#wesley mission | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sshbpodcast · 4 months

Text

Character Spotlight: Wesley Crusher

By Ames

Grab your favorite hideous sweater! It’s time to talk about Wesley Crusher. He’s one of the most polarizing characters on TNG, with a lot of hate directed his way, but he also has a number of great Trek moments which we on A Star to Steer Her By are going to sort through today!

We can probably blame Gene Roddenberry for making this character so insufferable, especially in the first season when he seemed to have the easy solution for the engineering problem of any given episode. Gene designed him to characterize a person’s infinite potential and then slapdashedly shoehorned him into every place he could, and you’ll notice that right after the big writers room turnover, the child prodigy started feeling more like a character and less like a cheat code. Scroll on for the list below and listen to our chatter on this week’s podcast episode (warp over to timestamp 57:36) for all the dirt. Just unplug your nanite experiment first.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Don’t shut up, Wesley While I’ll give Wesley the deserved scrutiny in a moment for the absurd number of times in season one of TNG that he saved the day, we do have to give him some credit for figuring out that Lore was impersonating Data in “Datalore.” Even while pretty much everyone on the crew was telling him to shut up, Wes had it all figured out and topped it off by beaming Lore into space.

Double dumbass on you! Wesley actually does get to shine during “Coming of Age,” an episode that really uses his youth to its advantage by having him take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. And he gets pretty far! He even figures out that Rondon is a Zaldan, so Wesley realizes that apologizing for getting run into himself is the wrong reaction for that culture and comes away looking like a badass.

Teamwork makes the dream work Speaking of “Coming of Age,” Wesley is also this close to solving the dynamics relationships test first when he helps Mordock figure it out too. Wesley’s natural affinity for helping his crewmates is more important to him than getting the top score, which TAC Officer Chang takes into consideration in the final results. I’m not sure it helped much, but it’s a good character moment.

You never forget your first “I'm never going to feel this way about anyone else,” Wesley says to Guinan after watching his first crush leave in “The Dauphin.” Strangely, it’s a very mature little conversation considering Wesley was ready to write Salia off as some kind of alien monster earlier in the episode. But he learns to accept her differences, score some relationship experience points, and get his first smooch.

The minute you walk through that door they’re your team Slowly, the show starts putting Wesley in more age-appropriate situations in which he isn’t just saving the day, so it’s fitting for him to be overwhelmed when leading his first committee in “Pen Pals.” His team member Davies effectively takes over because Wes initially lacks confidence, but he soon takes charge and they work together to save Drema IV. Go team!

You told me to improvise During the war games in “Peak Performance,” Wesley thinks outside the box and retrieves one of his many, many experiments from the Enterprise to use on the less advantaged Hathaway. While Riker initially accuses young Crusher of cheating, no one said he couldn’t sneak tools off the other ship, and it’s that kind of ingenuity that could be useful in a fight.

Begin by letting go of your guilt, Wesley His mother Beverly may be on full display in “Remember Me” as we discussed last week, but Wesley also gets some interesting development. Back in “Where No One Has Gone Before” the Traveler saw potential in the child prodigy, and when the two of them use their special powers here to open the door for Dr. Crusher to return from the warp bubble, we witness some of that weird potential get unlocked.

I’ve done it all because I want you to be proud of me We joke a lot on the podcast that Picard is secretly Wesley’s father, and it’s mostly for laughs. But when we get touching scenes between the two of them like the one in “Final Mission,” we think we may be onto something. Stranded on a planet without water, Wesley keeps an injured Picard alive (can’t say the same for Dirgo, but whatever), fueling paternity theories for years to come.

I just lost the game After Wesley leaves the crew after “Final Mission,” his appearances are more methodical, and thus his character feels more and more appropriate each time. In “The Game,” he’s just visiting but his tendency to see how things work helps him and Lefler to discover that the video game everyone’s playing is actually harmful before the whole crew turns on them.

