Wesley Crusher: Discuss

[daltysmilth]

I thought I'd bring this up here since this is a Star Trek thread.  So my question to you is this, Wesley Crusher: what do you think?  Hate him?  Sorta see what they were going for with the character but still aren't too fond of him specifically?  Kinda like him, at least more than Tasha Yar?  Or out and out like him? 

Me, I kinda like the little nerdball.  At least up until the episode where the Enterprise has force the Native Americans leave their planet so the Cardassians can take it over.  (Those Cardassians are bastards, by the way, aren't they?  Why can't they just leave the space Indians alone?  They're not hurting anyone?  Well, they [the Cardassians] can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned.)  For a show that time and again claimed that all religion is fraudulent, there is no God, and people who believe in any kind of higher being is an irredeemable sucker, Star Trek: The Next Generation could get very preachy.

But getting back to the topic, Wesley Crusher was allright, although I do see why some people got annoyed with his presence.  It did seem like he showed up the adults more than a few times.  But the worst instance of this is in the episode where everyone on the Enterprise was addicted to the mind-controlling video game.  (An episode I'm convinced was probably inspired by Tetris.  Can't you just imagine the TNG writers with their Gameboys out, moving those blocks around, listening to the catchy music, when suddenly they realize they've been playing for four hours and not getting any work done?  They look at their watches and say "Dammit!  I did it again!  This game is evil!  Evil, I tells ya!")

But again, my digressions aside, what do you all think of Wesley Crusher?

[mrbasehart]

I never liked the way they handled his character when he was at Starfleet Academy.  The whole episode where they get that flying manuever wrong and there's the trial was pretty good, but then he up and leaves? It makes no sense for the character who has wanted to be on a starship his entire life.  Then he disappears with that alien traveller guy? Stupid! 

On a completely unrelated note: Marina Sirtis has the sexiest collarbones I've ever seen.  When they started dressing her in a Starfleet uniform, I was very unhappy. 

[Dirty Smelly Anteater]

I'm not a big fan of Wesley Crusher, but Wil Wheaton is an awesome dude.

[Sharktopus]

Wil Wheaton = cool.
Wesley Crusher = douchebag.

I get what they trying to do with the character, but he was still annoying as hell. They were much more successful splitting the character in half in DS9 as Jake and Nog.

Also Cardassians are pretty much the evilest Bastards in the Star Trek universe. They were screwing with the Space Indians because they were having withdrawals from not screwing with the Space Jews (Bajorans) anymore. The Cardassians were loosley patterned on Nazis with an ancient Roman government structure. Dirty Spoonheads.

[mkiker]

Wasn't the going away with an alien thing a nice way of canning the guy. They went too far with the aliens first appearance and him telling everyone how special the boy will be. Finishing him off the same way didn't help, but it got rid of the problem.

[aneel]

http://www.tvsquad.com/bloggers/wil-wheaton/

You know Wil Wheaton has been reviewing Star Trek: TNG episodes at tvsquad?  They're pretty funny.

The prevailing attitude, based on Wil's comments, is that Wesley Crusher was a poorly written character initially, but this was more due to the poor writing overall at that point.  Think about it, Season 1 sucked, featuring such stink bombs as "The Naked Now," (only redeeming quality was the "I'm skilled in multiple techniques" line) which was basically a recycled plot from an old Star Trek episode (and that episode sucked too) and the episode where they introduce the Ferengi.  I really had trouble sitting through some of those first few episodes.  The writers seemed to have a lot of trouble with everything, from Picard's personality to finding a purpose for Counselor Troi besides always stating the obvious.

Anyways, the show evolved quickly, and Wesley evolved along with it.  If you ignore the first season, Wesley was a pretty good character.

Regarding Marina Sirtis:  She was hot, but her character was poorly written for most of the series.  It seems they initially tried to go for someone who fit the Nurse Chapel archetype, a "Goddess of Empathy" as later parodied in the series, but that was way too shallow.  Then they tried to move her towards being wise, but introducing Guinan put an end to that.

[Rude]

If you ignore the first season, Wesley was a pretty good character.

Ummm... nope. 

Actually, Wesley always reminded me of those Saturday morning cartoons that would team up some random kid with a superhero so children would have a character to relate to. Ya' know... like those annoying kids that always tagged along with the Superfriends.

-Rude

[Pak-Man]

Super Marvin deserves his own book. :^)

[daltysmilth]

I think Wesley was good in that he helped make Picard a much more rounded character.  I think Wesley really helped the writers define Picard's presence as a father figure to the crew by more directly being a father figure to Wesley.  And speaking as someone who was a little kid when TNG first came on, he definitely served his purpose in helping kids identify with the crew of the Enterprise.  Alexander on the other hand... I was probably about the same age as the kid who played Alexander, and him I found extremely annoying. 

[Sharktopus]

I think Wesley was good in that he helped make Picard a much more rounded character.  I think Wesley really helped the writers define Picard's presence as a father figure to the crew by more directly being a father figure to Wesley.

Good point.

[PsypherPunk]

http://www.tvsquad.com/bloggers/wil-wheaton/

You know Wil Wheaton has been reviewing Star Trek: TNG episodes at tvsquad?  They're pretty funny.

Hah! The 'Justice' episode which is currently on there was on yesterday. My girlfriend and I tuned in just as Dr. Crusher announced "They're going to execute my son!".

We both just went: "Yaaaay!"

[Johnny_Short_Torso]

I think Towelie is a better character than Wesley Crusher.

[aneel]

I think Wesley was good in that he helped make Picard a much more rounded character.  I think Wesley really helped the writers define Picard's presence as a father figure to the crew by more directly being a father figure to Wesley.  And speaking as someone who was a little kid when TNG first came on, he definitely served his purpose in helping kids identify with the crew of the Enterprise.  Alexander on the other hand... I was probably about the same age as the kid who played Alexander, and him I found extremely annoying. 

That's true. Picard wasn't necessarily a good character either in the first season.  In fact, I thought he was an irritable, arrogant prick who fit the French stereotype very well.  I'm sure the writers realised this as well; hence forth he became a much wiser father figure to the crew. After the first two seasons, the writers succeeded in developing Picard into a captain who was very intellectual, diplomatic, understanding, caring, and disciplined (as opposed to Kirk who was more of a playboy and a cowboy).

And I agree with you: Wesley was better than Alexander.  Who knows what went wrong with Alexander; he was a very ill-conceived character who lacked a personality and served little purpose on the ship.  He was obviously meant to mellow out Worf but somehow their Father-son bonding episodes were too awkward.  Stargate SG-1 did a better job with this plot cliche with Teal'c.

[Johnny_Short_Torso]

Ahh but did you ever watch Deep Space nine? In season 6 and 7, Alexander came back and played a much more important role...

[Aaron Haynes]

Anyways, the show evolved quickly, and Wesley evolved along with it.  If you ignore the first season, Wesley was a pretty good character.

That was the problem for me. After his repeated horrible misuse in season 1, every time he showed up after that I winced and prepared to be irritated. It became Pavlovian.