. When Uhura starts singing, Spock sighs and drops his left hand from the Lyre into his lap. Change camera, and Spock has both hands on the instrument. Unless he has three hands???
At the end of the episode, the Thasians return Yeoman Rand to the bridge, even though Charlie made her vanish in her quarters. What about the crewman Charlie made disappear in the gymnasium? Shouldn't he appear on the bridge too? Or do the Thasian's restorative powers extend only to regulars?
Look closely at the chess pieces before and after Charlie melts them. Careful examination shows that one of the pieces (it appears to be the Queen) is missing from the board after they become melted. Did Charlie make this piece "go away?"
At one point in the show, Charlie becomes upset because some crew members are laughing. We soon see that he has removed the facial features of one of the women crew members. This is somewhat unfair, as no woman was heard laughing. All the laughter was distinctively male!
In the 23rd Century, when does the Earth celebrate Thanksgiving? Here in the USA, the Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November, while in Canada it is observed in October.
The crew of the Antares must be a bit "behind the times". they wear old-style starfleet uniforms!
One of the security officers in the gymnasium was seen in "The Naked Time" as a lieutenant. In this episode he`s an ensign. In production order this would seem like a demotion, though in air date order it would be a promotion.
Now an interesting fact: This is the only Star Trek episode to use the word "earthlings" - and a terran (McCoy) says it!
In the Nitpickers guide Phil makes a big deal about seeing Charlie's face as a reflection in the medical monitor. I believe that this is a dramatic conceit showing Charlie's control over his own autonomic functions.
I don't think so - it's way too subtle. Nice interpretation, though. I can certainly live with it.
Alright, here's the nit I have had for 27 years.
Why is this episode called Charlie X?
The X means Unknown, as in there's something unknown about Charlie.
The original title was "Charlie's Law."
Seeing this episode again, I think that this is a very good episode, and one that is certainly one of the best examples of what Star Trek (and sci-fi in general) can and should be. I really loved how the rest of the crew handled Charlie. They were very gentle yet firm. Whenever they were trying to teach Charlie the intricacies (sp?) of common courtesy, they did it in a very dignified manner without getting too upset. They realized that Charlie had not lived in society and was just being himself. Of course, when Charlie got out of control they got very firm. It is definitely a lesson for all parents and parents-to-be on how to handle children, and rudeness in general.
I also liked the plea that Kirk made to the Thasians at the end; that Charlie belonged with his own kind. Unfortunately, Kirk didn't ask if someone could accompany Charlie back with them to try to teach him so that eventually he could return to be with humans when he had grown up and matured.
Regarding the crewman from the gymnasium--the Thasian stated that "Your people" (plural) were restored, which would indicate that he was returned. In the Blish story, he was returned to the bridge along with Janice. Perhaps in the televised version, the Thasian thought that he wasn't decorative enough to rate. Janice, on the other hand, in her pretty pink loungewear...I noticed that Carolyn Palamas also wore flowing pink. Pink for girls...was the Star Trek costume designer trying to be conventional?
Near the end, as the Thasian is about to appear, Charlie says something like, "You said you were my friends. When I came aboard!" A few moments later, he says that he is "...sorry about the Antares...when I came aboard!" The second "when I came aboard!" has the exact intonation of the first, which makes me suspect that they just edited in the sentence twice, especially since the focus was on Kirk when the sentence was repeated. The problem is, the second time he says it, it doesn't fit the context of what he was saying. It's like they just tossed that sentence in at random.
Why didn't the Thasian just take the power away from Charlie? In Blish's story, he stated that the power, once given, could not be taken back, but that wasn't mentioned on the televised version. And no one on the bridge thought to ask if it could be done.
"taken away?" Hmm. I always had the impression it was something he was taught - not something extra-human.
>Perhaps in the televised version the Thasian thought he wasn't decorative enough to rate.
Or, more likely, the production crew decided he wasn't worth paying a guest star an additional day's rate for!
Guest Star--Robert Walker Jr. is the son of Robert Walker Sr. Walker Sr. appeared in one of my favorite films, "Strangers on a Train". Every reference material states that they look very much alike.
