As Commander Tucker is trying to choose a movie to show to the Cogenitor, among the titles in the library is the fictional 1930s science fiction film "The Bride of Chaotica," a reference to a chapter in the campy Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon-type "Captain Proton" serial favored by Lt. Tom Paris in Star Trek: Voyager (1995). Indeed, Captain Kathryn Janeway herself reluctantly played the eponymous character in the episode Bride Of Chaotica! (1999). Another title shown is "Dixon Hill and the Black Orchid." Dixon Hill is a 1940s private investigator noir series, also unique to the Star Trek universe. Captain Jean-Luc Picard frequently played Hill himself on the Holodeck in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). In fact, all of the film titles shown are bogus, except for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Another "movie" listed is Mr. Willis of Ohio (1999), which is actually the title of an episode of The West Wing (1999).
The board game that Trip and the cogenitor are playing is in fact a real game. Though never mentioned by name, it is the territory-conquest strategy game "Go" that came out of China in the 4th century B.C. and is still quite popular in many circles today.
This episode contains the second mention of photonic weapons (the first being in Sleeping Dogs (2002)), used by the Vissians. Enterprise was equipped with photonic torpedoes a few episodes later in The Expanse (2003), suggesting that the Vissians may have shared the technology.
Final Star Trek appearance of Andreas Katsulas, who plays the Vissian Captain Drenik in this episode, and also played the recurring Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Katsulas is best known for playing Ambassador G'Kar in Babylon 5 (1993), a series which shared many themes and actors with Star Trek.
This episode was directed by LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).