When deciding the order in which the third season would air, Charlie Brooker was explicitly told by Netflix that this episode could not be the season premiere because its extended length would discourage viewers from watching the next episode right away.
The storyline is based in part, among other things, on Charlie Brooker's own experiences. In 2004, he was the subject of a public backlash after writing a satirical article about George W. Bush.
Charlie Brooker has stated that some characters from this story could make return appearances in the future, which would make this the first installment of the series to generate a sequel.
In the opening scenes, DCI Parke (Kelly Macdonald) turns on the UKN 6 pm news. The news ticker shows three notable items:
In the far shot, there is a headline reading "Saitogemu team investigated over tourist disappearance", the video game company in S3 E2 Playtest (2016), and "Victoria Skillane in jail cell suicide attempt", the central character in S2 E2 White Bear (2013).
In the closer shot, the headline reads "US military announces MASS project", referring to the software seen in the previous episode (S3 E5) Men Against Fire (2016).
In the opening scenes of DCI Parke watching the news, the anchor's news headlines include the announcement of yet another species extinction - the Siberian crane - and a story about the ADI robotic bees. When Liza Behar is being interviewed at the school where she works, there are poster collages in the background that reference the news articles - one about extinction and one on the wall with two styles of bees made of construction paper.