The staff were delighted with the results of this episode. They thought: "How does the Enterprise look to those little junior officers who don't get to go into the observation lounge and who don't know what's going on? It was just a really fresh, original idea, and it turned out to be one of the best episodes of the season."
The return of Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa who first appeared as one of Wesley Crusher's Squadron Teammates at the academy in The First Duty (1992).
First aired around the time that pre-production on Star Trek: Voyager (1995) was first announced. Many fans speculated that some or all of the new crew members introduced would make up the cast of characters in VGR.
Lieutenant Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) was briefly considered as one of the characters featured, but was dropped for being "too well-known" from his popular previous appearances. The production staff added the civilian waiter Ben so as to have a character who "hitches aboard ship for fun, who's unconcerned about rank, and who passes along stupid rumours!"
Taurik was originally named Sorik, but it was changed to reflect on the new practice of Vulcan male names starting with a T, like Tuvok. Had the show continued, the production staff would have considered making Taurik a recurring character. Alexander Enberg, son of producer Jeri Taylor, later played another Vulcan, Vorik in Star Trek: Voyager (1995). Enberg and his mother maintain that the characters are twin brothers, which is attested to in some printed Star Trek materials.