Birthright

This Story: Season 6 Episodes 16-17 (production code 242-243)
TNG Overall: Episodes 142 & 143
Trek Overall: Story 237, Episodes 244-245
Airdate: 22 Feb – 1 Mar 1993
Written by Brannon Braga (Part I) & René Echevarria (Part II)
Directed by Winrich Kolbe (Part I) & Dan Curry (Part II)

Notes (Part I)

• MORN!
• Bashir is the crossover character from Deep Space Nine, but it was supposed to be Jadzia Dax – scheduling presented her participating.
• James Cromwell appears here (in prosthetics).  It’s the second of his four overall Star Trek franchise characters (the third being his most famous – Cochrane).
• Worf’s first appearance on Deep Space Nine, which is a pre-cursor to his eventual joining of that show’s main cast in Season 4.
• In universe, the third time that NCC-1701D is seen at Deep Space Nine (the others were in in the DS9 pilot).
• The Deep Space Nine theme song can be heard briefly at the start of this episode.
• The first time that Deep Space Nine is seen in HD as part of the TNG remaster project (to this day the DS9 series remains in SD).
• The first of three appearances of the DS9 station outside of the DS9 series.  The other two are Voyager’s pilot, “Caretaker” and Lower Decks’ “Hear All, Trust Nothing“.

Notes (Part II)

• A named planet here is “Echevarria”, which is the surname of the writer of the episode.
• James Cromwell appears, but has no lines due to a real life accident which limited his filming time.
• The only episode of any Star Trek directed by Dan Curry.
• A matte painting here was reused for the DS9 episode “The Storyteller“.

Links

[ Wikipedia | Memory Alpha Part I – Part II | IMDB Part I – Part II | Amazon US DVD | Amazon US Blu-Ray ]