begun production. The initial idea for the episode had come from a conversation between Shankar and Brannon Braga over dinner in which they sought to move the Doctor from sickbay into the holodeck, marking this episode as the first one in which the Doctor had left sickbay. Shankar had originally intended the story to be "Star Trek with Vikings", and it wasn't until he was sketching out the plot of the episode that he realised that he had inadvertently created something similar to the Beowulf poem. He deliberately worked direct references in the poem into the script for the episode, such as specific lines and the attack on the mead hall. His significant change from Beowulf was the addition of the character, Freya. The script went through two drafting stages, with the main issue being the alien element rather than the Viking details. Shankar was pleased that the work he did on the Viking parts of the script went unchanged from the first draft to the screen, calling it his "best experience" as a writer. He also chose the first name that the Doctor would attempt to use, selecting Albert Schweitzer from a list of scientists and doctors because he thought the surname sounded funny. He expected that it would be cut or changed, based on his experience in writing humorous elements into scripts for The Next Generation. He wrote several lighthearted scenes into the script and was pleased when none of them were cut, saying that he was particularly proud of the exchange between the Doctor and Freya where she says "Your people must value you highly", and the Doctor responds dryly, "You would think so." He submitted his final version of the script on February 2, 1995. Taylor later talked about the use of the holodeck as a plot device in this episode, saying that it allowed the series to show things that otherwise couldn't happen on the show. She added that the plot in this episode "transcended the idea of 'Oh, we're in trouble on the holodeck.'" Guest stars, set design and musical composition Guest star Christopher Neame had previously appeared on The Next Generation in the seventh season episode "Sub Rosa". After his performance in "Heroes and Demons", he would go on to appear in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine sixth season episode "Statistical Probabilities". Marjorie Monaghan later appeared in Babylon 5 in the recurring