what he was doing, Okuda held up the ship and jokingly said to the Locutus actor, "Look what you did!" (New Life and New Civilizations, TNG Season 4 DVD special features, [4])

Continuing TNG's groundbreaking use of visual effects technology and artistry as well as the series' pioneering use of motion control visual effects for series television, this episode was the first in which all the video composites and effects – the former of which allowed more effects to be done more quickly and less expensively than with the old optical printers of The Original Series – were created digitally. Although most of the model elements were still shot with traditional film and models, the image assembly was done digitally, providing the effects artists with much more control overit looked like the Borg ship. It was a spectacular explosion, and beautifully executed. We got it in the first take." (New Life and New Civilizations, TNG Season 4 DVD special features)

This was also the first episode to establish that shuttlecraft are equipped with their own transporters.

Although the Battle of Wolf 359 is unseen (except for its aftermath) in this episode due to budgetary reasons, portions of the battle were recreated, two-and-a-half years later, for the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Emissary", which – with the bigger budget of a feature-length pilot, and more advanced effects technology – was able to show the battle. In that same episode, the USS Saratoga is established as one of the ships lost at the Battle of Wolf 359,