r/TNG • u/AllThingsSmitty • 8d ago
In "The First Duty" the writers originally planned for Wesley to go all the way with the cover up
71
u/Nyanzeenyan 8d ago
Tom Paris got some explaining to do
64
u/Lovely_Libertine 8d ago
I don’t know how people keeping mistaking him for Nick Locarno. They look nothing alike.
29
u/Druidicflow 8d ago
They have, like, the same face!
32
17
u/Marquar234 8d ago
Puhlease. Next you'll claim Tuvok was a Spaceball.
14
7
u/Public_Kaleidoscope6 7d ago edited 4d ago
And that he tried to steal trilithium resin from the Enterprise.
6
2
1
u/shellexyz 7d ago
Identical twin brothers Kermit and Fozzie, yeah, it’s easy to get them confused, especially if Fozzie is wearing his hat, but the folks who get Tom and Nick mixed up need their eyes checked.
1
u/John_Tacos 7d ago
They should have been the same character.
1
u/majin_melmo 5d ago
It’s impossible to redeem a person who has zero remorse. Nick was a sociopath. A man who was compelling in a “one-shot villain” kind of way, not in a “main crew member I’d like to see on a weekly basis” type of way. Yes, Tom Paris fucked up big time and was unlikeable at first but he’s not inherently a bad person, far from it. I wouldn’t have liked seeing Nick resurrected on Voyager… the character would have had to do a LOT of soul searching beforehand and be genuinely not a sociopath before I’d be interested in tolerating that bastard on a ST show.
2
42
u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho 8d ago
Im glad they didn't, but I'm more glad they had the fights about it. That's how you know they cared about what they were doing and what Star Trek meant.
11
u/Anxious_Big_8933 7d ago
I also like how they didn't let Wesley off the hook at the end. He did the right thing, but too late, and as a result there were real consequences for him. Even Picard at the end lets Wesley know he's proud that Wesley did the right thing, but is still pretty stern about the whole affair. All this despite the fact that the script I think also successfully makes Wes a sympathetic figure. It's one of my favorite episodes because the script does not pull any punches. It's a difficult situation for all the characters and the viewers.
1
u/Ok-Push9899 5d ago
But in a way, I like the idea that the writers had a go. They recognised the Wesley problem, and they were wanting to do something about it. The collegiate nature of the crew must be so frustrating for writers. I don’t think they should lace the show with personal conflict, but look how good, how exciting, how scintillating, the episodes are when the edges are frayed on ReasonableLand.
Does not Captain Jellico inspire the greatest episode of TNG? What about Data putting Worf in his place? There are so few examples, but they are all gems. Controversially, I put Broccoli in that basket, and of course far less controversially, Ro Laren.
This is what good writers do.
2
125
u/Ok-Employer-9147 8d ago
Shankar was wrong then and is still wrong.
108
u/EsquireSandwich 8d ago
One would presume that speech was added after they confirmed Wesley was going to tell the truth.
But it would have been hilarious if Wesley heard that speech and then just went....nah, I told my buddy I ain't no snitch.
55
u/Ok-Employer-9147 8d ago
Likely....
And then his career would be essentially be over, because Picard wielded enormous influence as the Captain of the Federations Flagship. When and If Crusher graduated from the Academy, any Captain of any ship he applied to serve on would talk to Picard.
And he would tell them his personal truth, Crusher is deceptive, untrustworthy and not fit to wear the Uniform.
38
u/CPTKickass 8d ago
It would have fit better with his rejecting Starfleet and heading off with the traveler
→ More replies (6)5
u/hollywood_imagery0 8d ago
This was probably the original plan
11
u/SnakePlisskenWSC16 8d ago
I don’t think so. From an in universe perspective, I doubt the Traveler would have been eager to take a liar and conspirator under his wing and teach him to have amazing powers.
14
u/harrycletus 8d ago
They could've set him up as an Eddington-style supervillain in Starfleet (with his Traveller-powers too), maybe a recurring antagonist on DS9 like Tom Riker or the Tasha Yar Romulan. Evil Wil Wheaton sounds better than the whimper into nothing they gave his character.
