The idea of what the series finale should be about had been a matter of discussion in the writers' room for a year or two prior to the finale being written. The writers knew early on they wanted to do an episode featuring Q, to "bookend" his key role in the pilot. An early draft of the script for the episode included a section with Captain Picard as , but was cut on the insistence of Michael Piller, the show's head writer and one of its executive producers, who thought the show worked best with fewer timelines to jump between. According to Braga, Hugh, the rescued Borg from "I, Borg" would have appeared, rescuing Picard from the Borg Collective. Also cut from the script was a segment where the crew had to steal the "Enterprise" from a Starfleet museum (similar to events in the movie ""). The final scene, in which the crew play a hand of poker together, was the last scene shot for the show. John de Lancie returned for his recurring role as Q. Former cast members Denise Crosby (whose regular character Tasha Yar had died in the first season, and who had made two guest appearances since) and Colm Meaney (who had left the series during the sixth season, when his recurring character Miles O'Brien became a regular on ""), reprised their roles for scenes set in the past. As the final scenes were filmed on the last day, the support staff and production crew came down to the set to see the end of the shoot on the series. A behind-the-scenes retrospective documentary called "Journey's End: The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation", hosted by Jonathan Frakes, was filmed at the same time as the finale was being produced. The finale was said to be written as a "valentine" to the show's fans, and often regarded as one of the series' best episodes. Both parts of "All Good Things..." were first broadcast on May 21, 1994, in broadcast syndication. It received Nielsen ratings of 17.4 percent, placing it in first place in its timeslot. This was the highest ratings received by any episode of the season, and of the series. Until the broadcast of the episodes, the previously highest rated broadcast of "The Next Generation" had been the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", with Nielsen ratings of 15.7 percent. Contemporary reviews were positive: In 1994, "USA Today" called the two-part finale a "picture-perfect" ending to the series, giving it 3 1/2 stars out of 4.