In the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher first arrives on the Enterprise-D with his mother, soon after Captain Jean-Luc Picard assumes command.

Picard initially found Wesley irritating, as he is often uncomfortable around children, a fact he discloses to his first officer, Commander William Riker, in the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint".

An alien known as the Traveler tells Captain Picard that Wesley possesses a unique intelligence and great potential when provided encouragement and opportunity, comparing him to a child prodigy like Mozart.

In the fifth-season episode "The First Duty", a squadron-mate is killed attempting a dangerous and prohibited flight maneuver and, under pressure from the team's leader, Nick Locarno, Crusher abets the squadron's efforts to cover up the truth.

Crusher tells him that he will be running the night shift in Engineering, which would have indicated that Wesley returned to Starfleet prior to the events of the film and held the rank of Lieutenant.

In the year 2024, he approaches Kore Soong and reveals that he and his fellow Travelers were responsible for creating the Supervisors and the Watchers to help ensure the universe's survival.

[5] Crusher returns in the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy where he tries to help the young crew of the Protostar rescue Captain Chakotay from the future and then to deal with their inadvertent alterations to the timeline.

Crusher is eventually rescued by the cadets, but reveals that he had allowed himself to be captured in order to guide Asencia into creating the technology that they will need to send the Protostar back in time and restore the timeline.

Given a confidence boost, Crusher plays a pivotal role in the rescue mission using his skills as a pilot and later his intellect to reprogram a tricorder to remotely bring their ship in for departure.

It felt so unfair that people who had never met me were so cruel and hateful toward me as a person because they didn’t like a character I played on a TV show, I wanted to put Star Trek behind me and forget that it was ever part of my life.