Was there ever a compelling or interesting "cold open" in the entire history of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?
Seriously. It's on after classic 'Trek on H&I. Sometimes I wind up watching that while eating dinner and I'll usually stick around for the cold open on TNG.
Tonight's gem: We see a fairly bustling sick bay. Riker is being treated for accidentally rolling into a cactus in the arboretum while sexually harassing an ensign, Lt Barkley is certain he's dying when, in fact, he has a mild cold, and Data's cat is pregnant. That's it. That's the set up to get you to watch the rest of the episode. Oh, and the Data's cat's OB-GYN reveals that she is also pregnant, to which Data offers his support and experience as an expectant father to her husband.
Was this the one where Crusher devolves into a trout? Was all that foreshadowing/exposition to move the main plot along later? I just don't care. The only reason I even watched the entire cold open was I felt like there had to be some kind of "hook" or payoff to make me interested in what was to come. There was not.