This episode is the origin of a snapshot of Picard with a stretched-out hand which circulates the web as an Internet meme. It is the sequence where Picard is reciting the William Shakespeare sonnets to Lwaxana (specifically when he recites the line "shall I compare thee to a summer's day?").
The scenes on Betazed were filmed at the Huntington Library Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California, where Justice (1987) was also filmed, two and half years earlier.
The musical instrument seen used to play the Algolian ceremonial rhythms is actually a traditional Indonesian bamboo Angklung.
First Star Trek appearance of Ethan Phillips who played the Ferengi Dr. Farek in this episode. Phillips would go on to play the Talaxian morale officer Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager (1995). He would also don the Ferengi makeup two more times: False Profits (1996) and Acquisition (2002).
The ship that is supposed to carry Wesley to Star Fleet Academy is called the Bradbury after pioneering SF author Ray Bradbury.