Nana Visitor and Marc Alaimo's laughter during the scene in which Dukat sat on a needle of rock and running a deactivated dermal regenerator over his hind end was quite genuine. Both found the scene so hilarious that they couldn't contain it, so the director allowed it in the scene, especially since they never broke character while laughing.
This episode marks the first ever appearance of the Breen. Prior to this, the Breen had been mentioned numerous times on both this series and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) as an enemy of the Federation.
This episode was directed by LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
After The Way of the Warrior (1995), this episode provides more details of the political changes on Cardassia Prime. Once the Obsidian Order was destroyed in The Die Is Cast (1995), the Cardassian Dissident Movement, first seen in Profit and Loss (1994), and again in Second Skin (1994), were able to wrest control from the military (i.e. Cardassian Central Command), and at the time this episode takes place, a new civilian government has been established.
The exterior scenes on Dozaria were filmed at Soledad Canyon, north of Los Angeles, the same location that had been used for Cardassia IV in the second season opener The Homecoming (1993), and which would also be used for the fifth season episode The Ship (1996) and the sixth season episode Rocks and Shoals (1997).