Stardate 1533.6 through 1535.8
Approximately 2266 AD
"Is that a girl?" asks Charlie when he sees a girl for the first time in his 17 year old life. This question should probably set off some alarms in Captain Kirk's head but of course if he knew something was wrong this early in the episode there wouldn't be as much drama. Kirk and crew just picked up a mysterious young man named Charlie from the cargo vessel Antares and has been tasked to transport him to colony Alpha V. The crew of the Antares found Charlie on planet Thasus where he was the sole survivor of an accident and, consequently, raised himself from age 3. Charlie claimed to have taught himself to speak from the crashed ship's memory and fed himself off of the food stores. We learn later that Mr. Spock does not believe this story.
Charlie quickly becomes infatuated with Youman Janice Rand (honestly though, who hasn't?) who makes it abundantly clear to Charlie that she is not interested. But Charlie insists, managing to know exactly what Janice's favorite things are and making them appear out of thin air. Turns out Charlie acquired psychic powers from the Thasusians which allow him to read thoughts(?), and make people and things appear and disappear.
While I am a big fan of Captain Kirk, I am moderately disappointed in Kirk as a captain in this episode. We learn early on that Charlie looks up to Kirk as a father figure, unfortunately for Charlie Kirk is a really bad father figure, at least he is in this episode. When Charlie asks Kirk about basic developmental things like, why is it bad to slap Janice Rand on the butt? Captain Kirk clams up and is utterly incapable of explaining important life lessons. This is actually kind of disconcerting considering Kirk is a captain of a starship that is home to 428 people. You would think that Kirk's basic duties are being a leader and father figure. Aside from not being nurturing to poor Charlie, captain Kirk can certainly be an authority, managing to subdue Charlie with his sweaty stare down on multiple occasions. This further lends to the idea that poor Charlie needs this kind of person in his life
The ending is actually kind of sad. Charlie is a 17 year old with the emotional maturity of a 3 year old. While he did an egregious crime halfway through the episode I can't help but feel bad for Charlie as he has never had the opportunity to develop and learn around real people. Unfortunately Captain Kirk's awkward attempts at being a father figure and inability to understand Charlie's developmental stage didn't really help. I suppose this character flaw in Kirk can be forgiven as this is a very early episode and the writers are still trying to figure out who this Kirk fellow is.
"Is that a girl?" asks Charlie when he sees a girl for the first time in his 17 year old life. This question should probably set off some alarms in Captain Kirk's head but of course if he knew something was wrong this early in the episode there wouldn't be as much drama. Kirk and crew just picked up a mysterious young man named Charlie from the cargo vessel Antares and has been tasked to transport him to colony Alpha V. The crew of the Antares found Charlie on planet Thasus where he was the sole survivor of an accident and, consequently, raised himself from age 3. Charlie claimed to have taught himself to speak from the crashed ship's memory and fed himself off of the food stores. We learn later that Mr. Spock does not believe this story.
Charlie quickly becomes infatuated with Youman Janice Rand (honestly though, who hasn't?) who makes it abundantly clear to Charlie that she is not interested. But Charlie insists, managing to know exactly what Janice's favorite things are and making them appear out of thin air. Turns out Charlie acquired psychic powers from the Thasusians which allow him to read thoughts(?), and make people and things appear and disappear.
While I am a big fan of Captain Kirk, I am moderately disappointed in Kirk as a captain in this episode. We learn early on that Charlie looks up to Kirk as a father figure, unfortunately for Charlie Kirk is a really bad father figure, at least he is in this episode. When Charlie asks Kirk about basic developmental things like, why is it bad to slap Janice Rand on the butt? Captain Kirk clams up and is utterly incapable of explaining important life lessons. This is actually kind of disconcerting considering Kirk is a captain of a starship that is home to 428 people. You would think that Kirk's basic duties are being a leader and father figure. Aside from not being nurturing to poor Charlie, captain Kirk can certainly be an authority, managing to subdue Charlie with his sweaty stare down on multiple occasions. This further lends to the idea that poor Charlie needs this kind of person in his life
The ending is actually kind of sad. Charlie is a 17 year old with the emotional maturity of a 3 year old. While he did an egregious crime halfway through the episode I can't help but feel bad for Charlie as he has never had the opportunity to develop and learn around real people. Unfortunately Captain Kirk's awkward attempts at being a father figure and inability to understand Charlie's developmental stage didn't really help. I suppose this character flaw in Kirk can be forgiven as this is a very early episode and the writers are still trying to figure out who this Kirk fellow is.