Either that, or give her an adult son instead of a teen.
Wesley Crusher: Starfleet's Unsung Hero or Overhyped Prodigy?
- Thread starter whacks
- Start date
Brilliant child prodigies are hard to write. Actually, if memory serves, quasi contemporary show Seaquest DSV did a good job with their child prodigy.
But I think the fandom soured on him due to season 1 and he could never really rebound.
As far as the actor goes, they just read the lines. If the writers write a bad part, it’s not their fault. They’re just collecting a check and try acting the role as bast as they can.
It’s usually when the actors get more control over scripts that things go south (see nemesis )
But I think the fandom soured on him due to season 1 and he could never really rebound.
As far as the actor goes, they just read the lines. If the writers write a bad part, it’s not their fault. They’re just collecting a check and try acting the role as bast as they can.
It’s usually when the actors get more control over scripts that things go south (see nemesis )
Wesley was fine when he got an "age appropriate" epsiode. (ie The Dauphin). That's what he should have been doing - not hanging round the bridge.
No matter how brilliant Crusher was, he has neither the training, the experience nor the emotional intelligence, at that age, to be somewhere so important.
No matter how brilliant Crusher was, he has neither the training, the experience nor the emotional intelligence, at that age, to be somewhere so important.
The Enterprise Crew was supposedly the best of the best
Wesley could at the very least hold his own with the senior officers, presumably the best of the best of the best. He saved the ship on more than one occasion, had outstanding references
But in "Coming of Age" he struggled with the entrance exam and was ultimately deemed "not good enough"
Perhaps it's Picard pulling some strings on behalf of Beverly to keep her child on board - Beverly left a few weeks later to head up Starfleet medical and was going to take Wesley with her.
Wesley could at the very least hold his own with the senior officers, presumably the best of the best of the best. He saved the ship on more than one occasion, had outstanding references
But in "Coming of Age" he struggled with the entrance exam and was ultimately deemed "not good enough"
Perhaps it's Picard pulling some strings on behalf of Beverly to keep her child on board - Beverly left a few weeks later to head up Starfleet medical and was going to take Wesley with her.
I mean, even Marina Sirtis was annoyed, that "this kid" saved the ship, but here I have to disagree with Miss Sirtis and as I already stated on the SFDebris forum:
I never got the hatred for the guy - he was just a normal kid (albeit highly intelligent, apparently), trying to live his live. And by the way, I never understood the "Oh, the Ship is saved by that kid again"-part, either.
When I watched television, and a kid was on the show, even if the episode dealt with the problems of said kid, it never interacted with the series regulars in a meaningful way. It was there, said two, three sentences and then it was off, never be seen again.
And then, there were Wesley and later on Naomi, kids, who interacted with the main cast, who did stuff, that was meaningful. Naomi even got her own subplot of being afraid of Seven and then ending up as one of her best friends. I have to say - I loved that.
I loved, that Janeway basically allowed her to be her personal assistant, I loved, that Picard allowed Wesley to pilot the ship. It was more, than could be said for the rest of television landscape, where 'the kid' was there to look cute, be funny or sad, then eat some ice cream with a side character and - like I said - was off, never to be seen again, even if it was basially the kids episode.
The sad thing is, that even Wil Wheaton is now in on the "Yeah, Wesley was terrible"-train. Shows, what happens, if people always bitch and moan about "how bad" a character would be - sometimes even the actor believes that bullshit.
I was in highschool when TNG debuted, and perhaps the underlying problem for me is that he never struck me as being a 'normal kid'. He struck me as a goody two-shoes who didn't have any of the problems I had, didn't typically interact or seem to want to interact with anyone in his own age bracket, got special treatment by dint of being allowed on the bridge and all, and then proved to be smarter than the senior staff on more than one occasion. None of that strikes me as normal for someone his age. The main reasons I like him more as time goes on is that a) he grows older and his social patterns make more sense, b) a lot of the things I just noted get filed down.
Jake Sisko was a normal kid.
Naomi wasn't necessarily normal, but she was born and raised in exceptional circumstances.
Jake Sisko was a normal kid.
Naomi wasn't necessarily normal, but she was born and raised in exceptional circumstances.
