Log Entries:
*Captain's Log, Stardate 42779.1. We are en route to the Epsilon 9 sector for an astronomical survey of a new pulsar cluster. In the meantime, Ensign Crusher will be diverting to Starbase 515 for Starfleet exams.
*Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 42779.5. We have arrived at Starbase 515. I'm still quite uneasy, despite assurances that this medical procedure poses little risk.

Starbase 515's cityscape is a slightly zoomed-in picture of the matte painted capital in the season 1 episode "Angel One."

In the shuttlecraft, Wesley says that, "Shuttle number 2 is ready for departure." In the next shot, the side of the shuttlecraft Sakharov is shown, and the number on it is "01," not "02."

In his conversation with Wesley, Picard tells the young Ensign that when he was fresh out of Starfleet Academy he had his heart punctured in a fight with a group of Nausicaans. The Nausicaans were named by Rick Sternbach, a Japanese anime fan, who named them after the protagonist in the 1984 Hayao Miyazaki movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Years later, Patrick Stewart himself would voice the role of Lord Yupa in Disney's redub of the 2004 unedited edition.