On the same day the sci-fi channel last aired "Charlie X," Robert Walker Jr. also guest starred on that day's A&E rerun of Quincy!
Egad!
Dear fellow nitpickers!
First, I have enjoyed all the submissions submitted on this episode.
I can only add one observation. Phil had thought that there could be no way Charlie heard the cook (which by the way, was the voice of Gene Roddenberry) talk with Kirk about synthesized turkeys. His reproduction of them implied his powers were also telepathic in addition to being telekinetic.
Yet, I think Charlie can read minds! He must have read Rand's mind when he produced the gift for her early in the show. She was amazed that his gift just happened to be her favorite.
I agree, but I think his mind-reading powers must be limited. For instance, he doesn't know that Kirk and Spock are going to try to turn the forcefield on him when they lead him into that one room.
How ironic that Charlie could read a woman's mind, but not the two men. I usually know what men are thinking, but have tried unsuccessfully to read women's minds all my life ;-)
Kirk is going to deliver Charlie to Alpha Five, isn't that the robot on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?
Kirk checkmates Spock with his bishop while under check from Spock's knight. (If this works like real chess, Kirk must move his king or block the check - and since a knight cannot be blocked, he should not be able to move his bishop.) Of course, maybe this game isn't like normal chess at all. Or maybe Kirk cheats - how else could he beat Spock?
Well, in theory he could have moved his king out of check and thereby discovered check (and mate) on Spock. The problem, of course, is that Spock would have had to have put Kirk in check without even thinking about Kirk's flight squares. . .
No, Kirk definitely moved his bishop. (He moved the same piece twice in a row.)
Maybe they were playing Fizzbin Chess? Since it was Tuesday and night out the Captain could make any move he wanted and the Science Officer had to accept it?
I'm watching this now on the Sci-Fi channel, God, the cuts are the worst I've ever seen!!! Entire chunks have been hacked out of this one, including 80% of Uhura's song and the entire scene in which Spock and Charlie play chess. When Kirk shows Charlie the melted chess piece later in the show that scene is going to make no sense (unless, as they probably will, they chop that out too). I realize that editing syndicated episodes is an economic necessity but the completely EVIL B*ST*RDS who run the networks and advertising agencies have gone way too far, the whole episode now must run only about 35 minutes. It looks like they took a chainsaw to the print! Thankfully, today we have VCRs, laserdiscs and DVDs so that we can watch the episodes and have them make some sort of coherent sense. I can't stand to watch the episodes on Sci-Fi anymore. Is there any way to slow this madness down? Is a boycott of products that advertise on syndicated episodes whose running time has been unreasonably trimmed down feasible?
It IS a shame, especially when you consider that when the Sci Fi channel first put them on, they boasted that they were showing them uncut. They were supposed to show them that way through a full two cycles, but I seem to recall that they started cutting them back part way through Nimoy's hosting. It was wonderful seeing them in full, and SOME of the side comments were interesting, although I think they repeated them too much.
OK, I`d like to correct two of my comments. First, the security guard is not from The Naked Time. It`s the same actor/stand-in, but the blueshirt from the Naked Time (Brent) seen in several other episodes is generally considered a different role than the redshirt from this episode (Vinci/Osborne) also seen in several other episodes.
And Tom Paris (another terran) and a holodeck villian (Named Chaotica, BTW) use the term in the Voyager episode Bride Of Chaotica. That still doesn`t count. Unfortunately, the Gorn uses the term in Arena!
This crew is so insensitive!
When Charlie forces Uhura to stop singing
and Spock's harp to stop playing, no one
goes over there and asks, "What's wrong? Are you OK?" or "Somebody call sick bay!"
I LOVE Nichelle Nichols singing in this episode!
She sings again in "The Changling"
RUMINATIONS---
Attention all people who are fed up with the
SCI-FI channel hacking "Star Trek" episodes
Invest in a DVD player and buy the episodes
on DVD.
They are uncut and uninterrupted.
Best Costume / Wardrobe Winner!
