There's a ten year old in England who has just passed his A levels. By the 24thC, it will be even more extreme. You don't want to get to a position where you ignore people who know things, when they can save the ship. You praise them. As someone else has said, Worf wasn't exactly the most mature of people, and he was on the bridge. If people know things, you acknowledge them or it will be the end of you. You don't want to get a situation where people who know nothing or are ignorant or don't want to know, running the show. And, you don't torture people for being right. Adult human beings are often more immature than kids. All you have to do is say 'You're right there', once in a while, to shut them up. One of the cruellest things you can do to people, is to not give them credit for their thought. I had a friend who once threw a hammer at someone who used to steal his jokes and make out he had thought of them.
How many actual officers were there, who'd been thru the Academy and put in years of service, who worked hard to get a position and advancement, who expected to get a place on the bridge or in engineering that they desired, who were passed over for some snotty-ass kid who did NONE of that work and got the job just because he was kinda smart and the captain wanted to boff his mom? Way to ensure morale, there, Picard. Wesley should have been wedgied by everyone on the damn ship.
You're heading to a bad place, if you ignore talent, whatever form it takes. Kirk rushed up through the ranks. He was talented and precocious. Picard didn't. He worked his way up. It takes allsorts to make a ship.
Actually yeah, Kirk of Trek09 was another example of this. "Yeah, we'll pass on other more qualified and deserving officers with more experience because the plot demands it and because you're so awesome." This would stir up resentment among the crew I would think. I'm not saying that seniority and experience necessarily trump good ol' fashioned skill and creativity, but Starfleet officers have specific training, you don't just put random folks with some charisma and intelligence to fill certain positions based on whim.
Anyone who has kids knows that no matter how much you love them, sometimes they can be annoying. Wesley was a kid, enuff said.
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but in my mind advanced emotional maturity is not enough; a bridge officer must have the proper training--as in be an Academy graduate-- and experience, which Wesley cannot have due to his age. This is why I feel he doesn't belong full-time on the bridge. Also, I believe that Wesley's emotional maturity is that of a standard teenager. Klingons and Ferengi seem to not possess emotional maturity by Starfleet standards, not within their own cultures. Worf and Nog, having been raised by humans and aboard a multicultural Starfleet-run space station respectively, were exposed to Starfleet behavioural expectations for years before they applied to the Academy, so they knew what was to be expected of them. Also the Academy entrance procedure includes a psychological test, I believe, and Worf and Nog obviously both passed that test. They still have their biologically-driven personality traits, of course, but they know when they must compromise and surpress any impulses which would make them behave contrary to Starfleet regulations and expectations.
I think he was on bridge yes because he was good, but also may have something to do with Picard being friend with his father before he died so he wanted to be there for him and help him out. Maybe not so fair but still Wesley didn't disappoint as much as I remember.
First, I think Jake was in no way a nerd. He seemed pretty realistic. And Nog had to go to the academy and work very hard. Icheb was former Borg. I thought even Naomi Wildman was a pretty good child actress. I think Wesley came across as both naïve *and* mature at the same time. It didn't make sense. You can be good at science (I began college right after turning 16 and was soon tutoring people twice my age, but I was and am socially inept, and there's *no way* looking back I would have entrusted myself with significant responsibilities.) I think there's a big difference between being a prodigy and great at math or science vs the experience needed to participate in the operation of a Starfleet vessel. This analogy is flawed, for most modern navies would never risk endangering a minor, but navies don't let child prodigies help run their ships. Neither do they, as far as I know, entrust them to do classified scientific research. It seemed on the one hand they wanted to make Wesley a mature, competent quasi-officer while *still* making him act very naïve about basic things. That is rather strange. But I don't hate Wesley. I think he's kind of funny.
He's just annoying as most kids at that age are (as we were when we were that age), what makes it worse is that he was a brainy sod as well which would make even the adults look like idiots and that don't go down too well with most people. At least he wasn't in every single episode!
It doesn't bother me in the slightest if people think of things I can't think of. I have never been in the position where that annoys me, and I have had some very clever cousins. Grudging jealousy, a little, acknowledgement, yes, definitely. Wesley should be acknowedged, or he will just give up.
I think they should do an episode with Wesley Crusher, relegated to the science labs, with 1 hour to do something. As he is doing this, a jealous 70 year-old admiral clips him around the head every ten minutes, and tells him he is an upstart and worthless. Jealous crew mates throw stuff at him and tease him about his lack of girlfriends. And they also sit and use the computers to play games and listen to songs about sinking into the quicksand of self-perpetuating parental abuse and family disfunction. Not.