Gene Roddenberry fired director Russ Mayberry because he objected to the casting of African actors as the Ligonians who portrayed to be a primitive race.
In a 2012 interview, Brent Spiner recalled, "It was just a racist episode. Maybe not intentionally but it felt that way and looked that way. It was the third episode so it was fortuitous that we did our worst that early on and it never got quite that bad again."
Along with Haven (1987), this is one of only two episodes of the series in which Michael Dorn (Worf) does not appear.
In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by Black performers. In the teleplay, however, only Lutan's guards were specifically written as being Black people.