A likable Wesley

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-04-08 05:24am

Jeremy wrote:Are there no horny old men here?

Sure, but that's what the holodecks and the other crewmembers are there for.

Plus there is the ocassional port call.

What happens underway stays undereway

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » 2004-04-08 08:04pm

This is what they should have done in Season 2. This would have saved Wesley's character:

Wesley bounces on the bridge in the stupid rainbow outfit he wore once he became a "honarary" ensign. He walks past the captain's chair and heads to the conn. Picard, realizing that he was an idiot for making a boy the pilot of the ship, calmly pulls out a phaser and shoots Wesley in the back. Wesley's corpse becomes the most beloved character in Trek.

And if his dead body was mounted and stuffed next to Luaxanna Troi's, that would have been even better.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2004-04-08 09:05pm

The only time I ever liked Wesley was when Stravo put him into Starcrossed, and then only at the end. All the same, that was proof that it could be done.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-04-08 09:53pm

You can lay the blame for Wesley entirely at Gene Roddenberry's feet. In fact, Wesley was probably Roddenberry's Mary Sue (Gene's middle name was Wesley). Everybody hates Mary Sues because they upstage the main characters without earning it, which is exactly what a 12 year old super genius who saves the ship every week is doing.

You could have made Wesley a likeable character so many ways. You could have made him a regular teenager trying to deal with being a civilian on a starship. You could have made him a midshipman. You could have kept him a genius, but made him hate Starfleet and Picard because of what happened to his father (though that one is sort of a cliche, and would have meant breaking Roddenberry's "these characters have no flaws" rule, not that that would have been a bad idea).

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2004-04-09 04:10pm

The best way to make Wesley a likeable character would be to burn all copies of "The Naked Now" and erase it from everyone's memory. I never understood Wesley-hate until I saw that episode, in which:

- Wesley whines to Geordi how, "Captain Picard won't let me fly the ship, even though I know more about it than him."

- Wesley takes over Engineering with his portable tractor beam and declares himself Captain of the Enterprise in a way that makes Kevin Riley seem mature and sensible.

- Wesley gets credit for "saving the ship" from a white dwarf fragment using the tractor beam, even though he was the one who put it into danger in the first place!

The only good parts of the episode were when Riker looks at the episode summaries of TOS and realizes, "Hey! This is just a ripoff of 'The Naked Time'!" and Worf refers to Wesley as "The boy?!?"

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-04-19 12:32am

I saw a show today about kid stars. Will Wheaton was on it, in person he seems to be a fairly decent chap. I know he is into Linux big time.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-04-19 12:39am

TrailerParkJawa wrote:I saw a show today about kid stars. Will Wheaton was on it, in person he seems to be a fairly decent chap. I know he is into Linux big time.

I've read some of Wil Wheaton's writings, and he can be a funny guy. I suppose one would need to have a sense of humour to survive the withering shitstorm of hatred directed against the character he played on TV. But regardless of what kind of person Wil Wheaton is, Wesley Crusher was a horrible character.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-04-19 12:50am

I often wondered what would have happened if Wesley had become Leslie. In the initial pitch the gender was undecided.

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2004-04-19 01:35am

I never had a problem with Wil Wheaton. I liked him in Stand by Me and when he played a serial killer on a cop show he was spooky. He just got stuck with a crummy role.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2004-04-19 02:34am

neoolong wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:All they had to do, from the outset, was to write Wesley Crusher as a midshipman-cadet who was serving his training period aboard the Enterprise. It wasn't necessary to make him Super BoyGenius™, and his character would have had a logical reason for being part of the crew.
Even if they did that, would they really let him serve on board a ship where his mother was the chief doctor?

I don't think the Fedeartion has a Sullivan Principle. This I think is proved by Sisco and his wife serving on the same ship with their son as well