History YMMV / DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: This is played with regarding the zoologist Jade McIntyre. She is supposed to be sympathetic and an ally of the Doctor for most of the episode. However, ''she'' is just as responsible as Robertson because she was the one who experimented on the spider and let a live test subject out without fully analysing it when they thought it died. However, she never denies responsibility, unlike Robertson, is clearly horrified about what happened, and tries to fix the mess she accidentally caused.

* AccidentalAesop: If you want to do shady business, [[DoWrongRight make sure that your underlings don’t do a botch job]]. After all, Robertson successfully turned a wasteland into a resort 15 times prior to this episode; it was only when his subcontractors cut corners that things went badly.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Does Robertson also loathe Trump because he disagrees with his politics, or simply because of the personal/business rivalry with the fellow real estate magnate he mentions? [[RealitySubtext It's worth noting]] that many allegedly "liberal" businessmen despise Trump for rather shallow reasons, such as his scandals, and only pay lip service to opposing him while endorsing many of the same business practices (and the politics that allow them) as he does, and are [[HiddenAgendaVillain secretly motivated]] less by getting Trump out of office than making sure actual Progressive Politicians don't get into the White House.
* DesignatedVillain: Jack Robertson shooting the Spider Mother is portrayed as needlessly cruel and cowardly, however, considering how the spider was already dying a slow, agonizing death via suffocation, this seems quicker and less drawn-out. Plus, the Doctor couldn't save her and the Spider Mother killed too many people to warrant any sympathy in the first place. But then again, Mr. Robertson's claim that his murder of the Spider was motivated by mercy is quite clearly BlatantLies.

** Robertson's lack of accountability can be this considering a few years later Creator/ChrisNoth was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

* LesYay: Yaz's mum asks if she and the Doctor are together, and doesn't seem like she'd be against it. For her part, the Doctor actually has to ask if their relationship counts as dating. Later, Yaz tells the Doctor she wants "more time with you. You're like the best person I've ever met."
* {{Narm}}: Jack Robertson is for the most part a chilling take on UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and other {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, but at one point he goes into a massively over-the-top rant about how much he loves guns ("What is ''wrong'' with [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} this country]]!? Why can't you just ''shoot'' things like civilised people!!?") that makes you wonder how they resisted giving him a cowboy hat.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: Robertson is a GunNut and completely unsympathetic, but even if [[RightForTheWrongReasons his reasons are wrong]], his idea of [[MercyKill shooting the spiders]] is certainly way more humane than just [[CruelMercy locking them up and letting them die from starvation or asphyxiation]], as shown by the Spider Queen's obvious agonizing death while scratching the door to get out. His use of the disused mine to dump waste materials is also supposed to be villainous, but it actually comes across as a sensible way of dealing with landfill issues. The issue is with the stuff his contractors put down there, not with the use of the mine in itself.

** If you are an arachnophobe, Robertson can seem like the hero of the story for finally killing the biggest spider when the Doctor is beating around the bush. And even though we’re meant to be aghast that he uses a gun, is it all that different than killing a normal-sized spider with your shoe? Also, the Spider Queen was in obvious pain while suffocating and Robertson was the one portrayed as a psychopathic monster for shooting an already dying spider, which is giving it a quicker, less painful death.
** It's played with when Robertson kills the mother spider. At first it seems like he's putting it out of its misery and saving her from a long and painful death by asphyxiation...then you remember that's not why he's ''actually'' killing her. However, as unpleasant as Robertson is his desire to quickly shoot the spiders is presented as him being a bloodthirsty, bull-headed idiot, rather than having if not the best, still a reasonable response to there being a swarm of monstrous beasts that are killing people on the loose.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: This is played with regarding the zoologist. She is supposed to be sympathetic and an ally of the Doctor for most of the episode. However, ''she'' is just as responsible as Robertson because she was the one who experimented on the spider and let a live test subject out without fully analysing it when they thought it died. However, she never denies responsibility, unlike Robertson, is clearly horrified about what happened, and tries to fix the mess she accidentally caused.

* AccidentalAesop: If you want to do shady business, make sure that your underlings don’t do a botch job. After all, Robertson successfully turned a wasteland into a resort 15 times, but it was only when his subcontractors cut corners that things went badly.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: References to Music/EdSheeran, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and Music/{{Stormzy}} are textbook examples of this, especially given the revival era's previous policy of InvisiblePresident, although that policy was also broken in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", when UsefulNotes/BarackObama was shown in name and person as President of the United States. The Monk Trilogy in the previous series also invoked Donald Trump, if not by name.

* DesignatedVillain: Jack Robertson shooting the Spider Mother is portrayed as needlessly cruel and cowardly, however, considering how the spider was already dying a slow, agonizing death via suffocation, this seems quicker and less drawn-out. Plus, the Doctor couldn't save her and the Spider Mother killed too many people to warrant any sympathy in the first place.

