SPOILER WARNING for “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era,” “Star Trek: Prodigy,” “Star Trek: Nemesis,” and “Star Trek: Picard.”
When “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era (TNG)” first left Spacedock in 1987, Wesley Crusher was an strange — albeit super-intelligent — child who grew to become a valued member of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise crew. Quick ahead to the most recent season of “Star Trek: Prodigy,” nevertheless, and he is a bona fide grasp of house and time, successfully “Star Trek’s” reply to “Physician Who.”
Under we clarify how Beverly Crusher’s eldest son made the journey from enthusiastic teen to time-travelling house god — and the way the seeds for Wesley’s evolution had been sown way back to the very first season of “TNG.”
Associated: Finest ‘Star Trek: The Subsequent Era’ episodes
Who’s Wesley Crusher?
Wesley is the son of Dr. Beverly Crusher, chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D, and Jack, her late husband. Jack was Jean-Luc Picard’s greatest buddy at Starfleet Academy, and so they served collectively on the USS Stargazer, Captain Picard’s first command. Picard was nonetheless blaming himself for his buddy’s dying within the line of obligation when Beverly and Wesley arrived on the Enterprise.
Regardless of his friendship with Jack and the will-they-won’t-they romance with Beverly, Picard did not heat to Wesley straight away. However the boy’s prodigious mind — and a suggestion from a mysterious alien recognized merely as “the Traveler” — rapidly led to Wesley being granted the rank of Performing Ensign.
Who’s the Traveler?
Reportedly from Tau Alpha C and with a given title “unpronounceable by people,” the enigmatic Traveler (performed by Eric Menyuk) first stopped by the Enterprise within the Season 1 episode “Where No One Has Gone Before.” He was introduced on board to help in experiments that will enable the Enterprise to interrupt pace data.
Because of the Traveler’s mastery of house and time — and a capability to “focus thought” — he was in a position to manipulate the ship’s warp engines to move the crew to a faraway galaxy. After bringing the Enterprise dwelling — through a “2001: A House Odyssey”-style mild present — he vanished into skinny air.
Earlier than his abrupt departure, the Traveler informed Picard that Wesley “and some like him are why I journey,” evaluating the boy to a sure Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “Not with music,” he defined, “however with the equally pretty intricacies of time, power, propulsion…”
The Traveler urged the captain to nurture Wesley’s talents, with out telling the boy — or Beverly — about his full potential. This dialog explains why Picard made the weird resolution to offer an unqualified teenager full entry to the bridge.
Associated: ‘Star Trek:’ Historical past & impact on house expertise
What did Wesley do subsequent?
By the point the Traveler reappeared in Season 4’s Episode 5, “Remember Me” — through which he helped Wesley rescue Beverly from an imploding warp bubble — the younger Crusher had changed his trademark knitwear with a typical challenge Starfleet uniform. He was additionally given the keys to drive the USS Enterprise.
When Wesley left for Starfleet Academy a number of episodes later, nevertheless, his profession did not unfold as deliberate. After an accident involving his Nova Squadron flight workforce precipitated the dying of a fellow cadet, it turned out that Wesley and his colleagues had been training a banned maneuver. Their tried cover-up led to Wesley having to repeat the yr.
Wesley’s most pivotal second got here within the closing season of “The Subsequent Era,” when a trip on the Enterprise took an sudden twist. He was already disillusioned with the Academy when a imaginative and prescient of his late father informed him “to discover a path that’s really yours.”
He subsequently resigned his fee to protest in opposition to orders that will forcibly relocate Native American settlers from a world the Federation had agreed to give up to the Cardassians. Throughout a combat on the planet’s floor, Wesley unwittingly stepped out of time, and one of many settlement’s leaders revealed he was truly the Traveler in disguise.
The Traveler informed Wesley that he had developed to a brand new airplane of existence and was “able to discover locations the place thought and power mix in methods you may’t even think about.” Mr. Crusher left the Enterprise-D for the ultimate time, embarking on an journey in house and time with the Traveler as his information.
What has Wesley been as much as since “The Subsequent Era”?
Wesley made a short look in “Star Trek: Nemesis,” sitting on the high desk throughout Will Riker and Deanna Troi’s wedding ceremony. He was clearly carrying a Starfleet uniform, which suggests he briefly got here again to Starfleet after his resignation. (A deleted scene from the film — not technically canon — revealed that Wesley had agreed to handle the Engineering night time shift on the USS Titan, beneath the command of Will Riker.) It is secure to imagine, nevertheless, that Wesley’s return to the rank and file was short-lived.
A future incarnation confirmed up in 2024 Los Angeles in “Star Trek: Picard”‘s second season. He informed Kore, a clone created by scientist Dr. Adam Soong, the next: “A very long time in the past, I used to be often called Wesley Crusher, however now I’m a Traveler of all house and time.”
He defined that the entire of time is a grand and fragile tapestry, and that he, his fellow Vacationers, and the Supervisors who work for them are on a mission to make sure that all the pieces unfolds because it ought to (sounds quite just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Time Variance Authority who defend the Sacred Timeline, as seen within the “Loki” TV present). Wesley efficiently recruited Kore to affix the group.
Why did Wesley flip up in “Star Trek: Prodigy”?
Within the second season of “Star Trek: Prodigy,” Dal, Gwyn, Jankom, Zero, Rok and Murf inadvertently altered the course of historical past by stopping the USS Protostar from crashing on the jail colony of Tars Lamora. That meant they may by no means uncover the ship within the first place, by no means meet Admiral Janeway, and by no means be in the suitable place to change historical past by stopping the USS Protostar from crashing — the TL;DR model is that they broke the very material of time. Fairly severe stuff. Additionally they unleashed the Loom: vicious, interdimensional monsters which have an insatiable urge for food to eat all the pieces out of existence.
Wesley hoped to make use of his distinctive mastery of house, time, thought and historical past to get issues again on observe, saving the universe within the course of. And, sure, he nonetheless had a passion for knitted sweaters.
What occurred to Wesley after the unique timeline was restored?
He did one thing he ought to have carried out years in the past and visited his mom, who instantly launched him to his new child brother, Jack. We’re assuming Wesley already had some thought about Jack Crusher’s future in “Star Trek: Picard”‘s third season…
After that, it appears like he’ll spend the remainder of his life exploring the cosmos, tinkering with timelines — and presumably cameoing in future “Trek” episodes and flicks at any time when the plot calls for.
