The episode's working title was "Terror of New York". Alan Fennell's original script was submitted before Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer at ITC, ordered that the length of all "Thunderbirds" episodes be doubled from 25 to 50 minutes. This increase necessitated the scripting of "filler" scenes – in the case of "Terror of New York", the oil well fire and reporter Ned Cook's unsuccessful attempt to film "Thunderbird 1". In a 1992 interview, actor Matt Zimmerman, who voiced Cook, described the character as having a "really thick accent – it was great fun to do."