Is Seven of Nine the female version of Wesley Crusher?

[HoneyBLilly]

Here's the supporting evidence:

1. Seven saves the ship every episode: see One and Scientific Method as notables.
Wesley save the ship a good portion of the time, think The Naked Now when he was "drunk" and The Game, which is actually a good episode.

2. Both are "eye candy" and were used for viewers
Jeri Ryan, does much more actually have to be said. She was used to bring more men into Voyager.
Wil Wheaton, teenage heartthrob. And Wesley, while he was a super genius, he was also added to get teens into Star Trek and to show them that they could have a super brain as well. That was the intention at least.

3. Both got saved multiple times. Seven's rescuings leading to the shippers of J/7 and Wesley's leading to death threats for Wil Wheaton.
Save Seven: Equinox II, Voyager Conspiracy, Natural Law(but it was Chakotay as well) Survival Instincts, and the Gift.
Wesley: Justice(Planet Playboy), Final Mission, and The First Duty to a degree

4. Both are near insufferable at times.
Seven, Janeway listens to far too much, ignores Janeway's orders, and basically steals the show unless you are the Doctor or Janeway(to a degree). And should I add she steals Chakotay?
Wesley, "I don't know much about brain scans. But I compared these to the readings and they're exactly the same." Need I say more?
Seven: Omega Directive(disregard for Janeway) and basically every episode in season 4, and Human Error and those gag-worthy parts of Endgame.
Wesley: The Battle, Justice, basically every episode he's in minus Final Mission, the Game, and First Duty.

5. Both get special attention from the Captain.
Seven: already went over this
Wesley: gets to become Acting Ensign and later Ensign in Menage a Troi

So I'm inclined to believe that Seven is Voyager's Mary-Sue, I mean Wesley Crusher.

 

[ALF]

Here's the supporting evidence:
2. Both are "eye candy"
...Wil Wheaton, teenage heartthrob.

I'll take your word for it (no offense to Wheaton) :P
In answer to your question, no. Wesley was included in the cast as the genius kid from the start (original series bible). In fact, he was supposed to be a she but Paramount interfered.

Seven of Nine was brought it halfway through Voyager as an attempt to re-energize the series. I actually feel that it was successful, although recently I've been thinking a lot about Ryan/Mulgrew's friction bleeding into certain scenes. Maybe my imagination.

You're right about them being insufferable and getting special attention from the captain... but saving the ship, that torch gets passed around. Some days even Neelix or Geordi save the ship. Troi saved the Enterprise in her dreams, once!

 

[Guy Gardener]

It was never said, but I'm pretty sure that Wesley got laid, like he didn't pull some serious tail at the academy between red Squad and "When I was on the Enterprise..." ...Which makes the two of them fundamentally different...

Oh.

Seven was a goddess who was turning into a woman, meanwhile Wes was a boy who was turning into a god.

But you made some good points.

 

[ALF]

^^ Ensign Ashley Judd I think was the closest on screen conquest of Wes... strongly implied, anyway.

 

[HoneyBLilly]

^^ Ensign Ashley Judd I think was the closest on screen conquest of Wes... strongly implied, anyway.

Don't forget the princess or whatever from the Dauphin, I think that was the episode.

 

[CobraCommander]

They were both unique in their own ways. In a few ways Kim and Kes combined could have been the equivalent of Wesley. Seven was a skillful drone who was trying to become a relatively normal human. Wesley started out as a boy but was seen as "special" by the Traveler. While Janeway used Seven as much as she could, Picard would have thrown him out of the nearest airlock at Farpoint. Other than the times they were stranded together, Picard always kept Wes at a distance. Seven and Janeway had a more mother/ daughter relationship. In a way I felt sorry for Wes. He was smarter than most of the Enterprise bridge officers. Had Kirk been substituted for Picard, he would have made a good protege out of him. He probably would have been the kid's real father... but that's another story. Cobra

 

[Itisnotlogical]

The producers of Voyager made a bet with Wil Wheaton that his character would be more popular if he had gigantic banbangaas. Guess who won.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But it's not like Jeri could wear a cat suit as tight as Wil's because her banbangaas would be pushed into and under her arm pits.

