why do people hate Wesley Crusher?

[Cheapjack]

Wesley was about 11 or 12 years old in "Encounter at Farpoint" and yet we were supposed to believe that he knew more than people with educational backgrounds that had lasted longer than he had been alive.

I don't care how high his IQ is, there aren't enough waking hours in a day for him to have caught up and surpassed the engineers and scientists onboard Enterprise.

I wouldn't have minded so much if he had just been a quick study and a pesky, inquisitive student. But that ain't what we got. We got a smarty pants who too frequently upstaged the adults, leaving us to wonder why he wasn't made chief engineer.

There's a ten year old in England who has just passed his A levels. By the 24thC, it will be even more extreme. You don't want to get to a position where you ignore people who know things, when they can save the ship. You praise them. As someone else has said, Worf wasn't exactly the most mature of people, and he was on the bridge. If people know things, you acknowledge them or it will be the end of you. You don't want to get a situation where people who know nothing or are ignorant or don't want to know, running the show. And, you don't torture people for being right. Adult human beings are often more immature than kids. All you have to do is say 'You're right there', once in a while, to shut them up.

One of the cruellest things you can do to people, is to not give them credit for their thought. I had a friend who once threw a hammer at someone who used to steal his jokes and make out he had thought of them.

 

[Forbin]

How many actual officers were there, who'd been thru the Academy and put in years of service, who worked hard to get a position and advancement, who expected to get a place on the bridge or in engineering that they desired, who were passed over for some snotty-ass kid who did NONE of that work and got the job just because he was kinda smart and the captain wanted to boff his mom?

Way to ensure morale, there, Picard.

Wesley should have been wedgied by everyone on the damn ship.

 

[Cheapjack]

You're heading to a bad place, if you ignore talent, whatever form it takes.

Kirk rushed up through the ranks. He was talented and precocious.

Picard didn't. He worked his way up.

It takes allsorts to make a ship.

 

[evil saltine]

Kirk rushed up through the ranks. He was talented and precocious.

Heh, yeah. "For no logical reason, I'm making you first officer."

 

[sonak]

Actually yeah, Kirk of Trek09 was another example of this.

"Yeah, we'll pass on other more qualified and deserving officers with more experience because the plot demands it and because you're so awesome." This would stir up resentment among the crew I would think.


I'm not saying that seniority and experience necessarily trump good ol' fashioned skill and creativity, but Starfleet officers have specific training, you don't just put random folks with some charisma and intelligence to fill certain positions based on whim.

 

[Anji]

Anyone who has kids knows that no matter how much you love them, sometimes they can be annoying.

Wesley was a kid, enuff said.

 

[Mary Ann]

My first point was that you if someone proves that he possesses the “emotional maturity” he should be accepted, even if he is a teenager. The reason he has no place there is that he doesn't have it, not because he is a teenager. I would agree that he might have to go through extra lengths to prove it (because it's extraordinary), but that doesn't mean that the idea about a teenager there should be completely discarded.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but in my mind advanced emotional maturity is not enough; a bridge officer must have the proper training--as in be an Academy graduate-- and experience, which Wesley cannot have due to his age. This is why I feel he doesn't belong full-time on the bridge. Also, I believe that Wesley's emotional maturity is that of a standard teenager.

My second point is that the Klingons and the Ferengi also seem to not possess the “emotional maturity”. The first time I was watching TNG, after seening several Klingons I started to feel worried about Worf might do, especially when someone acted inappropriately (the scene on “First Contact” when Picard refused to let of the ship was the strongest in this regard). I always expecting that he wouldn't be able to restrain himself and kill someone. I accepted Nog more easily but “Treachery, Faith, and the Great River” still comes to mind.

Klingons and Ferengi seem to not possess emotional maturity by Starfleet standards, not within their own cultures. Worf and Nog, having been raised by humans and aboard a multicultural Starfleet-run space station respectively, were exposed to Starfleet behavioural expectations for years before they applied to the Academy, so they knew what was to be expected of them. Also the Academy entrance procedure includes a psychological test, I believe, and Worf and Nog obviously both passed that test. They still have their biologically-driven personality traits, of course, but they know when they must compromise and surpress any impulses which would make them behave contrary to Starfleet regulations and expectations.

 

[Ghrakh]

Seems people should be hating Picard for putting Wesley on the bridge.

 

[AMQ]

I think he was on bridge yes because he was good, but also may have something to do with Picard being friend with his father before he died so he wanted to be there for him and help him out. Maybe not so fair but still Wesley didn't disappoint as much as I remember.

 

[Cepstrum]

First, I think Jake was in no way a nerd. He seemed pretty realistic. And Nog had to go to the academy and work very hard. Icheb was former Borg. I thought even Naomi Wildman was a pretty good child actress.

I think Wesley came across as both naïve *and* mature at the same time. It didn't make sense. You can be good at science (I began college right after turning 16 and was soon tutoring people twice my age, but I was and am socially inept, and there's *no way* looking back I would have entrusted myself with significant responsibilities.)

I think there's a big difference between being a prodigy and great at math or science vs the experience needed to participate in the operation of a Starfleet vessel.

This analogy is flawed, for most modern navies would never risk endangering a minor, but navies don't let child prodigies help run their ships. Neither do they, as far as I know, entrust them to do classified scientific research.

It seemed on the one hand they wanted to make Wesley a mature, competent quasi-officer while *still* making him act very naïve about basic things. That is rather strange.

But I don't hate Wesley. I think he's kind of funny.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

i don't think I've ever understood this. Is it because he was a geek? Jake and Nog were geeks, as was Icheb.

what gives?

No good reason. None at all.

 

[Neutral Zone]

He's just annoying as most kids at that age are (as we were when we were that age), what makes it worse is that he was a brainy sod as well which would make even the adults look like idiots and that don't go down too well with most people. At least he wasn't in every single episode!

 

[DevilEyes]

I don't hate Wesley. It's not his fault, he was just written that way.

 

[Cheapjack]

He's just annoying as most kids at that age are (as we were when we were that age), what makes it worse is that he was a brainy sod as well which would make even the adults look like idiots and that don't go down too well with most people. At least he wasn't in every single episode!

It doesn't bother me in the slightest if people think of things I can't think of. I have never been in the position where that annoys me, and I have had some very clever cousins. Grudging jealousy, a little, acknowledgement, yes, definitely.

Wesley should be acknowedged, or he will just give up.

 

[Avon]

i think people are jealous of his season 1 frilly jumper. man i want one of those.

 

[Cheapjack]

I think they should do an episode with Wesley Crusher, relegated to the science labs, with 1 hour to do something.

As he is doing this, a jealous 70 year-old admiral clips him around the head every ten minutes, and tells him he is an upstart and worthless. Jealous crew mates throw stuff at him and tease him about his lack of girlfriends. And they also sit and use the computers to play games and listen to songs about sinking into the quicksand of self-perpetuating parental abuse and family disfunction.

Not.

 

[Willieck]

I think he might just fight back now.