According to Katee Sackhoff, Edward James Olmos suggested that the cast abstain from eating for a period of time in order to prepare for the scenes of starvation in this episode. Not every actor agreed with the idea.
The story, written by series newcomer Jane Espenson, was inspired by a talk given by Kevin R. Grazier, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The producers brought Dr. Grazier in to address members of the production team. He explored the problems and solutions of navigating through space, and reaching a particular location in the universe, such as Earth. Dr. Grazier serves as science advisor for the series as well as for another Sci Fi Channel series, Eureka (2006).
This episode is reminiscent of the pilot episode of the original Battlestar Galactica series, in which the Galactica's viper pilots have to traverse through a perilous, intense radiation field in space (the Nova of Madigon) and lead the Colonial fleet through safely in order to reach a planet on the other side thus preventing the fleet population from dying of starvation.
D'Anna and Baltar are discussing the eye of Jupiter and D'Anna wonders is there is a "connection between their gods and ours". The gods in the colonies are based on Greek gods. Jupiter is a Roman god (the equivalent of Zeus). Other than Apollo, there are no crossovers between the two pantheons. Even so, the name of a Roman god will appear now and then, such as Mars, who was mentioned in season two.
Gaeta was one of the few in the CIC not to applaud Tigh's return to duty. Gaeta probably harbors resentment over his treatment by Tigh and the Circle in "Collaborators."