Story editor Seeleg Lester was determined to feature a benevolent "invasion" in the story, because, as he says, "Monsters coming to destroy the world is garbage. We had the god-damndest trouble with ABC because they didn't understand the story. I told Ben: 'We'll fight for this. If they want monsters, we'll put in the "other" shows.' And when ABC saw the final-draft script, they told us, 'You know, this could make a damned good story — let's not fuck it up!' That illustrates the kind of mentality the network had."