SPOILER WARNING for “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Prodigy,” “Star Trek: Nemesis,” and “Star Trek: Picard.”
When “Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)” first left Spacedock in 1987, Wesley Crusher was an ordinary — albeit super-intelligent — kid who became a valued member of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise crew. Fast forward to the latest season of “Star Trek: Prodigy,” however, and he’s a bona fide master of space and time, effectively “Star Trek’s” answer to “Doctor Who.”
Below we explain how Beverly Crusher’s eldest son made the journey from enthusiastic teen to time-travelling space god — and how the seeds for Wesley’s evolution were sown as far back as the very first season of “TNG.”
Related: Best ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ episodes
Who is Wesley Crusher?
Wesley is the son of Dr. Beverly Crusher, chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D, and Jack, her late husband. Jack was Jean-Luc Picard’s best friend at Starfleet Academy, and they served together on the USS Stargazer, Captain Picard’s first command. Picard was still blaming himself for his friend’s death in the line of duty when Beverly and Wesley arrived on the Enterprise.
Despite his friendship with Jack and the will-they-won’t-they romance with Beverly, Picard didn’t warm to Wesley right away. But the boy’s prodigious intellect — and a recommendation from a mysterious alien known simply as “the Traveler” — quickly led to Wesley being granted the rank of Acting Ensign.
Who is the Traveler?
Reportedly from Tau Alpha C and with a given name “unpronounceable by humans,” the enigmatic Traveler (played by Eric Menyuk) first stopped by the Enterprise in the Season 1 episode “Where No One Has Gone Before.” He was brought on board to assist in experiments that would allow the Enterprise to break speed records.
Thanks to the Traveler’s mastery of space and time — and an ability to “focus thought” — he was able to manipulate the ship’s warp engines to transport the crew to a faraway galaxy. After bringing the Enterprise home — via a “2001: A Space Odyssey”-style light show — he vanished into thin air.
Before his abrupt departure, the Traveler told Picard that Wesley “and a few like him are why I travel,” comparing the boy to a certain Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “Not with music,” he explained, “but with the equally lovely intricacies of time, energy, propulsion…”
The Traveler urged the captain to nurture Wesley’s abilities, without telling the boy — or Beverly — about his full potential. This conversation explains why Picard made the bizarre decision to give an unqualified teenager full access to the bridge.
Related: ‘Star Trek:’ History & effect on space technology
What did Wesley do next?
By the time the Traveler reappeared in Season 4’s Episode 5, “Remember Me” — in which he helped Wesley rescue Beverly from an imploding warp bubble — the young Crusher had replaced his trademark knitwear with a standard issue Starfleet uniform. He was also given the keys to drive the USS Enterprise.
When Wesley left for Starfleet Academy a few episodes later, however, his career didn’t unfold as planned. After an accident involving his Nova Squadron flight team caused the death of a fellow cadet, it turned out that Wesley and his colleagues had been practicing a banned maneuver. Their attempted cover-up led to Wesley having to repeat the year.
Wesley’s most pivotal moment came in the final season of “The Next Generation,” when a vacation on the Enterprise took an unexpected twist. He was already disillusioned with the Academy when a vision of his late father told him “to find a path that is truly yours.”
He subsequently resigned his commission to protest against orders that would forcibly relocate Native American settlers from a world the Federation had agreed to surrender to the Cardassians. During a fight on the planet’s surface, Wesley unwittingly stepped out of time, and one of the settlement’s leaders revealed he was actually the Traveler in disguise.
The Traveler told Wesley that he had evolved to a new plane of existence and was “ready to explore places where thought and energy combine in ways you can’t even imagine.” Mr. Crusher left the Enterprise-D for the final time, embarking on an adventure in space and time with the Traveler as his guide.
What has Wesley been up to since “The Next Generation”?
Wesley made a brief appearance in “Star Trek: Nemesis,” sitting at the top table during Will Riker and Deanna Troi’s wedding. He was clearly wearing a Starfleet uniform, which suggests he briefly came back to Starfleet after his resignation. (A deleted scene from the movie — not technically canon — revealed that Wesley had agreed to manage the Engineering night shift on the USS Titan, under the command of Will Riker.) It’s safe to assume, however, that Wesley’s return to the rank and file was short-lived.
A future incarnation showed up in 2024 Los Angeles in “Star Trek: Picard”‘s second season. He told Kore, a clone created by scientist Dr. Adam Soong, the following: “A long time ago, I was known as Wesley Crusher, but now I am a Traveler of all space and time.”
He explained that the whole of time is a grand and fragile tapestry, and that he, his fellow Travelers, and the Supervisors who work for them are on a mission to ensure that everything unfolds as it should (sounds rather like the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Time Variance Authority who protect the Sacred Timeline, as seen in the “Loki” TV show). Wesley successfully recruited Kore to join the organization.
Why did Wesley turn up in “Star Trek: Prodigy”?
In the second season of “Star Trek: Prodigy,” Dal, Gwyn, Jankom, Zero, Rok and Murf inadvertently altered the course of history by preventing the USS Protostar from crashing on the prison colony of Tars Lamora. That meant they could never discover the ship in the first place, never meet Admiral Janeway, and never be in the right place to alter history by preventing the USS Protostar from crashing — the TL;DR version is that they broke the very fabric of time. Pretty serious stuff. They also unleashed the Loom: vicious, interdimensional monsters that have an insatiable appetite to consume everything out of existence.
Wesley hoped to use his unique mastery of space, time, thought and history to get things back on track, saving the universe in the process. And, yes, he still had a fondness for knitted sweaters.
What happened to Wesley after the original timeline was restored?
He did something he should have done years ago and visited his mother, who immediately introduced him to his new baby brother, Jack. We’re assuming Wesley already had some idea about Jack Crusher’s destiny in “Star Trek: Picard”‘s third season…
After that, it looks like he’ll spend the rest of his life exploring the cosmos, tinkering with timelines — and presumably cameoing in future “Trek” episodes and movies whenever the plot demands.
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