Meanwhile, in the Alpha Quadrant

[selenak]

Being in a Star Trek mood these last weeks also ends you checking up on people's rewatches, reviews and the like. And good lord, but much as I find I still adore the characters, I'm now also recalling what that a vocal part of ST fandom was and is easily as toxic as current day fandoms. The Wesley hate. Ugh. You'd think the kid personally assassinated a great many pet dogs. BTW, I maintain that "Wesley is such a Gary Stu and saves the Enterprise all the time, no wonder people hated him" is one of these "everyone knows..." things where people feed more on fannish osmosis and bashings than actual canon. Going by summaries from episodes since I can't rewatch them all, Wesley saved the day a total of six times, in seven seasons. Even if you only count season 1 - 4 since he then stopped being a regular character, and was only a recurring guest star thereafter, that's still nowhere near "always" dimensions. What's more, he's by no means universally adored by all the characters, or, well, any of them. He's liked, not least because the TNG bunch are an ensemble there the characters do like each other, but no one's best friend or idol or special protegé. (Well, the Traveler's, but the Traveler shows up a total of two times, once in the first and once in the last season.) Nor does he render beloved characters superflous by his existence, which is another Sue/Stu criteria. Nor is Wil Wheaton bad in the role. Now don't get me wrong, I think both Jake and Nog are better examples of how to write teenagers in a ST show, and I've been known to dislike some teenage sidekicks in my time. (See also: Richie in Highlander.) Sometimes, it just happens. But I'm still baffled as to the sheer dimensions of the unrelenting Wes hate. (And a mulish part of me wishes that Wil Wheaton gets an appearance in the new Picard series just because of that. Also because I happen to like Wesley.)

On to more joyful aspects of fandom, to wit, fanfic recs:

TNG/Voyager crossovers:

Of Borg: in which Seven of Nine meets Jean-Luc Picard. Short and to the point. There are surprisingly few stories using this premise, at least at the AO3, given the obvious shared element here.

There lies the port: and here's Kathryn Janeway meeting Picard on her lonesome. Due to the Janeway cameo in Insurrection (I think? Or maybe the awful Nemesis, I never watched that more than once), it's canon that the two know each other and are on a first name basis, so Janeway, post-Voyager's return, trying to figure herself out might very well do so with the help of an old friend.

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

I haven't seen any TNG for decades, but I wonder if it was the same issue as with Adric in Doctor Who - young male character who represents what nerdy fanboys dislike in themselves instead of what they fantasise.

Reminds me vaguely as well of Marcus Cole being called a Canon Stu, when the one time he had a real impact on a major arc really was something only he could have done - convince Neroon that Delenn could lead the Rangers.

[selenak]

As someone who disliked Marcus: no way was he a Canon Stu. That's what the guys with the initials J and S were there for! :)

I think you're on to something with "young male character who represents what nerdy fanboys dislike in themselves instead of what they fantasise". Wesley (and Adric) were never "cool". Jake and Nog were spared that ire because they never were as visible in the show; well, Nog was in the late seasons, but but of course by the time he was a member of the bridge crew of the Defiant, we'd seen him work to become the first Ferengi in Starfleet for several seasons. Whereas Wesley made it to the bridge within the first season.

[jesuswasbatman]

Been thinking more about Wesley and Adric and fan reactions to them. One other similarity is that both were played by genuinely young and quite inexperienced actors who in later life have gone on the record to say that the parts were badly written but also that they didn't really have the skills to make up for it.

The big difference, on the other hand, is that Wesley as I understand it gets hated partly because he's seen as a goodie-goodie swot who sucks up to the adults (because as I remember it it isn't until Wesley goes to the Academy that we see him having anything much to do with people of his own age). Whereas Adric has a lot of conflict with the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan but his reactions to conflict tend to involve either a lot of sulking, or attempts at repartee that come across as both weak and nasty, rather than the kind of idealised charismatic teen rebellion that the fanboys would have enjoyed watching.

[selenak]

re: truly young actors - definitely also a factor, though I will say that Wil Wheaton came to TNG from the success of Stand By Me, which had been a big surprise hit, and where he had the leading role (in as much as any of the four boys had; as Stephen King's youthful alter ego, he was the narrator and pov character). I don't think Matthew Waterhouse had a breakout success before getting cast in DW, or am I wrong?

