The series was originally intended to premiere on September 18, 1994 alongside the season two premiere of fellow Amblin production seaQuest DSV, but its release was delayed.

After executive producer Steven Spielberg saw the pilot, he had his name removed from the series credits.

Following negative internal reception and pre-release publicity, staff at NBC and Amblin reportedly began derisively calling the show 'Gilligan's Planet', prompting NBC to delay the premiere to November so the pilot could undergo reshoots.

The show premiered strongly, reaching eighth place for the week, but its Nielsen ratings share quickly dropped from 23% to 9%, and it was cancelled after just one season of 21 episodes.

Devon Adair was notable as one of the first female commanders in a science fiction television series, predating Captain Kathryn Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager by more than two months.

Exterior scenes were filmed on location in New Mexico, including at Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks and Diablo Canyon.

Due to network broadcast choices, some episodes aired out of narrative sequence; the 2005 Region 1 DVD release preserved this air-date order, causing episodes like 'Natural Born Grendlers' and 'Flower Child' to appear after the actual finale 'All About Eve'.

A later 2012 Region 2 DVD release, 'Earth 2: The Complete Series,' corrected the episode order into proper narrative sequence, including a card explaining the change, while Netflix in the US streamed episodes in production order instead.