Production
The writer for this episode, David A. Goodman, states in the DVD audio commentary that making this episode was a "dream come true" for many members of the crew including himself. Pat Shinagawa, who directed the episode, also states that there was a certain amount of jealousy that she had gotten to do this episode whereas Matt Groening states that while he is a fan of the Star Trek franchise he has never seen an episode of the original series all the way through, but he has seen the first movie.
All of the living members of the original Star Trek cast agreed to appear in the episode with the exception of James Doohan, whose agent replied with "No way." Because of this, the episode's working title was jokingly named "We got everybody but Scotty" and the character Montgomery Scott was replaced with "Welshy". DeForest Kelley was physically portrayed in the episode but had no lines due to his death in 1999.
Multiple designs for the energy being were considered for this episode; however, the final version was decided upon due to a desire to keep the design simple. Despite this effort, Shinagawa still notes that the final design for Melllvar is more sophisticated than some energy beings featured in the original series.
Read more about this topic: Where No Fan Has Gone Before
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“[T]he asphaltum contains an exactly requisite amount of sulphides for production of rubber tires. This brown material also contains “ichthyol,” a medicinal preparation used externally, in Webster’s clarifying phrase, “as an alterant and discutient.””
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)