David Birkin, who plays Captain Picard's nephew Rene Picard, would later go on to play a younger version of Captain Picard himself in Rascals (1992). This makes his line, "Someday, I'll be leaving for my Starship, too," into a coincidental foreshadowing.
Gene Roddenberry was apparently not happy at the commissioning of this episode as he thought it was too much like an episode of a soap opera and lacked any science fiction element. However, show-runner Michael Piller received the backing of producer Rick Berman to go ahead and film it, because he liked the way it would humanize Picard and give him some back-story after his traumatizing experience of being turned into a Borg before being rescued. Roddenberry protested to Paramount who, at this stage were already losing patience with Roddenberry and his constant interference in the show's production. (He had already been banned from the sets of the film franchise some years earlier, after constantly complaining to the studio.) After his complaints about this episode, the Paramount board decided to force the already ill Roddenberry to take a back seat and take no further part in the production process and he died just over a year after this episode's broadcast.
"Family" not only revealed personal information about the series regulars, but Chief O'Brien also gained a full name, Miles Edward O'Brien, as well as a more defined rank, Chief Petty Officer, though his rank insignia would continue to change throughout the series. In this one he wears two irregularly-shaped pips.
While not written or filmed until well after the completion of The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2 (1990), "Family", popular in its own right, has come to be seen as the third part of "The Best of Both Worlds" serial. It is one of the few times where characters' families are introduced (Worf's parents, Picard's family). Although the relaxed, peaceful, episode feels like a 180-degree opposition to the adventurous, warlike serial, part of its point is to put in context what the Borg were threatening - loved ones, as well as civilization and planets.