Grace Lee Whitney (Rand) in her nightgown!
Ruminations:
Best special effect....
The Yeoman's face "erased" by Charlie in the corridor when he yells, "No laughing!!!"
It's an eerie moment.
To save money on this episode the producers decided not to show the crew of the Antares beaming off the Enterprise.
GREAT MOMENT....
Watch Kirk's head in several scenes of this episode...all he has to do is twitch it a certain way and Spock knows what to do.
One twitch from Kirk speaks volumes!
This happens quite a bit in TOS and is missing in TNG
Before this episode, Charlie never met a girl...
he implied that when he left the transporter room...
However, he says to Rand..."You smell like a girl"
How does he know what a girl smells like if he never met one before this episode?
Also Charlie practices his ventriloquism in the same scene when you hear him say, "Like you..."
His jaw doesn't move an inch, but the words come forth anyway....musta got it from Kirk or McCoy
When Kirk talks to Charlie about the swat in the corridor, Kirk's shirt has a very visible zipper on it that is never seen on any of his other yellow shirts.
The opening and closing credits of this episode have been changed since the early (film) days of syndication.
First, the original and closing theme music heard in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was replaced by the later first-season theme music in the first few episodes.
Also both this episode and "The Man Trap" (the first two episodes shown on NBC) were originally the only first-season episodes with the "Created by Gene Roddenberry" credit. The word "starring" did not appear above William Shatner's name and the word "and" did not appear above Leonard Nimoy's name. Also, William Shatner narrates the opening too fast and ends too soon before the actual theme starts.
And finally, only in the original "Charlie X" was the familiar Desilu music missing...in its place was music from the "Mission: Impossible" soundtrack.
I don't have Paramount's video release of "Charlie X" so I don't know if it includes the original credits or not. NOTE: The Sci-Fi Channel returned the original video portion of the opening credit but not the audio.
When Charlie throws Kirk and Spock against the wall in Rand's quarters and they slump to the floor, you can see a large tear in the wall above Spock's head. Later in the same scene, the tear has disappeared. The only explanation is that Charlie must have fixed it. At least he learned *some* manners on the Enterprise!
Nits: Kirk refers to "entertainment tapes". Would that be anything like videotapes? I thought that TV, per TNG, "died" in the 21st century. Rand refers to the "ship's stores". Why would a moneyless society need stores? I guess shoppers just go in and take whatever they want. Well, at least, shoplifting would be non-existent in the 23rd century.
Television, per se, that is broadcasting video and audio over radio waves, is dead, but visual and audio entertainment aren't. Although most of the programs are available from the ship's computer, perhaps the Captain has his own private stock of favorites.
Stores, as in "ship's stores," is often used as a synonym for "supplies" or the place where such supplies are kept ("stored").
Nowhere in the original TOS episodes is it implied that the 23rd century is a society without money, indeed, many references to money occur throughout the original series ("Mudd's Women", "The Apple", "The Trouble With Tribbles", et. al.) It was not until Star Trek IV that Kirk claimed his time didn't use money.
Robert Walker must have dropped the "Jr." from his name shortly after doing this episode. In the Time Tunnel episode in which he plays Billy the Kid, he is billed as just plain "Robert Walker". That episode was made shortly after "Charlie X".
I found out that Robert Walker's mother was Jennifer Jones, the actress. That surprised me. Also, Walker was in in "Easy Rider" in the role of Jack. And yes, he did drop the "Jr." in his later career, I believe.
Charlie can make Spock laugh if he wants to...OK..so why didn't Charlie make Rand kiss him after so many resistances?
True, he may have wanted her to do it voluntarily...but.....I believe I'll postpone.
Captain Ramart says there are over 400 people on a starship, comparing it to the amount on the Antares. Well, isn't the Antares a starship? (Although it is probably non-aligned, and according to Bread And Circuses they are known as spaceships as opposed to starships, but surely not every commissioned ship has the same crew complement as the Enterprise.)
NANJAO: In Uhura's song she calls the crew astronauts. So when Chekov joins will he be a cosmonaut?