I would like to add something to my testimony We get even more glimpses of how far Wesley has come when he’s attending Starfleet Academy in “The First Duty.” All of Nova Squadron has lied about the circumstances of Josh Albert’s flight accident, and it’s Wesley who comes clean in the end because he can’t bear the guilt and the dishonesty of covering up their nefarious actions. Take that, Locarno!

These people deserve better than to be removed from their homes We found Picard’s actions inexcusable and entirely out of character in “Journey’s End” but you know who was actually on point? Wesley freakin’ Crusher. How on earth the boy was the only Starfleet-adjacent person to actually try to defend the colonists on Dorvan V is beyond us. It strikes us as opposing Federation ideals to force the colonists to move, and Wes knows that.

I had to find my own path Finally, it is a fabulous resolution to the Wesley Crusher character for him to decide on his own to leave Starfleet and go with the Traveler to discover his true potential in “Journey’s End.” For too many kids, it’s the parents who put pressure on them to walk certain paths, and we celebrate Wes for finding his own. Ya know, until he’s randomly back in Starfleet for that cut scene from Nemesis for some reason.

—

Worst moments

Wesley Saves the Day! Okay, I’m gonna lump all the obnoxious “Wesley Saves the Day!” instances into one blurb because it’s so damn repetitive. Every single time, Wesley – a child amidst some of Starfleet’s best of the best – figures out some impossible engineering problem before any of the adults in the room can, and we got so tired of it.

Whether it’s by getting drunk and taking over engineering only to use his reverse tractor beam in “The Naked Now,” or saving the day with the Traveler in “Where No One Has Gone Before,” or spotting Picard’s brain scan from across the room and deducing there are Ferengi shenanigans afoot in “The Battle,” or cracking the lock on the holodeck door while La Forge had already admitted defeat in “The Big Goodbye,” or seeing through Lore’s disguise as we mentioned above while all the adults in the room tell him to shut up in “Datalore,” or probably a ton of others all from the first season, it was clear no one knew how to write him except as some kind of magical prodigy. Alakazam!

Keep off the grass It’s all the more clear that having a child character on the crew is just a cringey idea in “Justice.” Sure, it could have been anyone who broke the stringent rules of the Edo, but just the fact that it’s Wesley gallumphing through a flower bed like an uncoordinated doofus, destroying it utterly, makes us roll our eyes and seriously wish they’d let them execute the brat.

Frosty the no-no man Let us not forget that it was Wesley who hit the captain with a snowball in “Angel One,” an immature and obnoxious little scene that seems to prove Picard’s point that letting children run roughshod all over the ship is an inconvenience at best and a liability at worst. And it happens to be the latter in this episode, because he ends up getting the whole ship sick with some disease!

Drug Abuse Resistance Education is futile! While we can go on about Wesley’s whole exchange with Tasha about drug addiction in “Symbiosis,” what’s most egregious is how sheltered and clueless Wesley (normally some kind of child genius) has to be to not understand how narcotics work in the first place. It’s such a forced scene that we can just feel the Reagan Era war on drugs sentimentality written all over.

I guess leaving’s gotten easy for you It’s easy to find fault with “The Outrageous Okona” – it is my least favorite TNG episode, after all. Literally everyone in this episode is annoying, and as usual, that includes Wesley who first idolizes the charming rogue, then seems really judgey of his independent and carefree lifestyle, and finally he sasses the guy into making him conclude the soap opera plot of the episode.

How do you tell each other apart? It’s a pretty cheap joke when Wesley meets Mendon in “A Matter of Honor” and mistakes him for Mordock, whom we met in “Coming of Age.” I can’t tell if the writers were trying to make a racist “you people all look alike” kind of gag, but regardless, it makes Wesley look like an idiot for not knowing anything about Benzites and Benzite culture.

Klingons hate surprise parties Everything Wesley does in “The Icarus Factor” is annoying. He blathers like a maniac at the impatient Klingon, but then takes that impatience to assume something greater is going on than just being fed up with an obnoxious tween like anyone else would be. But to make things more exasperating, the little twerp is right, as he always is, and throws Worf an Age of Ascension party. Ugh.

