In Star Trek: Picard season 3, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) returns with an enigmatic new son, but Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheatonwhereabouts )’s are still a mystery. As explained in the Picard season 3 premiere “The Next Generation,” Beverly disappeared shortly after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.
In her first scene back, Beverly impressively held off a group of alien intruders in a fierce phaser battle, demonstrating how much she has changed over the years.
Until she was hurt and had to make a desperate distress call to Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), the good doctor abruptly cut off all of her friends from the USS Enterprise-D.
The pair successfully commandeers the USS Titan-A, Riker’s former command, with the assistance of its First Officer Seven Of Nine (Jeri Ryan), much to the dismay of the Titan’s new commanding officer,
Captain Liam Shaw, after asking Captain William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to assist them in finding Beverly (Todd Stashwick). Picard discovers an injured Beverly in a medical stasis pod being treated by a young man claiming to be her son after stealing one of the Titan’s shuttles (Ed Speleers).
The young man claims they have been evading unknown attackers who show up as the episode is coming to a close.
The fate of Wesley is among the many unanswered concerns surrounding Dr. Crusher and her recently disclosed son.
Where Is Wesley Crusher During Star Trek: Picard Season 3?
Wesley Crusher caused controversy when Star Trek: The Next Generation first came out. Wesley was primarily used as an annoying story device for the first two seasons of the programme, frequently being presented as a kid genius who could outsmart most Starfleet officers.
Beginning with season 3, the new TNG head writer Michael Piller gave Wesley a more recognisable sense of fallibility, and the budding actor gradually earned respect among the cast.
Ensign Wesley Crusher left the Enterprise-D to start his studies at Starfleet Academy after serving as a regular cast member for the first three and a half seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Wesley had a difficult experience in Starfleet Academy, with one particularly troubling occurrence occurring when he helped cover up the death of a fellow cadet in the TNG episode “The First Duty.” He finally lost a year’s worth of academic credits as a result of this, and he was shunned on school.
In the TNG season 7 episode “Journey’s End,” Wesley ultimately made the decision to leave the Academy and join the enigmatic figure known as the Traveler (Eric Menyuk). Captain Picard and Beverly both had misgivings about Wesley leaving Starfleet, but they had faith in the boy to make his own choices and choose his own path.
At the conclusion of Star Trek: Picard season 2, Wesley made a surprise cameo, which retconned the Travelers as a group that aims to maintain the timeline’s integrity.
The Supervisors, who first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Assignment: Earth” and centred on the Supervisor Gary Seven, were later revealed to be the overseers of the Travelers (Robert Lansing).
Kore Soong (Isa Briones), the evil geneticist Adam Soong’s (Brent Spiner) daughter, agreed to join the Travelers after Getting transported to the twenty-first century. When Picard season 3 opens, it appears likely that Wesley is still engaged in the same cosmic endeavour.
The Real Reason Wil Wheaton Quit Star Trek
The actor himself has explained the reason for Wesley Crusher’s departure from Star Trek. Wheaton revealed in a blog post from the early 2000s that the reason he left Star Trek had less to do with fan anger and more to do with terrible treatment behind the scenes. He wrote, “I quit Star Trek because it was substantially interfering with my career in feature films.”
Wheaton was well-known from his performance in Stand By Me prior to boarding the Enterprise, but his dedication to Star Trek required him to reject off significant acting opportunities. When Wheaton was cast in 1989’s Valmont, only one episode of The Next Generation had to be rewritten to make room for filming in France.
According to Wheaton, there would have been no issues with that arrangement under Gene Roddenberry, but the newly appointed management of The Next Generation allegedly insisted that the episode in question was crucial to Wesley and simply couldn’t happen without his involvement, which led the actor to reluctantly decline the offer from Valmont.
The actor was shocked to see that he had been deleted from the episode from which he had really requested a leave of absence, which he took to be a “message.”
The Valmont incident appeared to be a contributing factor in the continuous breakdown of Wil Wheaton’s relationship with the creators of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Although he reserved admiration for Rob Bowman, Wheaton has discussed troubles with directors in his funny retrospective evaluations of TNG episodes. Wheaton also learned that the fan backlash towards Wesley Crusher was the result of poor writing.
It’s impossible to look at Wheaton’s time on The Next Generation without seeing it as a squandered chance for a gifted actor who was let down by a weakly developed character and producers who wouldn’t let him fly in other projects.
Star Trek: Nemesis featured a brief cameo from Wil Wheaton in his final on-screen Star Trek appearance.
Read More:
- What Caused Amanda Rollins to Quit SVU? What happened to Kelli Giddish?
- ‘Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon’ Season 4: All We Know!
- My Hero Academia Season 6: Time, Episode’s And All
What Wil Wheaton Has Done Since Star Trek
After the Wil Wheaton Star Trek incident, the actor has worked in film, TV, cartoons, and video games. Wheaton voiced Aqualad in Teen Titans after starring in Star Trek: Nemesis and EverQuest II and Ghost Recon 2.
He voices Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto games. Wheaton played Cosmic Boy on Legion of Superheroes and Menma on Naruto.
In DC Universe Online, he voiced Robin. He appeared in 17 episodes of The Big Bang Theory as himself and briefly on Leverage as Colin Mason. Finally, he hosts The Ready Room, an after-show special about all Star Trek initiatives.
Wil Wheaton would return to Star Trek in later seasons, proving that the bridges were only mildly burned.
The Next Generation writer Ronald D. Moore felt Wesley’s season 4 ending wasn’t a proper manner for the character to go, but Wheaton’s post-Trek life, by his own admission, didn’t proceed as planned.
Wheaton mentioned departing Star Trek: The Next Generation at a 2012 conference, acknowledging that quitting such a large franchise voluntarily wasn’t the best business decision.
Wheaton spoke emotionally about the isolation he felt from fellow cast members after leaving, confessing that his 18-year-old self overestimated what losing such bonds meant and that he eventually “apologised for being a kid” to his TNG crew.
Conclusion
Wesley was first introduced as the extremely smart prodigal son of chief medical officer Beverly Crusher in the first season of The Next Generation.
It irritated Wesley’s fans, who were open about how sick of him they were, to see a young ensign wandering around the Enterprise bridge acting like he knew better than the adults (and usually proving it).
Wesley Crusher had frequent appearances in the first four seasons of The Next Generation before leaving to join Starfleet Academy rather than continue aboard the Enterprise. Nevertheless, he returned for guest appearances in seasons 5 and 7 as well as Star Trek: Nemesis.