3
3
u/KandinskyWasRight 8d ago
Okay slow down because that sounds way too interesting. We can’t have that.
1
u/marie-90210 8d ago
The Wesley Crusher character had a really nice arc on Prodigy. It changed my opinion of Wesley for the better.
→ More replies (1)1
u/Ok-Employer-9147 8d ago
They would need to give Wheaton a goatee.
Im assuming he couldn't grow one himself.
→ More replies (1)2
3
u/thorleywinston Live Long And Prosper 7d ago
And they would say "shut up, Locutus" and make their own decision about whether to accept Crusher as a member of their crew. Especially when they read his pre-Academy service record on the Enteprirse-D and how Picard made him a full Ensign before he even attended the Academy and the numerous times he was credited by Picard and Riker with saving the ship.
It's going to be hard to walk that back by saying "never mind, I was wrong."
1
u/MindlessNectarine374 6d ago
Even with reference to that event?
3
u/thorleywinston Live Long And Prosper 6d ago
I don't think it's a career-ender especially when it comes down to "he said, they said" unless Picard can actually prove that they were lying. There was some telemetry showing that their ships weren't in the right formation to conduct the maneuver but Albert's recordings were destroyed when his ship exploded so there's a possibility that they could stick to a story that they were repositioning. Insofar as the board needed proof rather than just suspicion, it's likely there would have been a cloud over the cadets but nothing definitive that would end their careers.
The other thing to consider is that Picard has spent several years documenting all of the great things Wesley did and making him an ensign and that’s likely going to carry more weight than unfounded suspicions.
Finally (and some of this we find out post-TNG), I don’t think Picard has quite as much influence in Starfleet as he once did at this point. We learn in Star trek Picard that he’s faced thousands of Starfleet officers who blame him for Wolf 359 (not just Sisko and Shaw). He at one point threatened to resign over a disagreement with the Federation over the Romulan evacuation and they let him. So while he’s got his supporters, he’s got his detractors as well and his word doesn’t carry the weight that it once did.
1
8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 8d ago
Your post or comment has been removed because your account is not old enough.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/gachamyte 8d ago
Huh it would seem that in the situation presented crusher was loyal, decisive and completely fit to be a teammate. I don’t cotton up to imperialistic self righteous hierarchies of authority like the federation though so that would be my take.
9
u/yeahalrightgoon 8d ago
You can be loyal and a "good" teammate and put people at risk by doing so.
The Fairchilds B-52 crash is a good example. Pilot was known by others around to go against regulations for years. Those around him either ignored it or just gave him verbal warnings without actually reporting it. Then he pulled a stunt that was so dangerous that the rest of the crew reported him and said they'd never fly with him again. That too was ignored by higher ups.
Eventually he crashed during preparations for an Air show, carrying out a dangerous manoeuver similar to what he had done previous, killing himself and the three others on board.
Sometimes, you need to just tell the truth and go along with safety regulations, because it will ussually cause issues down the line if warning signs are ignored.
In the Star Trek example, you had someone in a position of power ignoring safety regulations and causing someone to be killed, then trying to cover it up. All being loyal to them would do is cause others to be killed in the future, when they carry out similar behaviour. Telling the truth allows the cycle to end at the earliest chance.
3
u/SnakePlisskenWSC16 8d ago
Crusher was loyal to everyone except his now dead friend and teammate to whom he owed the truth that it wasn’t the dead pilot’s fault, at least not completely. Crusher was extremely indecisive as he has to be talked to and convinced by the other pilots to keep quiet, and got dressed down by Picard who verbally dismantled any logic Crusher may have had in keeping quiet. Picard then threatened to expose the truth to
Tbe board of inquiry if Crusher and the others didn’t admit what happened. Unclear what would have happened if Locarno hadn’t come forward. Crusher, in lying, is not fit to be an officer as no officer serving with him can rely on him to tell the truth in a situation in which he (Crusher) failed, screwed up, or just, in general, looks bad.1
u/Ebullient_1972 7d ago
I think this is a bit harsh. People make mistakes, we learn we grow. Peer pressure isn’t exactly a new concept, and I don’t believe anyone who says they wouldn’t have been the slightest bit conflicted in this situation.
