the previous episode had ended with. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) Specifically, he waited until he returned to the Paramount lot in late July 1990 before sitting down to wrap up the story. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

Michael Piller initially struggled to come up with a solution to resolve the previous installment's cliffhanger. On 22 January2002, Piller recounted, "I had created an unsolvable problem. And to be honest with you, as I started writing the second part of the cliffhanger – that was supposed to resolve the story – I just didn't know what it was going to be, that was ultimately going to beat them." (Mission Overview, TNG Season 4 DVD special features) Brannon Braga joined the writing team of TNG while Piller wasthe aftermath of the battle in his script, creating a memorable scene in the viewers' imaginations by deciding to show the drifting wreckage and stunned reactions, upon viewing the carnage, of the Enterprise's bridge officers. (Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borgtext commentary)

Explaining Picard's disturbed reflection on his ordeal at the conclusion of this episode, Michael Piller stated, "It was my intention to wrap up the two parter with the feeling that although everything is solved, life isn't so smooth and a man does not walk away from something like that and go back to work without having a little extra flashback nightmare. It's just that little uncertainty, the moment of discomfort that I wanted to leave the audience with." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)

This episode finally