Kirk calls the chef "chief".
Sometimes the colony is referred to as Alpha 5 and sometimes just 5.
Perhaps he's the chief chef.
Kirk is probably talking to the ship's Chief Petty Officer, whose duties might include programming the food synths.
Just before the crew discovers they've lost helm control, there's a shot of the Enterprise warping thru space....it comes from the opening credits (complete with the "whoosh" noise")
There are several shots of the Enterprise that come from "The Cage" (aka "The Menagerie")
You can tell, they have those needles on the dome part of the naecelles
When the two men climb out of the Jeffries tube, one of them is holding a pointed plastic tool...it looks simular to the signaling device used by the landing party in "The Squire of Gothos"
I LOVE the little dance Uhura puts into her performance...we won't see her sing AND dance again until STV! (She only sings in "Conscience of the King" and "The Changling" but doesn't dance)
Charlie has been isolated virtually all his life, and when he spots Janice Rand, he's incredulous, and asks, "Is that a girl?" Then he walks around the ship, sees people just like him, and eventually meets Spock, who looks different. But guess what? No surprise on Charlie's part. I'd have thought seeing an alien for the first time (the Thasians don't count) he'd have had the same reaction he did to Janice, or at least like Captain Christopher.
Sci-Fi must be showing the same hacked-up copy that WPIX ran here in the NYC area for years. From what I remember, the chess game was dropped (stupidly, for reasons cited above.) The card trick with Rand, I believe, was also excised and the closing credits were completely dropped.
The music used as Charlie is begging to stay as the Thasian takes him was re-used in "Mark of Gideon" at the opening of Act One as Kirk is exploring the empty fake Enterprise and discovers he is alone. Some of my favorite Trek music, BTW.
It was also used for the death of John Gill in "Patterns of Force" - also one of my favorite Trek themes, but when the score for "Charlie X" was released on album, they appear to have mixed it badly.
You're right, Todd. Same music, different orchestration. Was the score released the original recording, or one of those re-recordings that came about in the mid 80's.
Speaking of the music, I find it interesting that a lot of third season episodes used music from the FIRST season. "Lights of Zetar" lifted whole chunks of the score for "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Trek always had top notch music, and I don't think the composers were ever appreciated (read Emmy or Grammy.)
I presume the reuse of music was to save money, as NBC's asking price was less than the production costs, or so I've heard.
In Allan Asherman's Star Trek Compendium, he is very critical of the third season as a whole. His criticisms are based on what he sees as a lack of continuity in the show during that season, specifically in the character of Spock. Asherman lists several examples of Spock's behavior during the third season that he says are out of character for him and that he would never do during the previous seasons. Among these are: participating in a concert and playing his harp for the crew in "Way to Eden", and reciting poetry while under alien influence in "Plato's Stepchildren". Yet in "Charlie X", a first-season episode, Spock both plays his harp for the entertainment of the crew and recites poetry while under Charlie's control and Asherman didn't seem to have a problem with this episode or Spock's characterization in it.
Until recently, ALL network license fees did not cover production costs. The producers ate some of the costs, hoping to make it up in later syndication. This changed in 1998, when NBC agreed to the ludicrous license fee of $13 million an episode for 66 episodes of "ER" over three seasons. (NBC was desperate to hold on to television's #1 show at that time.) "ER" is re-licensed now through 2004, but I don't know the financial details.
The re-use of music was to save money. The contract with the musicians union specified that they had to have a minimum of six (I think) episodes with a new score. (Shatner's "Memories" is more specific about this.)
Lawrence Dobkin, the director of this episode, still remains active. Just this week, he appeared an "NYPD Blue" as the father of a murdered man.
Like the way Phil explains most of Spock's season 3 bloopers as being caused by the brain removed & botch replacment in Spock's Brain.
In they gym, Charlie makes Sam the laughing crewman disappear, but the towel remains.
Charlie has the power to make people vanish, but not towels (?)
That doesn't make any sense
Maybe he read The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy & didn't want to take a chance on Sam being picked up by a friendly alien?
