The episode is based on the comics stories "The Dead Yet Live" and "I Am the Batman!" (Detective Comics #471/472, August/September 1977) by writer Steve Englehart and artist Marshall Rogers.
Twice, Bruce looks through a drawer filled with tapes labeled with names of Dr. Strange's patients. In one shot, many of these patient names are connected with science fiction and fantasy. "Duane, Diane": a writer for the Batman series and an SF/fantasy writer. "Morwood, C": Duane is married to Peter Morwood. "Meach, Bet": Beth Meacham is a long-time SF fan and an editor at Tor Books. "Jetter, K": K. W. Jeter is an SF/horror author, and wrote the first "cyberpunk" SF novel. "Campbell" and "Johns, C" on adjacent tapes: John W. Campbell Jr. was the most influential SF editor ever. (The remaining tapes were "Vargas, Maria", "Taylor, Blair", and "Wayne, Bruce".) Another shot showed more tape labels. "Rogel, R": Randy Rogel wrote for Batman. "Rudish, P": Paul Rudish wrote for or did art department work for Dexter's Laboratory (1996), The Powerpuff Girls (1998), and Samurai Jack (2001). "Smith, Dex": Dexter Smith did character design or layout on the series and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993).
Michael Reaves originally wrote a sequel episode to this entitled "Mind Games" however, the episode was never produced.
Both Richard Moll and Loren Lester previously co-starred in the cult horror film, Evilspeak.