To keep costs down, Trumbull hired college students for modelmaking and other such special effects work. One of them, John Dykstra, went on to a distinguished special effects career of his own.
Douglas Trumbull says that he learned how to be a director while working on this film, as he had no training or experience in the job.
The decommissioned Essex-class aircraft carrier "Valley Forge," a veteran of Korea and Vietnam, served as the interior of the space freighter "Valley Forge." The flight control area and hangar deck of the carrier were modified and painted to represent the space freighter in the film. The carrier was scrapped after filming was complete.
The three drone robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie (named after Donald Duck's nephews) were operated by four multiple-amputee actors: Mark Persons, Steve Brown, Cheryl Sparks, and Larry Whisenhunt.
Several shots of the Valley Forge and its sister ships were later re-used in the television series "Battlestar Galactica," as agricultural ships in the refugee fleet.