Reviewing the serial in 1999, literary critic John Kenneth Muir acclaimed "Terror of the Zygons" as "a riveting and horrifying adventure", singling out the fleshy Zygon costumes for particular praise. He drew parallels with a number of historic "Doctor Who" serials, noting that the Zygon story drew on some familiar "Doctor Who" ingredients, including alien invasion ("The Invasion"), "body snatchers" ("The Faceless Ones"), an oil rig setting ("Fury from the Deep"), biomechanical technology ("The Claws of Axos") and the revelation of an ancient Earth legend to be alien in origin ("The Dæmons"). However, he was disparaging of the use of a glove puppet to represent the Loch Ness Monster, comparing it to "the "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" debacle".