The Doctor reminisces about an away mission to Arrakis Prime. Arrakis is the spice planet from Frank Herbert's Dune series of novels.
Buck Bokai, mentioned briefly in one of the baseball discussions in this episode, is the fictitious baseball player who broke Joe DiMaggio's record within the context of the Star Trek Universe. Although first mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), he is best known as a recurring gimmick in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). This is a rare Buck Bokai reference within "Star Trek: Voyager."
This episode was dedicated to recently-deceased novelist Jerome Bixby who wrote a few episodes of the original Star Trek (1966).
Guest star Phil Morris has literally grown up with Star Trek, and has played several supporting roles throughout his life, including one of the children in Miri (1966), a Starfleet cadet in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), a Klingon bodyguard in Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places (1996), and a Jem'Hadar soldier in Rocks and Shoals (1997). Additionally, he appeared in the 1988 reboot of Mission: Impossible. The original 1966 series Mission: Impossible featured Leonard Nimoy.