Editing Wesley Crusher (section)

==Reception==
The Wesley Crusher character was unpopular among some ''Star Trek'' fans.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/04/star-trek-board-games-wil-wheaton-kind-of-nerds-tabletop From Star Trek to board games: meet Wil Wheaton, king of the nerds]</ref><ref>[http://whatculture.com/tv/star-trek-5-reasons-wesley-crusher-doesnt-deserve-hate.php Star Trek: 5 Reasons Wesley Crusher Doesn’t Deserve The Hate] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701000023/http://whatculture.com/tv/star-trek-5-reasons-wesley-crusher-doesnt-deserve-hate.php |date=July 1, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Shachtman |first1=Noah |title=Wheaton's Trek to Respectability |url=https://www.wired.com/2001/12/wheatons-trek-to-respectability/ |magazine=Wired}}</ref> Many considered the character a [[Mary Sue]], and a stand-in for [[Gene Roddenberry]] (whose middle name was Wesley). The character's role in the show was greatly downplayed after the first season when Roddenberry's involvement in the show's production became more peripheral.<ref name="150Years">{{cite web|author = Pat Pfliege|title = Too good to be true: 150 years of mary sue|version = 3|publisher = Presented at the American Culture Association conference|year=2001| url = https://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.xhtml|access-date = January 15, 2007 }}</ref>

Some fans disliked the idea of a boy who seemed to regularly save the whole ship using a ''[[deus ex machina]]'' plot device. Commentators have observed at least seven times in which Crusher, "who has trouble getting into the Starfleet Academy" and is on a ship "filled with Starfleet's best and brightest crew members", has come up with "the needed solution".<ref>[[Phil Farrand]], "Updated Conundrum Tote Board" ''The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Vol. 2'' New York: Dell (1995): 319</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= We the media|first= Dan|last= Gillmor|year= 2004|page= [https://archive.org/details/wemediagrassroot00gill/page/78 78]|publisher= "O'Reilly Media, Inc."|isbn= 0-596-00733-7|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/wemediagrassroot00gill/page/78}}</ref> Fans' dislike for Crusher has become something of a pop-culture [[Internet meme|meme]], reflected in other TV shows such as ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', the English dub of ''[[Steins;Gate (TV series)|Steins;Gate]]'', and in a 2009 ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode, "[[Not All Dogs Go to Heaven]]", which included the main ''The Next Generation'' cast and featured Wil Wheaton in character as Crusher being bullied by [[Patrick Stewart]].

Wheaton wrote: "When I was younger, people gave me such a hard time about Wesley Crusher, there was a time in my late teens and early twenties when I resented ''Star Trek''. It felt so unfair that people who had never met me were so cruel and hateful toward me as a person because they didn’t like a character I played on a TV show, I wanted to put ''Star Trek'' behind me and forget that it was ever part of my life."<ref>{{cite web |title=one small part of a pretty great life |url=http://wilwheaton.net/2013/12/one-small-part-of-a-pretty-great-life/ |website=WIL WHEATON dot NET |date=December 16, 2013}}</ref>

In a 2016 issue of [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']] magazine, Wesley Crusher was ranked 31st of the 100 most important [[Starfleet]] characters in the ''Star Trek'' science fiction universe.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/09/star-treks-100-crew-members-ranked/|title=Star Trek's 100 Most Important Crew Members, Ranked|last=McMillan|first=Graeme|date=September 5, 2016|magazine=Wired|access-date=March 20, 2019|issn=1059-1028}}</ref>