The Secret Identity of Wesley Crusher – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

The Secret Identity of Wesley Crusher – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks:

"If you’re not a big fan of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or of Wil Wheaton, you may not have heard about Wil’s latest book series, “Memories of the Future.” Imagine if Television Without Pity recappers had been writing about TNG back in 1987, only with more swearing, more digressions and more geeky in-jokes, plus behind-the-scenes memories for every episode. That’s what Vol. 1 does for the first half of the first season of TNG, from “Encounter at Farpoint” to “Datalore” — it’s just the thing for people who love TNG and snark. I decided to wait to read the book until the accompanying “Memories of the Futurecast” podcast wrapped up on Monday, which means I got to the last page of my paper copy this morning.

In the podcast, Wil talks about how working on Vol. 1 helped him come to terms with (and understand) the world’s hatred of Wesley Crusher. It’s a hatred I never had. I loved Wesley Crusher. When TNG premiered, I was just starting high school, and I was a serious know-it-all. Seeing a kid on TV who was essentially correcting his teachers, doing science projects and being a huge nerd all the time was kind of awesome. And enabling. I’m sure I was as annoying to the adults around me as Wesley was to adults trying to watch TNG.

But in listening to and reading “Memories of the Future,” I found a whole new reason to love Wesley. In episode 12 of “Memories of the Futurecast” (and the corresponding book chapter),Wil talks about how Wesley repairs the malfunctioning holodeck in “The Big Goodbye” with one zap of a magical holodeck fixing thing. In the middle of my morning train commute, I thought, “Ha ha ha, Wesley has a sonic screwdriver.” Then, accompanied by lots of mental capital letters and exclamation points, and possibly even a ZOMG, came the follow-up thought: “Wesley Crusher is a Time Lord!”

Maybe he’s even the Doctor in disguise."

I have always been a little bit in love with Wil Wheaton, given that he is my perfect idea of a nerd, what with his soulful eyes, shaggy hair and that lanky body. Whenever I laid my hands on one of the teen mags at the time, it was always Wil who drew my attention; the Coreys were cool, natch, and I will admit to a teensy crush on Jason Bateman and Ricky Schroder. But Wil and his nerdiness rocked my world.

Then I discovered him on Star Trek: The Next Generation and oh boy! Sci-fi AND Wil Wheaton! What could be better? Especially since he was a little know-it-all nerd ON THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, going where no man has gone before.

I haven't watched TNG in years, apart from the movies, but that was my favourite of all the Star Trek series. And my love for Wesley Crusher never died. Who cared if he was an obnoxious social outcast? He saved the Enterprise more than once! And no, he was not a wimp - wimps don't get thrown off the bridge of the Enterprise for constantly gainsaying the commanders!

Then I discovered Wil's blog, and his role as a poster-child for geekiness, and my crush, it expanded. His love for words, for writing; his adoration of his wife and son; the way he writes about his pets; his overwhelming geekiness, science love, D&D reminiscenes, fanboy-attacks; Memories of the Futurecast.

Every day, with every post, I fall in crush with him that much more.

Sorry, MadCat; I know you weren't a Wesley Crusher fan. But I make no excuses for the Wil love!

And I totally want a Memories of the Futurecast mug!