What If Wes Had Been A GIRL?
- Thread starter Rush Limborg
- Start date
If Wesley had been Lesley then Lesley would have been your standard American television infallible teenaged superheroine who would have saved the day in every episode. TNG would then have been cancelled after a few episodes and the failure of direct syndication television as a business model would have prevented the 90's boom in Sci-Fi TV from ever occurring.
Instead, we got a boy who, despite being annoying sometimes, was at least written as a smart boy who solved problems with his brain instead of being a dumb jock which is how teenage boys are usually represented on American TV.
I dread to think what they would have eventually done to Micah if he'd stayed on Heroes.
Instead, we got a boy who, despite being annoying sometimes, was at least written as a smart boy who solved problems with his brain instead of being a dumb jock which is how teenage boys are usually represented on American TV.
I dread to think what they would have eventually done to Micah if he'd stayed on Heroes.
You mean Wes wasn't a girl?
Recognizable...but unfortunatel, grown up a little too much by the time he started TNG.
They re-did Wesley, but as a NORMAL teenage boy/young man through Jake in Deep Space Nine.
As for if Wesley had been a girl...i think the age issue may or may not have been a difference. SHE might have been able to get away with acting like a younger girl, and then growing up.
Perhaps we could have gotten some real relationship/connection with Beverly Crusher (i.e. again paralleling that with the Sisko's, whose relationships seemed real).
I doubt that somehow.
If they do bring him back then he's male so that means he'll fail at school (despite apparently being a genius) and he's black (or at least half-cast) so he'll inevitably join a gang and get in to trouble with the law.
The character would've probably been more manly.
My best friend has often stated that Wesley was his favorite character and that he identified with him a lot. I sometimes wondered if he was smoking something...
As for me, I saw Wesley as just another character. He didn't bother me in the slightest. After all, it's Star Trek. There's all sorts of weird and atypical characters in that franchise. Looking back on him now, I see why my best friend liked him so much. We were real-life Wesley Crushers in numerous ways. We were both asocial geniuses that made the adults look like idiots. From that point of view, I like the character of Wesley Crusher.
I say we bring him back in the next series as a grown man, making him either Chief Engineer or Operations Manager. Giving him a darker mood and somewhat cynical outlook on life could give him an interesting edge as well. How about making him a pariah in the fleet for the incident at the academy that got his friend Josh Albert killed? That would do the trick while also respecting canon. It also gives him something to prove. That is the way you write an interesting character, folks. Instead of making them perfect from the start, give them flaws and let them overcome them to achieve their ideals. Now that's what I call good Television Drama!
As for me, I saw Wesley as just another character. He didn't bother me in the slightest. After all, it's Star Trek. There's all sorts of weird and atypical characters in that franchise. Looking back on him now, I see why my best friend liked him so much. We were real-life Wesley Crushers in numerous ways. We were both asocial geniuses that made the adults look like idiots. From that point of view, I like the character of Wesley Crusher.
I say we bring him back in the next series as a grown man, making him either Chief Engineer or Operations Manager. Giving him a darker mood and somewhat cynical outlook on life could give him an interesting edge as well. How about making him a pariah in the fleet for the incident at the academy that got his friend Josh Albert killed? That would do the trick while also respecting canon. It also gives him something to prove. That is the way you write an interesting character, folks. Instead of making them perfect from the start, give them flaws and let them overcome them to achieve their ideals. Now that's what I call good Television Drama!
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Also, I don't believe the character would have worked at all if it was a chick. For me at least, Smart and Nerdy girls didn't even seem to exist until Kari Byron on Mythbusters. (Thank God she does exist, though.)
"Leslie" Crusher may have been prettier, but if they also made her into an annoying "I Can Do Anything Despite Having No Formal Starfleet Training" Mary Sue, then it wouldn't have made a bit of difference.
