When Locar and Talla enter the simulator, the movie playing is Anchors Aweigh (1945), starring Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson. Their last names make up the character name of the Orville's first officer, Commander Kelly Grayson.
Talla instructs the simulator to play back from "time index 1701.7", a nod to the hull number of Star Trek's Enterprise 1701, and there were 7 ships shown on the series and movies to carry that hull identification. The original, the refit and the Enterprises A, B, C, D and E.
Talla Keyali's role in the "whodunit" plot was originally written for Alara Kitan. This mirrors a series shift in the original Star Trek (1966) when series regular Grace Lee Whitney, who played Ensign-Yeoman Janice Rand, quit the show halfway through the first season. Three remaining Rand-related scripts were rewritten for interchangeable Yeomen-of-the-week. When these scripts ran out, the Yeoman stock character was phased out completely.
The opening scene takes place on the same set where Neil Patrick Harris, playing Barney Stinson, sang "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" in Girls vs. Suits (2010). In fact, the opening shot pans from virtually the same camera perspective as the finale of Barney's musical number.
The period song in the opening scene is "Body and Soul", performed by the Benny Goodman Trio. The dance music in the scenes with Talla and Locar is "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover" performed by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, with vocals by Ray Eberle