this which are of great humor.  It was fun to see the ship’s crew run around like they were chickens with their heads cut off.  I do like the fact that Kirk and Spock were able to overcome the virus by just being mentally strong enough to do so it says a lot for their characters.  Although Spock had to be bitch slapped a couple of times, and Kirk with his ladies' man reputation cry about not having a girlfriend. 

One benefit to the virus, Nurse Chapel gets the courage to tell Mr. Spock about how she feels.   

Infected with the same virus many men get the same type of courage that Nurse Chapel got, which means its long walk for Yeoman Rand to the turbo-lift.

                What was great was how some of the crew’s characteristics were able to come to the forefront from Spock’s pain about how his mother had to live without ever hearing the phrase “I love you” from her son to the more entertaining Mr. Sulu running around with a sword.  Slight note on Sulu, when you think about it of all the people on the Enterprise he is probably the best one to have as a friend.  He’s always sharing his interests whether it’s plants or sword fighting and always looking to include other people.  I don’t think Kevin Riley realizes how good he has it right now.  How many friends you have loses wants randomly want to teach you how to use a sword or show you a plant that can actually move and eat things you do not normally imagine plants eating.  

                In the previous episode we encountered a dangerous creature that was the last of his kind and on its way to extinction, considering the damage it did I think we’re left grateful that the universe no longer had to deal with them.  Considering the type of water that PSI 2000 produced we should be grateful that planet broke apart the way it did so no more burdens on the universe come from that little planet.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5

THE “FIRST” STAR TREK EPISODE, TAKE THREE

Episode Title:  The Man Trap

Air Date: 9/8/1966

Written by George Clayton Johnson

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA "Bones"              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”   George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu    Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura     Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Ryan       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice Rand       Michael Zaslow as Crewman Darnell            Bruce Watson as  Crewman Green          Vince Howard as Crewman           John Arndt as Crewman Sturgen       Anthony Larry Paul as Transporter Operator       Garrison True as Security Guard              Alfred Ryder as Professor Robert Crater           Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater        Francine Pyne as Nancy III         Sandra Lee Gimpel as the Salt Vampire   

    

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  M-113

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The episode begins with the Enterprise orbiting the planet M-113, Captain Kirk leads a landing party consisting of himself, Dr. McCoy, and one other crewman named Darnell.  Kirk is especially concerned for this routine assignment comes with a little bit of baggage: the two archaeologists are married couple and one of those two, Nancy Crater is an ex-girlfriend of Dr. McCoy. 

Seeing your married ex is always a blast!

When they get down to the planet they find Nancy Crater ready to greet them.  It becomes apparent to the viewer that each of the three men sees a different Nancy.  Dr. McCoy sees a young Nancy who looks like she did right around the time they broke up, while Captain Kirk sees a Nancy who is about their age, and Darnell sees Nancy as a stripper he met on a pleasure planet.   Darnell even go so far to tell Nancy that she looks like the stripper that he knew on the pleasure planet.  With that Kirk has Darnell go and wait outside.

Getting a physical from your wife's ex.  Not awkward at all.

 Prof. Crater then shows up and displays a sour mood not wanting have anything to do with Kirk and McCoy, but he would like more supplies particularly he would like to have a lot more salt.  Captain Kirk tells the professor that there are regulations involving researchers on far-off planets in the Dr. McCoy will examine both of them as the regulations require.  While this is going on Nancy heads outside and convinces Darnell to come see some of the sites with her.

Darnell and stripper Nancy 

While McCoy is examining Prof. Crater, the professor’s mood seems to lighten, the fact that McCoy is his wife’s ex-boyfriend doesn’t appear to awaken any jealousy.  Quite the country Crater seemed to enjoy talking about her with him.  At this point it’s clear that McCoy and Kirk were seeing different Nancys as McCoy says she didn’t age a day and has not a shade of gray and Kirk points out that that’s not true and that she looks her age that the although beautiful woman she is not appearing to be a 25-year-old.  Crater suggests that McCoy was blinded by his old feelings for her, again an odd thing for a husband to say about his guest’s view of his wife.

They then hear a scream from Nancy, and all three men come running and they see Nancy standing next to a dead Darnell who has a plant thing coming out of his mouth.  When asked what happened she said he ate a poison plant, not knowing it was poison, before she could stop him.  With that Kirk and McCoy transport back to the ship with Darnell’s body.  

Star Trek's "first" dead man 

Darnell’s body has mysterious red rings on it that is not part of the symptom of the poison from the plan he allegedly ate.  What’s worse is according to McCoy’s examination there was no poison in his system at all.  McCoy doesn’t even know what killed him.  Kirk angers when having a conversation with about dead crew member McCoy tries to change the subject to Nancy.  Kirk accuses him of being too personally involved in encourages him to take another look at the body.  McCoy agrees and upon a second examination of the body determined that Darnell’s natural salts was completely drained from him.

