I always thought Wesley was kinda cute. 
Kirk
Counselor Troi was pretty hopeless. I could never fig out her purpose on the Enterprise, except to fill out leotards nicely.
I mean, when a Romulan ship is firing at the Enterprise, what does she do? SHe tells Picard, “I sense feelings of hostility and aggression, Captain.”
Oh, REALLY, Sigmund? Thank God you’re psychic, or I might have thought they LOVED us!
I can’t believe anyone would NOT vote for Wesley.
Pulaski was a horrible casting and writing choice and the attempt to make her McCoy 2.0 was irritating and transparent. She was, however, a CHARACTER, with a defined role and a defined set of characteristics.
Troi’s character was, IMHO, not well developed, but she was written as a person with a defined, specific role, and she has a reasonably entertaining background, especially her Mom.
Wesley, on the other hand, is a throw-in to meet an alleged demographic demand, and there are four problems with his character:
-
Unlike Pulaski and Troi, Wesley’s character became a dumping ground for badly written episodes, because it was so easy to either have Wonder By solve the problem or have Wonder Boy START the problem. Sometimes Wesley-related episodes were okay; usually, however, they were writing shortcuts.
-
Wesley’s basic purpose, having a juvenile element on the show, was better accomplished through Worf’s son, Alexander, because
a) Alexander wasn’t a ridiculously unbelievable Wonder Boy,
b) Alexander reflected Worf’s character and allowed both to develop; Wesley did very little for Dr. Crusher, who was, unfortunately, written up as Perfect Mom.
c) Alexander was cute, which Wesley wasn’t, since Alexander was a little kid and Wesley was a gawky and fairly ugly teenager. -
The character of Wesley was inserted into the show in the most silly manner imaginable, having him become a bridge officer. Aside from being an absurd idea, it robbed the show of the chance to make Wesley more of an outsider to the ship’s goings-on, which might have led to more interesting plotlines.
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In the end, Wesley really wasn’t much of a character; he was A Naive But Brilliant Teenager, basically the evolution of Matthew Broderick’s character from “Wargames.” He actually COULD have been a decent character had they fleshed him out a little.
Imagine if, instead of being Wonder Boy Bridge Officer, Wesley had been a sullen, disaffected teenager? Dr. Crusher can’t seem to motivate of relate to him, which drives her crazy. She often enlists the unwilling help of Picard, who doesn’t like kids and can’t stand the sullen Wesley, but does seem to get things from him Crusher does not. Wesley IS brilliant and occasionally gets the ship into trouble and sometimes even gets it out, but always as an outsider and in a way that drives Picard crazy.
Now, this not only gives us more of a conflict between Crusher and Wesley, but gives us conflict between Crusher and PICARD. Crusher knows Wes is a problem but she cannot bear to be without him, because of her husband’s death. Picard both wants Wesley to get the hell off the ship because he’s a menace, but also wants him to stay because getting rid of him triggers lingering guilt over his having lost Crusher’s husband under his command; subconsciously he cannot bear to make Crusher lose both her husband and her son. There’s a tremendous chance for good, intersting drama there.
But they blew it, choosing instead to go for Geek Wet Dream Wonder Boy.
There was no way to make Wesley a sullen, abrasive brat, because the show didn’t allow for conflict between major characters.
Andhe looked really good in red, so I liked it when they made him a bridge officer. Plus, as a 10 to 17 year old watching the show, I liked Wesley, because I could associate with him.
I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned Geordi LaForge. He’s a real whiner, crap with relationships, his best friend is a robot, for God’s sake, and he got really gay about Hugh the Borg. Plus, he featured heavily in a dream I had once and was a total idiot. I mean, what the hell kind of Christmas present for Riker is a plate of congealed cheesey pasta? The dickhead got me thrown in the brigg.
Don’t you go dissing Geordi. I always felt that he was one of the most “Officer”-like officers on that damned ship. He did his job, and that was that.
ALL of them got really gay about Hugh the Borg. That wasn’t a Geordi Laforge thing. That entire episode was terribly conceived; the idea that Picard would not jump at the chance to wipe out the Borg (or that the crew wouldn’t mutiny and throw him in the brig if he didn’t) was nuts. Logically, it was a treasonous act.
I liked Geordi’s character, actually, because of his flaws. He WAS a whiner, and he was crap with relationships, and the fact that his best friend was a robot said a lot about him. But at least he was a character. Contrast him with Dr. Crusher, who I didn’t think was the slightest bit interesting.
