Hated Star Trek Character Hilariously Makes Fun Of Himself
While many fans were happy to see his triumphant return in Prodigy, it’s fair to say that Wesley Crusher remains one of the most controversial Star Trek characters. He was introduced as a precocious boy genius who always saved the day early on, and fans learned to resent how his character was constantly showing up the highly trained Starfleet professionals around him. However, actor Wil Wheaton soon learned to poke fun at himself: for example, he would tell Star Trek convention audiences he was grateful to the episode “The Dauphine” for dramatizing his real-life dilemma of having women he bares his soul to turn into hideous monsters.
A B-Movie Love Story
Obviously, this Wesley Crusher story is going to require a bit of context. In the episode “The Dauphine,” the Enterprise is transporting a young future planetary leader to her destination in the hopes that she can bring peace to a bitter conflict. Young Wesley instantly falls in love with her, but their burgeoning relationship is interrupted by something scarier than her future duties: the fact that she transforms into a monster that would have been right at home headlining a B-movie horror flick from the ‘70s.
Wil Wheaton’s Sense Of Humor
As for Wil Wheaton, he was no stranger to fans openly hating his character. Perhaps as a self-defense mechanism, he developed quite a self-deprecating sense of humor, and he wasn’t afraid to use Wesley Crusher’s onscreen misadventures to poke fun at himself. For example, he revealed on the “Intergalactic Guest Stars” special on the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 DVD set that he would often use Wesley’s plight to mock his own love life to the delight of audiences at fan conventions.
“I used to get a lot of mileage out of this joke I’d tell at conventions,” the actor began. “The first girl that Wesley fell in love with turned out to be a shape-shifter who turned into a hideous monster, y’know after he had exposed his soul to her. Which happened a lot to me in my personal life.”
The Simplicity Of The Dauphine’s Story
Wrapping up his funny anecdote, the Wesley Crusher actor added, “I was glad Star Trek was able to capture that parallel.” It’s honestly a very funny bit, one that reveals what a great sense of humor Wheaton (who would grow into quite the prolific writer) really had. Arguably, though, the joke reveals something else that episode director Rob Bowman was worried about: that “The Dauphine” had a story that was far too simple.
Not The Usual TNG Story Arc
In the director’s words, this was a “decent show about Wesley Crusher falling in love for the first time,” but the story had “no real conflict.” Audiences who weren’t invested in Wesley Crusher’s love story really had little to cling on to here (and no, Mr. Worf doesn’t count), unlike later episodes (from season 3 onward) where each story would have conflict intended to help at least one character grow. As for Bowman, this talented early Trek director summed up everybody’s work on the episode with one short sentence: “We did the best we could with a simple story.”
An Appropriate Story For Crusher Nonetheless
Obviously, your own mileage may vary, but we consider “The Dauphine” one of the more interesting episodes of TNG, especially for season 2. Most of the fan hatred toward Wesley Crusher concerned him casually outsmarting androids and engineers in a way that no teenager ever could, and it’s admittedly difficult to watch those early episodes where this child prodigy is running circles around everyone. However, this episode is all about the young man experiencing the thrills and inevitable heartbreak of first love…honestly, is there anything more appropriately teenage than that?
