by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
The truth about Wil Wheaton's passing Star Trek: The Next Generation It often baffled fans. Although it was certainly annoying to play a child genius character and get crap from fans, the truth is that most child stars don't stray far from their steady paychecks, especially for gigs that make them household names. So why would a talented young actor leave the show that made him famous? As it turns out, Wil Wheaton decided to leave this Star Trek spinoff after an unnamed producer lied to him about Wesley's involvement in “The Ensigns of Command.”
Wil Wheaton is leaving Star Trek
The story of why Wil Wheaton left Star Trek: The Next Generation It can be found at The 50-Year Mission: The Next 25 YearsEdward Gross and Mark A. Altman's required reading for fans of the franchise's golden age. In this text, the actor narrates how he was chosen in the film Valmont They had to negotiate shooting schedules. The film was scheduled to be filmed in Paris during TNG's production hiatus after the second season, but production of the film would have extended into production of the third season of TNG.
but, Wil Wheaton I didn't think this would be a problem because “The Ensigns of Command” was the first episode produced for the third season of this Star Trek spinoff and Wesley Crusher didn't have a very big role in it. So, he assumed it would be easy to remove any simple scenes he might have written into. He maintained this assumption until his agent was contacted by A Star Trek project.
“One of the producers told my agent that they couldn't cut me out of that episode because it was a Wesley-focused episode, and I couldn't go to work (on a movie),” he said. He called my house and said, “It's the Wesley episode, and I'm writing a scene with you and Gates that will move the mother-son relationship forward, which is really important to the series.”
That sounded well and good, but according to Wheaton, the producer “just lied to me…a few days before production began on that season of the series.” The next generationThis producer took me completely out of the script, and it was terrible for me. The message was very clear, we own you, and this was a move to sabotage my career.
Wesley crusher end
Looking back, Wil Wheaton remembers this being the incident that prompted him to leave star trek: The next generation. However, there may be more to this story than it first appears… While the actor remembers being written out of “Ensigns of Command” entirely, Wesley appears in a few scenes. It's possible that Wheaton was referring to downsizing the more important role, which is entirely in keeping with this episode receiving extensive rewrites (so much that writer Melinda Snodgrass almost removed her name from the credits).
The other interesting thing is that Wil Wheaton remembers the Star Trek producer lying to him as a kind of power move. While this is entirely possible (the internal policies of the early Transitional National Government are said to have been… very Toxic), it also seems possible that the unnamed producer the actor spoke to was confusing the episodes. The Wesley-centric episode that pushed his relationship with his mother forward was “Evolution”, which served as the actual first episode of season three even though “The Ensigns of Command” was produced first, so there may have been a real mix in terms of production.
Even if this was an honest mistake, we can understand Wil Wheaton being upset with the Star Trek producers. Intentionally or unintentionally, a producer prevented the actor from taking part in a steamy Miloš Forman film that could have changed his career. Plus, he'd be starring alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Colin Firth and Annette Bening, and we somehow suspect they'd be screaming “Shut up, Wesley” much less than the average Star Trek fan, making the movie even more appealing. For the talented actor. Stuck playing the most annoying child genius in science fiction.
