Weekend Trek “Journey’s End”

Wesley Crusher began Star Trek the Next Generation as some sort of space genius bound for greatness.  Then Wil Wheaton decided to leave the show, coming back only for the occasional guest appearance.  This episode came from the final season and shows what may be the start of his final fate.

Or not.  Jimmy and Tom have some thoughts.

“Journey’s End”

Wesley Crusher is a bit unsatisfied with his life. 

jimmy:  And they never thought about Wesley ever again.

tomk:  Except for that one time. Or the other. Possibly the fact he and Jack Crusher are secretly the same person.

jimmy:  Now Tom, no Picard spoilers.

tomk:  How am I spoiling something you’ve seen?

jimmy:  Not for me. The readers.

tomk:  Fine. I also won’t mention how Wesley started the Dominion War.

jimmy:  Now you’re getting it.

tomk:  And he wrote the Enterprise finale.

jimmy:  I guess his higher purpose was sucking.

tomk:  Or hosting the aftershow.

jimmy:  There was an after show?

tomk:  There is today.

jimmy:  I guess Wil Wheaton is talking a break from being a megastar actor to host.

tomk:  Something like that. Or it’s the next step in his Traveler training.

jimmy:  His next step is disguising himself as a Native American.

tomk:  Not touching that one.

jimmy:  They shouldn’t have either.

tomk:  And yet, it happened.

jimmy:  Luckily they had Troi along who knew all sorts of Native American history.

tomk:  And Picard just accepted some ancestor he never heard of did bad things.

jimmy:  Troi told him it was true!

tomk:  Troi suddenly got a lot of opinions when she stopped being a frog.

jimmy:  She’s lucky she never croaked.

tomk:  Judges?

jimmy:  Tough crowd.

tomk:  She just doesn’t like frog jokes.

jimmy:  Makes sense.

tomk:  Does it make as much sense as Wesley deciding all of a sudden he doesn’t want to be in Starfleet?

jimmy:  He did say he had been thinking about it for awhile.  It’s fine, people change.  They don’t all have to be in Starfleet and follow the path of their parents.

tomk:  True, but there was never so much as a hint of that before.

jimmy:  Well, it had been two years of space time since we’ve seen him.

tomk:  And who’s fault is that?

jimmy:  Wil Wheaton’s?

tomk:  Judges?

jimmy:  It is an odd arc for him though. Super child prodigy to time halting inter dimensional being like Mozart.

tomk:  Mozart really didn’t need to halt time as often as he did.

jimmy:  That’s why he died so young.  Used up all his powers.

tomk:  Where’d you learn that?

jimmy:  I dunno.  I think it was in the movie.

tomk:  Which one?

jimmy:  The Mozart one.   Keep up, Tom.

tomk:  Which Mozart one?  Be specific, Jimmy.

jimmy:  There was more than one?

tomk:  Sure. There’s, you know, the one with the things.

jimmy:  That’s the one!

tomk:  That’s a good one.

jimmy:  Right?!

tomk:  Especially the part with the things that did stuff.

jimmy:  Like stop time for some reason.

tomk:  It gave him time to learn to play the kazoo.

jimmy:  There you go.

tomk:  It’s not like with Wesley. He froze time only to be told the others will figure things out.

jimmy:  Yeah, what was the point of it?  He didn’t point a phaser away from anyone or put down a mattress for Worf to land on.

tomk:  Worf probably landed on three Cardassians. He was OK.

Or he landed with a nice Trill woman or two.

jimmy:  MVP.

tomk:  Fun fact: Michael Dorn was in the original Rocky as one of Apollo Creed’s bodyguards.

jimmy:  Really?  I didn’t know that.

tomk:  I only learned that yesterday.

jimmy:  I only learned it today.

tomk:  Well, congrats. You deserve a major award.

jimmy:  No, Michael Dorn does.

tomk:  He’s not here. He’ll have to settle for not being in this:

jimmy:  He should be very grateful.

tomk:  Especially since I think I spotted the Traveler and the Moose standing in the background.

jimmy:  You never know where those two will pop up next.

tomk:  Like how they never appear to stop raids of your donut stash?

jimmy:  I thought that was Jenny?

tomk:  Jenny does the raids. The Moose and the Traveler don’t stop her.

jimmy:  I knew it!

tomk:  You should. I just told you.

jimmy:  You’re a smart one, Mr. Tom.

tomk:  And you are generous with your praise. Enjoy this steak dinner.

jimmy:  Thanks!

So, this was clearly meant to be one last hurrah for an original crew member.  And potentially tying up some dangling plot threads that I’m not sure anyone cared about.

tomk:  And we spent most of the chat talking about Worf who has a very minor role here.

jimmy:  Because Wesley No.was being an annoying little shit?

tomk:  Picard still had a subplot.

jimmy:  But not a good one.

tomk:  So isn’t Worf awesome?

jimmy:  Hell yeah!

tomk:  Maybe we need another Worf episode then.

jimmy:  Before we do, did you care at all about Wesley here?

tomk:  Who?

This guy?

jimmy:  Inconceivable!

tomk:  So, not that guy?

jimmy:  No.

tomk:  This guy then?

jimmy:  That would have been more interesting.

tomk:  Then no, I don’t care what happens to Wesley unless he uses his Traveler powers to pick up women.

jimmy:  They had to get rid of her before season 3 somehow.

tomk:  Something wrong with Data’s hot daughter?

jimmy:  Not at all, but she didn’t fit with the TNG reunion season.

tomk:  She probably fit in better than Raffi.

jimmy:  True. Raffi is awful.

tomk:  But Worf is awesome.

jimmy:  Yes. And still is.

tomk:  Would you rather discuss a Worf episode?

jimmy:  Wouldn’t you?

tomk:  The last time I asked, you changed the subject to ask about Wesley.

jimmy:  Well, I just wanted to know how you felt.

tomk:  Well, it’s the end of the world as I know it, but I feel fine.

jimmy:  That’s great, it starts with an earthquake.

tomk:  And birds and snakes and aeroplanes and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

jimmy:  Sounds like we’re ready?

tomk:  You got it!  One last episode about Worf’s parenting.

jimmy:  MVP…Most Valuable Parent?

tomk:  We shall see.

Next:  “Firstborn”