By Chris Snellgrove
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Regardless that the character didn’t actually deserve all of the hate, it didn’t take Star Trek: The Subsequent Era followers very lengthy to determine that younger Wesley Crusher was the present’s worst character. He was principally franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s self-insert character, and this good wunderkind was meant to draw youthful followers to this bold sci-fi present. Nonetheless, the fandom determined that he was each precocious and annoying, and it didn’t assist that he was written as a Mary Sue who was magically smarter than the entire educated officers round him.
Curiously, one in all The Subsequent Era’s greatest writers determined that one other character was much more of a kid than Wesley. That author was Melinda Snodgrass, greatest recognized for writing “The Measure of a Man,” the episode through which Knowledge efficiently argued that he was a dwelling being and never a hunk of Starfleet property. However she additionally wrote “Pen Friends,” an episode the place she needed to persuade the opposite employees members that Knowledge was the one one who would casually violate the Prime Directive on this means as a result of he has the thoughts of a kid.
Do Androids Dream Of Alien Pen Friends?
Some fast context: “Pen Friends” is an episode through which the Enterprise is investigating a sequence of unexplored planets. Knowledge ultimately picks up a radio transmission from an alien lady, and he retains speaking to her for a month whereas concealing his identification. Nonetheless, after she reveals that her planet goes to be destroyed, Knowledge should persuade Captain Picard to interrupt the Prime Directive to be able to save a younger alien that he by no means ought to have spoken to within the first place.
Notably, this was an episode the place the Star Trek: The Subsequent Era employees already knew the final story, however they didn’t know which member of the crew could be the one to talk to this hapless alien. “Pen Friends” author Melinda Snodgrass was adamant that the one officer who could be silly sufficient to talk to the alien lady (and subsequently violate the Prime Directive) was Knowledge. The first cause that she gave was that regardless of the android’s extremely superior positronic mind, his thoughts remains to be creating, and he’s liable to make much more childlike errors than Wesley Crusher.
Flagrantly Violating The Prime Directive
As recorded in Captain’s Log: The Unauthorized Full Trek VoyagesSnodgrass efficiently satisfied different staffers that Knowledge was your best option as a result of “(Y)ou can image Knowledge turning into entranced in answering (the) query, ‘Is there anybody on the market?’” One easy cause for that is that “he’s an android and should you ask him a query, you’re going to get a solution,” particularly as a result of “the entire thing could be so charmingly intriguing to him.”
Based on Snodgrass, “You by no means might image any of the opposite characters doing that, however Knowledge could make the error…and step out of his cautious Starfleet coaching as a result of he’s actually simply rising up.” She then ended her ideas with an announcement that will very effectively shock most Star Trek: The Subsequent Era followers. “He’s extra of a kid than Wesley,” she mentioned.
That is very ironic as a result of most of Wesley Crusher’s most annoying qualities are chalked as much as his being so younger and, subsequently, liable to errors. However Snodgrass sees Knowledge as somebody who, regardless of all of the information he has tucked away in his positronic thoughts, remains to be attempting to determine what it means to be each an individual and a Starfleet officer. Subsequently, he’s susceptible to creating rookie errors (like violating the Prime Directive by speaking to a primitive alien after which asking Picard to violate it much more by saving her planet) that characters like Riker or Troi would by no means make.
Wesley Grows Up
As if to drive this level house even more durable, the B plot of “Pen Friends” includes Wesley Crusher being chosen to steer a survey group of skilled Starfleet officers. Considered one of them pushes again in opposition to his orders, inflicting the younger wunderkind to hunt out command recommendation from Riker. The younger man efficiently convinces an abrasive officer to run some time-consuming planetary scans that in the end reveal the right way to save the little lady’s planet from sure destruction, all whereas demonstrating how a lot he has grown as a personality and an officer.
There you have got it, Star Trek followers: Wesley Crusher is perhaps probably the most hated character on The Subsequent Erahowever the girl who wrote the last word Knowledge episode (“The Measure of a Man”) thinks the android is much more childlike than the bridge crew’s solely baby. Thankfully, each Knowledge and Wesley would spend the following few years rising and maturing, and every ended up being a much better character than they had been in Season 1. Wesley left Starfleet and have become a traveler, whereas Knowledge ultimately found a extra fulfilling pastime than working a HAM radio: taking part in cowboy on the holodeck.