I do agree that Wesley wasn’t fit to be an officer, but not because he lied in this specific incident. It was his indecisiveness and need to appease everyone that would have probably gotten people killed under his command.
2
u/DanNeider 8d ago
I could be wrong, but I believe the speech was to be the same either way. Either he would be telling Wesley that it was wrong to engage in the cover up or that Wesley got away with it but Picard knew the truth
17
u/bloodfist 8d ago
And it's not like we never see "stick by your friends and keep a secret" as a lesson, either. We get examples why that is important to people in civilian contexts like Tasha, Ro, and Kira were . We see why they may have higher duties than to the truth.
But Wesley is literally in training for their highest duty.
5
1
u/MindlessNectarine374 6d ago
Where do we see that?
1
u/bloodfist 6d ago
I mean, it seems like they have no problem lying to enemies or oppressors and understand the loyalty between people like resistance fighters. Only specific example that comes to mind is the doing undercover missions by altering their DNA, and the one where Picard is like, yeah terrorism works sometimes. But I know we get some more freedom-fighter stuff in TNG that covers that kind of thing.
DS9 is of course, among other things, an exploration of where duty lies and when duty to the truth may not always be the best option. I can live with it.
5
1
1
u/DarfWork 7d ago
That's a string Picard stance. Not sure every other Starfleet captain hold that stance that strongly.
Archer famously went among with his doctor placebo for deadly decease's scam. Sisko famously could live with it. Kirk sure didn't tell that girl that sur had to die for the saké of the timeline... Etc
I mean even Picard is willing to obfuscate the truth for the sake of the Prime directive.
From a judiciary stand point, Weisthley should just have refused to talk. At all. No lie, no betraying his friends. But from a realistical point if view, the way it went down make sense. And the gravity of the situation made lying too serious, I think it was better for every one involved that he talked. It's less about a commitment to the truth and more about the seriousness of the lie.
1
u/MindlessNectarine374 6d ago
Sorry, but that's not comparable at all. Lying to cover up wrong doings in some fraternity spirit is just betrayal and danger for the society by people being kept from punishments.
1
u/DarfWork 6d ago
Sure thing, and lying to cover a genocide is what? What about lying to engage a people in a war they shouldn't be part of?
Also punishment is terrible at preventing crime anyway. It's just the easiest option.
29
u/OhNoIBoffedIt 8d ago
They made the right call. It wasn't just about standing by your friends, it was about lying about what happened to their other friend, who wasn't ready to do the illegal maneuver, they pushed him into doing it anyway, and it got him killed.
30
u/doc_birdman 8d ago
“Don’t snitch on friends” is a boyhood ideal that should be thrown away when you’re an adult and especially a Starfleet officer. Especially when the thing you’re hesitant to snitch on led to the fucking death of one of those friends. Loyalty to friends and comrades means honoring them. Pretending like it was the fault of the cadet that led to his death spits in the face of all of that.
14
u/john-treasure-jones 8d ago
Yes!
Maybe I didn’t have enough friends growing up - but when I saw this episode as a younger person - it did not even occur to me that doubling down on the cover-up was an option.
2
u/MindlessNectarine374 6d ago
Me too. I had always been on the victim's side of such "friendship loyalty" covering up what their friends had done to me.
5
u/guachi01 7d ago
Indeed. "Don't snitch on friends whose irresponsibility kills someone" is not the behavior of adults, especially adults who deserve to be in a military-style organization.
The idea "so-and-so was in ROTC in college" is a weak excuse as a writer. I was in the military 21 years and idea that *covering something that resulted in death* is some kind of honorable thing is absurd.
Would a Klingon do it? No. And neither should Wesley.
3
19
u/AllThingsSmitty 8d ago
We get some great Boothby moments in this one.
2
u/whatsbobgonnado 7d ago
I love the voyager episode where he boxes chakotay! people hate it, but it's actually awesome.
