This is Peter Davison's favourite serial from his time starring as the Doctor. He particularly enjoyed the script by veteran Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes and he enjoyed working with the director Graeme Harper. Davison said Harper brought "pace" and "energy" to the programme, as well as directing it "far more filmically than it had ever been done before". Davison has frequently expressed his displeasure with the directors on the series and even claimed on the DVD commentary for Mawdryn Undead that Harper was the first director in his era who "moved the story along, in terms of directing it, with a kind of pace".
This was voted by fans as the second greatest Doctor Who serial in Outpost Gallifrey's poll in 2003 to celebrate 40 years of the series. It was beaten to first place on that occasion by another Robert Holmes story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part One (1977). In 2009, The Caves of Androzani was voted the greatest story ever in a poll by Doctor Who Magazine out of 200 episodes, even beating episodes of the much lauded and more expensive revival Doctor Who (2005).
It was rumoured by the fan press that the story would be called "The Doctor's Wife". This was how John Nathan-Turner had listed the adventure on his planning board, in order to substantiate his long-held suspicion that somebody in the production office was leaking information about upcoming stories.
Eric Saward added the scene where The Doctor explains to Peri why he wears a celery stick. It is due to an allergic condition - with the "Praxsis spectrum" gases which the celery detects actually named after the Praxis typewriter Saward used.
Christopher Gable was fourth choice for Sharez Jek, after David Bowie, Tim Curry and Oliver Tobias had been asked. Even if they could have afforded him, Bowie would not have been available anyway because he was on his "Serious Moonlight" tour at the time of recording. Other rock legends including Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey were also considered.