Ling had been writing for the soap opera Compact and devised his own soap Crossroads. He was amazed at the fan mail received by the Crossroads production office, much of it directed to his characters as if they were real people. After mentioning this to fellow Crossroads writers Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks, he was commissioned by them to write a story along similar lines for Doctor Who. This became The Mind Robber, and when the preceding Dominators was reduced by an episode, Sherwin wrote an extra episode featuring blank sets and leftover costumes. Peter Ling subsequently made two unsuccessful script submissions to the Doctor Who production office. The Mind Robber went on to become one of the most fondly remembered stories of the Sixties, and was one of two Troughton adventures repeated by ABC in 1986. Its production was covered in Doctor Who the Handbook: The Second Doctor, and Ling published the novelization of the story in April 1987.