Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E21 "The Drumhead"

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• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Michael Dorn named this as one of his favorite episodes.
  • Jeri Taylor named this episode's script as the one of which she was proudest.
  • Jonathan Frakes has also named this episode as one of his favorites, in part for the chance to work with Jean Simmons.
• Deleted Scene: A scene which was filmed on Friday, February 22, 1991 was deleted from the final episode. According to the call sheet, the scene took place in sickbay and featured Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Spencer Garrett and regular background performers Michael Braveheart and Bowman.
• Directed by Cast Member: By Jonathan Frakes. Which explains Riker's absence from much of the episode.
• Promoted Fanboy: Jean Simmons was a longtime Star Trek fan and begged the producers for a part in the series.
• Prop Recycling: The USS Cochrane is a reuse of the Oberth-class USS Grissom model from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: A variation with Composer Ron Jones, as "The Drumhead" ended up being his very last score for TNG before getting fired by Rick Berman. However, it wasn't his work on this specific episode that got him canned. Rather, "The Drumhead" coincided with the point where creative and professional tensions between Jones and Berman (which had been building since Berman's elevation to Executive Producer the previous Season) finally came to a head.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The episode was originally envisioned as a budget-saving Clip Show, but the writers rebelled against it, as they were very firmly determined to never, ever do another one after the abysmal reception of their previous attempt at one. Instead they created one of TNG's most compelling episodes... and still brought it in under budget (while all the references to events in previous episodes makes the episode itself a sort-of clip show, just without any clips).
  • There were some disagreements among the writers as to Simon Tarses' final fate — some wanting to reveal that he had been forced to resign from Starfleet in order to show that Witch Hunts such as Satie's can ruin innocent lives, others wanting to do the exact opposite and make it clear that he would suffer no consequences other than a What Were You Thinking? speech from Picard — leading to it being decided to leave his fate ambiguous. The Expanded Universe novels would go with the latter: Tarses received a reprimand from Starfleet, but continued with his Starfleet career - eventually becoming an officer and a full M.D.
• You Look Familiar: Patricia Tallman, stunt performer and background player in many episodes of TNG - and later of Babylon 5 fame - appears here as Nellen, Satie's secretary.

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