Viewers were originally going to discover that Lister lied about the results of his chefs exam from the previous episode in greater detail, however Rob Grant and Doug Naylor decided to get it out the way in Holly's opening message as this episode already had two plot-lines.
The Cat Priest has one white hand and one black hand; according to the DVD liner notes, this is because the Felis sapiens, like their ancestors, often had patches of different colours. This episode is the first time a cat person, other than The Cat has been seen, although two, a male and a female, were supposed to appear in the "lost episode" of Series VII called "Identity Within". The priest cat is the only confirmed life form aboard Red Dwarf, other than Cat and Lister, at the start of the series, although neither Holly nor Lister was aware of this until moments before the priest's death.
When Lister enters the observation room, Rimmer says that Lister might get a squiggly slimy thing stuck to his face. That is a obvious nod to Alien (1979), where Kane has a facehugger attached to his face.
Rimmer speculates the pod they find has an alien in it. As of November 2017, there have been no actual aliens on the show, as all the supposed aliens have been either androids or genetic mutants.