I think that everything that’s been going wrong might be my fault It’s not until season three that, instead of saving the day as he did so many times already, Wesley actually screws up big by releasing the nanites in “Evolution.” While it’s refreshing to see Wes finally admit to some kind of flaw, his escaped nanites end up taking over the ship and start attacking people. And what’s worse is that he tries to lie about it until Guinan catches him!

Broccoli on the side You’ll remember this from La Forge’s spotlight as well, but Geordi reveals in “Hollow Pursuits” that it was Wesley who initiated the cruel nickname “Broccoli” for Lt. Barclay. Wes, you might still be a child, but you’re in a room with adults so stop acting like one! I don’t know what’s worse: being such a dick to one of your coworkers, or all the adults in the room condoning it.

I’m the one trapped in the bubble As if his misadventure in “Evolution” weren’t enough, Wesley botches another science experiment in “Remember Me” and nearly gets his mother killed in a pocket dimension! I know we just gave him some credit for bringing her back (though I mostly give that credit to the Traveler), someone’s got to stop letting Wes hook shit up to the warp core just because he’s the CMO’s kid! Nepotism much?

The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth Here’s another Wesley moment that ended up on both lists because as much as we can see the character growth and lesson learned when he comes clean in “The First Duty,” it also needs to be said that he is fully prepared to follow Nick Locarno like a little sheep. Wesley almost certainly wouldn’t have done the right thing in the end if Picard hadn’t basically threatened him first!

You are out! Auf wiedersehen! Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t poopoo Wesley’s fashion choices. Again. It’s a trainwreck of a fashion show. Sweater after sweater – all oversized, hideously patterned, and monstrously ugly. Ames has the full write up in an early blogpost: Wesley's Sweaters: An Unfashionable Collection, but this coral nightmare from “Where No One Has Gone Before” might take the cake.

—

Well, we’re off to go exploring with the Traveler, so that’s gonna wrap things up for this one. We’re back next week with more characters to spotlight and also more Enterprise to watch over on the podcast, which you can find on SoundCloud or wherever you listen. You can also get our help on your Academy entrance exams over on Facebook and Twitter, and watch out for those flowers!

7 notes · View notes

transxfiles · 8 months

Text

young wesley crusher on the enterprise questioning his sexuality like "computer, boys kissing, images"

#i was like hm. i wonder what the ''youtube search girls/boys kissing'' equivalent is for starship kids.#if i was on a 10 year mission starship as a kid you know 12 y/o me would be like ''computer. girls kissing images. for science.''#cricket.chatterbox #st tng #star trek #star trek the next generation #wesley crusher #gay ewesley crusher

12 notes · View notes

sallytwo · 10 months

Note

hi i sent that ask because i thought it would be funny and i actually like seeing you talk about your waifish men. love and light

this is so beautiful i really liked that ask actuakky it’s like top 5 anons ever. you and your waifish men.

#so off topic but does everyone remember how one of the ideas they had to write wesley out on tng #was to have him die on an away mission to save pciard do well all rmemebr this. do we. question #this had nothing to do with capar.c.

7 notes · View notes

data2364 · 2 years

Text

via memory-alpha

Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Gates McFadden (Doctor Beverly Crusher) and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) 1990 during the filming of Star Trek: The Next Generation “Final Mission”

https://data2364.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/daily-star-trek-2-september-2018/

#Star Trek #Star Trek TNG #Patrick Stewart #Jean-Luc Picard #Jonathan Frakes #William Riker #Marina Sirtis #Deanna Troi #Gates McFadden #Beverly Crusher #Wil Wheaton #Wesley Crusher #Final Mission #Die letzte Mission

31 notes · View notes

loneswaggingranger · 1 year

Text

I WAS STARTING TO LIKE JAMES WESLEY HE'S DEAD NOW NO-

... i have a thing for loyal right-hand men okay. God damn it, Karen Page. Great job, but also - ow.

