NBA star James Worthy's appearance as Koral came about due to a chance meeting on an airplane with Robert O'Reilly (Chancellor Gowron). Worthy had always wanted to appear on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). At O'Reilly's urging, Worthy met with the producers, and they considered the possibility of a cameo role. This timed perfectly with the need for filler elements in the Gambit story arc. Thus Koral was created.
We learn here that the Vulcans are one of the four founding members of the Federation. The other three are humans, Andorians and Tellarites.
Initially, the Vulcan God of Death on the resonator was bald. Hair had to be etched on to him to avoid resemblance to Patrick Stewart in close-ups.
Picard assumes the name Galen on the alien ship, which is the same name as his old archaeology professor from The Chase (1993).
The episode's Vulcan subplot was based on one of Spock's admissions that a Vulcan could kill for a logical reason. Story editor Naren Shankar, commented: "We went for people who very logically felt that Vulcan's problems were linked to contamination by illogical people, so in a logical sense you say 'Get rid of them...' a very logical way to arrive at racism."