Reviewing "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", Tat Wood described it as "a story with so much going "right"" and a sign of how he believed the show had improved since its mid-1980s period. Noting how difficult the story had been to film, he stated "it was worth it. This is everything "Doctor Who" should be." In "The Discontinuity Guide", Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping said: "The ideas in this, one of the most iconic stories, are very imaginative and the direction is psychedelic."