One of quite a few Star Trek productions to make extensive parallels with Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
One of the few instances the mess hall set was used as a corridor. Specifically the windows. It appears as a corridor looking out into space.
William Morgan Sheppard (Qatai) also played Dr. Ira Graves in The Schizoid Man (1989), a Klingon prison guard in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), and the Vulcan Science Minister in Star Trek (2009).
The creature is similar to the one in Where Silence Has Lease (1988) that is said to "devour entire star ships." Another similar creature, Bevvox, will be seen in Think Tank (1999).
The doctor says, "I'm a doctor, not a dragon slayer" - a take on the original Star Trek (1966)'s Dr. McCoy often saying, "I'm a doctor, not a [fill in the blank]."