because she believed a curse involving fairy tale characters was a "fantastic concept". She explained, "What's the modern take on Jiminy Cricket and Rumpelstiltskin? What would their issues be in the real world? The beauty of the production, the care and the effort and, honestly, the expense that was put into it just made clear that was a project done with a lot of attention and love." The episode was directed by Lost veteran Paul Edwards. "That Still Small Voice", featuring Jiminy Cricket, was assigned to Espenson, and she was "thrilled to get it," as she wanted to explore the character in his own story. She elaborated that Jiminy is Actor Raphael Sbarge became attracted to join the series because he would effectively be helping tell two stories, one in a fantasy world and the other in a modern setting. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sbarge compared Once Upon a Time to the television series Lost "in that they have a large ensemble and what they do is that they take a few characters and they kind of take them, effectively on a deep dive." When Sbarge read the script for "That Still Small Voice", he was worried about "treading into people's imaginations," but ultimately decided that "they cast me for a reason because there are some qualities in me that they obviously recognize for the story they want to tell." Believing that his character was "sort of a surrogate father figure" to Henry, Sbarge admitted that the script "made me weep because what they came up with is so lovely and magical and delightful." Referring to his character's storyline as a hero's journey, Sbarge said the intention was to show that Jiminy Cricket did not just begin as a noble guy – "what you get to see on this trip are the fire rings he had to walk through to get to a place where he could evolve to develop a sense of doing the right thing." The episode featured guest stars Harry Groener and Carolyn Hennesy as Jiminy's parents Martin and Myrna. Groener had previously worked with Espenson in the third season of the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is their only appearances in the series. The episode contains several cultural references and allusions. The scenes in which Henry was carrying a couple of Apollo Chocolate Candy Bars in his back pack was