Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Wesley Crusher

poor young Wesley Crusher he wasn't the most popular character and that's putting it modly his own mother told him to shut up in front of everyone on the bridge after all fans have been extremely vocal over the years in their dislike for Wesley and that from the very beginning of star Tre the Next Generation unfortunately that hate also seeped over to be directed at the actor who played him will weaton we're not going to try to convince you here that Wesley is in fact the greatest thing since replicated bread but times have changed a statement especially true for those who now travel outside of the regular temporal flow of things Wesley is a character back in demand as is Wheaten far more popular than before four sure it would have been nice to see him in Star Trek Bard's third season but who knows he might pop up in the fifth and final season of Discovery update he didn't over the years of started the Next Generation Wesley went from an all round goody two shoes tap or otherwise from his mother and Savant smarter than all of the adults in the sector a bit of a rebel in search of a cause one he eventually found with that bloke from to Alpa seat he also had a particularly unique relationship with Captain Picard and loved a good wedding will weaton told the inside of you podcast with Michael rosenb that whilst on set he more than once pretended to beam onto the Enterprise and walk down the corridor to engineering to turn on the lights of the warp core in that moment he was the lifelong Star Trek fan making the engines of the Enterprise start in that sense we're all a lot like weaton no doubt just a bit like Wesley too with that in mind I'm Sean feric for triack culture and here are 10 things you didn't know about Wesley Crusher number 10 the MZ artif as fans have often pointed out Wesley is a somewhat implausible character he's the genius kid who somehow managed to save the ship on countless occasions the most egregious example of which came in where no one has gone before wherein The Traveler memorably compared the team to Mozart behind the fan hate for Wesley was the unrelatable of a precocious Wonder child whose biggest flaw in the beginning was nodding off during one of his nanotechnology experiments for many Wesley was the archetypal Mary Sue it is not without a degree of historical irony that Star Trek in this generation should have a Mary Sue in its midst it was in fact Star Trek that had defined the Trope through its fanfiction in a 1973 edition of her Tre fanine managerie Paula Smith published a parody piece intitled a Trey's tale short and to the point the story began as follows G goly Goos glisy thought Mary Sue as she stepped onto the bridge of the Enterprise Here I Am the youngest lieutenant in the fleet only 15 and 1 half years old through blistering satire Smith had put a name to a character type that she saw as all too prevalent in Trek fanfiction at the time the observably hyper competent highly unrealistic poorly written and usually female character beloved by all since Mary Sue has been applied beyond the Realms of Star Trek as a descriptor for any character deemed unreasonably skilled and extremely admirable in just about every way in male form the Mary Sue Has equally come to be called the Gary Stu or Marty Stu it doesn't take the genius of a Mary Sue either to see a lot of Wesley in Smith's description more Mary Sue than Mary Sue in early development of the character it was even suggested that Wesley should be acting Lieutenant a demotion from Commander apparently as per a memo from Robert jman to Gene rodeny dated 8th of November 1986 via the Tre files the hate for Wesley has now been tempered to a degree not least thanks to will weaton himself in recent years nevertheless that initial characterization backlash Still Remains as an historical Oddity wesy will always be the Wonder kid as the traveler went on to describe not with music but with equally lovely intricacies of time energy propulsion well G wiiz let's write a symphony on the strings of the universe the OG Mary Sue might have replied number nine call me by your middle name all artists and creators put something of themselves into their work usually Blood Sweat tears and RSI you write what you know and that should really begin with knowing thyself when it comes to the Mary Sue type character however there are often a far more direct idealized self-insert on the part of the author Creator and Wesley was Gene roden's middle name I identify probably more with Wesley because he is me at 17 he is the things I dreamed of being and doing rodeny once said in the beginning Wesley was Wesley Crusher and there are memos to prove it however as detailed in the Star Trek the Next Generation companion writer producer Robert jman feeling that the problems of boy teenagers had been done to death pushed to make the character female in the very first casting call for a Star Trek the Next Generation from the 10th of December 