It took 4 years to complete the special effects.
Star Dan Smith (Zan) adapted both this and the follow-up, Roots of the Earthman (1979), into a book named that was named after the latter and first published in 1981.
The spaceship in the movie is the same one that's mounted on top of the "Unarius Space Cad," a car that's been featured in many parades. It was intricately framed to keep the car out of the shots.
Although this was released a year after Roots of the Earthman (1979), the incidents depicted here occurred off-screen near the beginning of that miniseries.