Today In STAR TREK History: July 29th

"Shut up, Wesley"

Welcome to our round-up of the Star Trek episodes which received their premiere broadcast on this day throughout the show's long history, along with anything else of note that may have taken place. All viewing figures quoted are for U.S. premiere broadcast (unless noted).

July 29th
Born on this day in 1972, Richard William Wheaton III, who y'all know simply as Wil Wheaton was, of course, the actor who portrayed Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. That may well be his most widely remembered role, but it's certainly not the only string to Wheaton's bow. Actor, blogger, and writer, he played Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy on the Legion of Super Heroes and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 universe.

More recently you may well have seen Wil Wheaton playing a fictionalised version of himself on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, in which he had a recurring role, and as Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop, and has narrated numerous audio books including Ready Player One and Ready Player Two. Returning to the Star Trek fold, Wheaton has hosted the Trek aftershow The Ready Room since 2020

A very happy birthday to you.

Join us again next time for another round-up of the episodes broadcast, the movie's released, the special events, the birthday's celebrated and anything else of note that went down on this day in Star Trek history.