 The initial idea for Picard 's detective based holodeck program came from series creator Gene Roddenberry and other writing staff . Tracy Tormé received credit for writing the episode . Tormé said he added film noir elements , including references to The Maltese Falcon ( 1941 ) . Redblock and Leech represent the characters played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre . The production staff attempted to create the same layout of the detective office from the film . Dixon Hill was originally named Dixon Steele in reference to In a Lonely Place ( 1950 ) , a film noir starring Humphrey Bogart . However , the name was changed due to similarities with the name of the title character in the American television series , Remington Steele . Tormé expanded the Jarada a great deal , but because of budgetary restraints , they are only heard in the episode . After the episode " Haven " , " The Big Goodbye " is the second writing credit of the series for Tormé . Rob Bowman was originally scheduled to direct the episode , but following problems with " Datalore " , the filming order was switched , so Joe Scanlan directed " The Big Goodbye " instead . 
