1. Wesley Crusher
Was there ever any doubt as to who would top this list? Note to TV producers: highly intelligent kids are never liked in any series. Unless it's Parker Lewis Can't Lose. The original Trek didn't have any children, unless you count Charlie X, and he soon got his comeuppance. DS9 got it almost perfect, with Jake Sisko, a teenager who wasn't obnoxious nor an upstanding member of Starfleet, who followed his own path, and Voyager just went with Naomi Wildman; who could take offence to the little girl? Perhaps the idea was to "soften up" the hard-faced Picard by giving him a child to look after and worry about, the moreso because Wesley was the son of the ship's doctor, whom Picard bore amorous intentions towards, even if he was so prim and proper that he would never act on his feelings. But from the start, Wesley came across all wrong. There was no sympathy, much less empathy with his character. He was overbearing, obnoxious, condescending and superior to everyone around him, even the adults. What made it worse was that he actually
was a genius, as was proven as the series wound on; worse again that he
knew he was. The final straw was when he got to go off with The Traveller and take on some sort of higher being. So after years of saying and believing he was better than anyone else, the writers showed him that he was. When he departed the series midway through season four, I know I let off some fireworks; any of the standalone sporadic episodes in which he guest-starred after that were pretty much let down by his presence. Yes, he mellowed a little as time went on but in "Journey's end" he had reached critical mass as the moody, angry teenager who doesn't know what he wants (apart from a slap!) and it irks me that he managed to get his face into the last season when he was supposed to be gone from the series. Also, was he gay? I mean, he had a perfect opportunity with Robin in "The game" but seemed not to take it, and though we saw snippets of him with girls in Ten Forward there never seemed to be any steady girlfriend. Inquiring minds want to know. Actually, they don't, they just wish Lore had killed Wesley when he had the chance. Oh yes, when Data's evil twin told Crusher "Do it, or he'll be shrieking by the time you get to the door!" I was surely not the only one begging on my knees in front of the TV "Please! Do it! Kill the little git!" Yes, nobody, and I mean nobody in the entire run of Star Trek the franchise ever inspired such universal --- well, not hatred; that would be too strong a term, but certainly intense dislike --- as Acting Ensign (later Ensign: did anyone care?) Wesley Crusher.