Kirk and McCoy came back down to the planet with two crewmen, named Green and Sturgeon, to tell the married couple that there is danger and they must go.  However the Craters weren’t in at the lab so the four men go off on a search.  During the search Nancy kills both Crewman Green and Crewman Sturgeon, Nancy takes the form of Green allows Kirk and McCoy to find Sturgeon’s body.  When the fake Green arrives Kirk decides a going to go back up to the Enterprise.  McCoy doesn’t want to leave however leaving Nancy in danger, not realizing of course that Nancy herself is the danger or that she has taken the form of Crewman Green.  Kirk points out that on the Enterprise they can use the ship’s resources to find the two remaining people far easier.

The three beam back up to the ship this giving “Green” access to the Enterprise and all of her crew.  He starts looking for salt and fines Yeoman Rand with a lunch that she is delivering and seemingly sampling at the same time.  The Yeoman notes the Crewman staring at her and asks what is up.  “Green” doesn’t give a good answer he follows her to where she is going and it appears she is delivering lunch to Lt. Sulu.  Sulu is in the middle of taking care of his plants when Rand comes in to feed him.  The two talk for a little bit then “Green” enters.  This could have been a deadly confrontation for the two Enterprise crew members but the creature was scared off by Mr. Sulu’s weird planets.

Sulu didn't lose his interest in science when he transferred to the bridge. 

"Mr. Spock do you think Rand and Sulu are dating? Maybe we should date?"

On the bridge Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock find that there is only one person on the surface, Professor Crater, who seems to be desperately looking for something.   The two men go down to confront him, and Crater tries to fight them off.  Kirk puts his phaser on stun and shoots Crater.   When Crater’s comes to they finally get the truth out of him.  His wife Nancy has been dead for years she was killed by creature that was impersonating her when they first arrived.   He explains the creature is the last of its kind where once their millions.  He compares it to the extinction of the bison of North America.  The creature can assume any form and with the discovery of the real Crewman Green’s body Kirk knows the horrible truth that a desperate predator is loose on his ship.   

On the ship the creature having been rebuffed by the sheer ferocity of the plants of Lt. Sulu, decides to try for some different prey.   It spots Lt. Uhura and transforms itself into a tall dark Swahili speaking man.  It tries to seduce the communications officer in the same way that it did with Crewman Darnell.  But Uhura isn’t Darnell, and she does a fall for this trap as easily as the men on her ship have. Maybe this creature had a weakness when it came to women but that is disproven by the very fact that his first victim was Nancy Crater.   By the sheer awesomeness that is Uhura she overcomes his mental whammies and retreats with her friends to the turbo lift. 

"Yeah, your tricks aren't going to work on me so go suck salt somewhere else!" 

Frustrated the creature returns to the form of Nancy Crater and surprises Dr. McCoy in his quarters.  It renders him unconscious and then the creature takes his form and heads the bridge to try undermine the investigation that is being launched against it.   From the bridge the creature is then summoned, in the form of McCoy, to a meeting with Kirk, Spock, and Crater.  Here the creature learns that they’re setting up traps for it using salt.  As McCoy, it tries to reason with Kirk it says that they should offer the salt with no tricks.  Crater tries to help pointing out that when the creature is well fed it is fine.  Kirk isn’t having it however at this point three of his crew members are dead he is taking no more chances with this killer.  When Crater refuses to cooperate in finding the creature, who he says he can identify in any form, Kirk orders Spock and McCoy to take the professor the sick bay where they can force the professor to take truth serum so he can be made to revel to them how to find the creature.  Apparently if you’re desperate enough you could force people to take truth serum in the 23^rd century so much for your civil rights.

Kirk goes to the sick bay to check on their progress and when he gets there he finds Crater dead, Spock injured, and McCoy gone.  Mr. Spock explains to Kirk that it wasn’t the real McCoy and the creature couldn’t feed off him because his Vulcan blood contains no salt.  Armed with this new information and a phaser Captain Kirk heads to McCoy’s quarters. 

Having re-assumed the form of Nancy the creature now tries to get the currently conscious Dr. McCoy to help it.  Kirk enters McCoy’s quarters pointing his phaser and tells McCoy that who he is seeing is not Nancy.  McCoy, whose head the creature has already somewhat played with and not at his best, gets between Kirk and who he believes is his old girlfriend.  Having lost the phaser Captain Kirk tries to attack the creature using his fierce fighting skills that are unequaled by anyone on his ship, unfortunately for Captain Kirk the creature has telepathic powers that paralyze him leaving his fierce fighting skills unavailable.  Spock shows up and tries to simontanously fight the creature and snap McCoy out of his trance.  Spock goes down, and as the creature goes to prey upon Kirk it’s allusion power drops allowing McCoy to momentarily see it’s true form, and boy is it an ugly thing, he then shoots it with the phaser killing the creature.

Final battle: McCoy not at his best but still can be the hero. 

As the Enterprise prepares to leave orbit Captain Kirk shares a thought it with his bridge crew about the bison and the terror of extinction.

