Both the opening explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis and much of the footage from the U.S.S. Excelsior was later used in an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager", ("Flashback") with special guest star George Takei.

The Klingon who defends Kirk and McCoy at the trial is Michael Dorn, the actor who plays Worf in The Next Generation. The Klingon makeup is also identical, even though it is supposed to be a different character. (The makeup is actually more subdued than the makeup for TNG [flatter] but it looks similar because he is actually playing one of Lieutenant Worf's ancestors.)

The Federation President's office is the "Ten Forward" set from The Next Generation Series. The only difference is the curtains on the windows.

General Chang's line,"don't wait for the translation,answer me now" during the Trial is the same line used by American Ambassador Adlai Stevenson towards Russian Ambassador Valerian Zorin at the United Nations during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Originally, this movie was going to be a prequel about when Kirk and Spock first met at Starfleet Academy.

Many of the sets in this movie are obvious redresses of the sets from Star Trek: The Next Generation. For example, the Enterprise-A's main engineering and transporter room are modified versions of those from the 1701-D. Likewise other TNG sets are used in different fashions. For example, the 1701-D's observation lounge becomes the 1701-A's dining room. The most obvious redress is that of the Federation president's office, which, if you look behind the curtains, you'll see the distinctive windows of 10-Forward.

Nicholas Meyer (Director & Co-writer) wanted an end scene where Kirk handed over the Enterprise to Picard & Crew to link the two series. Once he was told there was 75 year gap between them, the idea was instantly dropped.

The dining room aboard the Enterprise-A is a redress of the Conference Lounge of the Enterprise-D in TNG.

The character of Valeris was originally slated to be Lt. Saavik. The filmmakers tried to get Kirstie Alley back, but found out that her stardom in "Cheers" now made her too expensive. It was then decided that Saavik as she was known would never betray the Federation, so Valeris was created. This explains Valeris' infatuation with whether Spock is lying, as her words were originally Saavik's, mirrored in "The Wrath of Khan" (when Spock tells her, "I exaggerated," after she accuses him, "You lied.").

In the ending credits, Uhura's name is misspelled Uhuru.