A Lying Star Trek Producer Tried To 'Sabotage' Wil Wheaton's Career
The start of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a difficult and tempestuous time. Many Trekkies will be able to tell you the series of events: "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" wasn't the enormous hit that Paramount wanted when the film was released in 1979, and "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry was uninvited from participating in any further sequels. Smarting from the rejection, Roddenberry eventually turned back to TV, developing an all-new "Star Trek" show at the studio's behest. This show was to be the purer version of "Star Trek," complete with Roddenberry's infamous "no infighting between the characters" mandate that so frustrated his writing staff. Roddenberry was also determined to retain as much control as possible over "Next Generation," causing him to butt heads with, well, just about everyone around him.
In brief, in the show's first two years, there was a lot of chaos. One of the show's main cast — Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar — felt that she wasn't getting the quality material she had been promised and asked to be written out of the show. Tasha's on-screen death is one of the more notorious moments in the franchise's history.
It seems that Wil Wheaton, the teenage actor who played Wesley Crusher, was also misled a little. At some point during the second season of "Next Generation," Wheaton was approached by director Miloš Forman about the possibility of starring in his film "Valmont," an adaptation of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." Sadly, shooting "Valmont" would have taken Wheaton away from a vital NextGen episode, forcing him to stay on the show.
Years later, he learned that was a lie. He told the story in "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross.
Danceny awaits
The role Wheaton was trying out for was likely that of the young Danceny, a role that would ultimately go to Henry Thomas. Given when "Valmont" came out, this would have likely happened after the end of the famously troubled second season of "Next Generation." Wheaton was no stranger to film, having appeared in eight features to date, including Rob Reiner's coming-of-age hit "Stand By Me" in 1986, so he was eager to appear in a movie again. Wheaton said:
"When I was still working on 'Star Trek,' we had finished the season, and we were on hiatus when I was cast by Miloš Forman to be in his film 'Valmont.' The shooting schedule for that movie would have run over into the first week of production on 'Next Generation,' which wasn't going to be a problem because, for whatever reason, we were shooting that season out-of-order and we were shooting the second episode first."
Okay, so no problem, right? Wheaton could star in the movie, maybe ask that Wesley Crusher be written out for a few episodes, and then return to "Star Trek" at his leisure. It seems, however, that said rewrites weren't so easy, as a Wesley Crusher-centered episode was scheduled right when Wheaton wanted to be absent.
Or was he? Wheaton recalled:
"One of the producers told my agent that they could not write me out of that episode because it was a Wesley-focused episode, and I couldn't go work for Miloš Forman in Paris. He called my house and told me, 'It's a Wesley episode, and I'm writing a scene with you and Gates [McFadden] that's going to move your mother-son relationship forward, and it's really important to the series,' and he just lied to me."
Hello, he lied
Wheaton recalls not just being upset that he wouldn't be able to travel to France to work with the director of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus," but a distinct sense of utter betrayal. When it came time to shoot the episode in question — the one wherein Wesley Crusher was so important to the series — Wheaton found that the script had been altered entirely. He remembered:
"I was really upset, because I was excited to have the opportunity to work with this amazing director in an amazing movie and in an amazing role that I thought really would have solidified my credentials as a young actor. I was really disappointed. A few days before we began production on that season of 'Next Generation,' this producer wrote me out of the script entirely, and it was appalling to me. The message was very clear — we own you — and it was a move to sabotage my career."
Wheaton doesn't call out the name of the producer in question, but golly, what a cad.
Recall that Wheaton had been a working actor for several years leading up to "Star Trek," and his film career was thriving. Apart from "Stand By Me," he had a bit part in "The Last Starfighter," appeared in the TV movie "The Defiant Ones," and played a voice in "The Secret of NIMH." He was established. He was poised to be massive. It seems that the NextGen producers feared Wheaton's success. This was confirmed by one of Wheaton's co-stars.
Moving on
Wheaton explained:
"Years later, Marina Sirtis told me that they knew that if I had done this film, I would have been a movie star, and it would have been harder for them to deal with me. I felt so betrayed by that, and I was, like, 'F*** you guys, I am now doing anything I can to get off this show. Because I can't believe you would treat another person like that.' That led me to wanting to leave 'Next Generation.'"
Wesley Crusher's arc was conducive to that, luckily. The character was ambitious and wanted to attend Starfleet Academy. That took Wesley off the Enterprise and back to Earth where he would attend classes off-camera. Wesley came back for the occasional guest spot, and he was even given an arc of his own — he left Starfleet because of bad diplomatic decisions and a talent for teleporting around the galaxy (don't ask) — but Wheaton was glad to have stepped away.
Sadly, his stepping away also stymied his career:
"When I finally did leave 'Next Generation' when I was 18, for the first time in my life I didn't have to be going to the set every morning at six and I didn't have to wear a haircut I didn't want and I could have a life of my own. And I really wanted to live a life of my own. I had this opportunity to go and work for a computer company, so I did, and then I sort of missed acting and came back after a couple of years. I'm, like, 'Okay, I'm ready, let's go,' and the entertainment industry is, like, 'I'm sorry, who are you?'"
Wheaton has since returned, hosting nerd-based shows and "Star Trek" recap sessions. He seems to be fine now.