Where no geek has gone before
"Star Trek" fans love to hate Ensign Wesley Crusher, but actor Wil Wheaton is a nerd hackers have come to respect.
By Damien Cave
Dec. 12, 2001 | Wil Wheaton will forever be associated with the television role he played more than a decade ago: Wesley Crusher, the whiny, wimpy teenage ensign on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
As one might expect, the 29-year-old actor's enduring fame is more a curse than a blessing. A quick glance at the Web's "Star Trek" oeuvre reveals that the Crusher character is a geek's nightmare, one of the most hated science fiction characters ever to grace the small screen. Bilious commentaries slam Crusher for ruining episodes; other sites argue that he's one of the top three "really annoying things about Star Trek." Some incensed Trekkies have built pages describing their preferred ways to kill Crusher off. Not even the end of the show's run, in 1994, stemmed the tide of caustic malevolence.
And yet, while Wheaton did in fact play "one of the most hated icons on the Internet," as one Web site creator put it, Wheaton, in real life, isn't all that different from his detractors.
"I'm a geek," he says simply. "I spend a lot of time with my Web site."
Wheaton built the plainly designed site himself this summer. By fusing the acting experience of his mother's side of the family -- Wheaton's great-grandfather had a small role in "Citizen Kane" -- with the legal expertise of his father's side, he's turned it into not just a marketing tool but also a platform for geek advocacy. He uses the pages to praise everything from nerds to digital music and Ralph Nader.
Some Trekkies found the site on their own, but Wheaton's true geek coming-out party occurred last month when the tech news site Slashdot interviewed him. Then, on Nov. 26, he took his new role mainstream, raising money for the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- an online civil liberties nonprofit -- by appearing on "The Weakest Link."
Salon chatted with Wheaton about the state of online political issues, "Star Trek" and his sudden transformation from Geek Enemy Number 1 to vocal public advocate.
Why did you decide to raise money for the EFF?
I believe very, very strongly in what the Electronic Frontier Foundation does. I am particularly concerned right now with the political climate in this country. Everyone, or at least the vast majority of people, seems to be all too willing to give away the basic rights that separate America from so many other countries.
It really bothers me, for example, that the Justice Department wants to do warrantless searches, and it really bothers me that they want to be able to go to my ISP and monitor my e-mail and monitor my traffic in real time across a cable modem. Stuff like that really makes me angry.
These debates have been going on for a long time, but it seems like a lot of the things that are being crammed down our throats with the USA-Patriot Act are things that the FBI and the Justice Department and a lot of the corporate sponsors of government have wanted for the last year or so. And they're using everyone's fear of terrorism to ram laws down our throats that are so clearly unconstitutional, and so blatantly violate due process. They would never pass in any other political climate.
Next page: A trip to corporate America's nether regions
