It only shows how "advanced" the writers of TNG were! Data's cat was the first recurrent transgender character in a series! That's enlightenment or I don't know what is!
I actually put a reference to Dat'as cat changing sex, in a fan fiction I wrote called "Scrubs: The Next Generation, where I took ST: TNG and replaced them with the cast of "Scrubs"; references to both shows, quotes from both shows and a good heapin' helping of my own material. https://www.fanfiction.net/story/story_preview.php?storyid=3429036
1) The beginning of A Fistful of Datas: Geordi: Hey Cap, you remember all those times Data has taken over the ship for one reason or another? Well, we've created a direct link between his positronic net and the ship itself to cut out the middle man. We'd like your permission to shut down the computer and just plug Data in directly. Picard: Splendid! 2) The rest of A Fistful of Datas
Here's more stupid stuff I can think of: - Riker without the beard. Not just because it looks kind of weird, but also because Season 1 Riker was almost as cardboard as Chakotay. No sense of humor WHATsoever. It wasn't until Riker got the beard that he became the cool guy we are all familiar with. - The uniforms without the collars. Dorky as dorky can be. Starfleet uniforms are often criticized for looking like pajamas, but these ones REALLY did. - That bit in "Encounter at Farpoint" where Q appears as a US Marine. Both Q and Picard managed to insult the USMC! And Picard's got some nerve calling that uniform a 'costume'... (see above) - Tasha's outburst during the courtroom scene in the same episode. - Pulaski treating Data like shit. Ro was defiant and obnoxious from the get-go. She needed to know her place. (And, you know, she WAS a convicted felon.) That's why I think Riker made her take off the earring - to take her down a peg. Worf, of course, never had this problem. As for Spot: Maybe Data just likes the name. So he gives it to all his pets.
Riker: "Bad news, Captain; Data's doing another poetry reading." Picard: "Oh, Lord..." Data: "Meditations on turning human, by Lt. Cmdr Data: 'I had a cat called Spot. He died, he died. Counsellor Troi said he was sleeping. She lied! She lied!'"
A holodeck that can kill you! What a stupid idea. How about a holodeck that can't kill you AT ALL!! Asimov's Robots self-destruct before they could harm a human being. How about a holodeck obeying Asimov's three laws of robotics?
Your statement is comparing apples and oranges. You give a choice between an in universe explanation and an out of universe explanation. It would be better to officer two or more in universe explanations in one section of your answer and offer two our more out of universes explanations in another section of your answer. I will add another possible in universe explanation. Dr. Crusher was some sort of temporary admiral while she was chief of Starfleet Medical for one year. When she returned to the Enterprise she became a commander again and didn't mind because rank and prestige don't matter much to 24th century humans and she wouldn't get a cut in pay if claims that the Federation is a money less society are true to the extent that Starfleet doesn't pay salaries.
Well, technically, it's not a holodeck that can kill you. There are safety protocols in place, which -- as we've seen before -- the user has to order the computer to disable. then it's the user who kills the user, through his or her own stupidity. Unless the holodeck has been hack/rigged/etc.
Which is my point: "A holodeck that CAN kill you." The mere idea of a holodeck that can kill its user is absurd. I mean it's a simulation run by a computer billions of times faster than any human being's mind. It would be easy to configure the computer in a way that it would stop the simulation if it's about to kill someone!!! Hell, when cars will auto-drive I bet there'll be safeties that will prevent the car from running toward a wall even if its passenger is asking it to do so. Asimov's Robots can't kill a person, even if it's asked of them, they'll self-destruct rather than do that.
Data has a perfect memory but he keeps replacing words in known expressions by more improbable ones. Looks like a contradiction in terms to me, which is weird given that we're talking about a "logical" being.
I thought they could kill a person if it saved two people. Preventing being killed is what the safeties are for. It's a dumb plot device how often the safeties get compromised, but that's supposedly what they're for. And to your point about self driving cars, they do have safeties that prevent a car from hitting people and they sometimes still do. Programming is not fail safe in chaotic unpredictable situations. What I think is dumb is that they don't have some kind of failsafe that automatically cuts off all power to the holodeck the moment the safeties stop working.
After Praxis exploded, the Klingons needed a new commercial sponsor and since they love margarine, it seemed like a logical endorsement. Psychic paper? That sounds like a Yakov Soviet Russia joke in there. In Soviet Russia, entertainment kills you! I know this isn't going to fly with anyone but the worst stupid thing about all of TNG for me is Guinan. WTH was she really supposed to be? Some kind of bar tending Yoda without any of the interesting? Not to mention she almost completely under cuts Troi's place, she's just so weird. She knows everything about everything but stays out of the way unless she decides to interfere. She's the main reason I don't rewatch TNG more often. She's BatMite, Orbitty, Slimer, Super Marvin, Scrappy Doo all rolled into one.
^ I don't see Guinan as upstaging Troi in any sense. Troi may be a professional counselor, but Guinan is...well, remember that scene with Pike and Boyce in "The Cage"? Sometimes you'll tell your bartender things that you'll never tell your doctor. Informal, off-duty small talk in bars will reveal things about you that no counselor can know. Now of course Guinan wouldn't go blabbing to the Captain about things she's heard from patrons in Ten-Forward but it can still be a vital outlet for the crew. If you want professional therapy, you can talk to Troi, but if you just want to unwind and let off steam, Guinan is always there for you. I don't see those overlapping at all. Both are equally important.
The stupidest thing in TNG for me is Wesley Crusher How many times, when all was lost, did the manchild pop up with a solution that neither Picard, Riker, La Forge or Data seemed capable of implementing ? Ludicrous.
To be fair, Wesley Crusher, SUPER GENIUS kind of went away after S1. He was written more as a junior officer who just happens to be a smart teenager from S2-S4 (or whenever Wheaton left the show).