Picard admits he has trouble with waiting patiently and Riker says that it's Picard's "Persian Flaw." In traditional Persian carpet weaving, it was standard practice to deliberately put in a few mistakes, because attempting perfection might offend God.
Shuttle #5, the El-Baz, which Picard used to escape the Enterprise, is named after Farouk Elbaz (whose name is sometimes hyphenated or split), a geologist who helped train the Apollo astronaut Command Module Pilots to observe the Moon from orbit. His contribution is portrayed in the docudrama Galileo Was Right (1998).
Originally meant to be a two-part story, with "Q" the force behind the time anomaly. Elements of this were later used in All Good Things... (1994).
A 'bottle' episode - meaning the entire episode was filmed using only the main characters and sets.
The original title was "Time to the Second"; however, the final title would mathematically be written "Time²". Both titles refer to the power of 2 in reference to the present and future Captain Picards.