On Wil Wheaton's Birthday

I saw STTNG's pilot episode when it first came out, but my job duties kept me from paying a lot of attention to it the first season. I noted they had a French captain with a British accent, an android, a telepathic psychiatrist, a blind engineer, and a precocious kid who gets in trouble. And, of course, the first episode HAS to have a godlike alien who screws around with our stalwart crew.

"Wow," I thought. "Only thing missing is a dog. Going to be interesting to see where this goes."

And then, I didn't see a single episode (other than "The Naked Now") for a year.

And then I went to a science fiction convention. I love me a good con. And at one point, I bought an overpriced soda and hot dog and went to go eat it in the Detox Room, where there were places to sit. The Con was being held in a college student union building. The Detox Room was a classroom. At the front of the classroom was a blackboard, where a number of people had written graffitti. "FLASH GORDON WAS HERE!" "Klaatu Barada Nikto!" "FLASH GORDON EATS WORMS! --Buck Rogers" "TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!" and so on.

And at least half the board was alive with poison hatred for Wesley Crusher.

It took me a second to realize that this had been the precocious kid on Star Trek, played by Wil Wheaton. And some people... a great MANY people... had some very ugly things to say about Crusher, Wheaton, and anyone who liked them.

Me? Didn't have any opinion one way or the other; I barely knew the show was on the air, although I'd been wanting to catch up on it. But daaaang, what the HELL, people?

I mean, for all I knew, Wil Wheaton was Hitler incarnate; all I knew about him was that he'd been in that movie, "Stand By Me," and that he was in Star Trek, and he was a kid. But I also knew he was a kid actor, and at an age where if your adult career doesn't catch on, it's not GOING to, and then in a few years you wind up in the news because you got hopped up on drugs and got arrested while trying to rob a fire hydrant at gunpoint.

I knew that if it had been ME, and I'd been offered the role of Precocious Kid on The New Star Trek Show, I'd have been in there, SO fast! You'd have had to pry me off Gene Roddenberry's ANKLE, I'd be on it so hard!

I knew that this Wheaton kid didn't get to decide what character he played, and that he didn't get to write the dialogue, and that as a kid, he probably had even LESS pull than the grownups did about lines and how to play a scene and so forth.

I'd heard about Rob Reiner, and for YEARS after "All In The Family" went off the air, he'd had to put up with complete strangers on the street yelling, "HEY, MEATHEAD!" at him. What must it be like to be, what, sixteen, and you can't go out on the street without some idjit screaming YOU RUINED STAR TREK at you?

I didn't hate Wesley or Wheaton. I sorta felt BAD for them.

Around that time, the local station began running reruns, and I was able to catch up on the first season, and I did have to agree, Wesley Crusher wasn't the best thing about the show. On the other hand, the whole SHOW needed work, and I was pleased to see that with the Season Two opener, it began to get better, until it finally hit it out of the park with the closer and Season Three opener. I came to like the show, and Wheaton's performances, and everyone ELSE's, very much.

Still felt bad for Wil Wheaton, though. All the more so when I ran across his book, where he wrote that he went through some serious shit for a while for the precise reasons I detailed above. How many of US would be able to carry on while poison trolls screamed at us? On the other hand, like the show, his life did get better, and his career seems to be doing just fine.

So here's to you, Wil Wheaton, and a fine and happy birthday to you, and I am sure we are both glad that you're a successful actor and blogger, and not a homeless drughead who terrorizes fire hydrants today.