This episode is based on Brigadoon, a musical about a magical Scottish village that appears only once every one hundred years. Co-Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr, an admirer of Brigadoon, confessed to originating the idea about making an episode based on the musical.
This is Jeffrey Combs' 1st appearance in any "Star Trek" series, but over the next eleven years, he would become one of the franchise's most prolific guest stars. Appearing in a further 43 episodes across Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001). Furthermore, he would later play 3 distinct recurring characters (2 in this series, alone); the Ferengi liquidator, Brunt, the Vorta administrator Weyoun in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), and the Andorian commander, Shran in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001). He also appeared in the series finales of both series.
Combs, who had originally auditioned for the role of William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), was cast as Tiron by this episode's director, Jonathan Frakes (who actually got the part of Riker).
Jeffrey Combs has the distinction of portraying eight different characters on Star Trek series. He has played the roles of Brunt, Weyoun, Shran, Tiron, Kevin Mulkahey, Penk, Krem, and a holosuite guest. He is one of only five actors to play seven or more different characters in the Star Trek franchise, the others being Randy Oglesby, J.G. Hertzler, Vaughn Armstrong and Thomas Kopache. Coincidentally, Combs has appeared on Star Trek with all four of those actors.
The garden set of Meridian, where Jadzia and Deral engage in a relationship, was filmed at the Huntington Library Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. The house of Deral is a reuse of the set used for the temple in Masks (1994), and was built on Paramount Stage 18. The backdrop seen outside the house was actually a 270-degree backdrop borrowed from Walt Disney Studios, where it had been originally created to be used on Mary Poppins.