Wesley Crusher

Wesley Crusher is a character on the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was played by actor Wil Wheaton.

The son of Jack and Beverly Crusher, he was a bright young man who was almost too intelligent for his own good. He first arrived on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D with his mother right after Captain Jean-Luc Picard assumed command. Picard realized that he understood many things beyond his age and appointed him as acting Ensign. He matured over the years and eventually entered Starfleet Academy. The first time he took the Academy entrance exam, however, he didn't have the highest score. See "Coming of Age".

Starfleet wasn't to be his destiny. While flying as part of a squadron, he participated in a forbidden manuever in which a fellow student was killed. Because of this and the way the members of the squadron tried to cover up the accident, Starfleet decided to make him repeat the year as punishment. He became restless and bored with his studies. Wesley also had problems with how Starfleet was trying to force a colony of Native Americans from their homes. During this time he became familiar with the culture of the Native Americans, and participated in a vision quest. He then seen a vision from his father telling him not to follow his father's path. Wesley emerged to find the Enterprise crew preparing to beam the colonists away from their home, he warned the colonists of what was about to happen, and the crew was forced to leave. A very angry Picard reprimanded Wesley, Wesley responded by resigning from Starfleet.

Wesley joined the colonists on the surface. When a fight broke out between colonists and Cardassians surveying the planet, Wesley tried to stop the fight, and froze time for the first time. The Traveler revealed himself to Wesley then and revealed that Wesley had transcended space and time. Wesley left with The Traveler to achieve his true potential.

Wesley briefly appeared in ''Star Trek: Nemesis''. Otherwise he has not been seen in any other movies or Trek television series.

Many viewers found the character intensely irritating, claiming he was a Mary Sue ('Wesley' being Gene Roddenberry's middle name). There was at one point a Usenet newsgroup named "alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die."

External Links

Official biography of Wesley Crusher
Wesley Crusher at Memory Alpha
Google archive of the alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die newsgroup