Star Trek: 10 Worst Things Data Has Ever Done
The android who wants to be more human and somehow keeps on making the same mistakes.
Lt Cmdr Data. Found by the crew of the USS Tripoli after the Crystalline Entity had ravaged Omicron Theta; seemingly the last of the Soong type androids.
Less "perfect" than his brother, Lore, Data chose to spend his life understanding humanity and attempting to become more like his friends and shipmates on the USS Enterprise. Ultimately he would meet his (first) demise selflessly swapping places with Jean-Luc Picard to save the galaxy one final time.
But behind all that evolution, the Shakespeare performances, scanning for lifeforms and Chinese finger puzzles lay something of an internal darkness. Whether naivety, stupidity or the simple workings of a positronic mind, Data has made some highly questionable decisions over the years. What better way to deal with them than dragging them out into the sunlight for a good discussion.
Fans have a deep appreciation for the one of a kind android although it does come to light that he's been given a free hall pass on several occasions. Occasions when others may well have faced brig time or even court martial and dismissal from Starfleet.
Truly amazing what "I was controlled by my brother/dead mother/malfunctioning emotion chip" (delete as applicable) can help out with.
10. Attempted Comedy
This might have been one of those early attempts to flesh out Data and push the character forward but genuinely his foray into stage comedy has the potential to be the worst thing ever.
While the ship deals with the arrival of Thaduin Okona (recently reprised in Lower Decks), Data decides it's a wise move to expand his repertoire on the comedy circuit.
In fairness to Data it's Okona that suggests he's missing out on the element of humour and starts him along a dark and frankly misinformed path.
This, at least, doesn't put anyone into physical danger unlike several others in this list. Yet even if you take the attempt at scripted comedy out of the equation, Data mauls joke after joke after joke. It's Quip Murder One from the jiggly armed routine in Ten Forward complete with oversize cigar down to the terrible stage show with The Comic on the holodeck.
As part of the programme on the holodeck the fake audience are there to laugh at anything. What is significant about this Worst Thing is that, rarely, Data realises that this is a terrible choice because he has no emotional connection to the humour.