In its television version, The Strange World of Planet X was a seven-part serial (or, as we might call it today, a mini-series) shown on Britain's ITV network as part of its Saturday Serial anthology series. The script was authored by actress-turned-writer Rene Ray, based on her own book of the same name, and the program was co-directed by Arthur Lane and Quentin Lawrence. The story involved a group of scientists performing visionary and dangerous experiments involving time travel and its consequences. The program had a distinguished cast headed by theater and screen veteran Helen Cherry (aka Mrs. Trevor Howard) and William Lucas (X The Unknown), and presented a fairly cerebral concept in an engrossing, even exciting way that held audience attention for nearly two months on the tiny fledgling network, this at a time when there were only a relatively small number of television sets in England. That success led to a subsequent film adaptation, made two years later, which utilized a very different plot by another screenwriter, Paul Ryder -- he also drew his story from elements of Ray's original novel, but went for more accessible visual chills in the denouement, involving giant mutated insects.