The young version of Batai, Kamin's son, is played by Daniel Stewart, the real-life son of Sir Patrick Stewart.
Sir Patrick Stewart nominated this episode as the greatest acting challenge he faced in the seven years of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
Won the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. The award was given at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. It was the first Trek episode to win since The City on the Edge of Forever (1967).
The theme that Picard plays on his flute was turned into a full orchestral piece for Star Trek (1966)'s 30th anniversary.
Star Trek producer Ronald D. Moore commented: "I've always felt that the experience in The Inner Light would have been the most profound thing in Picard's life and changed him irrevocably. But that wasn't our intention when we created the episode. We were after a good hour of TV. The larger implications of how this could really screw somebody up didn't hit home with us until later. That's sometimes a danger in TV-you're so focused on getting the show made every week that sometimes you suffer from the 'can't see the forest for the trees' syndrome. We never intended it to completely upend Picard's character and force a radical change in the series, so we contented ourselves with a single follow-up in Lessons (1993)."