The Big Picture

Wesley Crusher returns in
Star Trek: Prodigy
as a time-traveling mentor to the
U.S.S. Protostar
crew.
Wil Wheaton discusses playing Wesley in
Prodigy
and how he was involved in shaping the character.
Wheaton reflects on the positive reception to Wesley’s journey in
Prodigy
, marking a long-overdue moment of vindication for the character.

Earlier this month, Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 dropped on Netflix and delivered one of the most memorable 20-episode runs of Star Trek storytelling in recent memory. Not only did the series introduce a new generation of Star Trek fans to a delightful cast of young characters like Dal (Brett Gray) and Gwyn (Ella Purnell), but it also brought back beloved characters like Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Chakotay (Robert Beltran), and the Doctor (Robert Picardo) from Star Trek: Voyager; while paying off Star Trek: Picard’s Season 2 post-credit scene between Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) and Kore (Isa Briones)

In Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, Wesley Crusher returned as a time-traveling mentor to Dal and the crew of the U.S.S. Protostar as they enter into a race against time (literally) to save Gwyn and their timeline from certain death. Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Wil Wheaton about his long-awaited return to the franchise, his experience as a child facing negativity and hate during Star Trek: The Next Generation’s run, and what it was like to bring Wesley back as a mentor to the young cast of characters in Prodigy. He also briefly discussed the sweet reunion with Wesley’s mother, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), in the finale, which was a secret he kept for many years. You can read the full transcript below.

COLLIDER: I love that Dan and Kevin [Hageman] essentially turned Wesley into Star Trek’s own Doctor Who.

WIL WHEATON: Me too!

Star Trek: Prodigy A group of young aliens escape captivity by commandeering a derelict Starfleet ship, the U.S.S. Protostar. As they navigate the galaxy, they must learn to work together and uncover the ship’s secrets. The show blends adventure and discovery, appealing to both new viewers and longtime Star Trek fans.Release Date October 28, 2021 Seasons 1 Story By Dan Hageman Writers Dan Hageman Network Paramount Streaming Service(s) Paramount+ Directors Dan Hageman Showrunner Dan Hageman Expand

It’s like a nerd dream. What has it been like for you getting to bring this character to a very different place in his life and get to explore being a time-weary time traveler, essentially?

WHEATON: It was really fun. I have been writing fan fiction for Wesley Crusher where he’s essentially a Time Lord for five or six years. I would find pictures of outer space, I’d find old NASA photographs, and then I wrote these little diary entries as if Wesley had taken the photo himself and then wrote about being there. I wrote lots of things about him coming back and visiting the 20th and 21st centuries and marveling at how it looked like it was all over, and we managed to claw our way back before the Bell Riots and bring about Starfleet and stuff. I always thought that being a traveler was essentially being a Time Lord, so when I got a call that Wesley was probably gonna be this kind of Time Lord character in Prodigy, and did I have any ideas about it…? “As a matter of fact, I do. I’ve spent a great deal of time with this.” [Laughs]

I actually got to consult a little bit on how he was going to be portrayed. I got to talk about what he was gonna wear. Kevin and Dan and the writers’ room involved me so much from so early on. I still cannot believe that I got to be part of it. That’s where my heart sings, right? Being a writer, that is my passion. So getting to make these contributions and help shape this character, and then to have the privilege of performing him again. I haven’t actually stopped to really think about this the way I am today because it’s been two and a half, three years since we recorded it. I’m just kind of shocked by how overwhelmed I am while I talk about it in a really good way.

It’s just such a freaking gift, man, to get to be him this way and to go into Star Trek forums a few days after the thing drops and look and see, like, “How did it go?” And just see 100% of people loving it and celebrating it and loving him, and loving the way that I played him. But it’s loving Wesley.

It’s been so long since we recorded it, and I didn’t get to see any of it when we were recording. The only thing I saw was an animatic of Wesley and Gwyn running through the time ziggurat, and that wasn’t even fully animated. It was just a couple of images. I got to see one character drawing. That’s all I got. So the instant it was available, I was in front of the TV watching it. For the first time in my life, I watched work that I did, and I didn’t see myself in it, I didn’t hear myself in it, I wasn’t distracted by all the stuff I wished I’d done differently. I just saw a character I love. I saw a character who means so much to me, and I saw him just being a mentor and an ally and an elder, and having a plan and acting on it.