DD does a very great job of building up their antagonists to be so human even you cry when they die. It's. freaking. Amazing.

12 notes · View notes

theodorebasmanov · 2 years

Text

I’ve rewatched “Final Mission” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 4, episode 9). It’s one of the episodes in which we see Jean-Luc and Wesley bonding. Ensign Crusher sees a father figure in his captain and they both are afraid to cross boundaries but slowly and steadily grow closer to each other. (Spoilers!) Here they crush on a deserted planet with an impulsive “captain” of a mining shuttle, try finding water and shelter. Because of the “captain”, our captain (oh god, I’ve just called Jean-Luc Picard “our captain”…) gets injured, so Welsey has to manage the situation himself. Well, he manages to some point – the “captain” dies, but ensign gets to the water and saves Picard. By the way, the episode is called “Final Mission”, because Wesley is leaving to the academy and Jena-Luc says that he envies him and that he has to meet his friend – Boothby – a groundkeeper.

#star trek #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #st tng #st the next generation #final mission #captain picard #jean-luc picrad #ensign crusher #wesley crusher #father figure

8 notes · View notes

onwegolove · 2 years

Text

star trek really is my newest brainrot because i woke up and the first coherent thought that came to me was my brain going like hey what if with all of the modern recasts they’re collecting in strange new worlds they’re planning to eventually remake the original series

#they now have spock uhura chapel and they already cast a kirk for season 2. who knows who else they could grab before the end of the series #it would theoretically work just about perfectly although idk how i would feel about that #star trek #star trek snw #star trek tos #on the other hand if they made a show that was just. extra adventures of the crew’s five year mission or like more adventures #between tos and the movies. i guess that could work #it’s been so long since i’ve seen the movies i’m not sure how much they established canonically about the time between tos & the movies #but i would definitely vibe with ‘and they did another five year mission’ or something like that. i’m That Bitch that never wants things to #change or end so having more adventures that are meant to fit in with tos is right up my alley #glow.txt #also on the note of having seen the kirk casting. sooooo interested in how paul wesley is going to do as kirk #i only know him from tvd (and have only seen a bit of it anyway)#ALSO i saw that he’s wearing command gold in the pictures?? i’m so confused as to how they’re doing the shirts in snw #in tos the helmsmen also wore gold but in the first episode of snw they were wearing red so i thought they were making gold exclusively for #leadership like captains. is kirk going to be a captain of another ship or. if he’s not already a captain what are his duties going to be #actually i’m going to make a separate post about that now

2 notes · View notes

startrekplotnthemes · 8 months

Text

Season 4 Episode 9 Final Mission

Wesley Crusher gets his day out, finally eligible for Starfleet academy he and Picard board Captain Dirgo’s shuttle. On the way to Pentarus V they experience a crash and end up landing on a distant desert moon. Meanwhile in the B plot the Enterprise receives a distress call from Gamilon V where toxic radiation has began to threaten the planet. Riker finds out that essentially a garbage truck freighter has fallen into the planets orbit. In order to remedy this the Enterprise tries to attach propellants to the craft to launch it into the sun. When this option is unsuccessful he instead opts to use a tractor beam to tow the freighter into the sun.

Meanwhile in the meat and potatoes of the episode, Wesley and Picard travel the hot planet’s surface, Dirgo complaining the whole way through. They discover a cavern on their desperate search for water and food to tide them over. In the cavern they encounter a strange fountain protected by a barrier. Dirgo attempts to phase it and Picard pushes Wesley out of the way after the fountains defense system retaliates severely injuring Picard. Now faced with a rash Dirgo Wesley is left on his own forced to make his own decisions. Dirgo meets his demise via rash hypothesis and Wesley is able to concoct a solution with his tools at hand to redirect the energy beam and disable to forcefield. From there he is able to provide water from the fountain to Picard and keep him around till the Enterprise finds them.

