At the 50th anniversary "Star Trek" convention in Las Vegas in August 2016, fans voted this as the worst episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and the eighth worst episode overall of the "Star Trek" franchise.
Ronald D. Moore stated that when he watched this episode prior to joining the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) writing staff, he was "wondering if everyone had lost their minds".
According to one of the writers, Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci, the name of the game, "Chula", comes from "Chutes and Ladders", as the maze game is a "three-dimensional form" of the game.
Terry Farrell's work on this episode prevented her from appearing in Birthright, Part I (1993), which was filmed around the same time. Alexander Siddig guest starred instead.