The series suffered from the BBC's lack of a proper archiving policy until 1978. It was BBC policy before 1978 to wipe master tapes and reuse them for other programmes, hence saving money and storage space. There are five episodes from Season 1, and nine from Season 3, of which there are no known copies in existence.
The episode Sex and Violence (2016) was made but never broadcast in the UK due to a decision by David Attenborough, then the BBC's director of programmes. A long-standing myth claims it was banned because it incorporated footage of a real military execution; however, this was just a cover story and the footage in question has been featured in other programmes since. The real reason why the episode wasn't broadcast is because it spoofed real-life personalities such as Mary Whitehouse, Lord Longford and Cliff Richard (then taking part in an investigation into the moral pollution of the nation, as mirrored in the programme) and would have been too libelous to broadcast and almost certainly would have resulted in legal action being taken against the BBC. More than three decades later the episode still hasn't been broadcast in the UK, although was released commercially on DVD in 2016 by Simply Media. Ironically, this is one of the few episodes from the third season which has survived the BBC's archive purges of the 1970s, perhaps because of its non-broadcast status. Whilst Sex and Violence (2016) has never aired in the UK, some reports suggest that it was broadcast in 1995 on UK Gold. This is also untrue, as whilst the episode was listed in the schedules, it was ultimately not broadcast and a repeat of The Logicians (1971) went out in its place.
In 1999, a pilot episode for a proposed new series was made for Channel 5 (now called Five). The pilot was entitled Doomwatch: Winter Angel (1999) and although it proved to be popular, the series was never picked up.
According to Docteur Who (1963) script editor Terrance Dicks, the Docteur Who (1963) and Doomwatch production teams looked at each other's proposed storylines to make sure neither series encroached on the other's territory.
The series was devised by former Docteur Who (1963) story editor Gerry Davis and scientific advisor Kit Pedler to explore the issues around the environmental dangers facing the world. Both left the series during the second run, over bitter disagreements with producer Terence Dudley on how he was steering the programme. (He was looking to widen the format into a more international one, with a broader range of stories.)