The entries for "Captain Picard Day" were sourced from two local elementary schools and the children of property master Alan Sims.
For the lighthearted teaser, Moore initially settled on Data, Troi and Riker rehearsing George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". Executive producer Michael Piller was skeptical and the idea was dropped. As a result, Moore came up with "Captain Picard Day" to make use of Jonathan Frakes' impression of Patrick Stewart.
This episode finally explains why the Federation doesn't use cloaking devices. Ronald D. Moore stated: "I thought let's sew this up. Not because its the last season but because I'm sick of that question at conventions!". He believed the Federation-Romulan treaty was the best explanation, and better than those offered up in the past. That the cloaking device harms humans, it won't work on Federation starships, or that Starfleet doesn't sneak around, etc.
Extra Joyce Agu gets to utter an uncredited reply to Picard in this episode. The line was written for Data but Brent Spiner and the rest of the cast pointed out that the helm and not the ops officer should carry out a course correction.
The production staff were so impressed with Terry O'Quinn they considered offering him a guest role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), but this never happened.