When the plan for Star Trek: Picard‘s third season was announced to be a Next Generation reunion, some fans asked what about Wil Wheaton and Wesley Crusher? Now we know why he wasn’t included in the cast list for Season 3 — it would have spoiled one of the Season 2 finale’s biggest surprises. Yet, seeing Wesley again also closes a plot hole created by Star Trek: Nemesis.
After helping the heroes foil the villain’s plot, Isa Briones’ Kore Soong gets a mysterious message on her tablet computer telling her to find out what comes next. She expected to meet Q, whose dealings with Dr. Soong seemed to be less about beguiling Picard and more about freeing Kore from his clutches. Yet, rather than the omnipotent chaos agent, fans see the familiar face of Wil Wheaton, again playing Wesley Crusher. And, in doing so, Picard tied together some interesting pieces of Star Trek lore to Orla Brady’s Tallin.
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The clues were out there, too. When the TNG reunion was announced, Wheaton took to his website to address the fans in a blog post. He told them that he “shared some of their sadness,” and then presented a fan-fiction scene where Traveler Wesley reunites with Picard. However, the last time Star Trek fans saw Wesley, he was back in Starfleet, possibly about to serve on Captain Riker’s USS Titan. That’s a big change from his final TNG’s appearance.
In Star Trek: Nemesis, it’s obvious that the producers wanted to bring Wil Wheaton back for the movie, specifically the scenes where Riker and Troi are married. In a deleted scene, Wesley even admits he rejoined Starfleet and will join Riker on his new command. This suggests that he abandoned the Traveler’s offer to return to a more mundane Starfleet life. Yet, in Wheaton’s fan-fiction blog post, it’s not Lieutenant Crusher who meets Picard, but Wesley the Traveler. It’s the character’s rightful role.
Early on fans didn’t like Wesley because he so often came up with the solution needed to save the day. Later on in the series, the writers explained this via an episode starring a mysterious alien called “The Traveler.” He traveled through time and space, a classic Star Trek character where advanced science and mysticism blend together. He noted that there was something special about Wesley to Picard before he left. He appeared again in another episode to help Wesley save his mother. Fans wouldn’t see him again until one of the last episodes of TNG’s final season, “Journey’s End.”
Wesley is shown feeling out of place at Starfleet Academy. He eventually resigns in protest because he believes the Federation’s handling of the problem-of-the-week is wrong. He also undergoes a spiritual awakening ritual that suggests his future lies outside Starfleet. By the end of the episode, Wesley discovers he has the ability to literally “pause” time. The Traveler appears to him and gives him a slightly vaguer version of the speech Wesley gives to Kore. This storyline, while a little weird, does help justify the extraordinary abilities Wesley showed early on in the show. It retroactively edits a possible element of bad storytelling into a lore-expanding opportunity to create another branch of the universe on which stories can grow.
The Wesley Crusher fans meet in the Season 2 finale of Picard is one who either did not go back to Starfleet or did that as part of his “Traveler duties.” Explaining that Tallin was part of this nebulous group protecting the fabric of reality builds on the foundation laid by TNG and the Traveler episodes. It’s a group not unlike Starfleet’s Department of Temporal Investigations, but with a much less militaristic vibe. That fits with what we know of Wesley, who was always played as a bit of a hothead who wasn’t a big fan of following the rules.
It’s possible that fans will see more of Wesley in Picard Season 3, especially since he took Isa Briones with him. She plays multiple characters, though, so the actor can return to the series without needing Wesley. Yet, chances are, Traveler Wesley will have a role to play beyond Wil Wheaton’s regular gig hosting the Star Trek promotional series The Ready Room. Now, the only question that remains is what have the rest of the Enterprise-D crew been up to?
You can see how chill Wesley has become for yourself by streaming Star Trek: Picard Season 2 on Paramount+.
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