F.D. Reeve, who plays the scientist, is Christopher Reeve's father, and thus his character's name (Dr. Clark Kale) is a play on Superman's human name (Clark Kent) and alien name (Kal-El).
To help justify the film's being set in the future, the art department added two fake elements to the periodic table in the scientists interview scenes: "Mf" for Marta Ficke, the production designer, and "Jk" for Jake Cohen, the Director of Photography. There was also a "Sl" for 'Sara Lesin', the producer, but this is matted out of most copies of the film for projection.