1986 the description for the character formerly known as Wesley read as follows Leslie Crusher an appealing 15-year-old Caucasian girl need small 18 or almost 18 to play 15 her remarkable mind and photographic memory make it seem not unlikely for her to become at 15 a Starfleet acting ensen otherwise she is a normal teenager Rodenburg Leslie back to Wesley according to jman because he felt there would be a wider range of stories available for dealing with the character if he were a male instead of a female by the time of the writer director's guide of the 23rd of March 1987 Wesley was definitively Wesley and Wes all 4' 10 in of him later from his mother's personnel file in conundrum we learned that Wesley's middle name with a knowing nod began with r number eight just say yes to the West all teenagers scare the living out of me as the song goes in this 24th century case however there was no such cause for concern even when Wesley was breaking the rules it was always a highly sanitized Manner and we all remember the don't do drugs kids talk with Lieutenant Yar his chemical substance was not My Chemical Romance before star Tre the Next Generation had begun writers and producers realized that to maintain a certain degree of believability with the viewers they needed to explain why a teenager no matter how squeaky clean and Practically Perfect he was had such a prominent and ongoing place on the bridge according to the Star Trek the Next Generation companion one reason for Wesley's special status which was considered but abandoned before the final draft of the writer director's guide was that he had invented a Landing envelope force field for away teams on inhospitable planets by 1986 and early 1987 Robert jman and the team had already sketched out the relationship between Wesley and Picard including the fact that father Jack Crusher had been killed under Picard's command during the next generation's first season as related in the 50-year mission the next 25 years there was one person particularly determined to get everyone to say yes to the West Gene roden's notorious lawyer Leonard Mish whilst evidently not a writer Mish had been furtively making changes to various scripts in Dorothy Fontana's script for Too Short a season for example new scenes featuring Wesley suddenly appeared all added by Mish as Fontana herself stated maish was strongly pushing the inclusion of the Wesley character in all scripts he admitted to Rick Burman that he had number seven exit cave right long ago Starfy dedicated itself to clearing up the confusion between stalic tites and stalik mites and it's been caves ever since will Wheaton's last episode is a series regular Wesley's final mission before heading off to the academy was then one of the finer examples of Star Trek's pedological sub genre the reasons given for Wheaton's departure have varied over the years from backlash to the character to wanting to work on other projects but we'll let weaton explain himself as he did in the fifth episode of the center seat 55 years of Star Trek I had this terrific opportunity to go to work in a feature film when Rick Burman said this is a really important Wesley episode I have personally written in an extremely important scene he has to pass on the film after I had passed on the film he wrote me out of the episode completely and I was Furious it hurts so much and after that happened I said to my agent get me out of this contract get me off this show I don't want to work for this person anymore final mission at least was expressly to avoid the way Tasha Yar went out according to Michael Piller in Captain's logs the unauthorized complete track voyages there had been a lot of very bad feeling about that so we were determined to give Wesley a sendoff that had real value and something that stayed with us of course final mission wasn't the final appearance arguably Wesley became a much better character once he passed the right of passage of the cave after leaving the Enterprise his biggest mistake Laro was also his best episode number six failing forwards we've said it before and we'll say it again you don't have to graduate from starf freed Academy to make a success of yourself in the Star Trek universe that's no doubt especially true if you've been marked out from an early age as destined for the higher planes by a representative for the milkyway branch of the recruitment Agency for super Geniuses towards the end of his time at the Academy Wesley's grades were declining to the point where he might have washed out anyway instead after a lot of soul searching and a teeny bit of emotional manipulation from those traveler induced Visions Wesley quit of his own accord Wesley's change of course and journey end mirrored at least in part events in the life of the episodes writer Ronald D Moore Moore had left a career in the Navy to become a writer in Star Trek the Next ation companion more stated that there were things in my life pointing me in that direction that I wasn't paying attention to sort of