The Man Trap / Charlie X

Tonight we watched the first two episodes of the original Star Trek series: The Man Trap and Charlie X.

Synopses

The Man Trap
During a "routine" mission on a remote planet, a crewman mysteriously dies.  A shape-shifting monster goes around stealing the salt out of people's bodies.  Crew deaths?  4.

Charlie X
A spooky kid is rescued from a crash after 14 years in solitude.  He gets on-board and immediately starts melting things with his mind and creeping on Janice.  Spock encourages Kirk to be a father figure.

Reactions

The martial arts were different back then.
Or, will be different then, eventually.
Whatever.

Monsters!  Theremins!  3D chess!  Punching with clasped hands!  Console burns!  For me, all familiar old Trek tropes.

But as a first-timer on the original series, some things really surprised me.  Where are Chekov and Scotty?  Are they not introduced until later?  Why is Shatner wearing a weird green uniform, seemingly at random?

I was also surprised by Uhura's flirtation with Spock.  I had assumed that the Spock/Uhura thing was an invention of the J.J. Abrams movies.  Also, Spock plays the lute!  I had no idea.

Fun fact:  Light bulbs that illuminate the
entire face were not invented until 1967.

One scene keeps bothering me.  At one point in The Man Trap, Uhura encounters a strange crewman in the hallway.  He starts out being a bit forward, and quickly transitions to creepy and physically menacing.  Some other people show up and she runs off, but at no point does she report him to anyone.

I guess not reporting it was not troubling to audiences in 1966, but it is a bit unsettling to me now.

Charlie X really reminded me of a TNG episode called Suddenly Human, in which the Enterprise rescues a human kid who was raised by aliens.  Picard reluctantly agrees to try to be a father figure and teach the kid about being human.  But nobody gets melted or disappeared.  In some ways, Charlie X had more in common with The Twilight Zone.

I am so glad we're doing this.  I can't wait to see what's next.  Happy New Year!