The gym, I believe, was a redress of the first season Engineering set. When the second season came around, Matt Jeffries must have done a good song and dance with Desilu/Paramount so he could build a much larger (hence more believable) engineering set.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY:
When Kirk & Charlie talk about Rand in Kirk's quarters, the Captain SHOULD have said, "Hands off, she's mine!"
I presume as an in-joke the service ducts were named Jeffries Tubes.
Yes, after Matt Jeffries.
GREAT ACTING MOMENT: When Charlie walks to the door, he jumps away after it opens...he didn't expect that to happen because he never saw a door like that before....even though it makes ya wonder...didn't the Antares have automakic doors? If not, why not?
I think it was more of a homage than an in-joke.
And no turkey jokes from you, Harlan Ellison!
Trivia Question: Who provides the voice of the galley chef who calls Kirk on the bridge to tell him there are real turkeys in the ovens? (Answer at the end of this passage.)
Because she’s puuuurrrty!
At the end of the episode, Rand reappears on the bridge, and when the Thasian’s image appears, he says he restored all those Charlie made disappear. So why didn’t the martial artist whom Charlie made disappear in the gym also reappear on the bridge?
And for desert, we have a choice of rape, murder, colonial imperialism, mass genocide and the non-fat small pox.
At one point, the galley chef tells Kirk over the comm that the Thanksgiving turkeys in the oven are real. Would people still be celebrating Thanksgiving in the 23rd century? Wouldn’t WWIII, the world government established on Earth in 2150, (as mentioned by Crusher in the beginning of Attached TNG)) and the the truth about what happened to the Native Americans after the first Thanksgiving have caused this holiday to go out of style?
Answer: Gene Roddenberry.
Luigi noted about Rand, "Because she’s puuuurrrty!" Ya, ain't kiddin', Luigi...as Rand leaves the Bridge, we get a glimpse of Rand's (Whitney's) BARE NAKED LEGS! Purr! Purr! Purr!
Hmmm... a few ruminations. After seeing the scene in the gym, I take back all I ever said about Seven's cat suit. I mean... I was Mesmerised!!! Loved the song - but as this is early Trek, we have Spock smiling, entering the joke. We won't see him so emotional again for years.
And was I the only one who noticed McCoy being very pally with Rand in her nightie??
GREAT MOMENTS:
The disappearing phasor...right out of the hands of the security guy.
The disappearing wall...right in front of Kirk & Spock.
Both flawlessly done! KUDOS!
Phil no doubt lists this one, but I don't have the book (and can't find a copy) so I'm gonna post it here anyways. When Uhura starts singing, Spock sighs and drops his left hand from the Lyre into his lap. Change camera, and Spock has both hands on the instrument. Unless he has three hands???
The riff Spock warms up with on the harp must be one of his favorite tune-up pieces . . . he plays the exact same strain of music while demonstrating the harp to Adam in "Way To Eden".
YET ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY:
Kirk giving Rand a "goodnight kiss" before she leaves the Bridge at the end of the show.
I would!
Heck, I'd follow her down to her quarters & tuck her in too!
>Unless he has three hands?
No, that's Arex, not Spock.
One of the red shirts in the Rec room is Mr. Leslie (Eddie Paskey)...However, he is not named in the episode nor is his name mentioned at all in the end credits.
Starfleet (or UESPA, or whatever it is at this point in the series) sure takes its sweet time about doing things. The crash that marooned Charlie on Thasus happened when he was three, and Starfleet finally gets around to sending a rescue ship 14 years later, when Charlie is seventeen?
Perhaps the Antares was the only ship in the quadrant...?
I have this episode on DVD. The high resolution can show the defects of Star Trek's sets.
Notice the two crewman lowering a pole into the floor of one of the Enterprise decks. The square hole, the pole is being lowered into, is supposed to be metal. Actually it is wood painted silver to look like metal. You can see the wood grain.
