The script for this film was by legendary British scriptwriter T.E.B. Clarke . Clarke also wrote the scripts for famous Ealing Studio films like Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Blue Lamp (1950), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and the Titfield Thunderbolt (1953). It was his second to last film before he passed away in 1989.
Many of the costumes were rented off the BBC costume department. Initially the BBC were reluctant to do so but star Patrick Troughton personally asked the BBC management to help out the obviously cash strapped production and they finally agreed.
This was a production for The Childrens Film Foundation, a not-for-profit organization which was set up to provide content for Saturday morning film matinees in UK cinemas. The budget for this film in 1978 was approximately £18,000 (around £110,000 in 2020).
Patrick Troughton plays a professor who has problems with his time machine. In Dr Who (1963), he played a time traveller who's time machine, the T.A.R.D.I.S., often malfunctions.