Wesley, young son of the ship’s chief of medicine Beverly Crusher, has borne the brunt of much criticism of The Next Generation. Many fans find him spoiled, annoying, and awkward. The problem with his character was not specifically found within the universe, as he never really did anything wrong, at least no more wrong than other characters. Many people cite the poor reception to the character as a reaction to the poor acting skills of Wil Wheaton. While he was great in other roles, such as Stand By Me, Wheaton was not best suited for TNG’s fast-paced, intense filming schedule.
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The problem mainly came down to the writers. There were plenty of chances for Wesley to have been a great character, Wheaton acting and all, which comes through occasionally. The episode “The First Duty” has some of the best Wesley Crusher moments. Pockets of greatness shine through throughout his many appearances. However, these are often overshadowed by the terrible writing on display for most of Wesley Crusher’s tenure on the show.
The writers of the show, primarily during the first few seasons under the guidance of Gene Roddenberry, kept pushing for a utopian future narrative, and kept pushing for Wesley to embody a Wunderkind narrative. In this vision, he would not only be outstandingly smart for someone his age, but would repeatedly outsmart the majority of highly trained and skilled adults around him. Of course, this just does not make sense in the context of the USS Enterprise. Fans kept finding his presence annoying, as he would repeatedly show up his mother, other adults, and even experts with a certain smarmy and arrogant aura.
While it’s fair to say the writers didn’t do the character justice, there were also some external, out-of-universe factors that derailed Wesley’s potential. During the first season, there was a strike in the writers’ guild. This meant that the first season of TNG was much worse than the ones that followed. The producers had to recycle old material; for example, they took what was supposed to be just one episode where Wesley saves the ship, and forced it into a staggering 6 episodes. It started as a bit of fan service for all the younger fans watching the show, seeing a kid their age save all the adults. But it was stretched out, and gave the character his undesirable title of arrogant ship saver. While this likely would have been great for a single episode, repeatedly showing a Federation flagship getting saved by a child was too much.
Wesley also highlights a massive issue with TNG. This issue was set up in the first season and somehow managed to remain a large part of it, even when everything else about it improved. Part of the utopian vision for the show was that this was a time of long-lasting peace. Rather than Starfleet being a military force, and the USS Enterprise being a military vessel, they were all now peaceful explorers. The Enterprise itself, destined to be the pinnacle of Starfleet ingenuity and force, was more akin to a luxury yacht, with all the comforts of home aboard, including family. The Federation believed that the space was now safe, despite a staggeringly high number of incidents and death happenings constantly. As such, was deemed acceptable that the officers would be allowed to take their family with them, including children. This was an incredibly dangerous idea, but it was constantly glossed over during the show — how a ship that nearly gets destroyed and attacked almost weekly can have children onboard. Wesley got the brunt of all the hatred over this strange decision, as he was the only recurring child character. Every time he was on the bridge, he reminded audiences that these kids should not be allowed in such a dangerous situation.
For all these reasons, Wesley’s character always felt out of place. When coming up with him, the writers and producers wanted a blank slate child character that would appeal to all the children that would tune into the show. They hoped young audiences would identify with him more than a bunch of stuffy old adults. He was the Will Robinson of the show. However, the problem was that this archetype character had already fallen out of fashion by the time the show aired. All the characteristics that were designed to make him more appearing and relatable for children, made him insufferable for adults. This only got worse as the show drifted away from its roots and became much darker. In these scenarios, Wesley and his young boy enthusiasm grew more and more ridiculous when compared to things like the body horror Borg.
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