Additional thoughts: With the show approved and a number of episodes made it came time to decide which episode to show first.  And instead of airing the pilot that won over the executives to make the series, they instead decided to review all the episodes that they made with the intention of showing the one that they felt was the strongest and the most likely to win an audience.  With that they selected “The Man Trap” for its horror angle and the threat of what we as fans would dub the “Salt Vampire.”  After the episode aired Mr. and Mrs. Roddenberry were so pleased with what their son produced that left their house and went to all their neighbors and apologized.  They saw everyone they could promising their friends that Gene would once again be making good shows like “Dragnet.”

                I have never agreed with the order in which they chose to air the episodes. Nevertheless, it is an interesting choice to see where they chose to start and how they chose to introduce the world to this new series, exactly fifty-three years ago, which would go on to become a cultural phenomenon.  Since they chose to air what was actually their sixth episode first it allowed the series to be presented as if it were born almost fully grown and fully clothed.  By this episode the interior of the Enterprise was set, the uniforms were now in order as they would be throughout series with their black collars for all and miniskirts for the women.  The rank insignia on their sleeves was now going to be correct, with small exception to Mr. Spock’s frocking. The crew was now completely assembled with no characters missing-but not all on camera-and every character in the role that they would be known for.  Everyone was in their right colored uniform with Mr. Spock wearing his traditional blue, Uhura wearing her traditional red, and Mr. Sulu his gold.

                The episode also came with many common themes that we associate with Star Trek.  Kirk and crew beam down to a strange new world, they encounter a peculiar and dangerous life form that is the focus of the episode reinforcing the idea that space exploration into the unknown is very dangerous.  Nameless extras are cannon fodder to show how dangerous this threat is.  Most importantly, the episode is also morality tale using the analogy of science fiction to explore the dangers and horror of the concept of extinction.  Star Trek will be famous for using science fiction to talk about things that were not often comfortable talking about in the real world.

                Now there were also some key differences in this episode and what would become popular throughout the series showing that there was still some development to go.  For one thing with the exception of a small voiceover there is no Scotty in this episode.  To be fair it wasn’t like his character was going to have a lot to do, the Enterprise did nothing strenuous that would require his attention in fact throughout the entire episode the Enterprise just hangs out in orbit around the planet.  Kirk says “general quarters” as opposed to “red alert.” Also the crewmen who died were all wearing the wrong colored shirts; they didn’t yet realize that is those in red who are supposed to be sacrificed.

                Anyone else find it odd to see Yeoman Rand munching on a meal that she was delivering? I mean I realize we want the salt creature to see that there was salt on the plate but wasn’t there a better way to do it? Then we get the big surprise when the Captain’s personal Yeoman is delivering a meal not to Captain Kirk but to Lt. Sulu.  Does Captain Kirk often assign his Yeoman to get the meals of all the bridge officers?  Are Lt. Sulu and Yeoman Rand in some sort of secret romantic relationship?  Like allegedly Mr. Spock and the flirtatious Lt. Uhura.  That would explain her feeling free to sample part of his lunch. It could be platonic though.  Yeoman Rand might be is trying to establish a professional connection with an up-and-coming officer the fleet.  After all they do end up serving together on the Excelsior. 

                Now about the salt vampire: is it good; is it evil, or indifferent?  The episode does at times try to portray it sympathetically, the last of its species that one point numbered into the millions.  However the creature murdered five people and two of those people it counted as friends. The pathetic thing about it was the whole misadventure was completely unnecessary.  Crater never really needed to lie to the Enterprise.  All he had to do was simply communicate that they found an indigenous life form, last of its kind so no Prime Directive problem, and it needs salt for its survival.  There end of story, but that would make for a boring TV show.  Maybe the creature demonstrated to Crater that was so afraid of outsiders the Crater felt he had to resort to such methods.  But if you going to get so desperate for salt that you will start killing your friends maybe you could just be little desperate and be forced socialize that shouldn't be hard when can look however you want.

                I also wonder how the salt creature’s species ended up in this situation.  On the planet the Craters were studying the remains of a civilization.  Was that civilization the civilization of the salt creatures?  Did they turn on each other and destroy each other in war when there salt supply started to run low?  What if the salt creatures were always parasites?  Was there another dominant life form on the planet that built that civilization?  The salt creatures infiltrated it using their telepathic powers to appear as friends and relatives while always sucking on their salt.  The salt ran low that in desperation the salt creatures hunted that other species into extinction leaving nothing on the planet and all the salt creatures died out one by one until there is only one left?  If my last theory is true then I’m glad all the salt creatures are all dead.  Sometimes extinction is a good thing and in the cases salt creatures it probably was.   That kind of undermines the moral message of the episode but it was only their first sixth time so we can excuse them for their early folly and just expect better later.

                This was how studio executives decided to present the world of Star Trek, considering we are still talking about it exactly fifty-three years to the date it debuted in the United States for the first time it may have been the right decision.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5