Why did the writers make Wesley that way?

[The Borg Queen]

A lot of fans of Star Trek dislike Wesley Crusher, and with adequate reason. The character is an obnoxious brat.

Why did the writers make the only child character in the show to be like that? Have they never had experience of writing a child character before?

 

[toughlittleship]

Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry who made him that way? He often said he was just like Wesley when he was younger.

The fact that Rodders identified with Wesley (and used his middle name) made it difficult for the writers in later seasons and even after Roddenberry died to do anything controversial with him.

There was great debate when making episodes like the Academy episode and Journey's End because of Wesley's connection to Gene.

 

[WillsBabe]

You know, I don't care one way or the other for Wesley, but really, I don't see him as an obnixious brat. I just think he saved the ship too often and that was annoying. Other than that I thought he was okay.

 

[Good Will Riker]

So that it gives Captain Picard the excuse to yell out "Shut up, Wesley!" (source: "Datalore")

 

[BriGuy]

As was said, it was Roddenberry who "made" Wesley, not the often blamed "writers."

Wesley was the young, intelligent, largely innocent/pure, naive product of a "perfect" society. So of course he's "annoying" to many of us, because we either can't or won't be like him, or don't want to be like him. He has characteristics we either don't want, or want but can't have.

 

[cultcross]

toughlittleship said:
Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry who made him that way? He often said he was just like Wesley when he was younger.

basically its a variation of a Mary Sue character - it's how Gene wanted to be at that age, the perfect boy wonder protégé who only did wrong when it was a perfectly understandable mistake he could learn and grow from. Nice for Gene to see in the flesh on TV but not a character that fits interestingly into a drama series.

 

[BriGuy]

cultcross said:

toughlittleship said:
Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry who made him that way? He often said he was just like Wesley when he was younger.

basically its a variation of a Mary Sue character - it's how Gene wanted to be at that age, the perfect boy wonder protégé who only did wrong when it was a perfectly understandable mistake he could learn and grow from. Nice for Gene to see in the flesh on TV but not a character that fits interestingly into a drama series.

And aside from youth, Wesley was different from the rest of the cast... how?

And I don't know if TNG was really a "drama" in what's considered the genre.

 

[sunfire]

W. Crusher never did quite fit in with the crew as evidenced by the show, and by all of the above comments. His character really becomes understandable when he leaves the show. He does this by evolving into a newer, superior human being, a "traveler", who can manipulate the space-time continuim. So the reason he did not fit in, was basically he was never really like anybody else. Its funny, because one of the people he got closest to was a shape shifter - Alasomorph (sp?); again somebody not even close to human. Personally, I really liked Wesley, and I always missed him after he evolved out of the show. And, you know something, evolving to be something bigger and better that we are, is what Startrek is really all about. Kes, did something similar in her Startrek (Voyager) series, and I always liked her and missed her too.

 

[Claudia]

I think the problem was that he knows everything and has solutions to problems people much more experienced than he can't solve. I don't mind child prodigies, but this was driven to its extreme. Wesley wasn't allowed to be a kid, he never screwed up (until much later in "The first duty"), he got promoted to bridge duty, something other people work for their entire life etc. I would have liked to learn more about him, see him in different settings than just problem solving and on the bridge.

 

[Nebusj]

cultcross said:
basically its a variation of a Mary Sue character - it's how Gene wanted to be at that age, the perfect boy wonder protégé who only did wrong when it was a perfectly understandable mistake he could learn and grow from. Nice for Gene to see in the flesh on TV but not a character that fits interestingly into a drama series.

I have seen it alleged that part of the plan for the series was that Wesley Crusher, William Riker, and Jean-Luc Picard were meant to in a sort of abstract English-major way represent the same personality at three points in his life. Now and then it kind of comes through, particularly in Picard's relationship with Wesley, and I have to say that's a sound idea.

