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This episode was made
during the writers strike, and the idea was taken from an
old unused Star Trek II series script. Of course in the
Star Trek II premise, Troi was Navigator Ilia, and,
although the fast-growing child idea was the same, the
Enterprise's hull was supposed to be turning to "powder". |
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Director Rob Bowman
gained permission from Paramount to use extra cameras and
equipment for this season opener which enable him to
accomplish such spectacles as the opening shot. He was
also a big proponent of giving Marina Sirtis more to do. |
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Seymour Cassel
(Hester Dealt) also starred in "Dick Tracy", "Honeymoon to
Vegas" and "Indecent Proposal". |
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Epsilon Indi,
the star spotted by Wesley in Ten Forward, was a tip of
the hat to the 1960's Trek episode "And the Children Shall
Lead". |
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This episode sees the first
appearance of Diana Muldaur as Doctor Katherine Pulaski.
Gates McFadden didn't return for the second season as
the producers felt the character of Beverly Crusher had
not developed as well as they had hoped. However,
thanks to a letter-writing campaign by fans, support
from Patrick Stewart (Picard) and a personal invitation
from Co-Executive Producer Rick Berman, Gates was
invited back for the third season. |
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Gates spoke about the
reasons she was in absentia from TNG in the second
season during the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention on
Thursday August 9, 2007.
"The
reason I didn't come back [after the first season] was
that I disagreed with one of the writers. We had a
difference in how mothers are perceived. I think that
parenting, whether you're a mother or a father, is a
very complex business ... I felt that someone who is the
chief medical officer can have a heart-to-heart talk
with her child [but] the lines were tending more toward
'Here's your lunchbox, honey.' He [the writer] stayed
and I went. Then he went and I came back." |
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The
panel that Dr. Katherine Pulaski brings up to
research the origins of the plasma plague contains
the names of TNG staff Rob Bowman, Maurice Hurley,
Jaron Sommers, Jon Povill, Robert Legato, and Gary
Hutzel. |
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During the first scene of the
episode, a tan handbag or purse is noticeably
sitting on the floor of the Enterprise bridge. |
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This episode is in fact a rewrite of
an episode with the same title written for Star
Trek: Phase II, a series that was scrapped in favor
of producing
Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. In the
Phase II script, the Deltan navigator Ilia was
"impregnated." The episode was flagged for possible
reusage for Star Trek: The Next Generation, in
anticipation of what became a lengthy Screen
Writers' Guild strike which delayed production on
Season Two during 1988. In the Phase II script, Ilia
gives birth to a baby girl, Irska. |
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Academy Award winning actress Whoopi
Goldberg asked Gene Roddenberry to create a
recurring role for her because she was a big fan of
the show and felt strongly motivated by Nichelle
Nichols' portrayal of Uhura. |
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This episode was nominated for an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music
Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore -
Dennis McCarthy). |
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The communicator Wesley wears in the
first scene is the standard silver delta on gold
ellipse insignia, however for all remaining scenes,
the communicator is a silver delta on silver
ellipse, more often used on extras. The change takes
place while Commander Riker steps in to the
Captain's Ready Room. |
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The warp speed visual effect is shown
from inside the Enterprise for the first time in
this episode. On spin-off
Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine, it will go on to be modified to
include a "flash" at the end of the sequence. |