It was mentioned a year ago the comparison of Antares and Enterprise. Someone thought that Antares was of Starship size. Just before beaming back to Antares, the Antares captain mentioned there were only about 20 crew aboard his ship. Being "only" a cargo ship, the crew size would not need to be as large as a multifunctional Starship like Enterprise. The Antares captain also referred to the Enterprise as being a "city". Which implies that Antares is probably a much smaller ship.
They must have Jetson style hairdryers on the Enterprise. Janice Rand has a massively complex hairdo that either takes hours to put together or only a few minutes to put ON.
In the scene where Charlie takes the face of the woman (who wasn't even heard laughing), one of the male shadows still has his lips. What did Charlie do, take the woman's face and only freeze the men?
Where did Charlie learn to actually navigate a starship. He was at the helm station manually setting course in one scene.
Shortly after setting that course, he gave new meaning to "turbo"lift. Or more like turbodrop. That puppy flew down the tube.
Andy
Janice's rand's hairdo was in reality, a wig. I see a young lady on the subways with a similar style; she must use many cans of Aqua-Net daily to acheive that style.
Really? That 'basket-weave' look?
Man, I remember being so very fascinated with Rand's hair when I first became a Trekker (about age 12-13). For one thing I couldn't imagine how long it must be when she took it down - I pictured it sweeping the floor, Rapunzel-style.
Actually, to reply to a poster way above, iirc, the actor was just billed as Robert Walker (no Jr.) in this episode. I think we are simply used to hearing him referred to with the Jr., that we think he was billed this way (he may have been in other shows he did)
And I believe (iirc) their destination was "Colony Five," not "Alpha Five."
Sir Rhosis
I noticed the zipper on Kirk's shirt when I saw this ep the other night, John. First time in 37 years and who knows how many viewings.
In the scene in the rec room, there is a crewwoman standing in the background who looks a lot like Yeoman Tina Lawton.
When Spock announces checkmate in his chess game with Charlie, Charlie yells "No it isn't!" Did the guy on the Antares who taught him the rules not explain to him what checkmate was?
> GREAT ACTING MOMENT: When Charlie walks to the door, he jumps away after it opens...he didn't expect that to happen because he never saw a door like that before....even though it makes ya wonder...didn't the Antares have automakic doors? If not, why not? <
Just a thought, from an old Martin Mull song:
"It's great to be on a ship with men and sail across the sea, oh,
We don't know where we'll land or when, but it's great to be with men.
"Men, men, men,
We're a ship all filled with men,
So batten down the ladies' room, there's no one here but men!...
"Men, men, men,
We're a ship all filled with men,
You'll never have to lift the seat, there's no one here but men!
The Antares. A ship all filled with men. Yep, they dispensed with the doors. Whay would they need them?
Full text of the classic song at this link:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=men
About half-way down the page.
How does he know what a girl smells like if he
never met one before this episode? - John A. Lang on 2-17-2000
Maybe he knew that it was 1) a pleasant smell and 2) different from the way the men on the Enterprise and Antares smelled. The same way he realized she was a girl earlier - 1) pleasant to look at and 2) very different from the "guys".
**LESLIE ALERT**
Eddie Paskey appears in the Rec Room as Uhura sings her song about Spock.
NANJAO: During the first discussion of Charlie on the Bridge, Kirk shrugs off McCoy's nomination of Kirk as being a "father figure" to Charlie. Up until STII, we did not know that Kirk was already a father...to David Marcus. And seeing that Kirk failed in his role as a father to David, Kirk did not want to repeat the same mistake with Charlie.
John,
does Kirk know at this point in time that he has a son, David? I thought from the way he reacted in the movie, that Davids mother just went away, had the child and raised him herself, without ever telling Kirk the news.
A Kirk who is introspective enough to realize he has made a mistake and doesn't want to repeat it, that doesn't sound quite like the self-confident, brash Kirk usually seen on TOS (remember how often he bet the life of the whole crew on his abilities?)
Isn't Kirk's reaction in STII more of a 'Is that... David?' kind of reaction?
I seem to think he knew of David, but had never seen him. (Although when he found about David is unknown.)
I think he knew. Hence my posting the observation.
