As TVTropes calls it. 
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EarlyInstallmentWeirdness
Of course, a lot of this stuff is only 'weird' with benefit of hindsight. But TNG is plagued with it, in large part because it was being made up as it went along. It's funny to look back on the first half dozen episodes or so with the mindset that at that stage Data was a product of unknown aliens rather than the invention of an eccentric human scientist, or that Worf was a proud warrior from the Klingon homeworld rather than a orphan who was brought up by humans (both of which were only established later in the season).
Data's character in particular hits it head-on. One of the earliest things we see him do is to smile at Commander Riker, and there are various other indications that he may not understand emotion, but he's certainly able to express it. Even Picard's protest in The Naked Now that "intoxication is a human condition" doesn't actually explain why the supposedly non-organic Data was able to pick up the virus. I have no doubt that if it had been written in the later seasons the writers would have had him unaffected, the last man standing, taking control of the bridge after all the human crew have abandoned her.
Some of the other early instalment weirdness are mere cosmetic details. The bridge having those brown lockers on each side, Riker not having a beard, Geordi on the bridge, Worf not being at tactical, no regular chief engineer among the cast. Only the latter of these makes a real impact on the scripts. It seems strange that every time we go down to engineering there's a brand new person in charge (unless they work in shifts?), and the only person who appeared regularly enough that we can probably definitely say he was probably Geordi's predecessor in the job was Chief Argyle. And even he only appeared twice in 26 episodes.
Is there anything else about these early years that really strikes you as odd in retrospect?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EarlyInstallmentWeirdness
Of course, a lot of this stuff is only 'weird' with benefit of hindsight. But TNG is plagued with it, in large part because it was being made up as it went along. It's funny to look back on the first half dozen episodes or so with the mindset that at that stage Data was a product of unknown aliens rather than the invention of an eccentric human scientist, or that Worf was a proud warrior from the Klingon homeworld rather than a orphan who was brought up by humans (both of which were only established later in the season).
Data's character in particular hits it head-on. One of the earliest things we see him do is to smile at Commander Riker, and there are various other indications that he may not understand emotion, but he's certainly able to express it. Even Picard's protest in The Naked Now that "intoxication is a human condition" doesn't actually explain why the supposedly non-organic Data was able to pick up the virus. I have no doubt that if it had been written in the later seasons the writers would have had him unaffected, the last man standing, taking control of the bridge after all the human crew have abandoned her.
Some of the other early instalment weirdness are mere cosmetic details. The bridge having those brown lockers on each side, Riker not having a beard, Geordi on the bridge, Worf not being at tactical, no regular chief engineer among the cast. Only the latter of these makes a real impact on the scripts. It seems strange that every time we go down to engineering there's a brand new person in charge (unless they work in shifts?), and the only person who appeared regularly enough that we can probably definitely say he was probably Geordi's predecessor in the job was Chief Argyle. And even he only appeared twice in 26 episodes.
Is there anything else about these early years that really strikes you as odd in retrospect?