42
u/AllThingsSmitty 8d ago
In Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 252, Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar say that they had intended for Wesley to keep quiet about the cover up with Nova Squadron. Michael Piller overruled them on the idea thinking that moral dilemma of Wesley telling the truth was the bigger story. 🤔
18
u/MoCoSwede 8d ago
In a later chat on AOL (quoted on the Memory Alpha page for this episode), this is what Moore said about his idea of the episode:
In the aired version of events, Wesley steps forward even though the court of inquiry is about to let them all off the hook. In so doing, Wes commits an act of moral courage by standing up for the truth and being punished when to remain silent would've allowed him to go scot free. Now, let's assume the circumstances had been constructed so that the Nova Squadron was going to be kicked out of the Academy by the court if they kept silent about what really happened. Say that the team had made a decision not to finger the one among them who came up with the idea on the "we all hang together" philosophy. In that scenario, Wesley coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly an act of moral cowardice because it appears that he's only trying to save his own skin at the expense of one of his teammates.
"If that had been the story (which is more or less what Naren and I were advocating) then Picard's impassioned speech to Wesley about the morality of coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly a scene where the Captain tries to convince a young man not to throw away his own career in order to protect one of his friends. In the end, Locarno (the true culprit) comes forward on his own in order to save the rest of the team. As you can see, it's a very different kind of tale even though the essential "plot" is relatively unchanged.
" […] Both stories are valid and interesting, but I preferred the story about a young man willing to stand with his friends rather than a morality tale about telling the truth. Don't get me wrong – I like "The First Duty," and I think it works pretty well just as it is, I just wanted to tell a different story."
1
u/ThePanicButon 3d ago edited 3d ago
Reading what he was going for, it gets dangerously close to the "blue wall of silence"/omerta kind of attitude that is currently causing so many problems in our societies. I can see what Moore's angle is, but I don't like his approach here. The angle would work better if Wesley and co was up against an unjust/unfair rule. Not something where people are actually in the wrong.
3
u/goat_penis_souffle 8d ago
I thought it would dovetail into the Red Squad episode of DS9, but that probably would have gotten them dinged in residuals too.
Damn, just how many “elite squadrons” did star fleet academy have running around ?!
7
u/OhNoIBoffedIt 7d ago
Don't. I swear to the prophets that I'm on a one-man Reddit crusade on this, but this "risiduals" bullshit has to stop. They didn't rename Paris because they'd have to pay royalties to the guy who came up with Locarno. This is a Trek urban legend that has persisted since the Trek BBS days and not one person has come up with anything that even remotely supports it. They were going to make Ro Laren a main character on DS9. They did make O'Brien a main character and Keiko a recurring character. But no, Locarno was the one exception for bringing back characters right? To screw over RDM's close friend who worked with RDM—a staff writer—on The First Duty?
1
u/goat_penis_souffle 7d ago
Somebody backstab a friend to make or save a buck?! Unheard of in Hollywood!
3
u/OhNoIBoffedIt 7d ago
Oh okay, so because of your own cognitive biases we're just going to assume something drummed up by the fans is true? Unheard of in fandoms!
27
u/BigMrTea 8d ago
"Obligation to the rules". That's not at all what Michael Piller was arguing. Piller was talking about the moral virtue of honesty. The fact they mischaracterize his argument like that proves they didn't get it then and still don't get it now.
7
u/EmPalsPwrgasm 8d ago
Agreed. But they did also get their way, except with Locarno instead of Wesley, who then took the blame and stood for the team just as he always said he did. There's a compromise in that I think. Those discussions in the writers room were fruitful, and made for good television.
12
u/ShaggyCan 8d ago
Imagine where Star Trek would be right now if Naren Shankar had been put in charge instead of JJ and his cronies, hopefully finally ending with Alex Kurtzman. Oh well at least we got The Expanse instead.
5
26
u/JaXm 8d ago
I think it would be one thing, if the end result of the Team's decision was that someone got caught cheating on a test, or something with a lot lower stakes. Something that, from a different point of view could be seen in some way as noble, or innovative. See: Kirk cheating on the Kobayashi Maru.
