I think it would have been possible to write the character in such a way that he is gifted and worthy of being commissioned as an acting ensign without making him a super-wunderkind who is attracting the attention of time and space bending alien species and devising solutions to weekly problems that the senior staff just can't handle.
The Lesley Crusher idea
- Thread starter The Four Doctor
- Start date
Having an incredibly smart kid as part of the crew isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. Having that kid constantly make that crew look like idiots is something else entirely.
That's reasonable. I do agree that Wesley could have been written better. I think I misunderstood the point you were trying to make, sorry about that.
Agreed.
I may have had an issue or two with other aspects of SeaQuest, but Lucas was not one of them because we understood why he was there, why an exception had been made, and for that matter while he was shown as exception in his particular area that was -- IIRC -- initially shown to be fairly narrow and he had significant gaps in his skill and knowledge outside of that.
I'd also say that the popularity of Prodigy and to an extent Lower Decks also supports my point earlier in this thread that the biggest problem wasn't Wesley per se but the lack of presence of other junior personnel on a regular/rotating basis that made it as big a problem as it was.
I think Leslie would have been a great addition to the show and would have loved seeing her. In my alternate universe where she exists, alongside her helmsman role, I made her Picard's yeoman (which despite the female TOS origin connotation for that, I based their relationship on Bartlet and Charlie from "The West Wing")
That said, I think God that she wasn't in the show.
I think about what they put the adult female actresses through on those shows and it would break my fucking heart to have a young teen girl put through shit like starve yourself to get you to fit into a costume, worrying about your looks, go put on a padded bra, being the fantasies of adolescents and adults alike.
And then the audience hates you anyway because you're too smart and you're a girl, or at least that's how it comes across to you, so you leave the show depressed and just completely wrecked.
No thanks.
That said, I think God that she wasn't in the show.
I think about what they put the adult female actresses through on those shows and it would break my fucking heart to have a young teen girl put through shit like starve yourself to get you to fit into a costume, worrying about your looks, go put on a padded bra, being the fantasies of adolescents and adults alike.
And then the audience hates you anyway because you're too smart and you're a girl, or at least that's how it comes across to you, so you leave the show depressed and just completely wrecked.
No thanks.
He bugged out of the bridge pretty quick to be replaced by Haskell when there was real danger in Where Silence Has Lease. Returned a scene later, no impact from his thoughts about "if I'd gone on a break a few minutes later it would have been me dying"
I absolutely thought about making some sort of comment to that effect, not being able to remember whether I'd done so upthread. I can't imagine TNG taking the time to have Wesley/Lesley seriously process just how lucky (s)he got there, but it could have been interesting if they had.
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