This episode is cut down from a feature-length pilot based on the first Dresden novel. Numerous details - Harry's apartment with a cat and a cellar workshop, his 'Chicago Police Consultant' ID, girlfriend/reporter Susan, the VW Beetle, the 'Nevernever', etc. - are true to the novel and are then different or absent in the other episodes. The opening credits say "Based on the novel "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher"; the other episodes have "Based on the novels by Jim Butcher".
The original pilot was edited several times to different lengths and has an extended cast list. Those extra characters show that more pilot footage went into Birds of a Feather (2007) and other episodes.
Rebecca McFarland and Valerie Cruz had originally been cast to play each other's roles, as Murphy was described in the books as a blue-eyed blonde.
Dresden's "blue beetle" from the novels makes a cameo in this episode when Harry is talking to Murphy at the mechanic's shop. In the novels the beetle is no longer technically blue, it has a red door, a white door, and a green hood.
In the novel Dresden had never met Bianca before. She attacks him believing he killed her protégée - in the novel, first victim 'Jennifer Stanton' ( in this episode, last victim Linda Atwater ). He had prepared and defends himself with a flash of stored sunlight.
In the novel Dresden had prepared TWO potions down in the workshop. Susan drinks from the wrong one.