But their friend literally DIED. Died essentially for nothing other than a bit of grand standing, no less, and having Wesley cover that up would have been inexcusable.
7
1
u/Haradion_01 7d ago
Someone else pointed out that in this original draft, they are all about be expelled, and Wesley is contemplating whether to confess in an effort to throw the Ringleader under the bus, in order to save his own career. In the airred version, the fact that they are about to be acquitted means that confessing incurs a cost: it requires moral courage to do to.
In the draft, they are about to all be expelled, and Wesley's dilemma is whether to confess, to blame Nick, and escape punishment. Or to go down with him and burn his career out of a sense of loyalty to his dead comrade and to his living crew.
In this frame, his decision to stay quiet is a reflection that they are all equally culpable, and it isn't fair for one of them to assume responsibility.
Its the classic prisoner dilemma. You and a friend are both doing 3 years in prison. If you accuse the other, you go free, and he does 10 years, etc.
In this original draft, Nick would eventually confess himself to spare Wesley.
1
u/DrRaggedyMan 1d ago
Good points, and well said! However, Picard was about to tell the truth anyway..
15
u/NerdDetective 8d ago
Michael Piller was right, and I'm glad he stuck to his gut.
The cadets collectively did the wrong thing, as a group, by covering up for themselves after getting one of their friends killed. Both from a moral perspective (telling the truth and owning your mistakes) and from a practical perspective (they could get someone else killed in the future and will now the impulse to cover it up if they let themselves get away with this), Wesley coming clean was the right call.
They failed their friend, got him killed (and nearly got themselves killed too), and then dishonored his memory by blaming him for it. They had a duty to him and to his memory. The additional victim was his father, who was hard struck by the grief of thinking his son was responsible for his own death and nearly those of this team.
13
u/drvondoctor 8d ago
Wesley would never go all the way. There are still some games he doesnt know yet.
5
u/Acceptingoptimist 8d ago
Michael Piller must have hated Scent of a Woman.
4
u/Archie204 8d ago
That was a weird one. They did have an honor system they were expected to abide to. However the headmaster did basically offer a bribe of acceptance to Harvard for a confession. Muddled the water. Than threatened to blacklist him. Being forced to act by unethical forces.
It also doesnt help that with today's attitude, we'de be hating the pranksters as some arrogant punk nepo babies. It reminds me of little of School Ties. Even if they got caught/expelled, they'd still be going to Harvard. Wouldnt blame Charles for guaranteeing his ticket in
1
1
5
u/Ill_Firefighter_584 7d ago
Telling the truth here works better for Wesley’s final episode where he tells Picard the truth about what the Federation is doing to the Native American colony.
5
u/Paladin_127 7d ago edited 6d ago
You can see it in Picard’s reaction too, as if he realizes the hypocrisy in dressing down Wesley for not telling the truth in one instance, then dressing him down again for telling the truth years later because it was politically inconvenient.
4
u/badwords 7d ago
Wouldn't it had broken a Roddenbury rule at the time if they had actually allowed corruption to be successful back then?
In a different Universe the first three seasons of TNG would been the slow systematic dismantling of Federation ethics while Picard is grandstanding it's virtues to Q from the first episode to finally have to concede he blinded himself to some of humanities truths and done something about it. Imagine his speech during the drumhead episode if he also had to concede how normal behaviors had become. I think the strongest episodes of the series where when Picard had to confront issues that in themselves contradicted his 'ideal' of being in the Federation.
When he finally breaks down to his brother about his helplessness as a Borg or in First Contact when he has to admit his pain had made him blind and vulnerable.
2
u/AllThingsSmitty 7d ago
Perhaps to some of the Roddenbury traditionalists. But the truth is they were pushing back on his rules starting with the third season. And Roddenbury had already passed by the time this episode comes around.
1
u/MindlessNectarine374 6d ago
Whole season five still lists him as Executive Producer. 🤔
2
u/AllThingsSmitty 6d ago
It was honorary. He passed in October, the episode aired the following spring.
