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"City of the Dead" is quite possibly the most original and least official story in Doctor Who history. The idea originally came from David Fisher, called "The Time Gamble," about a gentle countenance and his wife cheating in a casino to get money to complete their time travel experiment. In the late 1970s, although the British economic situation was not good and "Doctor Who" had limited funds, producer Graham Williams still found a way to get the budget. Douglas Adams, Doctor Who's script editor at the time, was called to Graham Williams' home on a Thursday. He sat in front of the typewriter, and the two of them discussed for a moment while Douglas typed endlessly. Director Michael Hayes would come over for coffee every now and then to read over their finished parts, and was pleased to find that by Monday there would be a script for him to shoot. That's how this script came about. "City of Death" was aired during the ITV strike and became one of the most watched episodes in Doctor Who history. Thanks to reruns after reruns, there was almost no other story to watch in 1979, so, thankfully, it's the best story in Doctor Who history.