Naomi had growing up on the ship going for her - she was there because she had to be, from birth (being stranded a long way from her mom's home), and viewers got to see her be raised in a 24th century environment, not just be plopped down with brain and personality fully formed. Jake's introduction was as an ordinary child/(pre)teen who had lost his mother and was moving to a new home - very relatable to the 20th/21st century viewers.
Wesley, on the other hand, was just presented as this smart kid who mostly got to hang around with the adults (unless he was being kidnapped), whether because his mom was a senior staff member, or he was just that smart, or both, depending on who you asked. Give him a friend his own age who isn't a one-episode wonder with no character development, and he might have been better developed himself.
Wesley, on the other hand, was just presented as this smart kid who mostly got to hang around with the adults (unless he was being kidnapped), whether because his mom was a senior staff member, or he was just that smart, or both, depending on who you asked. Give him a friend his own age who isn't a one-episode wonder with no character development, and he might have been better developed himself.
Enterprise had lots of families on board, they definitely should've shown Wesley interacting with the other kids more often, even if he was one of the oldest. There's no reason why he couldn't both go to school on Enterprise with other kids and do some special project that involved getting him to interact with the bridge crew sometimes. Actually, he probably did, but they should've showed more of that, even if I sort of understand why they didn't, I suspect they were afraid that too many kid-focused episodes would annoy the fans, and instead we got Wesley on his own, who also annoyed a sizable percentage of the fans...
Jake Sisko's my favorite of the Trek kids by far, and one thing I really, really liked was the fact that he knew from a very young age that he didn't want to go to Starfleet because his interests and talents lay elsewhere. By the time DS9 was on the air, I was a college student, so a bit older than Jake, but I could relate to him a bit because both of my parents are retired academics in a niche field and my sister followed in their footsteps. I sometimes joke that I'm the black sheep in my family because I decided to study something completely different. Thankfully my parents never gave me a hard time about that, even if I was afraid as a high school senior that I was disappointing them by choosing something else. So when Jake worried about how his father would feel about him not wanting to go to Starfleet, I could really relate, and I'm glad Sisko accepted that like my parents did, "it's your life, you should do what makes you happy, and if you're happy, we're happy."
I remember thinking Wesley Crusher was annoying when I watched the original TNG airings as a kid, but recently I've been watching the series on DVD (first time watching since the original airings); I've just gotten to the season 4 episode that was his last regular appearance and I didn't really find him annoying this time around. I think it's because -- between the time of the original airings and now -- I've seen characters in TV shows and movies that were drastically more annoying than him, and now he seems mild by comparison.
As a side note, ever since I was a kid, whenever I've seen Wil Wheaton, I don't think of him as Wesley Crusher, I think of him as the kid from a Family Ties episode where he played a kid who Jennifer Keaton had a crush on. She liked the way he said "Indians." That was my first impression of him and when I watched the first episode of TNG on the night it originally aired, I said to my older brother, "Isn't that's the 'Indians' kid from Family Ties?"
As a side note, ever since I was a kid, whenever I've seen Wil Wheaton, I don't think of him as Wesley Crusher, I think of him as the kid from a Family Ties episode where he played a kid who Jennifer Keaton had a crush on. She liked the way he said "Indians." That was my first impression of him and when I watched the first episode of TNG on the night it originally aired, I said to my older brother, "Isn't that's the 'Indians' kid from Family Ties?"
Yeah. I never saw that movie when it was new. I'm not sure how I missed it, since I watched pretty much all of the popular movies back then, but the first time I saw that one was about 5 years ago.
Massively overhyped and would never have been put on the bridge of a starship let alone the flagship if the captain weren't enamoured with his mother.
Now this works for Wesley's overall arc, when the favouritism and nepotism was stripped away he didn't do so well. He just wasn't suited to being a Starfleet officer and never was but was pushed into it.
But then he found his place in the universe and as we saw in Picard season 2 he's doing just fine.
Now this works for Wesley's overall arc, when the favouritism and nepotism was stripped away he didn't do so well. He just wasn't suited to being a Starfleet officer and never was but was pushed into it.
But then he found his place in the universe and as we saw in Picard season 2 he's doing just fine.