Paramount didn't exactly "drag their feet." A sequel to Trek XI was greenlit a month before XI was even released in theatres, The problem was Orci and Lindelof got into an argument over whether or not Khan should have been in the movie, which resulted in a pause in scriptwriting that lasted for an entire year.
Is there any difference? If you move a file on a computer, or you are copying, pasting and then deleting the original it's the same thing.
Yes, the human brain is not a computer, the two are just not comparable. That said, given Star Trek's fantastical science and technology of the late 24th & early 25th century, "copying the consciousness" has been a thing, so I can handwave that. In the case of human and synth Picard... even if you "move" his consciousness from his human brain to his synth brain by "cut and paste," the original is still being deleted, which is still the death of the original Picard. Whether brain function is lost via cut-and-paste or via brain anomaly, it's still the death of the original Picard. Synth Picard is a copy, granted a "perfect" copy as far as anyone knows.
Season 2, Episode 2. Kind of an important plot point in that episode with implications that reverberated for the remainder of the season, an odd thing to have forgotten. That's like claiming you'd seen TNG S3 and S4 but forgot Picard was assimilated by the Borg.
I don't obsess over the show, and I've only seen the S2 episodes exactly once each years ago. In all honesty, I couldn't tell you anything that went down in S2 without going to Wikipedia.
Again, I saw S2 once three years ago. I don't obsess over the show. It was something that made me laugh, and I moved on. It's been so long, when I give it another go, I'll probably just start the show over as I've forgotten most of S1 too.
I do remember terraforming episode, the holodeck special, Riker and Troi to the rescue in the S1 finale, the show is pretty decent. 
Star Trek has always operated that the human consciousness can be moved so Picard struck me as a non issue.
Moved, yes, but this is overly simplistic. How are we defining moved? In the context of synth Picard, he wasn't moved out of his brain into his synth brain. Human Picard died, his conscious digitally copied into the synth brain, a form of cheating death, but human Picard is very much dead. It's why I wanted synth Picard to actually be a character arc in S2-3, but alas, it was reduced to an afterthought.
However the story defines it. Kirk's consciousness was moved. Chakotay's was moved. So the digital copying process may move to some degree as well. After all, if I move a file from one folder to another my computer still calls that copying over sometimes.
When was Kirk's consciousness removed? Watching the show for the first time in a very long time. Chakotay, wasn't that S1 or 2? Same, I don't remember the episode.
I just assumed that was the birth of digital Picard.
Didn't both Picard and Data acknowledge that Picard had indeed died, now existing in the simulation with Data? Picard walking through the door effectively represented the synth Picard waking up. No?
Cathexis for Chakotay, S1E13.
Wasn't Chakotay's situation effectively his spirit being knocked out of his body or something like that? I remember the "alien" moving from crew member to crew member ending up being Chakotay, and Tuvok ended up being possessed by the alien, something like that?
I understand that, but I'm mostly trying to approach this from real world scientific understanding, as I presume that's what Trek was trying to do at the time the episodes were written. I don't remember "Return to Tomorrow," what was that one about? In "Turnabout Intruder," is that the one where Kirk body swaps with a woman? My understanding is that his brain is remapped to be her, her brain remapped to be Kirk. This had to be done a second time for them to be themselves again.
Yes. And establishes it can be separated and reintegrated.
They discover an ancient civilization and three sole survivors, and they are able to move their minds.
The original show was frequently tragic, wasn't it?
Fair enough. I just think there's a big difference between organic-to-organic and organic-to-synth. Interestingly, Stargate had an interesting take. Whenever someone was perfectly copied into an android, they were treated as a machine, nothing more alive than a toaster.
But in TOS the goal of the three survivors was eventually to be in android bodies.Fair enough. I just think there's a big difference between organic-to-organic and organic-to-synth. Interestingly, Stargate had an interesting take. Whenever someone was perfectly copied into an android, they were treated as a machine, nothing more alive than a toaster.
The TOS and Chakotay episodes, I don't remember. Data and the Doctor were never organic to begin with. I guess I'm approaching this from a real world POV. You can be copied into a computer, but your original self still dies.
