This episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played William T. Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
The inhospitable planet featured in this episode is nicknamed "Planet Hell" by the crew of Voyager. This is the same nickname the Star Trek production crews used for the soundstage at Paramount where most of the planet surface scenes were shot for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). This soundstage nickname was explained by host Jonathan Frakes (Commander Will Riker) during a TNG Behind the Scenes documentary at the series end. Frakes directed this episode of Voyager.
This episode was partly written as an attempt to remedy the fact that Voyager's producers felt the character of Tom Paris had been underused in the first season.
The infant reptohumanoid in this episode was a cable-operated puppet.
The ships featured in the holodeck simulation are Jem'Hadar attack ships from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In fact, the footage seen is from The Search, Part I (1994). This episode marks the only appearance of Dominion ships on Star Trek: Voyager as well as their only appearance outside of Deep Space Nine.