[horatio]

If he had no extraordinary abilities, he would not have sit at the helm and we would have seen him as often as Jake.
He saved the ship once or twice but made plenty of mistakes. And he was still an ordinary kid, he had ordinary romances, ordianry problems with his father figure Picard and it's not like he knew about his, well, let's call it destiny.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Sohna

David was an adult by the time we meet him. I didn't have the impression this poll was about adult children, but more kids that are still kids.

Basically it is, but Kirk's love life, as you call it led to the stories involving David. Therefore no dip into his love life, no David.

T'was a brief digression.

I can understand this and would far rather see a major child character than some Lucasian cutesy added for child appeal. My issue with Wesley was that he was not some ordinary kid that other kids could readily relate to (though if you did, kudos to you!). If you could take away at least one of the super-abilities he had, he would have been okay, and he never even once should have been allowed to save the ship except as far as mentioning he just learned something in his class that might help or being told to "sit here and push this button when I tell you to" or something. In short, he should have been allowed to remain a child. And he should have made a mistake at least once that he learned from (that was the focus of the show, not a 5-second incident). So let him be a child prodigy if you want, but then don't introduce Traveler abilities on top of it. Or let him be a Traveler, but make him otherwise of average intelligence.

Again, I am not arguing against showing children and families onboard, only caveating that if they are shown, they should be done realistically.

He didn't have super abilities - he was just smart. Like many other teenagers today. And it's not as if the show didn't reference that that was also difficult for him.

He did also learn from mistakes he made (Evolution, Remember Me, The First Duty) and was eventually shown not to be unfailing.

The Traveller part? Well, it stretched his destiny a bit, but since it was only three episodes out of the series it wasn't as if it took over the show completely.

It's possibly why they made Jake a dull drip in comparison.

[wade8069]

I think that's cool.

[Kukalaka]

Kids onboard the Enterprise-D fit with the tan interiors, the, um, "interesting" bodysuit uniforms, and the direction of the franchise at the time (Intergalactic Cruise Ship to the stars).

I am fine with it. They pulled it off plausibly enough, though it was a lot more believable on DS9.

The writers were aware it was a bit silly to some, which is why the contrast in Yesterday's Enterprise is so immediate and effective.

[Howlin' Wolf]

Just like a wagon train it's a good idea until the Indians attack or some alien relic infects the ship with a computer virus and it suffers a warp core breach like Yamato. I guess that's the chance you take.

[horatio]

If Starfleet officers don't want to take children with them, they don't have to. Free choice never hurts.
If the kids were to make the choice, I can't imagine that much of them would want to remain on "safe" mother Earth (where every now and then alien probes, nasty cyborgs, shapeshifters or genocidal madmen come by ).

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I was never a fan of the families on board Enterprise. It would be a different thing for me if maybe they were colonists or something along those lines, but a ship that has as one of it's main functions defense of Federation space it really made little sense. I know Gene had the idea that the ship would be out exploring for years at a time, but that isn't what really was presented in TNG. So for me it didn't work. I actually think something more along the lines of Enterprise C is what should have been used in TNG.

[horatio]

There might be a rationale behind it as parents who defend their children are the fiercest enemies. And parents might eagerly take over the night-shift to be able to spend more time with their kids.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I wonder if the holodecks had somekind of age verification software written into them to keep the young ones from experiencing things they shouldn't

[horatio]

Sure, the computer can recognize your voice.

If families are aboard, sexual tension will be lower and fewer officers will play those holosuite-style programs. And you won't need so much of the special holodeck disinfection and cleaning spray.