Family

Gene Roddenberry was apparently not happy at the commissioning of this episode, as he thought it was too much like an episode of a soap opera and lacked any science fiction element. However, show-runner Michael Piller received the backing of producer Rick Berman to go ahead and film it, because he liked the way it would humanize Picard and give him some backstory after his traumatizing experience of being turned into a Borg before being rescued. Roddenberry protested to Paramount who, at this stage, were already losing patience with Roddenberry and his constant interference in the show's production. (He had already been banned from the sets of the film franchise some years earlier, after constantly complaining to the studio.) After his complaints about this episode, the Paramount board decided to force the already-ill Roddenberry to take a back seat and take no further part in the production process. He died just over a year after this episode's broadcast.

In most cases, Robert's name is pronounced in French ("Robare"), as it should be. Yet when Jean-Luc tells his brother about his ordeal with the Borg, he once uses the English pronunciation "Robburt".