The cast learned of the series' cancellation during the filming of this episode.
Although credited for an appearance, Amanda Tapping was absent as she was filming a crossover appearance as Samantha Carter in Stargate: Atlantis (2004) at the same time.
The first edit of the episode ran for 66 minutes and 22 minutes had to be cut. A key cut scene explains why Daniel loses his temper with the bickering female hostages, which is otherwise very out of character. Several other deleted scenes of the guard parody similar to scenes in Die Hard (1988).
The Ancients were revealed as the "Alterans" earlier in the series. "Altera" is an American semiconductor company which manufactures Field Programmable Gate Arrays and the main software tool to use their chips is called "Quartus". Quartus is the name of the negotiator in this episode played by Ron Canada.