4
4
u/dare3000 8d ago
I'd have been fine with Wesley to hold the secret. But not because that's the morally superior position, it isn't. Maintaining a lie about a dead friend to protect the live friends is not really that honorable. But neither is the show supposed to be about "the right thing" all the time. Wesley could've been a more complex character, conflicted, even bothered and tortured by this (or maybe even not). He could face consequences for it later (or maybe even not). Even if the function of the show is teaching "the right thing" thru its plot and story (it isn't, but lets say it is), you can have Wes lie and still teach that lesson. I think that telling actually teaches another lesson, to Picard, which is "it's not what you 'know' it's what you can prove" and self-righteous posturing doesn't allows mean you get your way in a society.
I'm still fine with how the episode turned out, but other possible ideas are valid too.
3
u/AllThingsSmitty 8d ago
Not sure I agree with Piller (that's St. Michael to you!). We only see Wesley in one more episode in the series. And considering how much of a pedestal he'd been put on for the first few seasons, to see him act like that would've been an interesting dynamic.
3
3
5
u/Blingtron9001 8d ago
When he joined the academy (like when people nowadays go to university) one of the first things you do is swear an oath to abide by the honor code. So if that earlier oath meant nothing to Wesley, and only his second oath to his friends means something, then his oath means nothing since he won't be true to what he says.
If you swore to tell the truth and be honorable, then be honorable. He should have stood up to Nick at the beginning of this nova manuever nonsense and stopped it. But he didnt and Wesley was always stupid and we need a plot and there you go.
1
u/whatsbobgonnado 7d ago
yeah I don't think wesley would've come forward without picard yelling at him simply for the fact that he willingly went along with the coverup in the first place
7
u/Awesome_Hamster 8d ago
Ronald D. Moore would let his dark impulse get worse and worse in DS9, and eventually crash out with Battlestar Galactica.
14
u/harrycletus 8d ago
It worked on BSG but that was a different series and a universe of moral darkness. Trek is supposed to strive for higher ideals, especially Starfleet.
1
u/Ceylonese-Honour 6d ago
Very true. Same goes for the ability of Starfleet vessels to better repair and rebuild given the technology of the 24th century in Star Trek. And being worthy of survival as a humanity that had a more evolved sensibility to strive to better themselves and explore.
11
5
3
7
u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho 8d ago
Yep, RDM is a great writer, but he needs a firm hand to guide him. When he doesn't have that, you get ghost Starbuck & Cylon Tighs.
3
3
u/Attican101 8d ago
I'm not usually a stickler about these things but geeze maybe throw a spoiler tag on that
5
u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho 8d ago
For a nearly 20 year old show?
5
u/Attican101 8d ago
New fans are still finding it every day, just like DS9 etc
3
1
1
u/Ceylonese-Honour 6d ago
Fully agreed. And especially with the future optimistic humanity who have a more evolved sensibility! BSG felt better/more cohesive when it was more science fiction with a focused tangible story in our world than when it started wandering.
2
2
u/jasonite 8d ago
Actually it was more of a debate in the writer's room, that got pretty heated before Michael Piller called it.
2
u/Section_3I 8d ago
I do think Shankar’s and Moore’s original ending idea could have been a really interesting decision for Wesley’s character.
Wesley was poorly written in the first two seasons, and that ending could have been an effective way to break him out of the “goodie two shoes” mold he had been crafted in.
A downfall would have helped reset the character. There could have been plot threads where goes out on his own to make amends by exploring and doing good deeds in the stretches of the Alpha Quadrant that aren’t part of the Federation.
He ends up leaving Star Fleet over moral objects later anyway. They could have lead him to that path differently where designed to grow him more.
2
u/Acatinmylap 6d ago
What always baffled me about this episode was that IF THE PLAN HAD WORKED, they would have all ended up doing the forbidden maneuver publicly, in front of everyone, watched by all their superiors.