Glad to see someone agree with me. Wesley sucked, no two ways about it, but he at least had the potential to be interesting and if nothing else he was good to make fun of. Pulaski had no redeeming qualities at all.
By the way, anyone who’s still bitter about Wesley - and, hell, anyone else - should really go check out wilwheaton.net - the guy’s come a long way, it seems.
Weasley. I don’t want to see him in any movies, unless it is in crosshairs - then shot down.
This is not against Wil Wheaton. If they told him to play an annoying, whiny irritant, he did a great job. Just played his role.
Kess. Kess bad.
(I had a whole neat post written out telling of her deep, deep pointlessness and ineptitude, but the internet ate it. 
)
I vote for Neelix
Neelix: i’m morale officer!
Tuvok: You’re an idiot!
I kinda like Tuvok…
The latest news from DarkHorizons says that the luscious Ashley Judd will return in a cameo in the next ST movie as Wesley’s Wife! HE IS NOT WORTHY!!!
[sub](another vote for Wesley)[/sub]
For STTNG, Wesley is Jar Jar, hands down.
But I disagree with Neelix for Voyager. Sure, he’s annoying, but at least there’s actually episodes where his character develops and interacts differently with other cast members.
But Harry Kim never does. And he whines. And nothing comes out of his mouth that you couldn’t have predicted an hour in advance. Gee, you think Harry will have some comment about how this weird new energy source could help them get home faster? Wait, look at this odd technology from this new alien species - I bet Harry will mention that it could help them get home faster. Is 7of9 in the room? I bet Harry is drooling right now.
The OP called for the ST universe’s Jar-Jar. Jar-Jar was intended as comic relief butwas really just annoying as hell. Which leaves one obvious answer: Lwaxana Troi.
C’mon, name just one TNG episode she was in that didn’t make your skin crawl. She was in the 2 absolute worst DS9 episodes.Her only saving grace was she was a recurring character, not a regular cast member. If you’re ever challenged to say something good about “Voyager”, it’s that they never figured out a way to shoehorn her into that show. (Although rumor has it she may poison the next TNG movie, along with Wesley, and Guinon. Hopefully all 3 will be on a shuttle that gets vaporized)
Well, Wesley is the most analogous to Jar-Jar, but most annoying? No. That dubious honor must go to Q.
Heh heh heh:
Data “A Shuttle is hailing us, it is Luxwanna Troi, Wesley Crusher and Guinon.”
Riker “Red Alert---- Commander Data, Lock Phasers on that Shuttle and FIRE!”
Data “Locking Phasers. . . . . Shuttle destroyed.”
Picard “Well Done Number One, Set course for Starbase 34.”
Data “Course laid in.”
Picard “Engage.”
I would pay extra for that cut of the movie.
BTW- I have the new Star Trek: Bridge Commander game-- it’s like crack for TNG and DS9 fans.
-me
I can see how and why people are so contemptuous of Wesley, but I always liked him.
But, for the OP,
Ah. I love analogy questions!
So, to break it down, we first have to catalog JJ’s salient qualities:
A character introduced as a technological innovation, with a comic-relief trope, and yet who does nothing to advance the story or the film in any way except to provide a completely unbelievable link late in the film, bringing together two previously unreconcilable peoples. It is not funny, believable, or useful. In other words, an utterly annoying idea, badly executed.
Anything else?
Ok, now, which character in the Star Trek universe played an analogous role?
I think it would have to be a fairly major character, not just a one-timer or occasional player, so…
It seems to me actually, that the best choices have already been taken. Of these, I think Neelix fits the best, but I would actually like to submit a new idea:
The holodeck
Can anyone think of a holodeck story that wasn’t stupid and useless? I don’t mean one where the holodeck was used to do something, like give Geordie a replica of a designer to work with, but one where the whole story was based in the holodeck, like that whole Moriarty nonsense.
Wesley.
Cheer up. It is a little known fact that the Traveler was an inter-dimension traveling Hannibal Lecter.
^:)^
I must take issue with that, Chronos - While Q was a pain in the ass to the other characters, Q himself was a very interesting character, especially in the early TNG episodes when he was a flawed superbeing who could be proven wrong and had superiors in the continuum, as contrasted to the latter episodes of TNG (and DS9 - did he ever show up on Voyager?) where he’s just an asshole.
Yeah he was in voyager at least once. He wanted to do Captain Suckway so he could have a kid.
Thereby proving that he’s still flawed: He has crappy taste in women.