Both Nana Visitor and Andrew Robinson felt that the writers should have included a scene when Garak and Kira confront Damar about the death of Tora Ziyal, whom he murdered last year. The producers disagreed because although Ziyal was Kira's friend and Garak's lover, they felt that it didn't serve any purpose because they were trying to redeem Damar at this point. Bringing up conflicts from the past felt to them like a step in the wrong direction.
This episode is Robert O'Reilly's first appearance as Gowron in more than two years. He last played the character in the fifth season's By Inferno's Light (1997) (though he did play Countman in Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang (1999)).
Sub-Commander Velal of the Romulan Star Empire appears for the first time in this episode (although he is unnamed). He had been mentioned by Senator Cretak in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (1999).
Dukat and Kai Winn are effectively written out of the story and won't return until the finale. This was done because, as writer René Echevarria puts it, they "ran out of story" for those characters and realized they wouldn't be needed until the final installment. The producers later related that, when planning out the 9-part serialized final story (something which was rare on television at the time and had never been done on Star Trek), they introduced the Dukat/Winn story too early in the serial.