So, we’re now watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and of course we’ve started with Season One, which is only marginally better than Season 2, which I find… horrific.

However, while watching the pilot, I realized why I find the character of Wesley Crusher so grating–he’s a Mary Sue.

Lo and behold, I look up Mary Sue and there it is.

Doesn’t really help me as I sit here and watch Season One. (cringe)

Which leads to the bigger question of how it happened. In my opinion, Jake from Deep Space Nine was very well written and rarely made me cringe, even when he was being his most teenager like. So how did things work out so badly in Next Generation?