Robin Curtis played Saavik in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). Her casting for the episode initially led some fans to believe that her appearance would be to reprise her role as Saavik.
The bar informer is named Yranac. Backwards this spells "canary," a slang term for an informer (because they "sing").
This episode contains the longest phaser fight shown on screen, with over 70 shots. All explosions were done in post-production due to a fire season ban on live explosives shot on location at Griffith Park's Cedar Grove. Likewise, all damage stains on rocks were done digitally.
The idea for this storyline grew out of a spec script submitted by an Iowa college student, Christopher Hatton. It went against one of Gene Roddenberry's long-standing taboos: no space pirates. The producers liked that Hatton's script was a "less talky romp". But Rick Berman, although keen to proceed with an excellent story, tied a bandanna around a bust of Roddenberry when discussing the story. Hatton's original script followed from Picard's point of view and didn't involve Riker at all. He submitted a second script, Thine Own Self (1994), later in the season.
Bruce Gray (Admiral Chekote) previously played the same character in The Circle (1993), which aired only six days before this episode. Gray also later played Surak in Awakening (2004).