This episode was watched by 8.3 million viewers on its original transmission, which was the highest rating for the season and the only episode of the season to get over 8 million viewers. This wasn't due to the serial necessarily being better than the previous ones that season, but because the BBC's rival network, ITV, had finished showing the first season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) in the same timeslot which thus allowed Doctor Who's ratings to recover to some extent.