Ira Steven Behr's inspiration to create the Bell Riots was the 1971 riot in New York's Attica Prison, which was caused primarily by inmates' demands for more humane living conditions being continually ignored by the authorities.
The working title of this episode was "Cold and Distant Stars". The original teleplay, written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, involved Sisko going back in time and ending up homeless. His claims that he was actually from the future and was the commander of a space station prompted those around him to think he was insane, and he is eventually given Thorazine. This script was written by Wolfe as a commentary on the apathy of the people of the 20th Century towards the homeless. However, nobody was very happy with the script, including Wolfe himself, until Behr came up with the idea of the Sanctuary Districts and the Bell Riots. Later on the concept of a Starfleet officer becoming stranded in the past and ending up homeless would be used in Future's End (1996).
This is the first episode of the series to feature Earth.
This is also the first of four episodes, the other three being Past Tense, Part II (1995), Paradise Lost (1996), and Children of Time (1997), not to feature any scenes on Deep Space 9, or show the station in any scenes (save for the opening credits), although Quark does appear briefly on the Defiant's view screen in his bar's backroom.