Wil Wheaton Proves That People Liked Wesley Crusher

[Common Knowledge]

I never really noticed Wesley much when watching TNG, there didn't seem to be that many episodes revolving around him and I always viewed him as a support character more than anything else.

Dr. Polasky constantly calling Data a tin can really annoyed me though.

 

[Rect Pola]

I never hated Wesley, but I could see how he was a total Mary-Sue character(before I even knew that term), and was practically perfect in nearly every way.

Other than the super smarts, he was a pretty flawed character, I think. Always searching for a father figure, socially awkward and constantly saying the wrong thing. If he was suave, debonair, AND smart, I'd see your point, but I don't think that was Wesley at all.

When he actually became a character (besides standard bridge crew) every episode that used him had him save the day and be the only one who could do it because the rest of the cast was willfully stupid and unaware of whatever he noticed or figured out. But whenever he was away, this handicap dissolved and the crew of the flagship was effectual again. They've used other young officers in single episodes before and never left the role of being lesser crew members finding their way through the ranks.

 

[Buchichu]

Me and every other preteen girl I knew who watched STNG crushed hard on Wesley (and I crushed on Wil Wheaton for YEARS before he was a god of geek) I'm very happy to see Wil getting the respect he deserves from a great community. He may not be as recognized in mainstream entertainment yet, but the people that count know he's awesome ^_^

 

[Kojiro ftt]

I hated him. But I like his new stuff. But Wesley needed to die.

 

[PrototypeC]

I didn't hate him because of his personality or ideals, or even that he was young; I hated him because he could literally go anywhere on the ship and do a better job than the people who had spent their lives learning their craft. It took away the efforts and humanity of the other characters, making all the flawed heroes we'd gotten to know and love just so much background fluff.

I guess not everyone feels that way...

Wesley Crusher could have been a great character that brought his own new flavour to the cast if the subtext wasn't that he was simply better than everyone else, especially you.

 

[Dorian6]

Wesley Crusher had the potential to be a good character, but was the unfortunate victim of shitty writing. He came across as a whiny, obnoxious Mary-Sue (see: Datalore).

While his character was horrible and made nerds everywhere want to murder a child, Wil Wheaton went on to become twelve kinds of awesome

And look at it this way....at least he's not Dr. Polaski

 

[Iwata]

No! No, no, no, no, no.

Wesley was an annoying, needless character that was brought in PRECISELY to appeal to kids, and just succeeded in making every scene he was in cringe-worthy. And looking back at it now, the look on Picard's face whenever he deals with Wesley suggests he wanted to murder him in his sleep.

 

[Kingsnake661]

Heh. Honestly, Crusher... was just there IMO. I didn't hate him at all. But it wasn't like he was a Fav. either. He was... a part of the crew. A bit player. He'd do his thing, and be done with it. I never much cared one way or the other. Honestly, As much as i like TNG, and i did, no one person stood out in the cast as *MY* Fav. charater. I just kind of liked the show. They all, just worked. *shrug*

 

[Frank Haugen]

This made me laugh. Maybe that's why we haven't seen him in any of the movies yet.

Don't forget that second he was in Will and Dianas wedding in Star Trek Nemesis, (though that might not count, as that movie was so horrible it took J. J. Abrams skill to make something more cringe-worthy)

-frank

 

[Jenifer Cappello]

I know this is an old thread, and I'm probably bringing up a very old argument, but I think everyone in most Wesley Crusher arguments keeps forgetting the ultimate and most important stage in Wesley's life: meeting the Traveller. The Traveller told Picard that Wesley was somebody like him, who would ultimately one day be capable of abilities like his way. Well, he implied so at least. And so isn't it obvious that the reason why Picard let Wesley do more around the ship than other crew members was because he knew that Wesley would someday have abilities far beyond them all, and he needed the chances to grow himself.

And later, when he leaves with the Traveller and leaves Starfleet, he makes that decision himself despite the fact that he will have to leave Starfleet and possibly this dimension to continue his growing, the final show that he's matured.

Just wanted to add this to the conversation.

 

[Christie Hurd]

I am a teenage girl who watches Star Trek and science fiction shows/movies and hates twilight...It's scary I know ... they actually do exist. Anyway, Wesley reaches to the teenagers and brings more of an audience. He's a different way to view Star Trek and some people liked Star Trek just the way it was adults only. But Wesley was a teenager and it showed in his difficulties and struggles and to adults many of his issues were petty. Therefore they didn't like the fact he was always there.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

I'm sure there's an element of ageism involved, but yeah, having kid come along and outperform professionals in their fields is a little mary-sue-ish. And no doubt having will weaton lead the cheerleading for wesley crusher isn't exactly a fair sampling of opinions

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Eh, to each their own, I suppose. I tend to like stuff other people don't, so I know what that's like...

 

[archie7699]

Loved SNG. Still watch the re-runs and still make up my own jokes when "launch a probe" jargon is used with Counselor Troy in the background. I do a spot-on Patrick Stewart impersonation questioning Worf and Commander Riker about their launching their own probes. Data and Tasha Yar are great fodder for bawdy jokes, as well. Do you think Data was telescopic? I was an original Star Trek nerd, and I'm still one. Used to hide around a corner in 1967-68 to watch it late at night on it's first run when I was a little kid (when I was supposed to be in bed). I could only see the screen at a thin angle, but I loved the show more than anything else and it was the hot topic in Elementary School. The network tried to kill it by putting it on late at night, 10 PM EST I think it was. But I am definitely a Wesley Crusher hater. When Lore was threatening "he'll be shrieking" I was going, yeah! Light him up! I didn't like him because he was such a know-it-all and a Momma's boy. He quits Star Fleet to travel the universe with his "male companion", The Traveler. Now, that was funny!