Episode Behind the Scenes

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Ron Moore dubs this episode as the first instalment of TNG's "Year of Lost Souls".
   
Madge Sinclair played the unnamed captain in Star Trek IV. She flied in from Jamaica for the part.
   
Ben Vereen was attracted to the show by LeVar Burton, who bought out a day of his Broadway show.
   
Joe Menosky had originally planned for Riker to be in the VR suit, troubled by the death of his father and glimpsing scenes of their Alaska cabin, but it was later decided for Geordi to assume the role after the Riker heavy "Frame of Mind" last season.
   
Riker's consolation of Geordi was filmed three shows later under the instruction of Jeri Taylor.
   
Andre Bormanis (Science Advisor) thought the show wasn't futuristic enough - "There are prototypes of that kind of thing already, although tying it straight to the brain will take much longer."
   
Jeri Taylor thought the name Silva was more interesting than that of Alvera K given on a bio screen in season five's "Conundrum".
   
The interface suit carried multiple "blinky" lights each powered by their own watch battery and switch.
   
Alan Sims on "a propman's nightmare" - "If I have any legacy it's the teasing from the actors - 'Oh God, let's save Alan's batteries!'. But it's not the cost of the batteries - it's what happens when they run down and you have that delay to open them up and put in new ones!".
   
The bio-lab lift was first seen in "The Offspring", and "The Best of Both Worlds" after that.
   
FX Supervisor Ron B Moore was disappointed that the probe miniature was only seen once.
   
Geordi's walk-in wall of fire used the same effect as the Bersallis III firestorms ("Lessons"). Remarkably, many of the flames were shot live!

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