 The Western themes of the episode were written first, with the plot framing with the Simulants coming later, and described by Grant and Naylor as a 'roast beef western' (parodying the phrase 'spaghetti western').During filming of the episode Janet Street Porter was Head of Art & Culture and when she received the ambitious script for "Gunmen..." she sent out a memo that all production for this episode must be stopped immediately because she believed it too difficult to film, too costly and too time-consuming.By the time the ‘’Red Dwarf’’ crew received her memo, filming had already wrapped and even post-production already started.