I’m a mother of a four-year-old boy. At the time [of writing ‘Final Mission’], my son was a little younger, but still, the idea of that incredible bond and how people create it with their children and with other people’s children was obviously in the forefront of my mind. So I wanted to work with Wes and Picard.
Kasey Arnold-Ince, story and co-teleplay writer of the TNG episode “Final Mission” in the August 1993 Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine.
Arnold-Ince was also very complimentary of Jeri Taylor, who finessed her script and ended up sharing teleplay credit. For example, she says:
“Jeri changed a lot of dialogue and honed it down. I went all the way through her script and found that everything I put in was there, but she had really enhanced it. That made me feel good, because I had given her something that she felt was good enough to work with. And I learned a lot by what she had done. For example, I had Captain Dirgo injured first and then Picard. But it worked better to have the first injury be Picard’s; it got him out of the way and forced Wesley to deal with Dirgo, giving Wesley one more bit of direct conflict.”
