Soldiers of the Empire

Worf is a Starfleet officer. Dax is a Starfleet officer. Worf serves on a Bird of Prey. Dax serves on a Bird of Prey. Worf wears a Klingon uniform. Dax wears a Starfleet uniform? I really, really wanted to see Dax in one of those female Klingon uniforms...

The genesis of this episode came when Ira Steven Behr asked Ronald D. Moore to give him an episode of a show called "Star Trek : Klingon".

Ronald D. Moore's original idea for the episode was for Worf and the Rotarran crew to arrive on a Klingon colony and find a mist-shrouded lake where they find the entrance to Gre'thor. It was felt that the idea was a bit heavy on philosophy for this point in the season. Moore would later use this concept for Voyager's "Barge of the Dead", which he also wrote.

The Klingon battle song was written for the CD-ROM adventure "Star Trek: Klingon". The director had the lyrics written up on big cards and the entire cast and crew would sing them.

This episode is a big favourite of J.G. Hertzler, would later say that he owed Ron Moore a huge debt for writing it.

Ira Steven Behr, however, was not happy with how the episode turned out. He felt that after the big build up to how tough the Klingons were at the start, they never came across as especially menacing for the rest of the episode.