The window Crewman Harren looks out of in the first scene is not on the miniature or CGI models of Voyager, and was added specifically for this episode. In later shots of Voyager's underside, the window is not there.
In 1998, Tom Morello, a die-hard Trekkie, contacted Star Trek producer Rick Berman and asked to have a cameo in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). Berman agreed, as his son was a fan of Rage Against the Machine. Despite four to five hours of make-up and the high temperature in which they were working (they were filming in the desert), Morello states that he "was on cloud nine because I got to talk to Jean-Luc Picard". Because his Son'a character could barely be seen, however, Morello was asked to appear on an episode of Voyager, this time as a Human Starfleet officer. After shooting the episode, "Good Shepherd", Morello was praised by Rick Berman, who stated "He [Morello] did a great job. It was a little pick-me-up for everyone."
At one point crewman Mitchell says that the cosmos is 16 billions years old, which was consistent with the scientific estimates at the time this episode was filmed (between 12 and 16 billion). A few years later, however, a more precise measurement established the age of the Universe at 13.6 billion years.
The bald crewman that gives Janeway directions is played by Tom Morello, a Grammy Award-winning guitarist. Morello may best be known as founding member and lead guitarist of the alternative/hard rock band Rage Against the Machine. After the band split up in 2000, Morello and fellow Rage Against the Machine members Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk joined singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Cornell (formerly of the band Soundgarden) to form another highly successful and popular music group, Audioslave.
This episode can be compared to Lower Decks (1994) (in that they both feature the low-ranking crewmen with less focus on the main characters), and the earlier episode Learning Curve (1995). Interestingly, that episode centered on several ex-Maquis crew who were performing below standards whereas this episode focuses on Starfleet personnel instead.