The Possibilities of Wesley Crusher in The Next Generation

This summer I rewatched Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. TNG is my type of sci-fi: an established setting in which endless "what if" stories can be played out. 

What I noticed this time surprised me: Wesley Crusher had potential. 

Like many people, I have always remembered Wesley Crusher as a Mary Sue, the kid with unexplainable and inexplicable (even geniuses need context) abilities, running about the Enterprise unsupervised. 

What I noted this time was that (at least) he has a story arc!

I'm not sure what it says about the current state of art in the world that at least Wesley Crusher has a story arc. But he does! 

Moreover, I got the definite impression that two story arcs were warring with each other. 

On the one hand is the Mary Sue arc: Wesley is brilliant, people should make allowances, etc. That arc is eventually paid off several seasons later when the Traveler returns. And apparently it is the arc that more recent shows have used.

The other is the arc of a ordinary, high-energy teen who wants to go into Starfleet. This arc begins to take precedence at the end of Season 1, almost as if a writer wrested control of Wesley's storyline from another writer.

For one, though I always remembered Wil Wheaton as being about 12 (that baby face!), the character was 16 by the end of Season 1 and nearly the same height as Patrick Stewart (growing boys!). In "Coming of Age" (Season 1), when he heads off to take the Starfleet exam, it is made absolutely clear that other teens on-board were also up for the exam.

In other words, the possibility of internships is written into the script...it never really takes off. I guess the future's child labor laws reared their head. But the possibility was a decent one.

Wesley is TOO noble in "Coming of Age"

but has an arc. (He could have struggled

more with the decision to help his peer.)

That is, Wesley could have come aboard as a teen with a mom who, for obvious reasons, is wary of encouraging his interests. But he is enamored with ship life and placed into the Enterprise's "learn about Starfleet by working in different departments of the ship" program. However, he can't continue unless he takes an exam, which is NOT to determine whether he gets into Starfleet but to verify that he can keep doing what he has been doing (so he is initially placed in the internship program as a favor by Picard to Wesley's mother but Picard has determined that now Wesley needs to go through the same procedure as everyone else). 

It doesn't make total sense that he would be on the bridge during seriously dangerous/high-risk/high-stakes missions. But it makes his presence slightly less weird. 

And I think this arc could lead to a fascinating issue that isn't truly addressed until Deep Space Nine--the fact that Miles O'Brien is a non-commissioned officer. Wesley could struggle with continuing on the ship he loves or going to the Academy (see Jamie's arc in Blue Bloods: his desire to remain a "beat cop" versus his personal ambitions and the expectations of his father and grandfather).  

I'm a big fan of improving a work with the material at hand. And the material is there. For all his faults with science-fiction--essentialism; the aliens are actually nice; it's only a misunderstanding; boy genius can do everything--Roddenberry was trained in classic sci-fi. There's a story there...even if the story could be tweaked.