TOS Episode 2: Charlie X

originally posted 8/5/20 

Episode 2: Charlie X Kirk has a festive green tunic this episode, with gold braid on the shoulders. It’s a bit on the “extra” side, much like Kirk himself. This episode’s dilemma: an insufferable teenager with, essentially, Q powers. He also has a Beavis-like forehead that he tried to disguise with bangs, but you can’t hide a cranium that oddly-shaped. 

He meets Yeoman Rand, who is “a girl.” She accepts this, because The 60s. Later, he slaps her ass, thinking this is normal (again, The 60s), and she sends him to talk to Kirk or McCoy instead of explaining to him why he really shouldn’t do that. It’s weird, but ok. 

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Spock is now playing a space lyre while Uhura annoys him by vocalizing. The crew is amused. Now he’s playing on purpose to get her to sing a weird song about the him. He’s smiling. This is all Totally Logical. Don’t question it! 

Now she’s singing about Charlie and it’s extra creepy, so he uses his powers to give her laryngitis. As one does. 

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Now Kirk is trying to explain why he shouldn’t slap Yeoman Rand’s ass. “There’s no right way to hit a lady,” he says. That’s...not wrong, but very weird. 

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Welp, Charlie just blew up the ship that brought him to the Enterprise before the could warn Kirk about him, because space incel. 

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3-D chess sighted! 

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Charlie doesn’t know that “you smell like a girl” is a really bad pickup line. Also, “I feel like I’m hungry...all over...” 

Kirk tries to explain but Teen Angst! “There are a million things in this universe you can have, and a million things you can’t. It’s no fun facing that, but that’s the way things are.” That’s actually a lesson I wish more people would learn. 

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Welp, Kirk managed to get his shirt off...they’re doing some kind of martial arts to get Charlie’s mind off his boner, but I’m not sure what falling down on purpose is going to accomplish on that front. Also, Kirk’s pants are way too tight. I did not need to be made aware of the captain’s log, as it were. 

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Charlie made a crewman disappear for laughing at him, and now he gets dramatic lighting on his eyes. It’s very dramatic. Kirk now has dramatic lighting too, because drama. 

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I sincerely doubt they intended to address white male privilege, but if Charlie didn’t have these powers, he’d write a manifesto and shoot up a sorority. 

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Does Yeoman Rand ever unweave her hair? 

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The plan: annoy Charlie while Bones sneaks up on him with a tranquilizer. Dramatic lighting! Dramatic acting! Dramatic reactions! 

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The floating green disembodied head is here to take Charlie away. Welp. Not sure why they don’t just take his power and leave him with the humans, but it’s more dramatic this way. 

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Oh hey, it was D.C. Fontana! That makes me think the male privilege thing actually was deliberate! Thus concludes my notes on episode 2. I think I’ll get in one more episode before bed.