Good lord Adam, i had the same thought, with one thing that I thought really this setup.
This could be used to effectively explain why the Enterprise was the first ship to run into the Q. Because of Data.
i think there are a lot of interesting possibilities here.
I love all things Trek - but to me, Deep Space Nine was always the best in storytelling and ideas. For this reason alone, Picard feels like a natural extension. DS9 took on the idea that the universe as a whole wasn't as clear cut as everyone wanted to make it. This storytelling gave us a lot...