Having arrived back in 2024, Picard tells his crew not to step on any butterflies. This is a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder" in which a big-game hunter travels back in time to kill a dinosaur. In doing so, he steps off the predetermined path and inadvertently kills a butterfly. Arriving back in his own time, he finds the timeline has been changed. This gave rise to the phrase "The Butterfly effect" where small actions can have much larger repercussions.
Trek has traveled back in time to the year 2024 before, since this first happened in Past Tense, Part I (1995) - which also featured a concentration camp-like Sanctuary District.
Lea Thompson directed this episode, which features going back in time to correct something, much like Back to the Future (1985), where she played Lorraine Baines McFly.
As Seven, Raffi, and Rios beam into Los Angeles, a cover of "California Dreamin'" plays, a song originally recorded by [linknm2135108]. Mamas member Michelle Phillips played Picard's ex-lover in We'll Always Have Paris (1988).
When the ship is crashing and Picard navigates to Chateau Picard, the GPS coordinates that are shown on Picard's console are for the set near Vasquez Rocks where Chateau Picard scenes were filmed.