The biographical photo of scientist Jackson Roykirk is of the director Marc Daniels wearing Scotty's dress uniform.
In conventions, Nichelle Nichols frequently tells a story of getting into a dispute with director Marc Daniels over the filming of this episode. As it had already been established that Uhura's first language was Swahili, Nichols believed that, after her mind was erased, Uhura would revert to her first language. However, as Nichols herself did not speak Swahili, Daniels wanted Uhura to just speak English. Nichols refused to, telling Daniels, "Nichelle Nichols doesn't speak Swahili, but Uhura does!" Gene Roddenberry was eventually brought in to settle the dispute, and he sided with Nichols. A linguist specializing in Swahili was then brought in to write the few lines of Swahili that are spoken in the episode.
Although never credited, this episode - which depicted an Earth-launched space probe that acquires almost unimaginable powers in the course of the search for its "Creator" - became the inspiration behind Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). (It also inspired The Questor Tapes (1974), a rejected series pilot written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon which also featured a robot with a damaged memory who searched for its creator.) For this reason, some fans have appended to the 1979 movie the punning subtitle "Where Nomad Has Gone Before."
Nomad was launched from Earth in 2002.
Lt. Leslie has two unusual aspects in this episode; he is at the helm and he is wearing a gold uniform as opposed to the red uniform that he is normally seen in.