Star Trek: The Next Generation/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
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** It's an interesting thought exercise to imagine the series without Wesley. Would we really lose all that much? Unfortunately, the character was fundamentally misconceived, and not only because of his Mary Sue qualities. I often wondered what the other children on board the ship think about him. He gets to work on the bridge and have a field commission as an ensign, something most people work at for years -- and all because he's so "special." Or could it have something to do with the fact that his mother is the CMO and his father was the captain's best friend? I would cry nepotism on that one. |
** It's an interesting thought exercise to imagine the series without Wesley. Would we really lose all that much? Unfortunately, the character was fundamentally misconceived, and not only because of his Mary Sue qualities. I often wondered what the other children on board the ship think about him. He gets to work on the bridge and have a field commission as an ensign, something most people work at for years -- and all because he's so "special." Or could it have something to do with the fact that his mother is the CMO and his father was the captain's best friend? I would cry nepotism on that one. |
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** There's also the fact that Wesley adheres to a cliché that was tired long ago... the [[Tagalong Kid]] is shoehorned into a cast of adults in some ill-fated attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. This was a mainstay of TV science fiction before [[Star Trek]] (see, for instance ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger''), and it's dishearteningly how straight TNG plays it. |
** There's also the fact that Wesley adheres to a cliché that was tired long ago... the [[Tagalong Kid]] is shoehorned into a cast of adults in some ill-fated attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. This was a mainstay of TV science fiction before [[Star Trek]] (see, for instance ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger''), and it's dishearteningly how straight TNG plays it. |
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** I guess I was exactly the target audience that Wesley was supposed to appeal to when the series first aired... a bit younger than him (so he seemed like a bit of a "cool older kid"), always caught up in imagining myself in far away places, feeling like an outsider who desperately wanted to fit in and prove I could be useful and cool. So he had exactly the intended effect on me, I not only liked him, I wanted to be him. And honestly there are times where I wonder if the ridiculous [[Memetic Mutation]] hatred of Wesley isn't fueled by a certain amount of [[Old Shame]] by people who had similar escapist/admiring feelings for the cast pariah too. But then, I also think Wil Wheaton is a dumbass as opposed to the nerd god everyone else seems to think he is, so maybe I'm just from Earth 2 or something. |
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== Do not interfere with my children below! == |
== Do not interfere with my children below! == |
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