Trivia / Star Trek S1 E2 "Charlie X"

• The Cast Showoff: The first-draft script featured Uhura as a trained mimic, who amused crewmembers by parodying her fellow officers in the recreation room. It was later turned into her performing a song, to fit Nichelle Nichols' musical talents.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Grace Lee Whitney named this as one of her favourites.
  "Charlie X" brought out another side of me, the woman looking at a younger man. That was also wonderful because I felt an allegiance to Captain Kirk.
• Dawson Casting: Robert Walker Jr. was 26 when he played the 17 year old Charlie Evans.
• Deleted Scene: A strange bit of dialog present in the teleplay was cut from the episode: when discussing the possible existence of Thasians, and Kirk's possible father-figure behavior to Charlie, Spock satirically asks McCoy, "Shall I schedule you to give him voodoo and superstition lessons, doctor?" McCoy replies, "You can if he provides his own chicken's teeth and penguin feathers.", and Spock tells him, "I'll see to it, doctor."
• Descended Creator: Gene Roddenberry has an uncredited Voice Cameo as the Enterprise Mess Officer (the ship's chef?).
• Dyeing for Your Art: William Shatner had his chest shaved for this episode. In the next episode to be aired, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he clearly has a hairy chest, as that episode was filmed a good year before this one.
• Edited for Syndication: During the syndication run, the following scenes were typically cut from broadcast:
  • Extended scenes from Charlie's beam-in to the Enterprise.
  • Scenes of crewmen working in the corridor, including a scene where Charlie observes two men saying "You've got a deal friend". In the syndicated version, it was never explained where Charlie learned the expression or why he smacked Janice Rand on her rear when repeating. In a remastered Version this cut was restored.
  • Spock smiling while Uhura talks to him just before the musical session in the crewmen's lounge. In a remastered Version this cut was restored.
  • Kirk talking to Charlie in his cabin. In a remastered version, this cut was restored.
  • Women exercising in leotards when Charlie and Kirk enter the ship's gym. At the end of the gym scene, several additional tense moments were cut of Kirk demanding Charlie go to his quarters. In a remastered Version this cut was restored.
  • Extended briefing room discussion about Charlie and his abilities. In a remastered Version this cut was restored.
  • Additional scenes of Charlie angrily moving through the ship's corridor where he freezes a female crewman and shoves past three men; he also turns a young female crewman into an old woman. In a remastered version, these cuts were restored.
  • Extended scenes on the bridge with Charlie pleading not to be returned to Thasia. In a remastered version, this cut was restored.
  • Extended scenes in Kirk's cabin where Kirk askes Charlie about the melted Chess pieces. In a remastered version, this cut was restored.
• Method Acting: Robert Walker Jr. chose to remain in his dressing room and not interact with any members of the cast as this would help his characterization of a strange, aloof person.
• Prop Recycling: The Antares crewmembers are wearing turtleneck shirts from the two pilots, complete with a new ship-specific insignia. In the second half of the episode, Charlie is wearing an unused costume originally designed for Kirk for "The Enemy Within".
• Recycled Set: The ship's gymnasium makes its first and only appearance in the series. It was originally intended to be seen in more episodes, as some of the shots showing acrobatics and gymnastics there were filmed as intended stock footage for reuse later. The gymnasium was a redress of the engineering set. The room where the gymnasts are tumbling is the redecorated briefing room.
• Voice-Only Cameo: The galley chef was voiced by Gene Roddenberry, in his only acting role in the series.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The final draft script called for the Antares to be seen, dwarfed by the Enterprise. This shot was created in the Remastered Version.
  • A strange bit of dialogue present in the teleplay was cut from the episode: when discussing the possible existence of Thasians, and Kirk's possible father-figure behavior to Charlie, Spock satirically asked McCoy, "Shall I schedule you to give him voodoo and superstition lessons, doctor?" McCoy replied, "You can if he provides his own chicken's teeth and penguin feathers," to which Spock told him, "I'll see to it, doctor".
  • In the final draft script, a remnant of Uhura's mimicking of other crewmembers still remained; just before she sang, Rand suggested to her, "Do someone. Do the captain," but Uhura replied, "No, I've done him. Someone else… let's see…" It was then that Uhura started singing about Spock.
• Working Title: The Day Charlie Became God and Charlie Is God. These would almost certainly have been problematic to the network censors, so the title was changed to Charlie's Law, then settled on Charlie X, as X denotes the unknown.
  • James Blish's short-story adaptation (based on a working version of the script, but not the shooting script nor the final screened version) uses the title Charlie's Law, with a piece of dialogue between Rand and Charlie where she explains that "Charlie's Law" is "Everyone better be nice to Charlie, or else".

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