wesley crusher/children on the enterprise

What Wesley did in journey's end is far beyond being a ass. He easily could have gotten people killed and even have restarted a major war.

 

Er...aren't you the one who just said Wesley was never a complete and utter ass?

Perhaps I failed my Sarcasm Check?

 

And I maintain that. What Wesley did in JE was criminal, not being a ass.

 

Ah.

But I would say he was an ass when he mouthed off at his friends and Captain Picard. Angsty teenager I get, but no reason to be a total shit about it.

 

I mean as in less clean-cut, but still smart and precocious.

 

It was nonsense indeed. How ridiculous was it that the great big flagship of the mighty Starfleet had a kid, and a civilian one at that, at the steering wheel? And to think that in a ship with a crew of a 1000+, Picard couldn't find a qualified Starfleet Academy graduate to man the helm.

To the crew members of the lower deck, Picard giving Wesley the job at the helm probably reeked of favoritism and nepotism. To the tv audience, I suppose it just reeked.

It wasn't just "Journey's End" that left a bad taste in the audience's mouths. I remember one of the early episodes of season 1, the one where Wesley was a member of the landing party to a planet where the natives were half naked, wearing skimpy clothes. Wesley committed a capital offense by breaking a seemingly silly law.

Picard violated the prime directive and almost started a war with the planet's overlord all to save Wesley's butt. Wesley came across as a spoiled child of privilege. Wesley started off on the wrong foot. And he mostly stayed on the wrong foot throughout the time he was on the show.

 

I don't particular blame the events of "Justice" on Wesley. Our Heroes should have had a better idea of the planet's laws before beaming down civilians, and given that all Wesley did was break a flowerpot and get caught, that's hardly his fault.

On the other hand, his, "I'm with Starfleet, we don't lie," line was horrible.

Anyway, my view is that Wesley was generally an awful regular, but got better (slowly) over time, was pretty good in his guest appearances, but then was horribly sabotaged in his final appearance.

 

In the episode Coming of Age, another teenager is shown who is in a training program, as well. However, this was the only other time I recall some type of training program being mentioned that included anybody other than Wesley.

I agree, that would have been a great idea, and could have provided legitimate ways to use Wesley without compromising the integrity of the fully trained and experienced officers on board.

 

Funny, but I never had a problem with that line. I took it as a young kid with an idealized view of Starfleet trying to step up to a serious situation. Had the line come from another character, maybe it would have been sour with me, as well.

 

I might have taken it that way if he was a few years younger. As it was, he just came off as hopelessly naive.

 

As far as kids doing Starfleet stuff, I think it would be interesting if Starfleet Academy had a specialist program at regular schools kids could enter, say, around middle school. Sort of like an advanced placement thing where they learn theoretical stuff and get the opportunity to go on learning-based field trips. Their classes could also count towards their eventual Starfleet Academy transcript (dual-credit courses), meaning they'd have a head start when or if they attended the Academy.

The kids wouldn't have to be 10 year old Human child going to Yale smart, just eager to learn.

 

After faux-Tom Paris got that cadet killed and they covered it up, isn't that pretty much what Picard says to Wesley when he knows he's lying? "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth!"

If only they had written a Picard Speech for Wes there. Of course that would steal food off Stewart's table.

 

Oh, I agree in principle, but even Picard dissembled on occasion.

 

Wait, that was meant to be Tom Paris?! Blimey.

I think Wesley is better than Naomi Wildman, who in turn is better than Alexander.

I reckon Jake, Nog, Icheb and Wesley could be a hilarious grouping

 

As I understand it, the original plan was to use the character of Locarno from The First Duty as Voyager's pilot, but a combination of a thought that Locarno's actions were too "irredemable" and RW money issues (IIRC, they'd have to pay royalities to RDM and/or Neren Shankar - the writers of TFD - for every episode that Locarno appeared in, whereas using Paris sidesteps this (IIRC, T'Pol replaced T'Pau as an ENT regular for similar reasons?) meant that it made to use a newish character instead.

 

I bet Picard/Stewart relished every moment of that scene. Oh, the drama. He was at his best, or most annoying (depending on your perspective), when he was on his moral high horse, lecturing to us all.

Now, I am going to get on my moral high horse. For the death of a fellow cadet and the subsequent cover up, Wesley should have been expelled from the Academy along with Locarno.

 

Half Naked? Many citizens from different episodes are Half Naked. That is a part of Star Trek and so that is not the problem of that episode. The real problem is that Jean Luc Picard who otherwise is EXTREMELY careful (even annoying at it) at upholding the Prime Directive (Ever not ice how he pronounces "Prime Directive"?) And as established in Who Watches The Watchers? (a very sad episode, watching the woman die from nothing) They CAUTIOUSLY observe "developing" civilizations. The vibe of the "Justice" episode seemed like they wanted to invade and conquer them. Wesley was facing execution and Picard could have tried to beam him away but the Prime Directive would have prevented him from doing so. However, WHY were they there to begin with? Were they not violating the Prime Directive already? It would have been better to search for a cure similar to Code Of Honor or finding crashed survivors such as in Angel One. to just sneak that into the plot and it would have made much more sense.


Wesley Crusher should have been a recurring character, and Guinan a co-star.

If Wesley earned a position on The Enterprise, Then it should have been Assistant Science Officer. If he is "like Mozart", then he could have written some of his mother's plays.

Some Wesley episodes are very good. Where No One Has Gone Before, When The Bough Breaks, Datalore, The Bonding, and Final Mission are a few examples.

But I cannot stand Wesley being the only one to save the ship. Other episodes his experiments put the ship at risk.

I try to see Wesley as Picard's Godson and they might as well be stuck with each other whether Picard likes it or not. It is similar to an episode of TOS. I don't know why Picard would give Wesley so many privileges.

My favourite child character is Eric.
And also of course Jake Sisko from DS9. And Nog.

And all the other children were limited to episodes about the children. Perhaps that is why all the other children were not annoying. With the exception of an early first season epsiode I think it was "The Last Outpost" of a young boy breaking in to play with the model ships on the wall.

My least favourite child character was Thomas Eugene Paris. Technically not a child but became more annoying than any other.

 

Okay ... now I completely understand why viewers of Star Trek do not like children in the episodes. I just got done watching "And The Children Shall Lead" it has very nice music but it is very annoying that those children are shaking their fists all the time and taking over the ship. and then the oldest kid smugly sitting in the captain's chair.

"Miri" is another example where children put the lives of the crew in danger.

 

As he was.