Original-Cin Chat: Wil Wheaton on Star Trek: Prodigy and the Return of Wesley Crusher

By John Kirk

Mr. Rogers always said to look for the helpers.

With the news broke that Wil Wheaton would reprise his role as Wesley Crusher in Season Two of Star Trek: Prodigy, Original-Cin had a chance to chat with him about his life as a role model for nerds and geeks who envied his achievement, serving on board the flagship of the Federation, the USS Enterprise.

His presences in Stand by Me (where he was a child surrogate for Stephen King), Star Trek: TNG, The Big Bang Theory, the web series Table Top about the history of gaming, and now Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, all have had a helper aspect to them. We had to start by saying thanks for being a role model.

“Aw, thank you for sharing that,” he says. “I have met tens of thousands of Star Trek fans who are of my generation – I’m 52 next week – who grew up loving Wesley Crusher and being profoundly confused by the ‘we hate Wesley’ hate in Starlog or on the Internet. I just figured that for every one of those guys, there were about a hundred fans who thought otherwise. And those kids grew up to write for Star Trek and Star Trek: Prodigy!”

Star Trek: Prodigy is the story of a gang of misfit kids of different alien species who come together out of a mutual sense of survival and find hope in an abandoned Starfleet starship, the USS Protostar in Season One (CTV Sci-Fi Channel).

Season Two, just released on Netflix in the US and coming soon to Canada, sees Crusher not in a Starfleet role but as the Traveller (the transcendent species he joined in ST:TNG) and as a guide for the fledgling crew of the Protostar.

“Wesley has come home,” Wheaton says.

However, this is more of a homecoming for Wil Wheaton than for his Star Trek alter ego. It’s hard to reconcile the hate that Crusher garnered since TNG. But Wheaton has always made it a point to rise above that animosity and take on roles that have not only given him a degree of welcome, but also allowed him to show himself to be more than just to be a “nerd for all seasons.” He gravitates toward caring and thoughtful characters who want to help.

“In my personal life, my goal every day is to be the person I need in the world. When I’m being the person I need, I can be that person for someone else. I want to be kind, compassionate and empathetic, and try to see the best in people. I work hard to live an honest life and I want to inspire other people by example to do the same.”

We asked Wheaton how that manifested in his recent characters.

“The Traveller in Prodigy, I think he’s working to do the same for the kids. He knows that these kids have to work together to save the Galaxy. He has to support them, earn their trust and he has to support them, guide them, make promises that he has to keep. A lot of that came out of me. I drew on what I try to do as a person, a husband and a father.” (Wheaton, who has been married for 25 years, adopted his wife’s two now-grown sons).

When it comes to guiding kids, it’s a tough balancing act between patience and planning. That Wheaton can draw upon parenting speaks to the essence of Star Trek: Prodigy, a show that is geared to attracting younger audience members for the franchise. Wheaton’s tenure on TNG definitely lends itself to that.

“What I’ve tried to do as an elder, legacy cast member of the Star Trekcontinuum is to welcome new people to our world. As the host of The Ready Room (Paramount Plus), I greet everyone from all the new shows and I get this incredible privilege to be the person from “Old Star Trek.” I officially welcome them to our universe and tell them that if you want it, you are now part of a family that will always be there for you. You are carrying something that does not belong to any one of us, but we are entrusted to taking care of it until we hand it off.”

What about roles like playing himself in The Big Bang Theory?

“In the Big Bang Theory, I had a really good time playing myself. But he was a villain and that was kind of fun. I got to twirl the mustache a bit and I enjoyed playing that character.

“But the writers of the show concluded correctly that if they kept him that way, it would limit what he could do. So, they made him their friend, put him in 20 episodes over ten years and as that show went on, the writers asked me more about my personal life.

“I got to add experiences when Wil got to be a helper for Penny. I got to be a guy, talking to Penny about how hard and fundamentally unfair it is to be an actor. I got to talk to Sheldon about being someone who became really famous for being something that they didn’t necessarily want (a string theory specialist), and now they have to figure out what to do with it.

“These were all experiences that I was going through when we shot those scenes. I was really encouraged by the writers of The Big Bang Theory in a way that I was never consulted on in TNG. (Executive producer) Rick Berman did not want the actors and writers talking to each other. It was really limiting. If it wasn’t for those people, I don’t know if I would have felt comfortable sharing the input I had with the creators on Star Trek: Prodigy.”

And Tabletop?

“As the creator/executive producer, as the host of Tabletop, I was the last word on all of that. I got to bring in my enthusiasm for board gaming, how much fun we had, teasing each other, being big obnoxious nerds in that show. That was me being myself. I spent a lot of my life after Star Trek just trying so hard to establish myself as my own person. Not just the guy from Stand By Me, or Wesley Crusher – I really wanted to establish myself as my own person.”

It was interesting to see how Wheaton looked for those guiding values in his own fandom loves.

“I’m a huge Doctor Who fan. I love how the Doctor uses the values of kindness and cleverness to solve problems. So, I texted my friend, Jen (Muro), who’s one of the writers on Prodigy. I told her how much I loved how Wesley appeared on the show, and how I think that he could be like the 16th Doctor, but in the Star Trek universe.

“And she was like, ‘That’s awesome!’ The only difference, I said, was that he didn’t have two hearts. And she texted me back and said he does have two hearts. One is Wesley Crusher and the other is Wil Wheaton’s! I was in tears, and I told her that I was going to tell the press this because I feel so honoured and blessed to be me right now.”

Finally, we asked Wheaton how he could frame all his recent roles into the helper role.

“All these roles that I have played allowed more of myself to come out. Modern communication has allowed me to speak directly to people – as a blogger, an actor, as an author.

The Wesley Crusher in Prodigy is all of these things. It’s me and all the roles I’ve played that have allowed me to bring this Wesley Crusher to the world.

“OK, Wesley is going to be a helper. I was thrilled and grateful to be included in the creative process. In a weird way, I feel closer to Wesley Crusher than I ever did in TNG. I feel more ownership and more integral to his existence. It’s everything I’ve learned, as a person recovering from CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) – what do I need? A helper. When I was a kid, it was just, ‘Shut up and say your lines.’ Now I feel like it’s a gift.”

With that said, we can always use more helpers in this world.