The title and plot are reminiscent of The Dirty Dozen (1967). The hero recruits a group of incarcerated killers, and trains them to do heroic deeds for the greater good.
Charles Mesure plays Darnelle, who often bickers with Glaphyra, played by Katrina Hobbs. Mesure later played mercenary Kyle Hobbes in V (2009).
Ares debuts his redesigned beard/mustache/sideburns.
Charles Mesure (Darnelle) previously played a military commander named Mercer, who had a quasi-romantic attraction to Xena in The Price (1997). Mesure and Lucy Lawless later played the parents of the main character in Boogeyman (2005).
The enemy warlord is named Agathon, the same name as a family of prominent characters in Lucy Lawless' later series Battlestar Galactica (2004).