Star Trek is a pretty big part of my life. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, I still watch the original series, and there’s that whole Next Generation thing I was part of for a little while when I was a teenage sweater enthusiast.
It wasn’t always awesome, but for the most part, it didn’t suck. I did work I’m proud of, and got to be part of something that will endure long after I’ve turned into a ball of light and returned to my original dimension. I’ve met countless people over the last couple decades who have shared how important Star Trek was to them, from helping them maintain relationship with their families to inspiring them to pursue careers in science and engineering. I also have a bobble head of my teenage self on the bridge of the Enterprise, which makes me feel strange but also good.
All of that stuff is really awesome, and I’m grateful for all of it, but the best part of Star Trek, for me, is the relationships we all formed as a cast. We were and are a family, almost thirty years after we first met.
…which makes it possible for silly things like this to happen:
hashtag blessed, you guys.
Ha! Wives are always right…
Also, sweaters aside, Wesley was actually a great character, and you did very well with him. I think he was too close in age to many discovering the new series, and there was a bit of envy going on at the time.
Looking back at the shows now, I can’t believe that anyone could feel so negatively about that character.
Okay, occasional episodes like “Justice” aside…
I think writers were having trouble writing children. Noticed that with every episode involving them a Maybe they forgot the wonder kids have. Wesley had the best classroom ever.
Wives do know best, font is very important, and loved the series, my motorcycle (V-star Classic) is named Jean Luc….it is a pretty purple handsome bike too….
Its moments like these which make Twitter worthwhile. Pretty damn cool.
I wasn’t a big fan of Wesley back when the show first came out. But, over the years, I grew to like and appreciate him. Too bad the writers didn’t let the character have more fun. Thanks for your work. 🙂
LOL. Wil ,the banter between you and Patrick is priceless.: -)
I always enjoyed the Wesley character, especially with “The Traveler”.
I’ll have to test that theory on fonts though.
I saw this yesterday and loved it. We’re about to finish STNG with our 3 daughters (age 11-14) and it has been such a wonderful experience re-watching it with them. So seeing this little exchange was just a warm and fuzzy thing for so many reasons. 🙂
Font is extremely important!
Have you had time to enjoy Patrick Stewart’s “Blunt Talk?”
I’ve seen the first two episodes, and I loved them. I haven’t gotten around to watching the rest, yet.
I look forward to my weekly WW.net treat. Consistently grateful, honest. Most importantly, I would read this blog without the memories of ‘Stand By Me’s DeerScene et al. You write, simply, well.
Miss the WWProject, dammit.
I had such a crush on Wesley Crusher.
Also, it is adorable that you call Gates McFadden your “space mom”. And you’re her “space son”
What is everyone looking at? I’m not seeing anything. Just a blank space after “this:”
headdesk
An Adblock list (such as social blocker) may be to blame. It’s a twitter conversation.
Ah, I see. Thanks!
When I was at university, there was a Computation Center with a special printer in the basement. I think it was a DEC LPS20 or something. Anyway it printed a hundred pages a minute all day long every day for years, serving thousands of students. The print jobs would get sent up a dumb waiter to the main floor to be dispensed into numbered wooden bins where you would go pick up your print jobs. It was very 1994. Anyway, I got the bright idea to print something using a custom STAR TREK FONT (TNG) I had found on the Archie FTP search engine (did I mention it was 1994?), and the custom postscript font CRASHED the CPU in the printer. It was down for days, no one on campus could print, thanks to my custom STAR TREK FONT. This story doesn’t have anything to do with anything really, it just popped into my head.
Patrick really wanted to know if prime steak was more important than the prime directive at that moment.
I recently started watching again all the old episodes of star trek the next generation. I have to say great job , you don’t appreciate and recognize a terrific show and cast until it’s no longer there. Wil you are on my top five best actors.
ps…Wil, here’s something you’ll like 🙂
🙂 fun stuff.
You & S.P.S! ‘Final Mission’ is among my favorite episodes – of all Treks. Moreover, it seems like it was the moment that they owned up to how much they underutilized Wesley. They took one of the best loved and best developed characters and one of the least developed and least loved characters – away from the easy plot-devices on the ship, and gave them (essentially) a two-man show. (after the irritating alien bit it) Then they further had the courage to hand the ball to the least developed character. The result was brilliant. It was such a solid show – script – acting – relationship & character building. It would be impossible to watch that episode and not come away wondering what could have been made of the Wesley character.
