Star Trek: 10 Reasons Wesley Crusher Needs His Own Spin-Off Series
The most overlooked variable no longer, we think Wesley deserves his own Star Trek show.
A lot may have changed in the thirty-seven years (our chronology) since they picked him up from Farpoint, but all that's important has remained the same. No matter how far he travels, Wesley Crusher has staying power, and, following his triumphant return in Star Trek: Prodigy's second season, we really do hope he sticks around!
Perceptions of Wesley fluctuate so wildly from person to person, and from time to time, though any hate — now tempered somewhat — is perhaps just projection (psychological and literal), for he is the nerd downtrodden, like a lot of us perched tentatively in front of the screen. Wesley's own path to a healthy self-image was as much of a process, given his once in a generation potential from the get-go. It took a while, but in the end, we were all as excited as Rok-Tahk to see the "genius of the Enterprise-D" again.
What (re-)started briefly in Star Trek: Picard, with a flashback in Star Trek: Lower Decks, leapt through a vault door in Prodigy. This was Wesley at his best; this was Wesley. For almost four years, Wil Wheaton had equally managed to avoid all curious questions and fan calls for the character to make a lengthier re-appearance. If he's that good at keeping a secret, the spin-off's probably already been made! There are certainly a few reasons it should be! Let's give it some space, time, thought.
10. We Have Nothing To Declare But His Genius
If you start with wonderchild, a prodigy the likes of Mozart, it's nowhere but down without a damn good plan to exceed. As Gene Roddenberry's Marty Stu self-insert, Wesley Crusher didn't stand much of a chance from the beginning, left to fail, if not downwards, then forwards and out, during the remainder of his time on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The price of genius is eternal torture, not least, in the beginning, by being told to shut up about it. After, if you do achieve your (Starfleet Academy) dream, you can't have it for long: it's either wrong side of the flight path, wash-out, or both, I'm afraid, before you start to find another way. Journey's End was just that, the end. Then, sitting at the head table with the Troi-Rikers asked more questions than it answered, with any chance of explanation left on the cutting room floor.
Far from failing to live up, Wesley bounded back beyond all expectations in Star Trek: Prodigy. With the cosmos as his country, Wesley could be a Traveller, though it would be a shame for him to stop there. Prodigy was redemption; a spin-off would be the justice of a journey continued.