Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E4 "Silicon Avatar"

• Creator Backlash: Brent Spiner and showrunner Michael Piller weren't happy with the finished product, both feeling that the moral dilemma at the episode's heart was handled poorly, and blaming the rushed writing process — the episode was originally meant to be produced later in the season, but "The Game" and the "Unification" two-parter each had to be pushed back due to availability issues around their main guest stars (Wil Wheaton and Leonard Nimoy respectively), and this was hastily put into production despite still needing a rewrite or two.
• Creator's Apathy: Teleplay writer Jeri Taylor has taken this attitude towards the whole debate as to whether or not Dr. Marr was in the right to want to destroy the Crystalline Entity as soon as possible. Taylor said that she didn't see the story as being about that — mostly because she felt people's opinions on the matter would be decided via their attitudes toward hunting — and instead intended it to be about the lengths that grief could drive someone to.
• What Could Have Been: Data's final lines in the script were slightly different, with him answering Dr. Marr's question on what her deceased son would think of her destroying the Crystalline Entity in an Innocently Insensitive manner. In the final episode, he answers in a way that indicates he knows full well that his words will be of no solace to Marr.