I'm trying to think of prominent male teenage characters in sci fi franchises who weren't unpopular/hated, and right now I can only come up with Luke Skywalker (mind you, I may misremember how old he's supposed to be in A New Hope, but I think it's 17). And there the fanboys identified with Han Solo. Plus while Mark Hamill was young, he was no teenager. Teenagers being played by 20 something or even 30 something actors is so common that cases like Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher are really a big exception.

Speaking of Dawson casting, if we count Back to the Future as sci fi, then of course Marty McFly is a male teenage character beloved by fanboys, but between the skateboard, the quips, the guitar playing and the actor, Marty is cool.

[jesuswasbatman]

I forgot about Stand By Me, so yes, Wheaton was considerably more experienced than Waterhouse.

All the guys in Sarah Jane Adventures and Class, but I think things are different in series actually aimed at a juvenile audience and with a majority-teen cast.

[ealgylden]

Hi sorry, popping in to say that Luke and Leia are 19 in ANH, thus the tension with Uncle Owen- he wants to go to college (well, an Imperial service academy) and Owen's keeping him on the farm for reasons.

[selenak]

Ah, thank you! So noted.

[felis]

Funny enough, I really like Wesley in one of his later "Wesley saves the Enterprise" episodes = season five's "The Game". While the set-up was eyeroll-worthy, everything concerning Wesley was fun, including, lo and behold, the romance! One of the very few One Episode Romances on Star Trek that got me on board.

Re: his earlier characterization - I just looked through my episode notes and apparently he did not make enough of an impression to be mentioned. ;-) I do remember that I expected much worse from fandom osmosis, though, so you are certainly right with your "everybody knows" remark. I think he suffered from the general low writing quality at the beginning, but that's also true for Riker or Deanna for example. And while he never became a favourite character and his last appearance is on my dislike list, I generally appreciated that he got to leave the ship for Starfleet Academy. Plus, his episode set there was another good one IMO.

[selenak]

Yes, The First Duty is excellent, and acknowledged by Wesley haters to be so, but then they add they like it because Wesley "gets told off". Which, err, is so not the point of that episode.

No arguments re: the general writing quality early on, and this impacting the characters. Mind you, here's a Wesley detail I've always appreciated in the definitely-found-its-feet-now era of the show, i.e. the third season, specifically, Best of Both World I: when Riker gives the order to ram the Borg Cube (just before Data has his breakthrough with Picard down in engineering), the episode took the seconds to give us a shot of Wesley reacting to the news he's just been told to turn kamikaze pilot. It's not verbalized, we just get the reaction shot, and you can see Wesley first horrified and then steeling himself to go through with it. It's that kind of thing which makes the character real for me.

[misbegotten]

And a mulish part of me wishes that Wil Wheaton gets an appearance in the new Picard series

YES!

The Wesley hate was toxic. I enjoy the fact that Wil Wheaton has carved out a niche for himself on the internet and has fervent supporters now.

[selenak]

Same here!

[lizbee]

Lurking around Reddit, I've been a bit delighted to learn that for all its considerable other faults, a LOT of Trek redditors are men who grew up watching Wesley as children, and still regard his character with a great deal of affection.

I know modern fandom is said to be the worst ever, but as a child I read a "joke" about Wesley being gang raped by Klingons in a semipro fanzine, which wouldn't fly today.

[selenak]

I remember that! Not reading it myself, but being told about it at a convention. Also about the "WesleyCrusher.diediedie" website and competitions to kill off/hurt Wesley. Just in case I'd have thought this to be a thing of the past, though, I read a review of "Yesterday's Enterprise" from 2016 with a lot of background info, and in it the reviewer (a good one, btw) mentions originally it was planned that Wesley would get decapitated by a Klingon, but the scene was cut. Cue commenters going on about how this would have been "the best scene ever". Ugh.

[lilacsigil]

I remember hating Wesley because I was incredibly embarrassed by him (and also Adric, as jesuswasbatman points out above). I think it was because he was about the same age as me and omg now everyone can see my inner thoughts, PLUS he's not as cool as everyone else which just highlights my own lack of cool. People who were much younger or older than my age group seem to have no problem with him. And when I rewatched everything as an adult, I too had no problem with him!

To be fair to Wesley, I felt a similar embarrassment whenever female characters I liked got into a romantic storyline (Leia/Han being a prominent example) and immediately turned on both characters. I think a lot of this can be directly related to teasing at school.