This episode bears noticeable similarities to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Genesis". Both episodes were scripted or co-scripted by Brannon Braga.
Admiral Halsey's first name is revealed to be Tom (later confirmed to be short for Thomas). Like the other admirals on show, he was named after a World War II flag officer, William Frederick Halsey, Jr., commonly called "Bull".
The scene where the ship enters the alien space station is similar to the scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) when the Enterprise enters V'ger.
At one point, Ed jokingly tells the crew "May the force be with you," a winking reference to "Star Wars" that is particularly cheeky coming from a show modeled on "Star Trek."
Dr. Claire Finn's quote from "an old book" " It is only with the greatest care that memory can be kept from becoming a prison or a gallows." is from the 1964 Irwin Shaw novel Voices of a Summer Day.