Throughout the episode, the youngest child Alexandra (played by twins Vanessa and Jessica Bova) carries a stuffed toy - a tribble.
Aldea is the Spanish word for village.
Uncredited guest children Jeremy Wheaton (Mason) and Amy Wheaton (Tara) join their older brother, series regular Wil Wheaton.
McKenzie Westmore, daughter of makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, was featured as Rose. She later appeared in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and as Ensign Jenkins in Warhead (1999).
Hannah Louise Shearer pitched the episode to associate producer D.C. Fontana, highlighting the families living on board the Enterprise. While the pilot episode Encounter at Farpoint (1987) first mentioned the children on the ship, this was the first time they had been used as a plot element. Shearer also discussed a story idea with Gene Roddenberry about "a society that had lost its humanity in favor of technology".