A number of directors were considered for the episode, with Jonathan West being given the job. West had previously been the cinematographer on staff for both "Deep Space Nine" and "The Next Generation", as well as directing several episodes of the franchise. He had nine days of preparation time before shooting began. He sought to match the same production values as "The Original Series" but found that lighting style and color saturation to film had changed in the intervening years. Visual effects supervisor Dan Curry directed some of the second-unit sequences, and together with West and cinematographer Kris Krossgrove worked to rectify these issues. This was achieved by switching to a finer grain of film, by utilizing different lenses as well as by shooting from specific angles. With Gerrold on set as an extra, West used him as an unofficial advisor on matching the scenes from "The Trouble with Tribbles".