YMMV / Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E25 "In Theory"

• Captain Obvious Aesop: Don't fall in love with someone who can't love you back. How did anyone in the crew actually think that this was a good idea?
• Idiot Ball: Data's Literal-Minded qualities get taken up to eleven in this episode, which depicts him misunderstanding simple sayings like "Don't look at me" and "The cat's out of the bag."
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The idea of a woman (or anyone) getting involved in a relationship with an emotionless android could have gone in any different directions. It might have been far more interesting to have Data date someone who accepted him for himself instead of expecting him to be a conventional boyfriend. And it's frustrating that Data, after specifically being warned not to imitate human romance by Deanna, goes on to do just that instead of acting in a more natural fashion, as in his interactions with the other crewmembers. It was likely the most predictable and simplified version of the story the writers could have done.
  • The "relationship with an android" plot was explored 20 odd years later in The Orville, a Spiritual Successor to the TNG era of Trek, slowing building towards Isaac and Claire entering a relationship, which happens in the episode "A Happy Refrain". Brannon Braga was an intern at the time on TNG, and was an executive producer on The Orville.

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