One annoying aspect of these early episodes is that Data is overly pedantic. He is puzzled by proverbs (such as "searching for a needle in a haystack") and takes the time to criticize Riker for saying "suck" instead of "blow." That will get annoying very quickly if the writers don't rein that in.

Riker seemed pretty much unaffected the the infection as well. And no worries, Data's pedantic behaviour is pretty much completely reined in by season 3. I got a good laugh during All Good Things where Data is right back at it - made you realize just how much Data's character had matured.

Yes, Riker is rising my estimation. He was infected with the virus (or whatever) but still managed to function.

It's effects on Data seemed wildly inconsistent. John D. F. Black has described the effects of the Naked Time virus as being drunk without the stumbling around or slurring of the speech. After Data is done proving himself to Yar as being fully functional, he shows up on the bridge and starts stumbling around. Granted, this is not an exact duplicate of the Naked Time virus, and it is certainly possible that it effects androids differently than it effects humans. Still, in subsequent scenes, Data's coordination shows remarkable improvement as he rapidly reinstates the computer chips back into their appropriate slots.

I never understood why the infection affected Data at all unless there is supposedly more similarities between the human and positronic brain than I realize. Why didn't the infection affect the Emterprise's computer in that case? But I realize it's all part of Star Trek's Liberal "progressive" messaging that we're all the same, even those who are clearly not.

@revengine said:

I never understood why the infection affected Data at all unless there is supposedly more similarities between the human and positronic brain than I realize. Why didn't the infection affect the Emterprise's computer in that case? But I realize it's all part of Star Trek's Liberal "progressive" messaging that we're all the same, even those who are clearly not.

I agree. He should not have been affected. I'm sure it was just one of those "Let's give the unemotional guy emotions for an episode" which they did without giving much thought to it. It was too early in the series to do something like that, they should have waited a bit for it to have more resonance with the viewers.

Supposedly, Data's positronic brain is unique. (More or less. There was also Lore, and then Lal...) None of the ships' computer systems are positronic.

@Knixon said:

Supposedly, Data's positronic brain is unique. (More or less. There was also Lore, and then Lal...) None of the ships' computer systems are positronic.

Also the android of Data's "mother" Juliana Tainer and in the movies we meet B4. My real point was would an alcohol like molecule have the same effect on a non-biological brain as it would on a biological one. Does it even make sense for a being like Data, who does not have emotions, to suddenly have them because of this infection? Why wouldn't it just affect his motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, speech/language centre (i.e. make him slur) as it seemingly did but without the emotions because he never had them in the first place.

Oh, you mean if anything, it would be able to mess up things he HAS - coordination, etc - but not things he DOESN'T have - emotion. Well, their "explanation" for it messing him up at all, was pretty weak.

I noticed recently that Data's line "being fully functional" wasn't that original after all if people had seen the movie Heavy Metal they will recognise an android saying something similar after having sex with a human female in one of the movie's segments.

But was the Heavy Metal robot "programed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring"?

And why would Noonien Soong think that was important to include anyway?

@Nexus71 said:

I noticed recently that Data's line "being fully functional" wasn't that original after all if people had seen the movie Heavy Metal they will recognise an android saying something similar after having sex with a human female in one of the movie's segments.

"So Beautiful, So Dangerous" The robot was voiced by the late John Candy.

Yeah that one in the spacecraft with the two dope heads who are sniffing white powder (Plutonian Nyborg not so subtle hint btw) from the ground after some machine has laid lines.

Bender knows how to have sex, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGjiJLdvnIE

@Knixon said:

Oh, you mean if anything, it would be able to mess up things he HAS - coordination, etc - but not things he DOESN'T have - emotion. Well, their "explanation" for it messing him up at all, was pretty weak.

I was trying to get at that point as well when I asked why the infection didn't affect the Enterprise's computer as well because I agree, Data being affected at all was pretty weak.

@Nexus71 said:

I noticed recently that Data's line "being fully functional" wasn't that original after all if people had seen the movie Heavy Metal they will recognise an android saying something similar after having sex with a human female in one of the movie's segments.

Is that when the robot sticks its middle finger in the air and spins it rather quickly? I hope they were using lube, otherwise ouch.