The First Duty

Picard's verbal beating of Wesley in the ready room.

Robert Duncan McNeill, who plays Nicholas Locarno in this episode, went on to play Tom Paris in Voyager, both characters have a very similar background. There is an unconfirmed rumour that Paris was supposed to actually be the Locarno character returning, but it was realised that if this happened the writers who created the character would need to be paid for each episode it was used in. Thus the character was simply renamed and the back-story changed a little to make him into a different person.

Despite this, McNeill would later say that Locarno and Paris were very different in character. He saw Locarno as a guy who appeared selfless and loyal on the surface, but was ultimately selfish at the core. Paris was somebody who appeared glib and criminal on the surface, but deep down was a good guy.

Ron Moore wanted to take the story in a very different direction. In his version, the accident would have been entirely Locarno's fault. The rest of the squadron then lied to cover up for him out of loyalty. The inquiry would know that somebody was to blame but not know whom - and so decided to expel the entire squadron from the academy. Moore liked that this put Wesley in a difficult position, because he would have been lying (or withholding the truth) to out of loyalty to another, whilst coming forward to tell the truth could be seen as acting to save his own skin at Locarno's expense. Michael Pillar ultimately over-rule Moore because he thought a simpler situation in which telling the truth was unambiguously the right thing to do would make for a better moral.

Rick Berman was dubious about this episode, stating that it wasn't very "Star Trek" since there was no exploration, no alien race, just the ship back at Earth. He ultimately agreed on the condition that costs could be kept down by limiting the episode to building only three sets.