You take a little bit of Doc Brown and a little bit of Ian Malcolm and a whole lot of the Doctor, and you put them into a blender, and then you pour out a Wesley! I could not be happier with how it has all come together. Even if the audience was like, “Nah, we don’t like it,” I would have been like, “Well, that’s fine. I love it.” The fact that the audience loves it as much as I do, it’s amazing.

A New Generation of Kids Gets to Love Wesley Crusher Thanks to ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’

That brings me to my next question. I don’t want to say Wesley is a divisive character, but he is a character that’s always evoked really strong emotions from Star Trek fans, both good and bad. To see how everybody immediately seemed to love what Prodigy was doing with Wesley [was incredible]. What has that been like to get to see this strong positive reaction to where Wesley’s journey could continue in the Star Trek Universe?

WHEATON: It’s 35 years overdue. When I was a kid, and I was 14, 15, 16 years old, my home life was terrible. I was really sad and abused and having a terrible time at home, and the only place I was happy and felt safe was at work. I went to work and I loved my Star Trek family, and they loved me and I loved being there. And then the work we did, people were mean to me about it. People who didn’t know me, who I didn’t know, got on what was Usenet at the time, and they were awful. They wrote angry letters to Starlog, and they were really mean to me. They were cruel to this child at conventions and stuff in ways that would never fly today.

I think that a narrative took hold — “Nobody likes Wesley.” That is empirically false. That is completely unsupported by decades of data. The truth is the kids who Wesley was meant to bring into Star Trek loved him! A lot of them grew up to work on Star Trek, right? [Laughs] What happened is, at that time, the kids who loved it weren’t writing letters, they were not using Usenet. They didn’t even have modems!

They were just loving the show. It took me 30 fucking years to hear them and meet them and know, “Hey, buddy, you’re not the person your dad said you were. You’re not the person that those fans made you believe you were. You’re that guy, and he is you, and there’s a bunch of you together. You inspired a generation of kids.” I am so relieved and happy for my younger self. I wish I could just, like, pop through time real quick and just whisper in my ear, “Buddy, I know how much it hurts right now, but I promise you there’s a day coming where it’s really okay. You’re not even gonna remember this.”

I’m 52 in a couple of weeks, and there are people my age who grew up watching Wesley who love him as much as I do, who saw him in Prodigy and had the same reaction. “Oh my god, Wesley, you’re home! You’re doing for these kids what you did for me 30 years ago.” That was just great.

I think Prodigy is such a perfect reintroduction for Wesley because it is very much full circle. It’s a show for kids, and now you have him being the elder to the kids and being that mentor figure. It works so perfectly not only in-universe but also out-of-universe, too.

WHEATON: A gentle pushback: I don’t believe it is for kids. I believe it’s accessible to kids, but it is very much for everyone.

I completely agree.

WHEATON: There’s a lot of kids that are gonna be like, “Hey, can we watch Voyager?” [Laughs]

I’m so excited for them!

WHEATON: There are kids who were never going to be interested in Voyager, and kids, “Tuvix” is coming up, and it’s gonna be really traumatic for you. It’s traumatic for all of us. It’s like a rite of passage in Star Trek fandom. I’m sorry. If you need someone to talk to about it, I’m Wil at Wil Wheaton dot Net. Kevin and Dan have said, “Wesley is the original prodigy,” so they wanted him in Prodigy. When I was invited to be part of it, my first thought was, “There is no better place for Wesley to be.”

It was wonderful that I was included in Picard, and it was wonderful that Wesley was included in Picard. It was a gift to me, and Terry [Matalas] was really happy to write it into the script. I was delighted to work with Isa [Briones], who I just adore as an actor and a human being, and to be just a tiny little piece of that was really great. Wesley is a really important part of Prodigy. I mean, you could make an argument that he might be a load-bearing pillar in this season; that’s really different from a cameo. It’s really wonderful.

I am just hoping that my nephew, who turns 12 next week, and loved Prodigy when it started when he was seven, can be talked into watching his Uncle Wil on a show that he might feel like, “Oh, I don’t watch that anymore. I’m too grown up.” [Laughs]

Fingers crossed, he does. I really love everything that Prodigy has done. I’m so glad that we got the full circle with the introduction of Jack and getting to have all of these very vital Crusher moments.

WHEATON: It’s wonderful that Wesley and Dr. Crusher got to see each other, and it’s wonderful that he got to see Jack. It’s great. In everyone’s life, there is one Christmas morning, there’s one night of Hanukkah, where like, “Oh my god, I cannot believe I got the thing that I wanted more than anything! I never thought this would happen.” That is Prodigy for me.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy are streaming now on Netflix.

Stream on Netflix