The story was influenced by the real world events of Britain joining the European Economic Community. During the broadcast the Miners strikes led to a power outage causing a drop in ratings, but the events would go on to inspire season 11's The Monster of Peladon.
David Troughton added to his number of roles in Doctor Who as Prince Peladon. Of course he is the son of Second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton.
This is the 3rd full appearance of the Ice Warriors having appeared in 2 Second Doctor stories. Of course they would later feature in new Who stories, debuting in Cold War.
This was just the 2nd off world trip since The War Games with the Time Lords using the Doctor again.
I have very fond memories of this story. Back in the day UKGOLD were showing Pertwee eps at about 1am. We use to set the timer to record them for me. However such was my excitement for watching new stories I often snuck downstairs in the middle of the night to watch them.
This was not always easy for sleepy me. On this occasion I got down during the fight to death section and then waited until the story was over and went and watched it all back. I remember being hooked on its murder mystery plot and.......
Alpha Centauri is the best.
During production it was noticed that Alpha Centauri looked like......... a giant green penis. So they added the cape.
Then some 40 years later!
ALPHA CENTAURI