The Star Trek Episode That Made Wil Wheaton Quit

By Chris Snellgrove | Published 23 seconds ago

The fact that Wil Wheaton left Star Trek: The Next Generation It has often baffled fans. While it was certainly annoying to play the Kid Genius character and take shit from fans, the fact is that most child stars don’t shy away from steady paychecks, especially for the gigs that make them household names. Why, then, did a talented young actor leave the show that made him famous? It turns out that Wil Wheaton decided to leave this Star Trek spin-off after an unnamed producer lied to him about Wesley’s involvement in “The Ensigns of Command.”

Wil Wheaton leaves Star Trek

The story of why Wil Wheaton left Star Trek: The Next Generation can be found at The Fifty Year Mission: The Next 25 YearsThe book by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, which is a required read for fans of the franchise’s golden era. In that text, the actor tells how he had been chosen in the film Valmont and had to negotiate shooting schedules. The film was going to be filmed in Paris during TNG’s postseason production hiatus, but production on the film would extend into production on TNG’s third season.

However, Wil Wheaton did not believe this would be a problem because “The Ensigns of Command” was the first episode produced for season 3 of this Star Trek spin-off and Wesley Crusher did not have a very extensive part. Therefore, he assumed that it would be easy enough to write it out of whatever minor scenes it was written in. He held that assumption until his agent was contacted by a Star Trek producer.

“One of the producers told my agent that they couldn’t write me about that episode,” he said, “because it was an episode focused on Wesley and I couldn’t go to work (on a movie).” He called my house and said, “It’s a Wesley episode, and I’m writing a scene with you and Gates that will advance your mother-son relationship, and it’s really important to the show.”

That sounded good, but according to Wheaton, the producer “just lied to me…a few days before we started production on that season of Next generationthis producer wrote me completely from the script, and it was horrible for me. The message was very clear, we own it, and it was a move to sabotage my career.”

The end of Wesley Crusher

Looking back, Wil Wheaton remembers this as the incident that motivated him to leave. Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, there may be more to this story than meets the eye…while the actor remembers being written out of “Ensigns of Command” in its entirety, Wesley appears in a handful of scenes. It’s possible that Wheaton is referring to a meatier role being cut down to size, which would be in line with this episode receiving extensive rewrites (so many that writer Melinda Snodgrass nearly removed her name from the credits).

The other interesting thing is that Wil Wheaton remembers this Star Trek producer lying to him as some kind of power move. While that is entirely possible (the internal policy of the first TNG was very Toxic), it also seems possible that the unnamed producer the actor spoke to was confusing episodes. The episode focused on Wesley that advanced his relationship with his mother was “Evolution”, which served as the actual third season premiere episode even though “The Ensigns of Command” was produced first, so there could be a genuine confusion regarding production.

However, even if this was an honest mistake, we can understand Wil Wheaton’s annoyance with the Star Trek producers. Intentionally or unintentionally, a producer prevented the actor from starring in a steamy Miloš Forman film that could have transformed his career. Plus, he would have starred alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Colin Firth and Annette Bening, and we somehow suspect they would shout “Wesley” a lot less than the average Star Trek fan, making the film even more appealing to the public. talented actor stuck playing sci-fi’s most annoying kid genius.