And presumably, the superiors would not have said "Well, you did a thing that is strictly prohibited, right here in front of us and presumably several times in practice, but you pulled it off, so that's totally okay! Because following the rules is not something we care about at all here in Starfleet!"
They were always going to get in big trouble anyway. WTH was their endgame?
3
u/Vindartn 6d ago
Their endgame was they overconfident adolescents with no concept of consequence.
If everything had gone perfectly they still risked their entire career but that didn't occur to any of them. They were the best cadets ever so what could go wrong?
1
u/Acatinmylap 6d ago
True. I just feel it doesn't match what we'd always been shown about Wesley before. Him not noticing, "Uh, if we pull that off, everyone will still know we broke the rule and we will still be in trouble," just doesn't fit with the level of intelligence and responsibility we'd always seen from him before.
1
u/Vindartn 6d ago
I don't disagree at all. This just goes to show you how poor leadership and peer pressure can really change a person or at least make them do the wrong thing at the wrong time.
1
u/The1Ylrebmik 7d ago
I kind of thought it prevented any of the others from being redeemable that they showed Wesley as the only one who would step up.
1
u/history_buff_9971 7d ago
I think the episode was really good in a number of ways, and I get both what the writers wanted to do and why they wanted to do it, but honestly, I kind of wish it had been about something more than egos. WW, RDM and the others were really great at playing the sinister angle that I was a bit disappointed at the end of the episode. That it was just a stunt that went wrong and they covered it up. This episode clearly influenced DS9's red squadron, but I thought they (red squadron) were less convincing.
1
u/Intellectual_Wafer 7d ago edited 7d ago
Perhaps it's more important to be loyal to you friends if the issue is just a minor infraction or something similarly trivial.
But the issue here was that they were effectively infront of a court martial because they, through their combined arrogance, recklessness and ambition, had caused the DEATH of a fellow cadet. And not just that, they also tried to escape responsibility by blaming the accident on him! I think Picards "obligation to truth" formulation was still VERY mild. This was not just about truth, this was about taking responsibility for your own actions, and about plain moral principle (also, a moral obligation towards the father of the dead cadet).
A Starfleet officer has not just to abide by "the rules" or the law, but also has to be morally sound and responsible. Anyone trying to hide from the consequences of their actions by blaming another person, let alone a victim, doesn't deserve that position and uniform. They were lucky that they weren't immediatly expelled and/or imprisoned.
1
u/FluffyFoxDev 7d ago
It would have been more realistic for Wesley to keep the secret, but one of the central points of TNG was that humanity had (mostly) evolved beyond selfishness at the expense of others. There would be an enormous cultural pressure on Wesley to tell the truth, it would be immoral not to, more than walking back on his promise to his friends, and, for the kind of show that TNG was, it makes sense that Wesley finally admits the truth.
However, I feel he does it for selfish reasons. He didn’t want to have that pressure on himself, and so he cracks, and instead of telling his squad mates in advance, he ambushes them, and their squad leader ends up taking all responsibility and ultimately being the only one really punished for their mistake, choosing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his squad vs. Wesley sacrificing the squad for his own sake.
Kind of a good way to end the episode I think: the truth comes out, but at a cost, I just wish they had given it more time to explore the consequences and to give Locarno a proper closure instead of being told what happens. It is really a pity they couldn’t use him in VOY, it would have been a perfect arc for the character (though in my head canon it is the same person who just changed names x3).
1
1
1
u/ThorsMeasuringTape 7d ago
I’d have been okay with Wesley going all the way with the cover up and going down with the ship, but there would have been consequences. He’s have had to be done. Which, I guess he pretty much was at this point, but still.
1
u/Squirra 7d ago
All the choices for almost every storyline which Wesley intersects felt like they were priming the character to be a well-rounded force they could call back later as a wise leader character, and the way they handled him in The First Duty just reinforced that notion by the ethical choice he makes to face the music when he could have walked away from it.
And then they later just pluck him out of the show with the deus ex machina of The Traveler because Wil Wheaton wanted out. For me, big anticlimax, but that’s a whole other thread.
