This episode was to have premiered on BBC Two in the United Kingdom at 6 o'clock on September 11, 2001. However, the broadcast was cancelled due to the BBC's in-depth coverage of the September 11th attacks. It was never broadcast on BBC Two as the following episode Spirit Folk (2000) was shown on September 18, 2001 as was originally intended.
The Borg on the damaged cube demand the USS Voyager's navigational deflector to re-establish communication with other Borg in the region. This is an allusion to Star Trek: First Contact (1996), where the Borg tried to construct an interplexing beacon on the navigational deflector of the USS Enterprise-E to contact the 21st Century Borg in the Delta Quadrant.
The Borg child, "First," is a member of Kelemane's species from the episode Blink of an Eye (2000). This indicates that in the time since Voyager left that planet the species was able to venture beyond their planet and unfortunately be assimilated by the Borg.
This episode features the first poker game to be played by the main crew on-screen since All Good Things... (1994).