December 3, 1987
Principal filming begins this day for the 17th hour of TNG, "Home Soil" ... not the most memorable of the first-season episodes, but certainly one which adhered to Star Trek's "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination" maxim of honoring all intelligent life forms, no matter how bizarre in human eyes. This script and the story credit for "Conspiracy" were the last for veteran writer Robert Sabaroff, whose long career also included the TOS classic "The Immunity Syndrome."

December 7, 1987
Heralding a years-long tradition of company caring, the cast and crew of TNG were first reminded this day by a call-sheet note to bring an unwrapped toy for a holiday drive benefiting Children's Hospital in Los Angeles — a reminder that ran each day throughout December. Whether it be support for the Make-A-Wish Foundation or Comic Relief or a host of other charities favored by cast and crew, Star Trek as a place of employment was never far from the ideals of the characters and universe that its cast and crew brought to life each week.

December 9, 1987
"Home Soil" is hardly remembered as one of TNG's stand-out offerings, but it did yield one little gem to our culture at large. Many in mainstream media who use the phrase have no idea where it originated, but for the record it was on this date when the tiny aggrieved Velaran native — dubbed "Microbrain" by its examiners — first uttered before cameras the colorful description of humans used by so many since: "Ugly Bags of Mostly Water."

December 16, 1987
The second day of filming "When the Bough Breaks" is the first for guest star Jerry Hardin, whose Aldean "Radue" character is a major figure in the plot. Nearly 4 ½ years later Hardin would be back filming a role almost as alien to the 24th-century crew: that of Mark Twain in the 1890s setting of "Time's Arrow," and again its concluding hour after summer break. The role and fit so inspired Hardin that he pursued for several years a one-man show tour portraying Twain, the pen name of author/humorist Samuel Clements. Not to forget, of course, his return for one more Star Trek role as Dr. Neria in Voyager's first-season "Emanations" — much less his turn as Fox Mulder's original "Deep Throat" contact on The X-Files.

December 18, 1987
At the time, the crowd scene of kidnapped children that went before the camera this date while filming "When the Bough Breaks" was already destined for trivia buffs, thanks to the uncredited inclusion of Wil "Wesley" Wheaton's younger siblings Jeremy and Amy as "Mason" and "Tara." But soap opera fans of the series Passions can now look back and see the first on-camera look of another uncredited though well-connected face — and in a named role, to boot: that's makeup designer Michael Westmore's daughter McKenzie, now popular as Sheridan on the daytime drama, as the young non-speaking extra who gets the name "Rose." (In between, you could also catch her as Ensign Jenkins, Harry Kim's late-season nightshift flirtmate, in Voyager's "Warhead.")

December 21, 1987
The presence of children always lends as much charm to a show like "When the Bough Breaks" as it does to child-labor production headaches getting it done! And while it was hardly a stand-out scene amid an already average episode, one moment filmed this day brought a knowing smile to many longtime fans months later when it first aired in mid-February. Among those to be shot was a crowd scene with star Patrick Stewart and the littlest of the child cast, young Jandi Swanson as Katie — and whether by accident or design, the image of Picard's carrying the little girl on his arm could not help but conjure up memories of Captain Kirk doing the same in the child-heavy TOS episode "Miri" — a little girl we later came to realize was William Shatner's own daughter, Lisabeth.

December 23, 1987
Shooting schedules conveniently mated up with the holiday calendar and allowed this day to fall as the seventh and final for filming "When the Bough Breaks," the 18th hour of the series, allowing "Coming of Age" to start fresh with no carryover on the Jan. 4 restart date. And with that, the hard-working crew who somehow got The Next Generation off the ground against the odds took a well-earned rest after 30 weeks of filming and months of prep design work even before that. Who knew the greater fame and acclaim — and spin-offs! — that would eventually come to Gene Roddenberry's "comeback" series.