This episode takes it's name from what Ronald Moore called "Data's Descent into Darkness".
	The episode was inspired by the film "Heart of Darkness".
	An original premise for the cliffhanger dealt with Data's dreams turning into nightmares.
	Jeri Taylor on the Borg cantered story - "I knew we couldn't simply do a Borg story just to do it and use them as villains, because after Hugh that was impossible. This was the exact right story."
	Stephen Hawking was a long time tar Trek fan, and came up with the idea of a cameo himself after visiting Paramount to shoot a promotional piece for the film of his bestseller "A Short History of Time". While on tour of the TNG sets, he asked to be taken from his wheelchair for a sit in the captain's chair.
	When Professor Hawking saw the warp core on the Enterprise's Engineering set, he smiled and said, "I'm working on that!"
	John Neville (Newton) starred in the movie "Baron Munchausen" and Jim Norton (Einstein) played a holodeck Einstein previously in "The Nth Degree".
	Brian Cousins (Crosis) starred as a Romulan in "The Next Phase".
	The Starship Crazy Horse is named for the Native American Indian, and the Excelsior class Gorkon paid homage to the Klingon chancellor of Star Trek VI, replacing the Valiant in earlier drafts.
	The Agamemnon was named for British Admiral Nelson's ship.
	The shuttlepod El-Baz (see "Time Squared", "Transfigurations") reappears here.
	Crosis' eyepiece is the same as the upper medallion on Worf's baldric. It has the pattern motion stilled to avoid distractions in close ups.
	The Darwin Station matte painting ("Unnatural Selection") was used here as the Ohniaka III outpost.
	All the flames and sparks in the initial Ohniaka III station fire fight were added in post production with no rigging explosives used at all.
	The transwarp conduit was created live with lots of smoke and animated frame by frame with a sizzling effect by pushing increasing amounts of black confetti across an intensely backlit silhouette.
	The 'swarm' of Borg in the closing scenes only numbered eleven in reality, but were multiplied with four different FX split screen overlays.
	The new Borg ship was built by Greg Jein and designed by Dan Curry to reflect a geometric outlook while being radically asymmetrical and includes recessed windows revealing layered girders and other structures.
	The Borg Hall exterior was a computer retouched version of Brandeis Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles, CA, is the same structure used for Camp Khitomer's meeting hall in ST VI. It was filmed under a coral/amber filter for the bright atmospheric effect. Curry added the twin moons.

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