living on board the Enterprise. Shearer described Wheaton's performance in the episode as "just wonderful". It was the only episode of the series directed by Kim Manners. Manners later produced the television series The X-Files and Supernatural. Brenda Strong went on to appear as Mary Alice Young in 179 episodes of Desperate Housewives, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. Several uncredited children appeared, including McKenzie Westmore, the daughter of make-up supervisor Michael Westmore, and the younger siblings of Wil Wheaton, Jeremy and Amy. Legato also constructed a model of the Aldean power source. Legato's visual effects for this episode were showcased in the Reading Rainbow episode "The Bionic Bunny Show".
Reception
The episode first aired on February 15, 1988.
Several reviewers re-watched the episode after the end of the series. Keith DeCandido of Tor.com said it was "A mostly harmless episode that lifts quite a bit from The Cliché Handbook". He also felt that it was "a complete throwaway episode and contains almost nothing unique to the franchise". and gave the episode a "B" grade. She thought that the plot element of ozone damage was not optimal and that the quality of the episode was typical of the first season. The episode was released in March 2002 on the Star Trek: The Next Generation season one DVD box set. It was included as part of the season one Blu-ray set on July 24, 2012.