Wesley Crusher in Nemisis?

[Commander Ramey]

Was that Wesley Crusher in a Starfleet Officer's uniform at the Troi's reception on the Big E? Just wondering what had become of him after his going away with the traveler. Then I saw him there. Anyone have any ideas / information?

[Space_Cadet]

yep

[Mac417]

The Riker-Troi wedding sequence was originally shot to have had Wes utter some actual dialogue. Unfortunately, according to Wil Wheaton on his website, his portion of the film aside from that brief glimpse was entirely edited out. Said bits weren't even included in the deleted scenes on the Nemesis DVD.

The "A Time to..." series of novels are set between the time of Insurrection and Nemesis, and Wes has appeared in one of these already (if I'm not mistaken), so I imagine his apparent return to Starfleet will be (non-canonically) explained therein.

--mac

[Commander Ramey]

Ah ok, thanks. I was wondering about the backstory there. Could be interesting.

[WarriorKnight]

In the novel for Nemisis they said Wes was going to be the Engineer on the Titan (didn't say whether he's the department head or not.).Not much else on where he's been or when he came back.

[Mac417]

Well, let's see.

Wes officially enrolls in the Academy in 2367.

Wes gets held back in 2368 because of that dumb stunt Locarno talked him into. Since that was over a year after his enrollment, that would have him repeating his sophomore year.

Wes resigns from the academy in 2370, an Academy junior at the time.

Now, unless I'm mistaken, a Starfleet officer is required to be at least Lieutenant rank in order to be a department head. (In the cases of Geordi LaForge and Tom Paris, I'm guessing chief helm officer's an exception). That means Wesley would have had to repeat his junior and senior years (2 years), a cadet cruise (1 year, assuming Starfleet requires such a thing), and however many years it took him to get two promotions to attain the prerequisite rank (I'm guessing Starfleet requires a one-year time-in-grade requirement for promotion). So, figuring in my assumptions and the time of Nemesis (2379 according to the stardate), Wes would have had to have returned to the Academy after at most four years of going walkabout with the Traveler, giving him the five-year minimum to get him to the requisite rank.

Slight musings, these. YMMV.

--mac

[Cut]

Isn't Harry Kim a department head on Voyager?

And he's an ensign...

[Mac417]

Point taken on Harry.

Still, I doubt they'd let an Ensign command a starship engineering department.

--mac

[redwood973]

War always makes for quick advancements. Maybe he served?

[Mac417]

True, I remember the LUGTrek Dominion War netbook even touching on that, specifically about an "accelerated" wartime curriculum at the Academy. It's entirely possible the field commission Picard gave him just prior to his official enrollment could've been been reactivated to a brevet status and made permanent once the War was over. Add in a battlefield promotion and an offer by Riker to do C-Eng duty on the Titan (with another promotion as part of the package), and there we go.

Since we're on the subject, if any rumors being spread about Riker's crew being the next to get the movie treatment (if there is one), any opinions on who you'd like to see as part of the new crew? New people? Old faves?

--mac

[Snake_Plissken]

I wouldn't mind Wesley coming back in another ST movie (if they decide to make it during the TNG period- which they won't because they said it 'd be a prequel but anyways) as long as he comes in in every scene kicking everyone's ass using Kirk-Fu.

[TookyG]

Originally posted by Mac417
Point taken on Harry.

Still, I doubt they'd let an Ensign command a starship engineering department.

--mac

Why not? Operations is just as critical as engineering, ops allocates all the ships resources which must be a very daunting task.

Plus having gone to the academy he already has more training than 60% of the crew. Granted he doesn't have "field" duty but the fact remains he graduated from the academy that that goes a long way.

[Mac417]

That wasn't a slight on Harry's importance by any stretch... I've just looked at prior series and can't find any Chief Engineer (O'Brien notwithstanding, but I'm guessing experience outdid rank for that job, plus he was technically Ops Management himself) that wasn't at least a lieutenant...

Ranks during tenure as chief engineer:

Scott: Lieutenant - Captain
LaForge: Lieutenant - Lt. Commander
Torres: Lieutenant
Tucker: Commander (though one could argue pre-UFP Starfleet ranks were a little off, given that Lieutenant, j.g., and Lt. Commander apparently don't exist in 2150's Starfleet).

--mac