At least, I can certainly believe that the young Picard was a somewhat over-competent-for-his-age overly enthusiastic kid who drove everyone around him up the walls. Whether Roddenberry realized his prescription for Wesley was that personality type, he did pick a reasonable one, I think.

 

[The Borg Queen]

toughlittleship said:
Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry who made him that way? He often said he was just like Wesley when he was younger.

The fact that Rodders identified with Wesley (and used his middle name) made it difficult for the writers in later seasons and even after Roddenberry died to do anything controversial with him.

There was great debate when making episodes like the Academy episode and Journey's End because of Wesley's connection to Gene.

But was Gene responsible for such classic lines as "I'm with Starfleet, we don't lie" and such?

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Borg Queen said:
Why did the writers make the only child character in the show to be like that?

For a while, Wesley was to be Leslie Crusher, a girl.

David Gerrold wrote the main draft of the TNG Season One writers' guide/bible, and was supposedly very pleased with the character bio for Wesley, and yet I also recall reading that, after Gerrold left the series, he was selling "Throw Wesley out the Airlock" buttons at his convention table.

So it would be fair to say that the Wesley character definitely evolved beyond initial plans.

I recall Roddenberry saying that he viewed Wesley and Riker as essentially the same character type. That Wesley was the starry-eyed genius child Roddenberry had been as a teenager and that Riker was the confident leader-in-training. Roddenberry, IIRC, also selected Jonathan Frakes and "groomed" him at a series of 1:1 meetings, to ensure that he'd perform well at each casting session.

 

[sbk1234]

I don't think it was so much the character, but how they used him. I can accept him being very smart. I can accept Picard giving Jack Crusher's son special privilages. But I could never buy into this kid knowing more than the officers who have trained for years. I would have requested an immediate transfer off the ENterprise if I knew some 16 year old was driving.
Had they put him in engineering, working with a team of trained, experienced officers, from whom he could learn, I think the audience would have bought into it easier, and there would be a lot less animosity toward him.

 

[The Borg Queen]

The idea of a child prodigy is good, but what the writers did with him to make him so hated by the veiwers, that's dumb.

 

[sbk1234]

^^^^^Agreed!

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Borg Queen said:
The idea of a child prodigy is good, but what the writers did with him to make him so hated by the veiwers, that's dumb.

In Season One, Wil Wheaton supposedly received more fan mail than the other actors combined. How is that "hated"?

 

[Baba101]

i thought will got more hatemail then anyone else's.

 

[Jon1701]

The Borg Queen said:

toughlittleship said:
Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry who made him that way? He often said he was just like Wesley when he was younger.

The fact that Rodders identified with Wesley (and used his middle name) made it difficult for the writers in later seasons and even after Roddenberry died to do anything controversial with him.

There was great debate when making episodes like the Academy episode and Journey's End because of Wesley's connection to Gene.

But was Gene responsible for such classic lines as "I'm with Starfleet, we don't lie" and such?

John D.F. Black wrote that episode. He's gone on record stating that he basically wrote shit lines for Wesley as he didnt like the character.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/John_D.F._Black

I never minded Wesley, but this may be due to the fact that I was 10 when TNG came out...

 

[sbk1234]

Therin of Andor said:

The Borg Queen said:
The idea of a child prodigy is good, but what the writers did with him to make him so hated by the veiwers, that's dumb.

In Season One, Wil Wheaton supposedly received more fan mail than the other actors combined. How is that "hated"?

Who wrote that mail? Was it written by 12-year-old girls? If so, does that really count as being well liked? I know I was a little surprised at the extent of the animosity toward him the first convention I went to after TNG premiered.

 

[Spider]

Wesley was a bit of a pain as far as a character on this show goes. It was as much the actors fault and it was the writers.

He is on record saying he phoned in his lines at times, didn't take his role seriously and he regrets that. Add to that the writers didn't do the character justice and you have a mess.

But whatever the character of Wesley was, he was never as irratiting to me as Troi's mother.