The early hate was just in the period where TNG was trying to figure itself out, and if you couldn’t relate to Wesley in some way, you hated him for his part. But it got better, and the show needed that age representative.
To be fair, the first season TNG is a little unsteady on its feet. For instance, Picard was depicted as being a lot more stubborn and rigid in his ways but ended up with a lot more nuance after a little bit.
I didn’t like or dislike the character. I just found the Westley Crusher side arcs of zero interest and basically time wasters.
As in, I watched Star Trek to watch, ya know, star treks - space stuff, aliens, adventure at the frontier of the know universe and crazy science fiction. I didn’t watch Star Trek to watch a teenager come of age: I already had one at home.
I grew up on the original Star Trek. It probably shaped my expectations.
I found him annoying in the first 1-2 seasons of TNG but that wasn’t helped by him being classed as a bit of a nuisance. Not helped by Picard not knowing how to deal with him either. Picard was probably better with the younger kids than an adolescent. And as a 10yo with a father the same age as Picard (or at least Patrick Stewart), the similarities between their “styles” felt like a reflection on my life at the time.
The fact I didn’t like Wesley probably means I didn’t really like myself either thinking about it but that’s a problem for me and my therapist, Dr. Shiraz.
Fair, I wasn’t really into the alien dignitary on an diplomatic mission to talk about shit the entire episode. I also loved the high concept sci-fi stuff. But I didn’t think blaming the actor for episodes that aren’t the best was the way to go about it.
This shit cause deep issues for him. Fucked hum up pretty bad.
But I didn’t think blaming the actor for episodes that aren’t the best was the way to go about it.
Oh yeah clearly. I didn’t care much for Westley Crusher, but I had nothing against Wil Wheaton. In fact, I knew nothing about him until he became an adult and I realized he had interesting shit to say.
But clearly he’s not responsible for Westley Crusher anymore than Jon Paul Steuer was responsible for the equally-annoying Alexander Rozhenko character.
I’m in the early-ish stages of a full Star Trek rewatch (or watch for the first time, for a couple of series). Apropos, I was on the penultimate episode of TAS when news about Stewart broke. Finished TAS, watched The Inner Light, then started TNG.
I guess what I’ll say about the “hate” for Wesley is that we– the audience– were told to hate Wesley, at least in the first part of season one. Picard had active disdain for him, and the entire crew simply called him “the boy.” Roddenberry was like George Lucas in my opinion; the best there was at the big ideas, woefully bad ad the small ones. Individual episode writing and character development being “small” in this context.
Probably the first time I really understood a little bit of the hate was when I watched Galaxy Quest and their parody of him was a little child. It’s just a little bit out-of-odds with the setting that there’s this goofy kid there all the time.
Same. He played a nerdy kid that spent more time interacting with the adults around him than other kids, even if they didn’t always take him seriously. I identified with that a lot. And it never hurt that Wil is only a year or so older than me in real life, and had a lot of the same interests. I grew up seeing him as both a peer and a role-model.
I was one of the few that never understood the hate. I liked his character and think he’s a fantastic actor.
The early hate was just in the period where TNG was trying to figure itself out, and if you couldn’t relate to Wesley in some way, you hated him for his part. But it got better, and the show needed that age representative.
To be fair, the first season TNG is a little unsteady on its feet. For instance, Picard was depicted as being a lot more stubborn and rigid in his ways but ended up with a lot more nuance after a little bit.
It was the uncomfortable uniform, he should have worn a skant, then he would have been less rigid.
I didn’t like or dislike the character. I just found the Westley Crusher side arcs of zero interest and basically time wasters.
As in, I watched Star Trek to watch, ya know, star treks - space stuff, aliens, adventure at the frontier of the know universe and crazy science fiction. I didn’t watch Star Trek to watch a teenager come of age: I already had one at home.
I grew up on the original Star Trek. It probably shaped my expectations.
I found him annoying in the first 1-2 seasons of TNG but that wasn’t helped by him being classed as a bit of a nuisance. Not helped by Picard not knowing how to deal with him either. Picard was probably better with the younger kids than an adolescent. And as a 10yo with a father the same age as Picard (or at least Patrick Stewart), the similarities between their “styles” felt like a reflection on my life at the time.
The fact I didn’t like Wesley probably means I didn’t really like myself either thinking about it but that’s a problem for me and my therapist, Dr. Shiraz.
Fair, I wasn’t really into the alien dignitary on an diplomatic mission to talk about shit the entire episode. I also loved the high concept sci-fi stuff. But I didn’t think blaming the actor for episodes that aren’t the best was the way to go about it.
This shit cause deep issues for him. Fucked hum up pretty bad.
Oh yeah clearly. I didn’t care much for Westley Crusher, but I had nothing against Wil Wheaton. In fact, I knew nothing about him until he became an adult and I realized he had interesting shit to say.
But clearly he’s not responsible for Westley Crusher anymore than Jon Paul Steuer was responsible for the equally-annoying Alexander Rozhenko character.
I’m in the early-ish stages of a full Star Trek rewatch (or watch for the first time, for a couple of series). Apropos, I was on the penultimate episode of TAS when news about Stewart broke. Finished TAS, watched The Inner Light, then started TNG.
I guess what I’ll say about the “hate” for Wesley is that we– the audience– were told to hate Wesley, at least in the first part of season one. Picard had active disdain for him, and the entire crew simply called him “the boy.” Roddenberry was like George Lucas in my opinion; the best there was at the big ideas, woefully bad ad the small ones. Individual episode writing and character development being “small” in this context.
Probably the first time I really understood a little bit of the hate was when I watched Galaxy Quest and their parody of him was a little child. It’s just a little bit out-of-odds with the setting that there’s this goofy kid there all the time.
Same. He played a nerdy kid that spent more time interacting with the adults around him than other kids, even if they didn’t always take him seriously. I identified with that a lot. And it never hurt that Wil is only a year or so older than me in real life, and had a lot of the same interests. I grew up seeing him as both a peer and a role-model.
I liked him, too. There’s probably dozens of us!
The people hating him we about the same age and jealous