This is the only time in the entire "Enterprise" series run that 'chef', the ship's cook, appears on screen, although he doesn't speak and is filmed from the waist down only. As part of a running joke, he is ordinarily never seen, despite being mentioned throughout all seasons. Part of the reason for eluding him was out of respect for food stylist Dorothy Duder, who made all the show's food props and was therefore considered the "real" chef. The chef was played by frequent Star Trek stand-in Richard Sarstedt, who, coincidentally, was a stand in for Jonathan Frakes on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Later, in These Are the Voyages... (2005), Frakes' character Riker plays the chef in a Holodeck program.
This episode is so far the only television episode of Star Trek which featured product placement: the Nike logo on Captain Archer's water polo bag.
On the call sheet for day 7 of the production, Thursday 31 October 2002, Richard Sarstedt's "Chef" is listed as "1 Chef (Richard "Isaac Hayes" Sarstedt)", a reference to Isaac Hayes' character "Chef" in the animated television series South Park (1997).
This episode is the first time the pantry and the catwalk aboard Enterprise are seen.
T'Pol mentions undertaking the kahs-wan ordeal as a youth. This was first mentioned in Yesteryear (1973), which tells of Spock's experiences with it. The kahs-wan originated in ancient Vulcan warrior days. When the Vulcans turned to a culture centered upon logic, they reasoned that they needed to maintain the tests of courage and strength to keep pure logic from making them weak and helpless.