"“Shut up, Wesley!” did irreparable damage to Wesley" Topic

…Crusher's role in TNG

Interesting analysis…

link

Amicalement
Armand

No, if what Picard said only reflected what the audience was already thinking.

Well, rewatching the show, most of the command staff, including Picard, rarely use his name – even in the first episodes. They usually call him, "the Boy." And they are dismissive frequently.

"Excuse me, Commander Riker, but .."

"Not now, we're losing power and need to get all systems restored!"

"…but there's…"

"I don't have time for this!"

(As Riker walks away)…an alien on the ceiling draining our warp core…"

I dunno why they wrote it that way, they act like jerks to the Wesley character a lot.

The "Will Wheaton Effect"?

In my opinion, the audience that Star Trek The Next Generation attracted, had moved on from needing another Will Robinson. ie A child character for the children to identify with. So nothing Wil could have done would have ever made the character viable nor any changes in script writing other than making Ensign Crusher an adult. He was really handed a poison chalice.

Mind you, nowhere near as toxic as the role of Jar Jar Binks….

It's only fair. Having the Wesley Crusher character did irreparable damage to TNG.

Mind you, the character and not the actor. Happy to watch Will Wheaton on Leverage, just the way it's a joy to watch Kate Mulgrew on Heartbeat, where her character really was in charge and knew what she was doing.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

There is an easier explanation:
The boyfriend (Picard) is dating the hot single mom, and (subconsciously) feels the kid "is in the way."
Apparently things haven't changed in the future…

The boyfriend (Picard) is dating the hot single mom, and (subconsciously) feels the kid "is in the way."
Apparently things haven't changed in the future…

ROFLMAO!

So nothing Wil could have done would have ever made the character viable nor any changes in script writing other than making Ensign Crusher an adult. He was really handed a poison chalice.

That's a great observation. They tried too hard to add a character that marketing said they needed to appeal to the kid audience, and it was done poorly.

Good point. You know, a younger kid they had to explain things to might have had a point.

("Why are we letting all these people die, Captain Picard?"

"Because of the Prime Directive, Wesley. And the Prime Directive is important because…")

You might even have done something with a really bright kid without the life experience to understand why certain things are or are not done. But as he was, Wesley was just annoying.

Yes, maybe the show writers/network execs felt they needed a kid character to appeal to young viewers, but as usual they did it all wrong. The young nerdy kids who liked TNG did not want to see a smarter version of themselves, ie a socially awkward teen genius. They would much rather see a kid more like what they fantasize of actually being. A smart, COOL!!, genius who doesn't take sh*t from pompous adults who are being idiotically patronizing and putting the ship and his life in danger. If Wesley had gotten right back in Picard's face and forced him to acknowledge the threat that would have thrilled the younger, nerdy viewers who watched it. But the lack of imagination in personal relationships by most Hollywood writers prevents this.

"maybe the show writers/network execs felt they needed a kid character to appeal to young viewers, but as usual they did it all wrong. The young nerdy kids who liked TNG did not want to see a smarter version of themselves, ie a socially awkward teen genius."

Perfect nerd bait would have been a smart, pretty girl (maybe such a STNG series exists in an alternate dimension.)
I have nothing against Wesley/Wheaton in any case…

We're only a few years after the Star Wars Christmas Special, those were very different times, when science fiction was considered kiddie fare and maybe at best family fare.

Sci Fi shows had kids in them because adding a child's POV character was considered standard and it also gave easy plot hook, he would have at least one parent or a surrogate parent that could be exploited in story lines.

Of course that doesn't mean writers know how to work with such a character. There is an overwhelming tendency to make kids into adult midgets in child suits or to make them unusually smart or stupid.

And in this case we had a genius teenager and the first few seasons of TNG had awful writing. They quickly started to do the lazy "Wes will fix it." writing.

TNG then began to evolve and it became clear that there wasn't that much room for Wesley stories, he was the only teen and that made relevant stories difficult. One obvious path they didn't pick on was to pair him up with Data because he was the closest thing to a person growing up.

Yea, they didn't do him any favors, though the whole show, in my personal opinion, was pretty much a hot mess.

Picard was a bit of a let-down too, and the whole commanding the ship by committee was a bit tiresome.

It had some good points – spacecraft shots, new tech, and other stuff was fine, but I couldn't really warm up to it after watching the original series.