In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard was often seen telling young upstart Wesley Crusher to shut up. How often did this happen, and furthermore, when did it happen first? 
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maguirenumber6
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4Not an answer because I don't know, but I think the first time was in "Datalore", when Wesley first realized that Lore was impersonating Data. I can't think of another time as it was out of character for Picard to say it at all. One of my least favorite episodes BTW, for that reason. – Jolenealaska May 14 '16 at 04:46
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21Not nearly enough times. – childofsoong May 14 '16 at 10:03
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@childofsoong: clicked on this "hot network question" mostly to make the same joke. Although really I liked the character, and don't mean that. – Peter Cordes May 14 '16 at 11:02
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1Not the same thing exactly, but relevant – Machavity May 14 '16 at 13:08
1 Answers
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Once
There are only four times when someone told Wesley to "shut up" on TNG, and two of them are the same.
Datalore (1x13)
Twice, by two different people
PICARD: Shut up, Wesley. (turning) Lieutenant Yar, pick a good security team, let me know what he does.
and
WESLEY: Since I am finished here, Captain, may I point out... ?
BEVERLY: Shut up, Wesley!
The Dauphin (2x10):
WESLEY: I don't think this is my style.
GUINAN: Shut up, kid. (to Riker, dreamily) Now tell me more about my eyes.
Shades of Grey (2x22):
WESLEY: I don't think this is my style.
GUINAN: Shut up, kid. (to Riker, dreamily) Now tell me more about my eyes.
Yes, the last two are the same. There was a writers' strike going on at the time of Shades of Grey, and the episode had to be produced quickly and on a low budget.
...the low-budget nature of the episode means we barely see anyone outside of flashbacks: there's Picard, Geordi, Data, Pulaski, Troi, and Riker, and an extra or two.
Only one of these times is Picard; ironic for such an iconic phrase.
I searched all the scripts here to confirm that these are the only cases
Adamant
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@Dpeif - Yes. Yes they are. "Because of the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike they had to shoot this episode in 3 days. It's pretty much crap, consisting of repeat cut + pasted clips from Season 2 and was described by its writer, Maurice Hurley as 'terrible, just terrible.' " – Adamant May 14 '16 at 05:43
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3It’s too bad they didn’t air a My Little Pony episode during the writers’ strike. That would have lent weight to this theory. (original MLP) – Molag Bal May 14 '16 at 05:46
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The quotes from the Dauphin and Shades of Grey are identical in your answer... – iMerchant May 14 '16 at 05:49
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2@iMerchant - "Because of the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike they had to shoot this episode in 3 days. It's pretty much crap, consisting of repeat cut + pasted clips from Season 2 and was described by its writer, Maurice Hurley as 'terrible, just terrible.' " – – Adamant May 14 '16 at 05:49
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1@anaranjada - Yeah, I'm planning to given that I needed to say it twice. – Adamant May 14 '16 at 05:51
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1@Jonah - Ironic your comment was cut & pasted just like the two episodes in question. Lol – iMerchant May 14 '16 at 05:54
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In-universe, are the two exchanges between Wesley and Guinan actually two distinct occurrences, or a single occurrence that appears on screen twice (e.g. in a flashback)? – Nate Eldredge May 14 '16 at 16:01
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3@Nate Eldredge: The latter. Riker is in some kind of a coma and relives previous events in his mind. – chirlu May 14 '16 at 16:36
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2Ah well, I guess it could be worse... there could have been multiple writers strikes, each one producing a Shades of Gray like episode, the final one being a rehash of all the other rehashes. – May 14 '16 at 18:06
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3@maguirenumber6 It was because Wesley didn't shut up when Picard told him to. She was trying to stop him from digging himself deeper into the hole. – jpmc26 May 14 '16 at 20:55