Data that keeps saying "de-evolve" when there's already an English word that corresponds to that meaning: "devolve"...
Sure, because a good dose of religious and/or culturally based discrimination and/or intimidation is always a great go-to strategy for a superior officer to produce a well-disciplined and motivated crew. It's really great for overall morale. Especially in the star-spangled, oh-so-enlightened and more awesome than anyone Starfleet/UFP. Yet another bullet point on the list of reason why Riker is a total schmuck and should never, ever be promoted to command of anyone or anything more complex than the Mr. Coffee machine in the break room.
Whether or not Riker was in fact being a dick, is another matter. The fact remains, he's the senior officer...he GETS to be a dick if he feels the situation warrants it. And in that case, it did. Riker's treatment of Ro in that scene may be questionable...but she deserved it.
It makes sense that the senior staff is on the bridge when there's something going on. They're not there all the time as we saw in 'Data's Day'.
Lets face it, the Borg is dumb, really dumb. Locutus did say somethin like "incorrect strategy, Picard would never have approved". quote - "I will continue aboard this ship to speak for the Borg while they continue, without further diversion, to Sector 001 where they will force your unconditional surrender." - end quote The Borg saw no need to get him back. Why would they. They didn't consider the Enterprise to be any kind of threat.
Data typing when his robotic nature would allow him to communicate with the computer billions of times faster with the 24th-century equivalent to our WiFi!!
If only there was an episode with dialog shedding light on the subject. In "Conspiracy: http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/125.htm Clearly Quinn knew that Riker's science officer was either Data or someone else highly nonhuman that the parasite wouldn't like.
They had no need for him at that point. It would be consistent with Borg not really trying hard to get Seven back...
When Picard said "I knew your father." to Wesley, it sounded so fake that I wondered if there was a second meaning to that. Turns out the series is not that deep...
Data wasn’t the/a science officer, even if his Operations Management Officer position was created by TNG’s creative teams as fudge that did sort-of science officer things...
As in "Shades Of Gray", they wander on foot on completely unknown alien planets... I mean I am surprised they aren't more casualties among the crew like people being eaten alive for example. remember that only 65 million years ago (which is a small fraction of how long life has existed on Earth) the Earth itself teemed with beasts like the T-rex who would have made a quick light meal of Riker!!!
Not a fair assessment. How many times did we see on screen that a crew member scanned the planet's surface for signs of life and quantify their discoveries. If it's an M-class planet with a breathable atmosphere, you pretty much know what to expect.
I think you are reading/expecting too much in that scene. It was safe to assume Picard hadn't seen them since Picard gave them the bad news... PIcard's demeanor in that scene makes sense.
It has been mentioned several times over the years that Picard was the one that went back to wherever Beverly and Wesley was living at the time well before Violations came out (they never make it clear where it was, though Violations does imply it was at a starbase....), and told them that Jack had been killed.
So when Picard said "I knew your father", Wes unexpressed thought was: "Sure you did! You're the one that told me he was dead!"