I think that the problem with Wesley was that he outgrew his target audience. He was there for two reasons: To give teenage girls someone to look at, and to give teenage guys someone to identify with. I admit that back at that age, I thought he was pretty cool. But neither of those appeals really ages well. Looking back, now, all of those “Wesley saves the ship” plots seem way too implausible, and most girls grow out of the “crush on a TV character” stage.
You’re only half-right here. Yes, they were attempting to pander to a certain audience, but the primary reason for Wesley Crusher in the series was that Gene Roddenberry was trying to put himself, by proxy, into the series. Wesley is Roddenberry’s version of himself as a teen. I would bet that’s the reason that he saved the ship so many times. It’s sort of funny, really. Since he was the producer, he got to have his fan fiction “Marty Stu” done for real.
From what I can see (from his website and the appearances that I’ve seen on TV), Will Wheaton seems to have both a sense of humor and a sense of perspective about the whole thing. And I agree that venom at the character should not be directed at the actor.
I do find a couple of things interesting. For example, the character was written out of the show at the point that he had become (barely) plausible - he was a young adult, he had actually been commissioned (“acting Ensign” :rolleyes: ) and he wasn’t saving the ship every other episode. He had ceased being a major irritation, which I guess is why they had to get rid of him.
There is one point about that that I’d like to bring up since we’re talking about Wesley. In the episode where he applies to the Academy for the first time (when there are four applicants total), do they ever explain the fact that they’re only letting one person in? If only one person gets into Starfleet Academy each year, they’re gonna have a really hard time getting enough people to run the ships. And do they really expect us to believe that everyone that went to the Academy was the genius that Wesley was made out to be (the other four are made out to be just as brilliant as he is.)? If, at some point, they explained that this was a special “early entry” program that only took one under-aged person a year, it would make some sense, but as it was presented it was less than believable. I’ve never seen anyone talk about this.
“Wesley” is also Gene Roddenberry’s middle name. Seriously.
I don’t feel any animous for Wil (not “Will”) Wheaton, myself. I was impressed by the performance of him and other Trek actors on Weakest Link. As far as I know, their $167,500 is a show record.
I’d have to watch that episode again, where Wesley applies to the Academy (“Coming of Age,” from the first season), but I seem to recall they were accepting only one candidate from a particular space sector that the Enterprise just happened to be in. I don’t think even a Hollywood TV writer would believe that Star Fleet Academy would take only one candidate per year from the entire Federation.
I just looked at that recently, and I think it wasn’t for the entire galaxy, but a certain sector. Wesley lost to Morlock, or something like that.
“I heard the news today, oh boy…”
On the radio , no less. Too bad, actually. It would have been interesting to see what Wesley/SpaceTimeTravelingBoy would have done in the flick.
It was Mordock. Mordock developed the “Mordock Strategy” and was the first Benzite in Starfleet. He looked like Mendon and wore a funky breathing apparatus because Benzites need rare trace gasses in their respiration.
I just found it unbelievable that the admission standards were so impossibly difficult. They give the impression that almost every officer attended the Academy (even Data went), and if that’s the case…
A. One per “sector” wouldn’t be nearly enough. Even the US Naval Academy, which provides a tiny fraction of the Navy officer corps, admits 1500 a year, for what must be a much smaller fleet.
B. If the standards are so incredibly high, everyone who went through the Academy must have been a genius like Wesley (his three opponants were made out to be equally brilliant). I think that we can safely assume from their actions during the run of the show that this wasn’t the case.
I guess it comes down to the fact that this was just another one of those horribly contrived situations that made the first season such a stinker (good thing they got better).
I think Wesley is a symptom of a phenomena which was common in the 80’s, and to a lesser degree today - that creators of “children’s” shows thought that they needed to add a younger character for the kids to identify with. I seem to remember a great many shows, live action and animated, where a perfectly acceptable adult cast was festooned with some smart-talking, suspiciously lucky adolescent. “The Transformers” comes to mind, but there were many others.
The thing is, kids don’t identify with other kids - I’m not even sure they actually think of themselves as children. Kids identify with the heroes. That’s why they never pretend to be Jimmy Olsen; that’s why only losers play Robin. Having a character like Wesly Crusher around is completelyy unnecessary - most adolescents have no problem identifying with Picard.
Agreed, Alessan. I still remember time I saw an episode of Star Trek (I must have been three or four, and the show was on afternoon reruns.). I have no idea of which one it was, all I remember is Kirk standing there with his phaser and some red shirts behind him. From that moment on, I was hooked. No Crusher needed or even wanted. (Even as a kid, I hated programs that obviously pandered to children.)
Yeah, TOS never needed any kids in the cast. The few times there were any kids on the show, they were committing evil acts (“And the Children Shall Lead”) or carrying a deadly disease (“Miri”).
I think we could work out just how plausible “Coming of Age” was if we only knew how large a sector is and the estimated total population of the Federation. Maybe there are thousands of sectors with a total population of over a trillion, and only one per sector is all they need.
BTW, that’s why I loved Babylon 5. Every time a kid came on he or she died. Every Single Time.
Kids: if your last name isn’t Atreidis or Wiggins you have no business being in science fiction.
AH, but that is not true. You have misremembered, perhaps, the orphaned young lady who turned out to be a telepath that ended up going to live with the Minbari.
I have said for a long time that this is what made TOS unique and in some way groundbreaking for its time. It was science fiction that played it straight and was written for adults. Roddenberry didn’t come up with anything special (please, no flames - I’ve enjoyed the series for years but am aware of its limitations). What he did, was create a science fiction show that didn’t rely on cute robots or cute kids and didn’t try to talk down to its audience. Of coures, it was an idea who’s time had come, as science fiction had finally started to gain a small amount of mainstream respectability at that time.
Psychic uber-children don’t count. They tend to lack the “cute” factor.
- Babylon 5 series creator J. Michael Straczynski in a CompuServe post dated June 03, 1995.