* AcceptableTargets: Trump, polluting mega-corporations and gun-happy Americans get more than a good poke in this episode.

* FridgeHorror:
** Not only are the spiders going to keep growing, they're all stuck in one confined place now, so they're all going to grow to the point where they can't fit the room and will either be suffocated by the size or by other spiders. Not only that, but spiders are also known to commit cannibalism when their food supplies are low by eating smaller, weaker spiders. [[CruelMercy "Humane death" indeed]].
** There's also another question, how many spiders are there? There were at least two spiders outside the hotel: one on Graham's attic and one inside Yaz's neighbour's apartment. One dreads to think if these things have bred outside.

** The idea of the Thirteenth Doctor going up against deadly mutant spiders becomes a lot harsher to think about after an incident where Jodie Whittaker was almost killed by a South African sac spider during the filming of Series 12.
** At one point, Jade tells the Trump-expy "You don't know anything. You just avoid taking any responsibility." A little over a year later, the real President Trump infamously declared "I don't take responsibility at all" for the deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic.
** Robertson's lack of accountability can be this considering a few years later the actor Chris Noth was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

* {{Narm}}: Jack Robertson is for the most part a chilling take on Donald Trump and other {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, but at one point he goes into a massively over-the-top rant about how much he loves guns ("What is ''wrong'' with [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} this country]]!? Why can't you just ''shoot'' things like civilised people!!?") that makes you wonder how they resisted giving him a cowboy hat.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: References to Music/EdSheeran, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and Music/{{Stormzy}} are textbook examples of this, especially given the revival era’s previous policy of InvisiblePresident, although that policy was also broken in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", when UsefulNotes/BarackObama was shown in name and person as President of the United States. The Monk Trilogy in the previous series also invoked Donald Trump, if not by name.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: References to Music/EdSheeran, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and Music/{{Stormzy}} are textbook examples of this, especially given the revival era’s previous policy of InvisiblePresident, although that policy was also broken in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", when UsefulNotes/BarackObama was shown in name and person as President of the United States.

* HarsherInHindsight: The idea of the Thirteenth Doctor going up against deadly mutant spiders becomes a lot harsher to think about after an incident where Jodie Whittaker was almost killed by a South African sac spider during the filming of Series 12.

** Not only are the spiders going to keep growing, they're all stuck in one confined place now, so they're all going to grow to the point where they can't fit the room and will either be suffocated by the size or by other spiders. [[CruelMercy "Humane death" indeed]].

* DesignatedVillain: Jack Robertson shooting the Spider Mother is portrayed as needlessly cruel and cowardly, however, considering how the spider was already dying a slow, agonizing death via suffocation, this seems quicker and less drawn-out. Plus, the Doctor couldn't save her and the Spider Queen killed too many people to warrant any sympathy in the first place.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Robertson is a GunNut and completely unsympathetic, but even if [[RightForTheWrongReasons his reasons are wrong]], his idea of [[MercyKill shooting the spiders]] is certainly way more humane than just [[CruelMercy locking them up and letting them die from starvation or asphyxiation]]. His use of the disused mine to dump waste materials is also supposed to be villainous, but it actually comes across as a sensible way of dealing with landfill issues. The issue is with the stuff his contractors put down there, not with the use of the mine in itself.

** If you are an arachnophobe, Robertson can seem like the hero of the story for finally killing the biggest spider when the Doctor is beating around the bush. And even though we’re meant to be aghast that he uses a gun, is it all that different than killing a normal-sized spider with your shoe?
** It's played with when Robertson kills the mother spider. At first it seems like he's putting it out of it's misery and saving her from a long and painful death by asphyxiation...then you remember that's not why he's ''actually'' killing her. However, as unpleasant as Robertson is his desire to quickly shoot the spiders is presented as him being a bloodthirsty, bull-headed idiot, rather than having if not the best, still a reasonable response to there being a swarm of monstrous beasts that are killing people on the loose.

** Not only are the spiders going to keep growing, they're all stuck in one confined place now, so they're all going to grow to the point where they can't fit the room and will either be suffocated by the size or by other spiders. "Humane death" indeed.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Robertson is a GunNut and completely unsympathetic, but even if [[RightForTheWrongReasons his reasons are wrong]], his idea of [[MercyKill shooting the spiders]] is certainly way more humane than just locking them up and letting them die from starvation or asphyxiation. His use of the disused mine to dump waste materials is also supposed to be villainous, but it actually comes across as a sensible way of dealing with landfill issues. The issue is with the stuff his contractors put down there, not with the use of the mine in itself.

* HilariousinHindsight: A billionaire running against Trump out of a grudge instead of a want to help the county, sounds like Michael Bloomberg