Dedicated to Annie Wersching, who played the Borg Queen in Season 2. Wersching died of cancer the month prior to this episode's premiere.
Throughout the episode, several musical scores from the Star Trek franchise are heard including music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996).
Beverly Crusher's ship is named the SS Eleos. In Greek mythology, Eleos was the personification of mercy, clemency, compassion and pity.
In the opening scenes, there are several call-backs to Dr. Crusher's character in the original Star Trek: TNG run. These include her orchids from Cause and Effect (1992), her pearls from The Big Goodbye (1988) and her comedy and tragedy masks representing her love of theatre and dramatics as seen in The Nth Degree (1991), Disaster (1991) and Frame of Mind (1993).
As Picard is packing away his belongings to gift away, he holds a flute that resembles the Ressikan Flute. This was gifted to him by a probe launched by the inhabitants of Kataan in the community of Ressik in The Inner Light (1992).