This story was originally intended as a separate series titled "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century". When it was decided to make a two-part "back-door pilot" as part of the BraveStarr series, two scripts that had already been commissioned were scrapped. These were "To Forgive, Divine" by Bob Forward and "The Return of Billy the Kid" by Don Heckman.
At the end of 1988, Group W (Westinghouse) announced that Filmation was developing "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century" as a syndicated series to offer for fall 1989, together with another BraveStarr spin-of titled "Bravo!" and a spin-of from Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) titled "Bugzburg". In 1989 Westinghouse sold Filmation to Paravision International, an investment consortium led by the French cosmetics company L'Oréal. L'Oréal was only interested in the Filmation library and shut down all of the studio's production.