Australian actress Janet Fielding auditioned for the role of Kate Norris. She claimed on the DVD commentary for "Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep" that she was rejected by director Pennant Roberts because her breasts were too large to play a starving prisoner.
The title comes from the Japanese word meaning "roll-call", the procedure where inmates were lined up, counted, and had to bow to their captors.
The series' first two episodes, Shattered Dreams (1981) and All Aboard (1981), were the only ones written by a man, namely Paul Wheeler. The remaining 28 episodes were written by Jill Hyem, Anne Valery and Devora Pope.
Mrs. Van Meyer's pet songbird, which appears in season one, is named after the actress Simone Simon.