Oh, it is tough to be a teenager. Poor Charlie X, sole survivor of a remote colony, brought up by hyperintelligent amorphous beings (the Thasians, if you must know) and blessed with unstoppable powers. He could have anything, but all he wants is Yeoman Rand. Watch Charlie cross his eyes and melt Spock’s 3-D Chess pieces. Watch him make Uhura lose her voice. (Can’t blame him on that one — Uhura can sing, but could there be a more atonal song than her love ode to Spock? I’ve seen this episode 900 times and I still can’t pick out a melody!) Watch him vaporize Kirk’s “workout partner” in the tight red dance pants for “not being very nice.” It’s funny, ’cause the chick Yeoman Rand tries to hook him up with is actually a much hotter core of dilithium crystals than she is. But Charlie doesn’t go for it. Even in space, love is blind. . .
LOL. Totally agree with you on the “melody” part and she blows it big time. Her tonality is off on a number of parts. She was like that though. She would start out very good then lose her pitch for some reason. I am thinking it is a case of thinking she was so good she did not have to practice.
Even Julie Andrews had to practice. But Eurethura was black and it is in their soul and they don’t need to practice like the whitees do.
Kidding on the racial slur there. but if you listen to her in later years she is black through and through. A nigger if you will no doubt about it.
I would have given it an extra star. It deserves five.
The gradual descent of Charlie into his inevitable narcissistic god-like power trip is even more terrifying than “The Man Trap.” We initially want to like him, but like the ill-fated freighter crew who transported Charlie to the Enterprise, we end up afraid of what he will do or say next.
Dorothy Fontana’s first Trek outing is haunting and extremely disturbing. The image of the young girl with no face feeling her way around the corner is the stuff of nightmares, and must have kept some kids up at night thinking about the horror of Charlie’s wrath.
Not since Bill Mumy sent people “into the cornfield” on the Twilight Zone has there been a child or adolescent so brutally frightening. Yet somehow, I always end up feeling sorry for Charlie in the end. Such is the power of Fontana’s script and her vivid characterization (so convincingly played by Robert Walker, Jr.) of the young Charles Evans.
Criticize Nichelle Nichols’ singing ability all you want, but I can pinpoint the melody she’s singing the whole time. I guess you don’t listen to much jazz.
Thanks for all of your efforts reviewing the entire franchise. Quite entertaining! Bravo!
(BTW, Sven’s racist rant above should be in consideration for deletion. This is 2012, right?)
No Troy you are dead wrong there. A racist slur is from someone who hates the people they speak of. I have many black friends that I admire and respect. They are good people.
Even they do not like Nichols. The facts I stated are from observation not racism.
You should learn to comprehend what you read more.