like Wesley I just thought that everything about this character said he did not belong in Starfleet it always seemed he was just doing things that were expected of him however as the companion goes on to point out others expressed reservations about the move for Wesley there was concern that having the character who was Gene Roden leave Starfleet was doing rodeny a disservice at one point in the development of Journey's End plans had been hatched for Wesley to temporarily join the Maki as part of the setup for start Voyager after the suggestion of the Native American storyline however the establishment of the Maki was left more directly to the aonomus starter d space 92 parter oh and boothby was almost a stage in the Lanta traveler reveal number five Starfleet sabatical people who take an extended break from work often use it to go traveling but Wesley seemingly did things the other way around in starri Nemesis it looked like he'd taken time out of traveling to go back to work the last we scene of Wesley he was a Cadet resigning from the academy now he was all dressed up in his dress uniform as a lieutenant Junior gr will Wheaton's journey to appearing in the movie was equally a little different during a Next Generation 25th anniversary panel at Phoenix ComicCon in 2012 weaton revealed that it was in fact Lavar Burton who had secured him the role in Nemesis at the time weaton wasn't really in touch with his fellow TNG castmates but he and Burton had bumped into each other at an event afterwards Burton went back to producers to convince them to include Wesley and Nemesis weaton accepted the part without even knowing what the scene entailed he did however ask Nemesis screenwriter John Logan for a bit of background on his character post Journey's End as he not to join the Comic-Con panel did Wesley come back to Starfleet from roaming around the Galaxy in the Traveler's windowless white van eating chloroform candy or was he in Starfleet Academy Logan replied that he didn't have enough room in the script to address it so it would be up to the audience to decide why Wesley was in uniform in a deleted scene from Nemesis which also made it into Logan's novelization of the movie Captain Bard says to Wesley that it's good to see you in uniform again in the same scene Wesley also confirms that he's looking forward to serving on the Titan having been assigned to the night shift in Engineering in 2008 will weaton returned to the role of now Lieutenant Commander Wesley Crusher assistant chief engineer of the Titan for the 4D encounter theater segment of Star Trek the tour later Star Trek the exhibition number four Wheaton's lore King Of The Nerds the guardian dubbed will weaton in 2014 in honor of his passion for all things geek he is King of the internet too with his own Maxim or Wheaton's law in defiance of online hate don't be a dick now captain of the ready room he nerds I'm will weaton is a treky through and through and that before he got the role of Wesley on a casting memo for Star Tre the Next Generation dated 13th of April 1987 which found its way to the internet via slice of sci-fi in 2006 there is in fact no mention of will weaton at that stage the only possibility given for the role was actor turn TV presenter JD Roth this is a Starship not a funh house as reported on Larry ne's the track files podcast however by the 4th of May 1987 will weaton was the only one up for the role it seems NE couldn't even find mention of a runner up from Robert jman's earlier casting notes for the character neek then revealed a few other recognizable names who rord Wesley including Cory felin Scott Grimes John Cameron Mitchell and even Tre files producer John Champion the Tre files was also published the original casting documents including cast reading scenes or sides for the role of Wesley Crusher from March to April 1987 so you can look forward to that dramatic reenactment from me sometime soon number three laws of leer Wesley's come home and his family's out to get him is how Brandon brager summarized his teleplay for the game as cited in the Star Trek the Next Generation companion brago wanted to make Wesley a little hipper for the episode adding in the captain's logs the unauthorized complete track voyages that I took the opportunity to make him a more relaxed character with some personality and some spunk the game was also a chance to give Wesley a girlfriend of sorts in the form of Robin ller however in spite of Robin's 108th law a couple of light years can't keep good friends apart her character was never seen again according to the Next Generation companion once more a hoped for third appearance for leer in the first juty evidently just didn't work out cut to 2002 and it seemed like the whole tly minded internet had fallen a foul of what was later Robin's non-canon 42nd law given in the Star Trek New Frontier novel treason any joke that has to be explained isn't worth explaining it's been confirmed that Ashley Jud will rep her role of Robin leer from Star Trek the