 

[Voyager_freak]

7 is also like Data (or Spock) because of the exploring humanity bit...

 

[Robert D. Robot]

In the course of seven seasons of TNG, I think pretty much everybody saved the ship several times... it's just that Wesley's groan-worthy saves in "The Naked Now" and "Where No One Has Gone Before" were early in the series, and these moments were, unfortunately, burned into our minds. This is my opinion, anyway!

Also, over the course of seven seasons, everybody needed to get rescued several times. For example, Geordi and his Romulan pal had to be rescued from Galorndon Core; had to be rescued from having his DNA rewritten into becoming that "invisible" alien in a too-tight bodysuit on Tarchannen III; from having his brain irradiated and destroyed by a Lore-controlled Data; from trying to rescue what he thought was his mother from the lower atmosphere of a gas giant; from the Pakleds; etc.

Not sure if Wes ever got to have any real fun with the Dauphin. Her bodyguard took the job VERY seriously! YIKES! Poor Wes....

 

[Shatnertage]

But is the bouffant the same?

And I like how, in that Dauphin clip, the bodyguard keeps on moaning/screeching like a guy who got kicked hard in the balls while its in its "monster" form.

 

[kimc]

In the course of seven seasons of TNG, I think pretty much everybody saved the ship several times... it's just that Wesley's groan-worthy saves in "The Naked Now" and "Where No One Has Gone Before" were early in the series, and these moments were, unfortunately, burned into our minds. This is my opinion, anyway!

I believe at one point there was a writer's strike. Before the strike the writers were asked to submit manuscripts where Wesley saves the ship. Once the strike was underway they didn't want stop filming so more than one script was shot.

Read this a while ago but don't recall where...

 

[froot]

^ If that's true, that's something I've never heard! Interesting tidbit :O

Honestly, and I know it was mentioned, but Seven seems much closer to Data than to Wes in my mind. Wes never struck me as an "outside looking in" kind of character.

However, I do see the parallels in the argument that they both saved the day a lot and were super special, smart, etc. I never minded Wes saving the day myself since I was a young girl and thought he was cute (granted, not a good reason to give the man a pass.) I would assume there are sections of the VOY audience who like seeing Seven save the day for the same reason, of course.

I think every character on both TNG and VOY got a chance to be a hero at least a few times. Seven and Wes likely stuck out more because of how they went about saving the ships with their specialness rather than with luck or tenacity. And, in Seven's case, she got a pretty disproportionate amount of attention around Season 4, which, IMO, evened out later.

 

[AuntKate]

I think the writers got lazy and used Seven's special "powers" and the doctor's versatility way too much. Same could be said for Wesley and Data in TNG.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

In the course of seven seasons of TNG, I think pretty much everybody saved the ship several times... it's just that Wesley's groan-worthy saves in "The Naked Now" and "Where No One Has Gone Before" were early in the series, and these moments were, unfortunately, burned into our minds. This is my opinion, anyway!

I believe at one point there was a writer's strike. Before the strike the writers were asked to submit manuscripts where Wesley saves the ship. Once the strike was underway they didn't want stop filming so more than one script was shot.

Read this a while ago but don't recall where...

Huh! That is pretty interesting. I had not heard that before!....

There is a Twilight Zone episode where a writer brings back Shakespeare to write ideas for the television show where he works. Shakespeare is confused and annoyed by the way sponsors, the network, the producer, the lead actor, etc., keep changing the scripts he comes up with (I think they they have to change the pet cat in one script into a dog because the show's sponsor is a dog food company). Serling was apparently complaining on-screen about the constraints he had to face as a writer.

Sorry- my main point is that we often don't know what tangental things happen behind the scenes that affects what appears onscreen....

 

[kimc]

Sorry- my main point is that we often don't know what tangental things happen behind the scenes that affects what appears onscreen....

Indeed.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Does that mean that Bev is TNG's Borg Queen?

Well I suppose TNG had a Borg Queen.

But if Voyager can have two queens, why can't TNG?