First appearance of veteran Star Trek actor Vaughn Armstrong in the Voyager series. Amstrong is probably best known for his recurring role as admiral Forrest in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001). This is also his first time playing a Romulan in a Star Trek series after having played Klingons and Cardassians in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). He would go on to make four more appearances in Voyager, playing a Borg, a Vidiian, a Hirogen and a Klingon.
Until Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), this marked one of the few instances in any Star Trek series where the Gregorian year is explicitly identified, in this case, 2371.
This is the first episode that implies that B'Elanna Torres' father was Human and that her mother was Klingon.
This is the first of four Voyager episodes in which at least one flesh-and-blood Romulan makes an appearance.
This represents the first time since Caretaker (1995) that the Voyager crew is presented with a possibility of returning home.