in the first script draft, anubis was set to appear in a fiery planet at the end of the episode, but when the script was finished he ended up in a frozen planet. mallozzi when commenting on the episode, said it was an "image i'd been dying to use". when samantha carter told jack o'neill in the original draft where she had sent anubis, o'neill responded "well, i hope he wore his warm socks." the line was dropped since producers felt it was "too callous" for the character. one of the early scenes featuring alexi vaselov, where he awakens to find teal'c in the observation room, was originally scripted to take place in the infirmary. originally teal'c was set to appear at daniel jackson's bedsite with vaselov engaging in the conversation.