Fans Just Got a Beloved Star Trek Character Back Due to Bad Behavior
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
The third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation was a new beginning for the series: under the direction of new showrunner Michael Piller, the series received impressive new uniforms, improved writing, and memorable new characters. However, the character fans cared about the most was the returning Beverly Crusher, the ship’s doctor who had been replaced by the unpopular Katherine Pulaski. Crusher returned to support his son, the oft-hated character Wesley Crusher, and Piller later revealed that Wesley’s annoying character in the season 3 premiere “Evolution” is what led to “the re-entry of Dr. Crusher in the series.”
This The Next Generation The episode had the Enterprise accompanying an eccentric doctor to a cosmic phenomenon…a kind of interstellar Old Faithful that erupts every 196 years. Plans to study this historic event fall by the wayside as many of the ship’s systems begin to malfunction, and it turns out that Wesley Crusher had accidentally released some nanites that replicated themselves, appeared, and resided in the Enterprise computer core. Tensions rise when a visiting scientist kills some of the small creatures, but after realizing that the nanites are now sentient beings, Captain Picard does what he can: negotiate peacefully without further bloodshed.
Where does Beverly Crusher fit into the story of “Evolution?” He’s happy to be back on the Enterprise and even happier to see his son again (he had spent a year in charge of Starfleet Medical), but he’s starting to worry that Wesley Crusher is too focused on his studies and not enough on being fun. the new ones. The two plots intersect when her caring for the boring Wesley is what finally leads her to come clean about accidentally releasing nanites on the ship.
According to “Evolution” writer and TNG showrunner Michael Piller, Wesley Crusher’s arc in this episode called for the return of Beverly Crusher. Piller finally realizes that the lonely and busy scientist in this episode “is Wesley in his forties, if he continues to be a smart kid who is devoted to his work and doesn’t seem to have anything else going on in his life.” life.” Famously, Piller approved that episodes should help our favorite characters evolve in some way and he took his advice to “Evolution,” seeing this as an opportunity to “help Wesley grow” and bring back Beverly Crusher.
Part of Piller’s genius was his innate understanding that TNG episodes had to have equal appeal to sci-fi and scholarly and general audiences. So while science fiction buffs tried an A plot involving nanites, he had a “human level” B plot about Beverly Crusher facing a parent’s true fear: “My son is not having a normal childhood.” Piller said that “we know many children like that,” and after seeing this tragedy often happen in real life, he “had the necessary feeling” of “Evolution.”
“Evolution” ended up being a great episode The Next Generationbut it’s funny to note that fan favorite character Beverly Crusher may not have returned to the show if it wasn’t for Wesley Crusher, arguably the most hated character. Ironically, Wesley Crusher character Wil Wheaton left the show (save for a few recent cameos) after season 3, but Beverly Crusher character Gates McFadden stayed for the rest of TNG and later became a central character. Picard season 3.
His return to the latest show was sensational complete because it is difficult to imagine a The Next Generation story without her, but just think: we wouldn’t be able to get more Beverly Crusher stories if Michael Piller hadn’t realized that Wesley Crusher needed to “grow up” and “get into a relationship with a girlfriend.” Before TNG episodes have all been about Wesley inexplicably saving the day, but this time, he did more than that: He saved Gates McFadden’s career just by being the weirdest and loneliest babysitter in sci-fi history.
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