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If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation or Wil Wheaton, then you will enjoy reading Memories of the Future. Wheaton provides his take on the first half of the first season of the television series. Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on the show, so he brings the viewpoint of a fan of the show and an actor on the show.
When Star Trek: The Next Generation first launched, geeks like me were abuzz at the new series. Especially since Gene Rodenberry, who had created the original series, was heavily involved. This was re-booting a franchise before Hollywood called it re-booting.
It’s a bit hard to be a fan of the series and be a fan of Wneaton’s role. Wesley Crusher was the Jar-Jar Binks of Star Trek. (From Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory)
Why was Wesley Crusher on board? I suspect the producers wanted a teen on board so that teenage fans would have someone to relate to. I would guess they also wanted a pretty face to attract teenage girls to the show.
Wheaton is the hardest on himself. The book is not a tell-all. It’s written with true affection for his fellow actors. Clearly, he is a fan of the show. However, Wheaton is hard on the writers, directors and producers of the show.
Each chapter in Memories of the Future is dedicated to an episode. Wheaton gives a snarky and hilarious synopsis of the show, full of anecdotes and geeky references. He doles out some technobabble, some behind the scenes memories and a bottom line evaluation of the episode.
The show ended up being great, but these first episodes were really rough. Picard, Riker and Worf ended up being great characters in the Star Trek franchise. Wesley Crusher? Not so much.