Next Generation in Nemesis seems like the two have since become man and wife declared sci-fi space in April 2002 we've also confirms that Ashley jot will return to play Robin leer the same role she had as a guest star on the series she and Wesley are now married foretold box office profits in the same month of the same year later sci-fi space added update Jud spokesperson denied this Cameo appearance leer was of course never in Nemesis and not in the deleted scenes either all this had apparently begun with a joke made by Ashley Jud that she would be returning as ler in Nemesis as Wesley's wife during an interview with David Letterman this was then reported as fact through Z entertainment and the interwebs went from there still when it comes to ler but especially Wesley there always Robin's 108th law as defined in the New Frontier novel Fire On High it's not over until it's over and sometimes not even them number two Travelers check-in when it came to getting Wesley back into the franchise although only briefly at the end of Bard's second season producers apparently went to war over the character as AKA goldsman stated in a featurette from Strange New World's farewell episode of the ready room one series we now know which one was already using Wesley and so Picard had to fight over whether they could use him too it's like Wesley Crusher was the bell of the ball goldsman added for start Bard's third season we were all left wondering why Wesley didn't return to see how his mom and half brother were holding up whilst the reason was never given on screen will weaton provided his own head Cannon explanation for Wesley's absence replying to Gizmo's question why hasn't Wesley ever visited his mom via Facebook in 2023 weaton referred back to the Wesley story a matter of choice that he himself had written for the 400th edition of the Star Trek comic in that comic he wrote We The Travelers do not interact with anyone from our former lives because it is too easy to unintentionally disrupt the flow of their time on Facebook weaton called this one of the fundamental rules of being in The Travelers Wesley would like to see his mom but he simply not allowed in the comic published not long after farewell Wesley goes to meet bicard at a chateau but he clearly states that his former Captain won't remember the encounter Wesley does so because he needs Bard's help to make a choice which if wrong could mean the end of everything that choice is of the next traveler who will replace him the story ends with Wesley about to meet Cor in the park in 2024 number one brother from another your Latin has improved said Captain bicard to then Cadet Wesley Crusher back on the Enterprise for a bit in the game well it's a good job he made the effort as the language does run in the now extended family from lutus half brother Vox Wesley's freighter from another perer as we know Wesley has yet to meet his formerly assimilated sibling but will weaton did sit down to interview his space brother Ed spers during an episode of the ready room the pair had met briefly on set during filming of season three of Star Trek card Gates mcfaden apparently let slip to weaton that spers was playing his brother a fact which weaton wasn't supposed to know at the time it's okay ND have an exclusion for family weaton replied to mcfaden worried for her job in February of this year on the red carpet for the Saturn Awards weaton told Screen Rant that if the story was right he would love to return as Wesley to build on what was left of an open question at the end of stter Bard's second season he went on to say that he would also like to work with ERS so that super being Wesley could at least check in on his half brother without making things weird even though jack isn't supposed to know he's there no mention of his mom still though in the real world Gene roden's son Rod also Bears the Wesley middle name that became the onscreen incarnation of his father's younger self as Rick Burman put it a rod in the 2011 documentary Tre Nation Wesley Crusher was also in some sense a kind of son for Gene rodeny and he was certainly protective of Wheaten he went and created Sons Burman added for Rod rodeny as for Jack spellers and indeed for weaton Wesley really is a brother unlike any other that is everything for our list today folks what did you think thank you so much everyone for watching along we hope you enjoyed this video and thank you so much to Jack Kylie who wrote the article on which this video is based go check that out on whatculture.com I have been Shan for Tre culture you can find me at Shan far in the various socials and don't forget to follow Tre culture at Tre culture on the various socials as well until I see you again live long and prosper stay happy Stay Frosty and stay smiling cuz you deserve it

Channel: TrekCulture

Views: 47,092

Keywords: Star Trek, Original Series, Animated Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, SNW

Id: PcQZ1Hx5Zrg

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024