I don't know about you, but back in the halcyon days of the late eighties and early nineties, I was quite a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. I'm not afraid to admit it. It may be nerdy, but it was a series ahead of its time that paved the way for a generation of television (most of which sucked). Back then, the newsgroups and the internet in general were so full of bile toward one wholly underrated crew member.
Now as a precocious teenager at the time, I could relate to some of his plight in the series, though some of the teenage intrigue fell more than a little flat -- even as I spent half my nights in the library, I spent the other half in the dorms of NYU "studying Russian," to my poor mother's chagrin. Nevertheless, the proliferation of hate directed toward our hero, Wil Wheaton, throughout the newly sprouting intertubes simply boggles the mind in retrospect. How could a figure so hated then be so beloved today?
With the recent news via kos that Wheaton will be getting another shot at primetime after so many years, I can only say "Mazel Tov!" It's only fitting that the same masses of internet fans so instrumental in his being written out of ST:TNG would drive his mercurial ascent to the upper echelons of political commentary.
Truly his is an American story. A simple boy with a bit of talent rises to the height of his profession at an early age, but is cut low by the fickle market. Yet years later, upon rediscovering the self-same boy, now a boyish-looking man, the fans drive him back to the top, perhaps this time to stay.
Thank you, you netroots many. Your dutiful lobbying and support of MSNBC has paid dividends to a public that still rues the day the network finally said "Shut up, Wesley."
Update! Apparently, Mr. Crusher posts here under the moniker "CleverNickName." Notice the Java-style variable naming convention. Still a whiz kid, it seems. Make sure to wish him luck on his new show if you see him!