Review of "Star Trek Starfleet Academy The Return of Charlie X"

 Review of

Star Trek Starfleet Academy The Return of Charlie X

Five out of five stars

One of the characteristics of the Star Trek original series is that many of the villains were sympathetic figures. That tone was set in the second pilot that became the episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” In that episode, the Enterprise encounters a barrier and Crewman Gary Mitchell (close friend of Captain Kirk) is transformed into a being with incredible powers. Although Kirk is forced to kill his friend, the viewer is sympathetic to Mitchell and experiences the same regret that he had to be killed.

 Something similar takes place in the second episode of the series, “Charlie X.” In it a boy (Charlie Evans) now seventeen is taken aboard the Enterprise. He was the only survivor of a crash on the planet Thasus and the natives gave him enormous mental powers so that he could survive. However, he is an adolescent boy that has never experienced the undulating phases of human existence and it is not long before his powers are a danger to the Enterprise and her crew. The situation is resolved only when the Thasians return and take Charlie away. The best point of the movie is when Yeoman Rand cries for Charlie out of sympathy for his plight.

 In this comic episode, Charlie returns as powerful as ever and just as eager to generate havoc and danger as he was before. However, this time there is a powerful telepath among the Starfleet personnel and so they don’t have to rely on the powerful male father figure to tame him. Once again the battle is for survival and again the members of Starfleet are able to overcome Charlie and beat him, but just barely.

 The timeframe of the story is during the Federation war with the Dominion with their brutal army of Jem’Hadar. This story closes with a powerful cliffhanger where the Jem’Hadar are about to attack a defenseless planet within Federation space. If they can control the creatures of that planet, they may have a weapon that will allow them to easily defeat the Federation and their allies.