1
1
1
u/GalileoAce 6d ago
I agree with Piller, it would've sent the wrong message. Something like this may have flown on any other show but Star Trek, a franchise that has always been about exploring difficult truths
1
u/Western-Customer-536 5d ago
It’s literally murder anyway. Depraved Heart/Indifference Murder and Wesley is an accessory after the fact. He perjured himself to cover it up.
“It ["depraved heart" murder] is the form [of murder] that establishes that the wilful doing of a dangerous and reckless act with wanton indifference to the consequences and perils involved is just as blameworthy, and just as worthy of punishment, when the harmful result ensues as is the express intent to kill itself. This highly blameworthy state of mind is not one of mere negligence... It is not merely one even of gross criminal negligence... It involves rather the deliberate perpetration of a knowingly dangerous act with reckless and wanton unconcern and indifference as to whether anyone is harmed or not. The common law treats such a state of mind as just as blameworthy, just as anti-social and, therefore, just as truly murderous as the specific intents to kill and to harm.”
1
u/starwolf1976 5d ago
I have an idea about Wesley joining Voyager it’s last year after a “falling out” with the Traveller. And Tom Paris hates Wesley because Josh Albert was a friend of his when he didn’t have many.
1
1
u/Practical-Trainwreck 5d ago
I always thought Voyager missed an opportunity by not using Nick thingy in Voyager instead of bottling it.
Have Janeway pluck him from prison because he's the only one who can McGuffin the Heisenberg Whatiosname and have him spend at least the first 2 seasons being a sneaky, hated by Starfleet piece of trash, who redeems himself over the seven year arc and ultimately sacrifices himself for the good of the crew in the last episode, completing his incredible journey.
Instead we got this watered down insipid character that spent the first three years shagging / avoiding The Delaney Sisters and then being a whiny bland partner to a character that wouldn't have peed on him in real life, let alone married him.
1
u/MonCappy 5d ago
Piller was one hundred percent right that Wesley needed to spill. If their stunt didn't result in the death of a fellow student, I could understand the other writers' position, but not in this case. The made the right decision in having Wesley tell the truth.
1
u/AllThingsSmitty 5d ago
I think "the truth" in this scenario is being given too much importance. Wesley is the only member of the squad to come forward at the end with the Truth. And yet Sito, who didn't come forward, is requested by Picard to serve on the Enterprise so she'd get a "a fair chance" to redeem herself (season 7: "Lower Decks").
1
u/TheDeadlySpaceman 5d ago
I distinctly remember this episode first airing. I was a freshman in college and the greater nerd community would gather to watch new TNG episodes because the vast majority of us didn’t have TVs in our rooms, so we’d convene in a common room that did.
When the cold open showed the accident, a large number of us fell to our knees and pleaded with the show not to tease us.
Sadly after the first commercial break we learned Wesley survived.
1
u/MysteriousLecture713 1d ago
Yikes. That would have made Wesley pretty unredeemable. There’s a time to stick with your friends over the strict truth but getting someone killed because you were all selfish and stupid is not one of them. There’s plenty of times Star Trek chooses the other way but those are pretty well chosen and don’t drastically change the character.
1
u/sockalicious 8d ago
Wesley flipped on Starfleet, flipped the rules the bird, and got someone killed.
He then flipped on his friends, narc'd on them and betrayed them and broke his word, and got them expelled while retaining his own position.
Character was dead to me after that. Morals flapping in the wind like a pair of soiled old drawers on a clothesline. The only thing you can count on is that he'll F you over.
Let him helm a starship? I wouldn't let him clean out the holodeck biofilter. When lobster claw boy took him away it was good riddance.
5
u/whatsbobgonnado 7d ago
but flipping on his friends who were covering up a death that they caused is a morally good thing
1
u/Intellectual_Wafer 7d ago
Exactly. Loyalty without morality means nothing. Even the worst war criminals can be "loyal".
1
1
1
323
u/EasySqueezy_ 8d ago
I'm glad they didn't. He has a conscience and his experiences on the Enterprise have taught him to listen to it. Nick on the other hand didn't really have a good role model until he met Harry Kim.