Just FYi I remember from one of the various comics (I think this was in the late eighties early ninties) set during the time between the first five year and the motion picture that he knew about David at that time but Carol wanted to raise him in a more stable environment than that of a military also maybe one of the novels had something about david and carol in it briefly set during the first five year mission. I at least think that i remember remembering that if you know what I mean.
I heard somewhere that there is a major nit in this episode, but I can't see it. Supposedly, when Charlie is on the medical bed, you can see his reflection somewhere in the room. But his reflection is standing up.
I can't really see this. Anyone find it?
Yep. It's there. You can see Charlie's reflection on the Medical Scanner when he's supposed to be lying down.
If you saw this episode on the Sci-Fi channel, the scene was probably deleted.
The ONLY way to see TOS uncut is on DVD
About 27 years ago, someone mentioned that this was the only TOS episode to feature the word 'Earthlings'. Not so - the Vians did also in "The Empath".
Also the Gorn in "Arena." (singular form)
And possibly the Excalbian in "The Savage Curtain."
There's a three dimensional checkers set on the same table as the 3D chess set.
CG enhancing: Following up on an idea in the Space: 1999 threads, if Star Trek the Classic Series could be enhanced with CG, these are ideas I have for this episode.
While Charlie is pushing the blocks on the wall so McCoy can check his heart, Charlie's face reflects in the glass of the medical panel. Yet, Charlie is on his back. I... suppose... you could make it sharper and look like a profile image that McCoy can watch both readings and facial appearance at the same time, but the reflection should look more like a deliberate "overlay" or "watermark".
When Charlie asks to come to the bridge (as the Antares is about to be destroyed), Kirk is wearing gold with black collar, but he arrives on the bridge wearing his green V-neck shirt. Digitally change one or the other?
When Rand activates her comm unit (to let the bridge know that Charlie crashed her quarters), a light goes off (instead of on). Perhaps this could be fixed with a bit of computer graphic legerdemain.
Before Charlie walks in on Kirk and Spock playing chess, the door is open, with a crewmember standing in it, then there's a close-up with the door closed. Digitally make it look open with a vanishing shadow, then slide closed with appropriate sound? When Charlie walks in, the door sound effect is off (better call maintenance?!). When Charlie leaves Rand's quarters, the door doesn't open all the way.
Who do yout think would win a telekenisis fight between Charlie and Anthony Freemont of The Twilight Zone?
Charlie reacts with surprise on his first sight of Janice Rand and says "Is that a girl?" We are supposed to believe that this is the first time he has seen a female.
So . . . there were no female Thasians?
The image of the Thasian which appears on the bridge at the end of this episode looks like a normal human male. Of course, as the Thasian explains to Kirk, he took that form so that he could communicate with him. But wouldn't the Thasians have done this with Charlie as well?
There may be female Thasians, but why should they look like Human females? (Ignoring the fact that most females in the ST universe look like Human females, of course.) Logically there is no reason why alien females should have long hair & two noticable breasts. (It just seems that way on TV because there are no aliens in the Screen Actors Guild & too many producers seem to think female = Human female.)
The notable exception being, of course, Farscape. See The Flax.
There's also the Horta. ;-)
Of course, I'm one to talk seeing that I gave in to the cliché in this cartoon & this cartoon.
I'll go hang my head in shame now.
well, most of the races that we see appear to be mammals, so it is natural for them to have mammary glands
Like the Platypus, Echidna & Kangaroo? ;-)
I'm also reminded of some pin-ups done by some Furry artists I know involving catgirls with 4 or more breasts. A freakish, but certainly non-human, mammalian appearance.
If you've seen the cult classic sixties film "Easy Rider", you may or may not know that Robert Walker Jr. appears briefly in the movie. He leads the commune in prayer before a meal. Heavily bearded, he is virtually almost unrecognizable as the telekenitic teen who terrorized the Enterprise.
After Charlie makes "Sam" vanish, the camera pulls back and shows the area behind the mesh screen empty. What happened to those two guys with the "Whammy Sticks"? What happened to the "Tumbling girls"?
Is the X in this episode for Charlie X-Men 