And of course, S.P.S. was wonderful. He is quite simply – great. He brought his one-man show to the University of Carolina in 1993 when I was out there for grad school. He strode crisply to center stage and began with this commanding Shakespearean oration: “To be – or not to…” but a few lines in he paused and said: “and so on, and so forth… my god I hope you didn’t come here for that sort of thing. With your permission – I’d like to tell you some simple but, I think, interesting stories of my life as an actor and how I came from a small town in England to this stage today.” Then for an hour, he held several hundred people crowded into a stiflingly hot hall in the Southern heat – in the palm of his proverbial hand, using nothing but a chair, and an end-table with a glass of water on it as props. It was phenomenal. 23 years later I still remember several of the stories. He explained that the terms “upstage” and “downstage” came from early stages that were tilted to improve visibility of audiences without raised seating, by telling how – as a young actor – he stepped through the torn lining of his (King Lear’s?) cloak and nearly slid into the audience. And now in 2015, Blunt Talk (& Jessica Jones) are shaping up to be great shows. In fact, they’re so good they almost make me nervous. Every time a fantastic new show debuts I get that reflexive “Firefly-flinch” hoping the suits will let blossom before they cancel it or try to turn it into a Toyota commercial.
As a font geek and coffee lover (former barista), I can absolutely confirm that it is incredibly important to choose a good logo font. One shop I worked at had such a crappy logo no one ever read the sign and always asked if we were a Starbucks. If you find a shop that uses Comic Sans or Papyrus don’t bother, keep walking. Those fonts can’t even be used ironically.
I don’t know if you would ever play the character again, but I would love to see your take on a more mature/aged Wesley Crusher. I’m sure you will kill it and it would be awesome! I’m sure CBS could do something about that…
Wil I watched the Next Generation and I Rather Liked your acting part Wesley Crusher I got to know you well and when Captian Picard Promoted you to Ensign I was extremely proud of you and I felt like I was standing right there in the Captian Ready Room Right by you kind of like what best Friends are.
#Blessed Is the coffee Sumatran, and if iced, double strength with a can of condensed milk in it, and chilled before service?
I love your writing and your audiobook work. I regularly re-listen to your reading of Fuzzy Nation and your own books. If you are narrating a book It’s a guaranteed listen for me. When are we going to see more futurecast 🙂
What I love about that twitter exchange is the unspoken and obvious long shared history behind it. I’d love to hear both of you on Nerdist together as I have no doubt it would be brilliant.
Yes! And very happy you feel blessed – and so you are. What does it say about me that I felt quite impressed that Patrick chose to put a dot in front of his reply to you – social media knowledge indeed, SirPat!
LOL! I love stories like that, with that happy little ending. Thanks for sharing that Wil, and let us continue on the journey with you.
Wil, I enjoyed your time on TNG all the way through, primarily because I was around the same age as you at the time, so seeing the show through young eyes was a wonderful experience. Your character of Wesley went through a very solid evolution and the end result was the wonderful episode “Journey’s End”; here was Wesley finally finding out was his true calling really was and embracing it.
I was disappointed that your scenes in Star Trek: Nemesis were cut, at least the deleted scenes are available to see those scenes
Thank you for being an integral part of a great show.
There… are… four… shots!
I asked for three. And this is not soy.
@Spudnuts Hahahaha…
But in the end, the scary thing was that you really did think that you saw three shots… and that they were soy…
Literally can’t deny that I pretty much love this post and the both of you in general. Also I love watching you on that show, and pretty much everything else you do. I’m also aware that this sounds stalkerish, and I am not sorry.
Well as Christmas is around the corner this video must make its rounds
, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Nz2LPnNq8
Sideshow Bob grumble
We’re past Thanksgiving, so this is belated, but… I’m thankful for your enthusiasm for gaming. A few years ago, I thought of board games as either the kiddie roll-n-move types, or the massive Gygaxian campaigns of my teens. I thought games were something that well adjusted adults didn’t play.
But today my wife and I walked around Portland with the pooch & bought some coffee to roast from Mr. Green Beans, then stopped by Guardian Games & picked up Akrotiri & Mottainai & Star Realms – then came home & played Trajan over dinner. OK – so it was a more “game heavy” day than usual, but I can’t wrap my head around how good gaming has been for us. Sitting in front of the tube is like being an old married couple, but playing games is like being on a date. If people aren’t careful, they stop playing when they grow up and that can’t possibly be good for cognitive health and quality of life.
Anyway, my wife and I are in our 40’s with nearly half of it as a couple, but we make time to play together like kids probably half a dozen times a week now. Its good for us. It’s good for our relationship. It’s just… good.
So… Thanks.
You’ve captured an amazing trifecta in one post. Star Trek, Mathematical Equations, and Coffee.