Character Insight No. 304: Best of Wesley Crusher

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on the best of TNG with a look at the best moments of Wesley Crusher.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp304 

Wesley Crusher was the first regular recurring young adult actor in Star Trek.  As the wonder-boy son of the Chief Medical Officer on board, there was plenty of canvas to build his character within, and he serves an important role in growing the characters of others like Captain Picard, who becomes his mentor and a father figure of sorts.

For this segment we will skip past many awkward first and second season episodes featuring Wesley and go right to Evolution, the third season premiere.  Wesley must overcome a mistake he makes in letting nanites loose during a science experiment he runs on board, while also learning to deal with his mother coming back on board and the high expectations of all the adults around him.  As always, Guinan is around to help with those human issues.

QUOTE (from Evolution, S3):
Wesley - "You won't tell anybody will you...oh ok, I will...if it's true."
Guinan - "Wes, do you think you're going to get a good grade?"

Wesley - "I always get an A"
Guinan - "So did Dr. Frankenstein"

After learning all he can from the Enterprise crew, the acting ensign receives admission to Starfleet Academy.  Captain Picard decides to transport Wesley to the ship that will take Wesley to Academy so they can spend some final time together, but the shuttle crashes on a desert moon and Wesley must keep Picard alive until they can be rescued.  When things look grim for the duo, Picard shares his best life advice and Wesley expresses his gratitude for his years aboard Enterprise.

QUOTE (from Final Mission, S4):
Ensign Wesley Crusher: "Sir, in the past three years, I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime. I think I'm very lucky, no matter what happens. How many people get to serve with Jean-Luc Picard?"

Ironically, the best Wesley episode comes when he is off the ship as a regular character, that being the season 5 episode The First Duty.  Now an academy student, Wesley is part of an elite flight team Nova Squadron that is to perform a flight demonstration for graduation ceremonies at the Academy.  But when the flight team commander convinces his team to do a dangerous and banned maneuver, leading to the death of one of the team in a practice run, Wesley is torn between loyalty to his remaining team members and telling the truth in the investigation.  It takes some strong words from Picard, who was to speak at the graduation ceremony, to get Wesley to admit the team's fault and suffer the consequences.

QUOTE (from The First Duty, S5):
Picard - "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based, and if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform. I'm going to make this simple for you, Mr. Crusher; either you come forward and tell Admiral Brand what really took place, or I will."
Crusher - "Captain-"
Picard - "Dismissed!"

Although Star Trek writers have often struggled with young adult and child actors, the TNG series would not have been as memorable without Wesley Crusher.  It's made actor Wil Wheaton a bit of a nerd cult hero following the general initial dislike for his character.  Wheaton can be found today on the web series Tabletop as well as on Big Bang Theory and as voices in Transformers and Teen Titans Go.

Other great episodes featuring Wesley include The Game, the Dauphin, Coming of Age, and Justice.  And we'll never forget the iconic 80's rainbow shirt Wesley wore in his early appearances.  So let's close with:

QUOTE
"Shut up Wesley!"

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