Shearer's pitch featured Vash, who had last been seen at the end of "QPid" leaving with Q, but the pitch did not include Q himself. Executive producer Michael Piller explained that they had already been looking for a way to introduce Q into "DS9", and felt that bringing Vash onto the show would be a good way to seamlessly introduce Q. There were concerns about shoving Q into an episode but the idea of "Q-Less" alleviated them. "If you just have him come on and say 'Look, is this the new show?' it's silly, but this seemed to be a justifiable way", Piller recalled.