 Series creator Irene Shubik joined ABC Television as a story editor on the anthology series "Armchair Theatre" under producer Sydney Newman in 1960.A science fiction fan since her university days, Shubik approached Newman during the summer of 1961 with the notion of making a science fiction version of "Armchair Theatre", similar to the "Armchair Mystery Theatre" spin-off that specialised in crime and mystery stories.Shubik had already commissioned several science fiction tinged scripts for "Armchair Theatre" such as "The Omega Mystery" and "The Ship That Couldn't Stop".