Age, Fantasy and Coming of Age Stories

[Bramandin]

Nor do I. I think the difference with Wesley in TNG is that he is not always the focus of the story. TNG is not Lost in Space where - from what I remember - everything seemed to revolve around Will Robinson getting into scrapes, discovering the alien of the week, etc. Some TNG stories definitely fall into the coming of age, maturing as an individual category - in others he's a useful plot tool to get the exposition flowing but other times the way the other characters treat and act around him makes them question their roles and expectations as adults in a slightly deeper than a Brady Bunch "Well, I guess we can all learn a lesson from this..." level - which is no bad thing to do.

This got me thinking, and I have this idea that a lot of episodes where Wesley saves the day, this could easily have been covered by someone with Barclay's status. The additive VR thing could have been anyone who was off the ship, though an older person might have gotten more pressure. The drunk episode could have been a junior engineer. The traveler, okay they didn't listen to him because he was a kid and someone who worked in engineering instead of just hanging out as an observer might not have noticed the traveler. His academy story was a cadet problem.