This episode serves as a final test for Wesley before he leaves the Enterprise as well as a more permanent role among the cast. While accidental, the crash and subsequent disabling of Picard serves as the perfect test to prepare him for Star Fleet. Forced to hear the choices and decisions of the reckless Dirg he coalesces all of his knowledge to save his life. In a poignant emotional moment he recalls their previous shuttle trip to Picard and admits his own insecurities and how he sees him as a father figure. The episode is a middle point for Wesley in his advancement through the ranks and a final exam to the viewer for the boy who has grown up throughout the show.

#star trek tng #wesley crusher #star trek the next generation #star trek #star trek final mission

1 note · View note

brightbluekicks · 1 year

Text

why do all of my favorite show characters leave me

#wesley crusher #FINAL MISSION WAHHH #salem talks!

0 notes

hitchell-mope · 1 year

Text

I kind Wesley. He’s fun.

#star trek the next generation #star trek #the next generation #wesley crusher #final mission

0 notes

my-timing-is-digital · 1 year

Text

@micorriza asked: ❝ i heard screams. ❞

In preparation for Wesley’s next semester at Starfleet Academy, Captain Picard had agreed to appoint him a minor assignment on a class M planet in the Alpha Centauri trinary system in the Alpha Quadrant. However, he was only allowed to embark on this away mission on one condition: he should be accompanied by an experienced Starfleet officer, who could simultaneously keep account of the boy’s progress. An impartial report would then be transferred to the board of examiners at Starfleet Academy, who would assess and incorporate the records into his log.

Commander Riker had eagerly insisted on accompanying Wesley, but his duties and responsibilities on the Enterprise did not permit his absence for an indefinite amount of time. Geordi and Worf had reluctantly declined Wes’ request solely on the basis that they could not abandon their stations for an assignment that did not contribute significantly to the Enterprise and its exploratory ventures.

Fortunately, the android was less immersed in duties that bound him to the ship. When Wesley enquired after his availability, he was rehearsing for a concert in Ten Forward, but agreed to supervise the young Cadet during his away mission provided that he would be back in time for the performance. Technically, he did not require the rehearsals — he knew perfectly well that he was not prone to make errors during the execution of his violin solos. In his case, attending the orchestra assemblies was simply a formality he preferred to adhere to, because it was informative and he found the interactions between the musicians rather intriguing.

Several hours after the Enterprise had transported them down to the surface of a planet, Wesley had distributed a very accurate observation. The unusually high modulation of the disembodied voices had likewise been registered by Data’s auditory sensors, and the amplification of the voices connoted that the owners were in distress. Quickly, his yellow eyes skimmed their environs while he whipped out his tricorder and checked the interface for any anomalous readings that might have precipitated the screams. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary...

‘We must investigate,’ the Commander concluded, redirecting his attention to Wesley. ‘Ensure that your phaser is set to a 40% stun parameter; it might be beneficial to keep the instigators conscious for interrogation, instead of immobilising them straightaway.’

So much for an intermediate away mission that was supposed to be a relatively simple delivery of new replicator components to several public as well as Federal establishments...

#micorriza // wesley crusher #verse // to thine own self be true; and it must follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man #ooc: I can't remember if we discussed anything substantial for this;#I can only remember: wes and data on an away mission and everything's going to hell

1 note · View note

vanvelding · 6 months

Text

I'm going to say one of the nicest things I can about a show about Star Trek: Lower Decks

They played us like a string quartet.

(Spoilers for 4x09: "The Inner Fight")

Lower Decks was sold a Star Trek/Rick & Morty mashup from the start. The first scene is a drunken Mariner literally harming her sidekick, Boimler. It practically screamed, "Mariner & Boimler a hundred tours! Double-u, double-u, double-u dot Mariner and boimler dot com!"

But of course, it also had Star Trek references. One of the earliest is "Who would win in a fight? Khan or Roga Danar?" Why would anyone else in The Federation know or care who Roga Danar is? And there's no imagination on display for the oldest referential paradigm, "Who would win in a fight?" Lazy. Bullshit.

