Melanie, the aged Jake Sisko's young guest, is portrayed by Rachel Robinson, daughter of Andrew Robinson (Garak).
Writer Michael Taylor based the concept of a fan visiting a reclusive writer who hasn't published in years on the famous 1980 interview given by J.D. Salinger to a high school student who simply turned up at his door.
Tony Todd, who portrayed Worf's brother Kurn, was cast as the older Jake after it was deemed too difficult to make Cirroc Lofton appear to be in his seventies. He revealed that when filming the episode, he was mourning his aunt, who raised him as child, and had died only three months before. "This script got me out of my shell. It's like she was whispering to me 'Go back to work.' ... Doing this was as close to heaven as I can imagine."
According to most of the staff on the show, this was one of the best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) episodes they worked on. Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton cite this as one of their favorite episodes.
After this episode aired, there was much online speculation that writer Michael Taylor must have been a pseudonym for Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor. Both were known for writing emotionally driven stories with a lot of heart, but no one had ever heard of freelancer Michael Taylor, and some fans assumed that the producers were playing a joke on them.