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Season 1: The show that should have just been called "The Wesley Crusher Show"

posted 4 years ago by aavfreak (3366)
12 replies | jump to latest

I caught a few episodes of TNG during it's first run, but never watched it regularly.

Now that we're in quarantine and I have some time, I figured I'd fire up Netflix and watch it through - start to finish.

Oh, Lord is the first season bad. I'd like to say that everything I've read about Wesley was as bad as I expected, but I can't. It's worse.

I'm just chewing through episodes at this point like a child choking down his broccoli so that I can get to the good stuff later.

[–] Ace_Spade (9601) 4 years ago

There are some good moments in S1, but they're just moments. Even the uniforms and the phasers look terrible. They definitely improved on the show as it moved forward - aesthetics, writing, everything.

The worst of it is that there is actually something interesting in S1 with the Picard-Wesley relationship. The idea of a prodigy who needs to be carefully guarded lest he fall to the wayside is neat. It was handled really well in Nightwatch and Daywatch, but the execution was all wrong here.

TNG sets up its pilot and first couple episodes like the show is a continuing series and every week we'll be getting the next chapter. It's not. It's a serial show with some ongoing storylines, but for the most part the episodes are pretty self-contained. Only a few build directly on previous shows. So, if they went with Picard and Beverly in a "will-they-won't-they" and they put Wesley in there as this thorn in Picard's side, that could've been cool, but it's the kind of story you need to build on every week, you can't just drop it and pick it up.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 4 years ago

The worst of it is that there is actually something interesting in S1 with the Picard-Wesley relationship. The idea of a prodigy who needs to be carefully guarded lest he fall to the wayside is neat. It was handled really well in Nightwatch and Daywatch, but the execution was all wrong here.

Yes, a good concept wasted. In retrospect, it could have been done so much better.

TNG sets up its pilot and first couple episodes like the show is a continuing series and every week we'll be getting the next chapter. It's not. It's a serial show with some ongoing storylines, but for the most part the episodes are pretty self-contained.

That's one of the great things about the show. You can run by an episode flipping through channels and stop for a watch, without having to understand what's going on, like say Breaking Bad.

[–] Ace_Spade (9601) 4 years ago

Yup. Sometimes you want a novel, other times you want a treasury of short stories. Star Trek TNG is the latter and it's great. Breaking Bad is great, too.

Some shows try to eat their cake and have it, too. The X-Files kept throwing "main plot arc" episodes into the stew of short stories. I always preferred the latter. They were self-contained and fun. The main arc felt poorly thought out, like they never knew where they were going so they had to be vague and stall for time. So the "story" was, like, five seasons of "something something ALIENS something!" and then the 100% expected anticlimax of, "Yeah, it's aliens. Government aliens."

[–] kenburke (2385) 4 years ago

It would have been better if there were no kids on the ship to begin with.

[–] [email protected] (6052) 4 years ago

I used to belong to a Star Trek fan club/writing club and his nickname among many fans was Weasley Crusher. lol

I didn't object to a boy genius on the show. He was featured in some good episodes.

But I did think Picard stepped way over the line by giving Wesley a position on the bridge. He was a genius but he was a KID. He was not a Starfleet Officer. A position on the bridge was a plum assignment for officers who earned it.

It was a bit of an ego trip for Roddenberry. His middle name was Wesley. There was a Captain Bob Wesley who appeared briefly in one of the original Star Trek episodes.

I actually liked Wesley more than the insufferable Lwaxana Troi, aka, Mrs. Gene Roddenberry. Would the show have hired her otherwise?

[–] kenburke (2385) 4 years ago

You hit the nail on the head with your Wesley being a KID argument. Child prodigies, despite their intelligence, are still children. Those who treat them like miniature adults forget that fact.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 4 years ago

As I'm watching it through for the first time, I also don't object to the boy genius aspect of the character.

The problem for me is that he's featured far too often and far too early as the only one that can solve whatever problem they're having.

He's the only one to think (or know how) to turn the tractor beam into a repulsor beam.
He's the only one to recognize what the warp drive optimizer guy is doing.
He's the only one to realize that Data is Lore.

[–] Owlwise (1536) 4 years ago

I found Wesley much more interesting & likeable in later seasons, once he was no longer a regular cast member, but just returned for the occasional episode. As a smart young man, rather than an impossibly brilliant boy prodigy, he fit much better & might even have made a good regular crew member then.

[–] Etherdave (178) 4 years ago

Yes, the First season should be called 'Wesley Crusher Saves The Enterprise Again And Again'. Because he does. Why? Because he's the only one capable, the only one competent and imaginative enough to do the job. And he's a kid. What does he get for it? No thanks, just derision from fans who don't appreciate him, clothes that look like they came from 'Osh Kosh B'Gosh', and a mother who clearly wants him to never grow up. The truth is, the Federation was never good enough for Wes, which is why he now gets to go Where No One Is Going Anytime Soon, with the Traveler as his guide and Mentor.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 4 years ago

This is funny.

[–] kenburke (2385) 4 years ago

The producers never understood that a child prodigy is a child as well as a prodigy.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 4 years ago

Well said.