Of course before the end of season one, Lower Decks showed us it was more than that. Boimler was gaining the kind of experience he needed. The story hinted very strongly that Mariner had been in Starfleet a LONG time. She wasn't a omnicompotent mary sue; she was a Commander with her own philosophy/trauma that compelled her to remain an Ensign.

It was a good show and it stood on its own. The references were used well to create interesting stories ("Twovix"), as part of the setting ("Hear All, Trust Nothing"), or just as a gag here and there ("Kayshon, His Eyes Open" and, like a dozen others). The references to the setting become the background radiation, remarkable in how deep a cut they really are (Vendorians?). I've described it to many people as "Star Trek, but everyone has watched Star Trek."

What it wasn't, was related to its namesake. "Lower Decks" was a surprisingly heavy episode about the younger members of the Enterprise crew and their perspective on the missions of galactic import that the viewer usually enjoys an omnisicent view of.

Lower Decks mentions our main cast don't have that omniscient view, but Mariner is a stone-cold badass, Rutherford was part of a secret effort to develop artificial intelligence, Tendi is the Mistress of the Winter Constellations, and Boimler--actually Biomler is no more exceptional than any other Starfleet officer.

So when we get our main cast and the senior officers into a room and they mention Nick Locarno, our thought is, "LOL, another reference. This one from TNG. Not particularly deep. LOL, Boimler is a Beverly Crusher fanboy. I guess it makes sense, they have the character model from the episode with Tom Paris. Clearly, Robert Duncan McNeil is happy to do some voice work. We'll probably make a reference to how much he looks like Tom Paris.

"lol"

Look, if you figured it out then pat yourself on the back. Me? I filed away another reference. I didn't realize that Nick Locarno was connected to the episode of TNG that was this entire series' namesake. The characters even say, "Who?" which is one of the first times they don't get a Star Trek reference. Because Nick Locarno isn't a part of the Star Trek universe they view with an enthusiastic fandomness; it's part of their dramatic history, whether they know it or not.

"ha-ha, I guess Nick Locarno is too deep a cut for the show that called back to Morgan fucking Bateson."

But whatever, A-plot/B-plot. Gags about Starfleet habitually rolling up to seedy establishments in uniforms while looking for information, which is subverted by Captain Freeman being fucking genre savvy (also, wasn't she going to be promoted before getting arrested at the end of season two? I guess getting framed for a crime was deemed to be not very 'admiral-able'). Mariner ends up in a cave with a Klingon taking shelter from a crystal rain.

The pieces are there. Mariner was an ensign during The Dominion War. Two to three years before The Dominion War, Wesley Crusher left Starfleet, our Nick Locarno expy Tom Paris was recruited to Voyager, and Sito Jaxa was an ensign.

And Nick Locarno is in play.

We could have figured it out! We're in the narrative and emotional third act of this series (Tendi gave us the "We'll always be friends" speech last week)! Everyone regular just sat in a room trying to figure out how to help Mariner; we were one fruit salad analogy away from an intervention with Dr. Migleemoo!

Mariner escapes from Cardassian interrogation chambers for fun!

But Locarno is just another TNG reference, like Beverly Crusher. Background radiation. The season's story arc is something original to Lower Decks, which it's proven it's unafraid to do at this point. The series has no relation to "Lower Decks"

And then they fucking hit us with it; Beckett Mariner knew Sito Jaxa. They were friends. Then Jaxa died.

That's Mariner's trauma (that and The Dominion War).

And I didn't see it because I came to see Lower Decks as a series that stood on its own merits as a show while calling back to earlier Treks in a light, non-committal way. And I credit that solely to the writing of the show which leveraged both of those qualities to make an entertaining show that I like before, but now respect.

Just amazing stuff.

#star trek #star trek lower decks #star trek lwd #lower decks #lower decks spoilers #star trek lwd spoilers

245 notes · View notes