Commander Adama's final speech to his crew (including his repeated use of the phrase "So say we all!" to rally them to action) was largely improvised by Edward James Olmos.
Ryan Robbins, who plays the officer on Armistice Station (identified as Colonel Wakefield in the novelization), is seen with age-enhancing makeup in his sole onscreen scene. This was because the original version of the opening teaser would have featured his character visiting Armistice Station several times over 40 years, each time appearing progressively older. However, all scenes but the final one were cut after filming.
When Col. Tigh burns the photo of his wife, the woman pictured was originally executive producer David Eick's wife Jenny. However, when Tigh's wife appeared in the weekly series (played by actress Kate Vernon), the scene had to be re-shot with a photo of Vernon so it could be inserted into the recap for her debut episode.
Tricia Helfer based her performance on Daryl Hannah's character Pris in Blade Runner (1982). Edward James Olmos, who co-starred in the film, gave her a copy to watch.
According to the DVD commentary, the Botanical Garden ship with all the plants that was carrying the little girl was intended to reference the botanical ships from the movie Naves misteriosas (1972). However, reused footage from that movie was used in the original Battlestar Galactica series in which it was an agriculture ship, thus becoming a double homage.