The Lesley Crusher idea

Every book, movie, TV show, fairy tale, myth and tale around the campfire is an opinion by the author. It's the risk you take when you sit at the campfire.

 

Getting back to the female Wesley….
As i said a lot of her arc will also depend on how the teen actress’s body goes over the several seasons of TNG because the character will be scripted differently if her actress ends up voluptuous by later seasons than if she remains a training bra with nothing to train.

 

Lesley wouldn't have been a good fit in the episode where they were infected with the disease that makes them all horny.

 

Versus Wesley?

 

The Traveler would have had to be a female otherwise the creepiness would have gone off the scale.

 

Awkward confession time...so at the time WNOHGB aired I wouldn't have known I was gay yet, and I didn't read anything into the Traveler's interactions with Wesley. Obviously since then the potential subtext has become apparent, but I haven't rewatched the episode...or rather, I rewatched it once but I don't remember whether I picked up the subtext.

Point being, I feel like when we joke(?) about the Traveler's interactions with Wesley, I'm not sure whether it's just having fun with ourselves, or whether it objectively is troubling.

 

I think the actress’s chestal and rear development really will impact how the men in the TNG writers room write Lesley as the seasons of TNG progress.

Much as I hate to say it, how could it not?

 

I confess the thought of writers wondering about whether the 15 year old will be hot or not is horrifying and probably accurate to at least some of the nastier behind the scenes staff.

 

My point is that who ever plays Lesley will be a young adult woman by the end of TNG and that will affect how she is written. Even in the existing thoughts about Lesley from the TNG writers that are known, they were proposing a lot of romance storyline’s just because Lesley would be female.

 

Wesley was always written as timid with women, whereas Lesley would have been put in the position of pursued.

It would have been interesting if they had a story where Lesley is on a date and the man can’t handle that she’s smarter than him.

 

Or they would have gone the cliche route and given the teenage girl precocious (one sided) crushes on the senior officers and made her Riker's version of Lwaxana.

That sounds a bit to intelligent/modern for the writing on TNG.

 

I mean Wesley had the Dauphin and Robin Lefler. I don't think she'd have a bigger role than the cast.

 

Would they dare to haves some human or alien letching sleaze go “Naked means naked, Lesley. Underwear too.”

 

Oddly, it occurs to me they might have cast Machen Amick for Lesley. After all, she was only one year older than Will Wheaton and was almost cast as his girlfriend in The Daulphin (and they went with a 24 year old).



Twin Peaks would not have been the same without her.

 

Do you hate to say it, though? Because you talk about the physical development of teen actresses a lot. And you use photos of former teen actresses as your avatars, including ones who died. It's weird.

That's Mayim Bialik in your current avatar, right? She's gone on to have a whole life as a neuroscientist, author, actress, and game show host, yet according to your avatar, she might as well have been frozen in time as a teenager.

Whether you intend it or not, it's really giving off a creepy vibe, dude.

 

Weren't they supposed to appeal or relate to nerd and geek or other socially awkward types? (I wasn't impressed by either of them, despite resembling some of their traits, and usually aiming a character to the audience doesn't always work as expected or desired.)

I didn't cheer when Adric died and wondered what people were thinking as Adric was generally a goodie, unless people wanted the dinosaurs to not get killed off? But I was at enough conventions back in the day and people did precisely what you claimed you did and almost everyone in the room cheered. Usually people cheer when fictional baddies get blown to bits... Apart from Four to Doomsday where he's lured by one until the end of the story, Adric was not a baddie, but that was enough to get a room full of people to cheer? Maybe they were doing it in some weird party-themed spirit...?

 

Personally I never had all that much against Wesley either (until Journey's End, that is) but...

I saw a bit of interview of the creator of Real Ghostbusters (the Cartoon) once where he talked about the introduction of child characters and he said as a teenager reading comics he loved Batman, but hated Robin, because Batman was somebody he could fantasize about becoming as an adult, while Robin, who was the same age as him just reminded him of all the things he couldn't do. Maybe that's also a factor in why some people hate Wesley (never saw much of Doctor Who, so I can't speak about Adric) When they were young they liked to imagine that they could grow up to be Picard or Riker, while Wesley reminded him that he was about their age and could fly the Enterprise, while they couldn't.
Though I'd still say the poor writing with Welsey played a big part.

 

I was in high school when TNG premiered, but IIRC what cheesed me off most about Wesley was his eager-to-please disposition and what felt like his frequent saving of the ship and his interactions with the senior staff. It wasn't that I was jealous; it was that I thought it was flat-out unrealistic. Where were his friends? How did he spend his time when he wasn't playing Acting Ensign? Are there really teenagers who act this way?

I remember as a child being very curious and interested in my parents' friends, but I certainly had my own friends and interests, especially by the time I was Wesley's age. I may have also been a fairly tightly-wound teenager, but I still had my moments of rebellion/angst/drama as well.

I'm not familiar enough with the Batman comics to know whether the same critiques might apply. IIRC the Adam West series did show that Robin was at least somewhat tuned into his peers, though I wonder whether there was snickering amongst them about his living with an older single man...

 

I have never read a bat-man comic in my life (I don't like Batman, I don't like gadgeteer superhero), I was just mentioning that interview because I found it an interesting perspective.
But as I said, I think the bigger problem was the poor writing, and I'd say all you mention here (his lack of a social circle or any angst/pathos etc to the character) all falls under poor writing.

But then again, Kitty Pryde, who was beloved by X-Men fans of the 1980s was also an awkward genius teenager with no friends her own age (the closest thing were Colossus and Ngihtcrawler, both about 19, when Kitty was 13-14)
It took was some years into her existence before she got friends her own age.
The problem about Wesley's relationship with the senior staff might be that we *hear* about them in season one (like his supposed friendship with Riker, or the bond he supposedly had with Tasha) but we never really see it.

 

I wonder whether there was a missed opportunity for an "origin" story here regarding how Wesley became friendly with Riker/Tasha etc. independently of his mother in the first place.

...I wonder whether Wesley should have been the kid of the CMO in S1 who was around but not paid much mind to, and who started associating with the command staff after his mother is killed at some point in S1 or early S2.

I really do feel as though, at least in contemporary society, someone like Wesley would likely be vilified by his more grounded peers.