Take the episode with Sorjanka. That was an emotional episode. Or what about Data's daughter, Lal? Or how about when Deanna gave birth to that alien? Or what about "tenagra on the ocean"?
All of those episodes were emotional... You may not have seen tears and all that all the time but they made YOU feel something other than wonder and awe. I felt the sadness when Lal died. I felt the pain Sarek was going through.
All of those were fantastic, but well-earned by episodes that were anything but over-emotional. Lal's death was filmed so very
plain, with Data's flat lack of outward emotion (but implying something deeper) as he said goodbye giving it the impact.
With Sarek, Stewart's phenomenal performance was made profound by contrast with the Vulcan's outward state of calm, and the conflict between those sides.
Actually, the amusing thing about these examples is that in both cases (or also with Data and Sorjanka) the emotional side is directly contrasted by characters who are not outwardly emotional (Vulcans, androids, etc), a common theme in TNG. When emotion is used, it is from a deeper place where the character is still so very calm and professional outwardly, because that's the
dominant tone of the series--rational calm.
Contrast that with: Q
hugging Picard with a tear in his eye, Raffi having an angry breakdown at... something in every scene who knows what, or any other part of this disastrous new show. Or Picard' dreamy longing for his mother and all the cheap psychology they pinned onto it about accepting himself to be loved.
Measure of a Man OBVIOUSLY had zero emotion. It was all about equations, right? And there was NEVER any action in TNG or DS9 or Voyager or ANY Trek shows! They were all methodical enactments of what NASA could do with future tech.
Right? Right?
Another terrible example if you want to make ST-Picard look good. Measure of a Man was a drawn-out course case, and Picard's arguments for Data were eminently rational and delivered with clarity rather than sweeping music or tears. If you somehow pick the
most emotional shot from that episode and compare, it would still be far less emotional than any scene in ST-Picard by a mile.