 Gavin Fuller of "The Daily Telegraph" gave the episode four out of five stars, praising MacRae's ability to overcome budget issues and deliver "quite a powerful and moving drama, with an ending that although inevitable still delivered a well of sadness".He thought the older Amy's "technical wizardry seemed a tad unlikely" (she manages to scrounge up a sonic screwdriver while waiting for the Doctor) but "the power of Gillan's performance skated over any minor quibbles".In a review for "The Independent", Neela Debnath said that "critics of the constant tampering with time will not like this episode" but "it is a cracker in terms of time paradoxes and the hypothetical moral dilemmas caused by said paradoxes".