Thursday, May 14, 2020

What If ... Wesley Crusher

Listening to Next Generation's First Generation, I hear about Wesley Crusher quite a bit, and that got me to thinking. In the show, Wesley is made an "Acting Ensign" until he can go to Starfleet Academy and earn the rank himself. This gives him duties and responsibilities on the Enterprise, while he's supposed to be learning.

What if, though, instead of being made an Acting Ensign (which is a made-up officer) he just enlisted? I'm sure that Picard would have enough pull with the Admiralty to make sure than an enlisted Wesley would be assigned to the Enterprise, if the issue is that he wants to stay on the ship rather than follow his mother. So he'd have to go to boot camp, but then he'd be an actual member of Starfleet rather than a cosplayer.

If he wanted to be an officer later on, he could always go to Officer Candidate School (aka OCS), but at the very least he would get the experience of working on the ship. First hand experience at the lowest level might have changed how his character arc went. He might have left Starfleet earlier, having figured out that it was not for him. Or, on the other hand, he might have worked through whatever issues that he had and become a model crewman/officer.

I think one of the main issues that people have with the character, beyond the "wunderkind" aspect, is that he was just handed a position and rank over nothing more than Picard's guilt at the death of Jack Crusher. If he had been shown as having to earn it, over the course of multiple seasons, then many people might have not had the adverse reaction to him. I know that it would have improved my opinion, but then I'm the guy that wants to see an ensemble cast that goes all through the hierarchy, a la Hill Street Blues. Watching the high end operations of the bridge being contrast with Wesley and Chief O'Brein dealing with maintenance issues would have made for more enjoyable viewing, at least where I'm concerned.