“Charlie X” does an alright job as a thriller yet doesn’t quite materialize. The story and acting fail to complement each other in this remake of a Twilight Zone classic (where young Billy Mumy manages to sell his sinister character). The premise is outstanding and it’s a shame so little was properly done to explore a human child raised by aliens then returned to humanity. As presented though it’s not clear whether we’re to sympathize with Charlie or recoil in horror that he’s such a monster with no regard for life.

Robert Walker Jr. does a passable but not quite convincing job as Charlie Evans. At twenty-six he can’t portray a teenager despite his thespian skill and the script (or the actor) should have been adjusted accordingly. (No fault to either, they just don’t play well together.) Instead a grating contradiction is left at what is shown and what is known about adolescent nature. The weird eye thing is freaky but the effect would have been better served with anything less similar than Gary Mitchell (who never thought about removing the brig wall altogether!).

The cast is in unquestionably good form. When out of his zippered shirt (or not changing them in the turboelevator!) Kirk gets some time in the gym, and Mr. Ears gets to deliver a chess lesson to a very unhappy piece melter. The interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy grows even more developed. Grace Lee Whitney gets several moments as object of every young man’s dream. (That is indeed a girl!) Uhura gets lots of good screen time and the voice of Gene Roddenberry can be heard in the background talking Thanksgiving turkey as Enterprise chef (not unexpectedly another missed opportunity for Series V).

It’s not explained satisfactorily why the Thasians couldn’t take the power from Charlie as easily as they gave it, leaving the ending unnecessarily chilling (stay … stay … stay …). The victims of the Antares aren’t developed enough for the audience to mourn them, and the Thasian restores all other damage like yeoman no-face and lizard-girl Tina Lawton. That’s OK. (What is absolutely, positively unforgivable though is that the DVD transfer doesn’t contain the original butt-slapping that prompts Charlie to do the same to Janice later! Whoever pulled that out, needs to “go away.”) “There’s a million things in this universe you can have, and a million things you can’t have.” It would have been nice to have a fully mature episode but like its titular character, that’s just how things are.


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