If Summer Glau belongs to geek culture as its high priestess and pin-up successor to Gilian Anderson and Sarah Michelle Gellar, then Wil Wheaton is geek cultures ambassador. One of the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a young man, Wheaton would experience the terrifying backlash that child actors on genre television shows tend to receive. The very name Wesley Crusher became synonymous with fandom loathing in the late eighties and early nineties. Since then, however, and despite never achieving significant success as an actor, Wheaton has distinguished himself as a remarkable writer on pop culture, and a passionate advocate for all things nerdery. The guy that geeks loathed a quarter of a century ago has become their favourite son. Seeing Wheaton as an occasional guest on The Big Bang Theory first as Sheldons nemesis and then, grudgingly, as his friend, is strange but in many ways deeply satisfying, like discovering a valuable unlockable character on a video game. The warm feeling that comes from realising that, after years of resolutely continuing to try to make a living as an actor, 20 million non Star Trek fans just saw him appear on a TV show thats not too shabby either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pQvyo3o5kc
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
