I would put this in the Best Trek Performances thread but I don’t think it’s one of the best and with the apocryphal title, it will cause either a meltdown or a huge highjack so I figured I’d give it its own thread
I watched a bit of “The First Duty” tonight and I have to say, while Wil Wheaton wasn’t channeling Patrick Stewart or anything, his performance was still superb. His hesitance to go along with Locarno’s scheme, his obvious unease in lying to the review board, and even his eventual confession were all very convincing and he didn’t once come off as the smarmy genius that saved the Enterprise from destruction every week and instead was just like any other kid that fucked up royally and is caught between his conscience and his overwhelming desire to escape from his misdeeds unscathed.
Inter-OP-Highjack: Robert Duncan McNeil’s portrayal of Nicholas Locarno was also great. I don’t know if anyone else is aware of this, but it was this role that got McNeil the role of Tom Paris on Voyager and was obviously the blueprint for the entire character.
The father of the dead Red Squadron member was also very convincing. All around, this episode was pretty good although the video game looking logs of the squadron ships was a not so subtle reminder of how badly TNG has aged in some respects.
Anyone else want to risk a pitting and declare their non-hatred of Wesley?
Oops … you seem to have put an extraneous “s” at the end of your thread title. It should be “Wesley Crusher’s Best Episode” (singular!).
OK, seriously … other than the one you mentioned, I can’t think of any standout episodes for Wesley. I never hated him … he made some decent contributions every now and then. But standouts? You’ve named the one and only. I DID hate the other Wesley-centric shows – “The Game” (I think that was the title – featuring Ashley Judd - whoo-hoo!), the one where he and Picard crash land, and the one where he re-met the Traveler during some Native American thing.
He was an OK character, just wasn’t strong enough to carry an episode on his thin shoulders.
I remember an episode with Wesley dropping out of the Academy and I remember an episode with Wesley acquiring some of the Traveler’s skills himself…were these the same episode? It/they were awfully good, I thought.
In “The Game,” Ashley Judd transcended her uninspiring role beautifully, and briefly made Wesley better than he was.
In the teaser, Wesley fell into the warp core somehow, and was killed. The rest of the episode focuses on the subsesequent party held by the rest of the crew.
Well, I never hated Wesley Crusher. It’s not really Wil Weatons fault that Gene Roddenberry put his very own Mary Sue into the show.
I thought the episode where he was stranded with the Captain on a planet with a booby-trapped water source was good. He’d have probably done better with more typical teenager in space adventures and less of the stilted ubergenius technical garbage.
Didn’t like the Traveller business at all. The Travelers whole bit about Wesley being very advanced because of realizing the link between imagination and reality. Phht. Please! Every child knows about monsters being real because you think they are. The ability to actually make them physical reality would be another matter entirely, but it wasn’t addressed at all. Apparently just knowing about it is enough in the Star Trek world.
Overall though, he didn’t bother me nearly as much as Deanna “I only sense things that are completely obvious” Troi.
Oh my God, “The First Duty”? I thought that was one of the flimsiest pieces of junk that TNG ever presented. If Starfleet investigators are that incompetent, if a few idiot cadets can spin The Great Wall of Silence that only Picard can break through, then I think I’d like to sell them some prime Vulcan swampland.
I e-mailed Wil Wheaton once and told him that, while also making it clear that I wasn’t attacking his performance, just the lousy story. He jokingly replied that the investigators were fooled by the female cadet’s excellent breasts!
I thought it was all one episode, Wesley coming back to the Enterprise and kinda hinting to his mom all wasn’t well at the Academy. Meanwhile Riker and Picard are trying to convince a planet settle by Native Americans which is to be turned over to the Cardassians to relocate, and the Native Americans (OK, Indians) are having none of it. One Indian in particular kind of talks to Wesley to convince him to follow his desires (or something) - at the end, that Indian turns out to be the traveler (and if I’m not mistaken, it occurs during a fire-fight between the Starfleet crew and the Cardassians).
The only other thing I remember is Doctor Crusher telling Wesley (after he decides to quit the Academy and join the Traveller) to dress warm while travelling through those extra-dimensions.
PRNYouth has it right; “The First Duty” is the only really first-rate Wesley episode, and that’s due more to the story than to Wil’s performance. Wil seems like a cool guy, and I enjoy visiting his blog now and then, but I can’t say he was ever much of an actor, at least not in anything I’ve seen him do.
Thinking back on it, it’s amazing just how badly this character was handled. From the early “young Mozart-like prodigy saves the ship every other week” stories to all that malarkey with the Traveler to that completely unforgiveable “ascending to a higher dimension” nonsense, it’s like a primer on how to ensure a character remains completely unsympathetic and annoying, from beginning to end. There could easily have been good stories told from the POV of a young boy on the Enterprise, but the TNG writers either wouldn’t or couldn’t write them. Poor Wil; he never had a chance.
The best Wesley episode was the one where he was captured by the Romulans, slowly tortured, and put to death. (Oh, no - wait - that was the one I wished they had made).
I’m half kidding, though - I thought the episode mentioned by the OP was a pretty good one. Snooooooopy’s criticism kind of makes sense, although I was left with the impression that the investigators pretty much knew the cadets did some stupid shit, but decided to go with a lesser punishment since there wasn’t incontrovertible proof. (If you think about it, the same sort of thing goes on all the time in present day universities with regard to questionable behavior of star athletes.) I kind of wonder if they were making a comparison with these present-day high-status students who sometimes only get a slap on the wrist for really questionable behavior. I guess it depends whether you subscribe to the Roddenberry-esque vision of Starfleet as a squeaky-clean, uncorruptable, altruistic and benevolent organization, or the more realistic view that politics might influence what goes on. Also consider that, while Picard figured out what really happened with the help of Geordie and Data, they represent the best of the best - probably much more astute than your average academician. Remember the adage: “Those who can’t, teach.”
That’s great! As far as humor goes, Wil really lives up to his “wunderkind” image.
No way…I had no idea that was Ashley Judd in that episode.
The First Duty was indeed probably the best that involved him, though it was completely about just Wesley. And I agree that it wasn't that the investigators did not SUSPECT and all but know that the cadets were lying, but without a member of the group stepping forward they could not prove the case. There was no conclusive evidence, just all speculation about what happened.
My least favorite character of TNG is still the OTHER cheif medical officer they had...I forget her name. She seemed to quite the futuristic wench, though. Dr. Crusher was much better than her.
I thought “The First Duty” was one of the best TNG episodes period, not just ones with Wesley. The other one that I remember enjoying was shortly afterwards, the one where the shuttle carrying him and Picard crashes. It was a neat role-reversal.
I’ve always felt it was highly unfortunate that the character was handled so badly. Here I was, happy that there was a smart kid on prime-time TV, then he gets used in such an obnoxious, uncreative way. No wonder alt.wesley.die.die.die was so popular.
Thankfully, Wil is a pretty cool guy. For those who haven’t been to his website lately, I think he just announced when his memoir is coming out. From the bits I’ve seen, it look good. /end plug
I always just called her Rosalind Shays, from the headstrong and conniving attorney character she played on “L.A. Law”. Incidentally, she was in the TOS episode “Return to Tomorrow”, where IIRC she sucks face with William Shatner.
