Via the Eclectic Librarian, I learned about and helped to stop a grave injustice. What was this terrible injustice you might ask? It was poor Wesley Crusher (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) being again named the most annoying character on the show. The Eclectic Librarian pointed me to Wil Wheaton’s blog, which I’ve browsed once or twice, but never subscribed to (until now). For those who missed the 1980s, Wil was the star of Stand by Me and played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek. Wesley was kind of a precocious, cheesy, nerdlinger, but were most of the people who watched the show all that different? đ Wil directed his readers’ attention to a new Star Trek poll run by TV Guide, whose results were going to appear in the magazine. One of the questions was about which character (on all of the Star Treks) was most annoying. Apparently, Wesley Crusher has been considered most annoying on more than one occasion, and Wil is “really tired of wearing that ‘Annoying Character’ albatross around my neck, and if Wesley is voted most annoying in TV Guide’s big old Farewell to Star Trek issue, I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of it.”
Regardless of Wil’s appeal to the public, I certainly wouldn’t say that Wesley Crusher was the most annoying Star Trek character. I can honestly (and pathetically) say that I have seen every Next Generation episode, and the ones with Deanna Troi’s mother (Lwuxana) or Worf’s son (Alexander) were by far the most annoying. When I see that a re-run with either character is going to be on, I will delete it immediately from TiVo. Wesley was a little annoying, and I hated the Wesley-centric episodes in the first few seasons, but there definitely were worse characters, and Wesley never ruined an entire episode for me on his own.
So if you were a Trekkie (or Trekker for the politically correct) like me — and I would guess that a lot of my fellow librarians were into such geekery — go cast your vote. And stick up for a fellow blogger. Because there’s a little Wesley Crusher in all of us geeks.
