Gene Roddenberry Initially Envisioned A Very Different Version Of Star Trek's Wesley Crusher

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The original casting sheets for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," first sent out among Paramount in 1986, were written before the show's characters had been finalized. Some of the well-known crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D were familiar, but others were dramatically different than what audiences ended up seeing. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, for instance, was originally named Julien Picard. Worf hadn't been invented yet. Most dramatically, the security officer Tasha Yar was originally intended to be a Latina character named Macha Hernandez. Further development and casting coups led to the various changes. 

Also dramatically different: the teenage wunderkind Wesley Crusher, played by actor Wil Wheaton, was — at one point during development — imagined as a teenage girl named Leslie Crusher. The full character description on the 1986 casting sheet was as follows: 

LESLIE CRUSHER: "An appealing 15-year-old Caucasian girl (need small 18 or almost-18-year-old to play 15). Her remarkable mind and photographic memory make it seem not unlikely for her to become for her to become, at 15, a Starfleet acting-ensign. Otherwise, she is a normal teenager."

Leslie was also meant to be a close friend and almost-kid-sister to the Macha Hernandez character. Producer Robert Justman conceived of Leslie, feeling that a teenage boy character was too commonplace.

A peek at Joel Engel's 1994 biography "Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek" reveals even stranger ideas for some of the characters. For example, Counselor Deanna Troi — the empathic character eventually played by Marina Sirtis — was once envisioned as a high-libido intersex character with four breasts. Those who know about Roddenberry's legendary horniness will likely believe this proposition. Moreso, Wesley Crusher was proposed as a miniature "Yoda-ish" character. 

What?

The biography uses an outmoded word for a little person actor to describe Wesley, so the redacted description was: "a Yodaish m****t named Wesley Crusher." This was a description culled from a very, very early series bible wherein Roddenberry was still essentially spitballing ideas for his new series. This early bible didn't specify if this Yodaish Wesley was supposed to be the same teenager audiences eventually saw, or an all-new adult alien being that just happened to have the name of "Wesley Crusher." Was the teenage son of the Enterprise's chief medical officer also supposed to resemble Yoda? And was Dr. Beverly Crusher still a human in this scenario, or was she also a member of the same Yodaish species? 

Eventually, cooler heads prevailed, and the Crushers both became human characters. Wheaton, already an established star, was cast as Wes, while choreographer and comedienne Gates McFadden was cast as Dr. Crusher. As "Next Generation" eventually revealed, Wesley's deceased father was also a human. The Yodaish character seems to have become a footnote in "Star Trek" production history. 

The series bible was rewritten in the early months of 1987, and the character was finally perfected. The 1987 bible said:

"Wesley 'Wes' Crusher: A four foot ten inch, 15-year-old boy. Several centuries previous he might have been one of the young wizards who were introducing computers to a puzzled world, but here on the starship he begins as the son (sole family) of Beverly Crusher, the Enterprise's chief medical officer. Wes has inherited the genius of both of his parents. This is apparent in his superior memory and his insight into the mechanics of computer circuitry and starship warp engines. Otherwise, he's a normal 15-year-old boy." 

It is odd that "normal teenager" was the single throughline that carried back over from the Leslie/Wesley flip. 

Wheaton, meanwhile, has been very loyal to the franchise, hosting "Star Trek" talk shows and returning for "Star Trek: Prodigy" in 2022.