History YMMV / DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet

* CriticalDissonance: The serial was immensely popular when it aired - four of its episodes still in the top twenty most-watched ''Doctor Who'' episodes '''ever''', it was the subject of the third ever novelisation, and it got a sequel in ''TV Comic'' just weeks after airing. These days, it features in the bottom quarter of ''Doctor Who Magazine'''s 2009 and 2014 fan polls. Critics tend to be even-handed, criticising the slow plot while loving the mad ambition and absolute ''strangeness'' of the whole thing. Creator/PeterCapaldi recalled watching it as a child and being captivated by it.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: It was well liked in 1965, but the pacing and special effects did not age so well, and can make the episode unpalatable to modern audiences.

** Mostly in regards to the insect Halloween-costume getups and ridiculous mannerisms of the bee-like Menoptera and grub-like Optera as well as the enemy Zarbi, who look like giant ants with a single pair of human legs and two pairs of useless ant legs and make siren noises at each other. Also, one of the Menoptera constantly calls Ian "Heron" for no apparent reason (they also tend to refer to Barbara as "Arbara", though this sounds ''way'' less ridiculous).

** The Animus and the Menoptera are better-looking, but the Menoptera's wings, which look striking when stationary, rustle in a plasticy way when they move them, and the Animus is obviously just a bunch of hoses glued to a hula-hoop like structure and hung off the ceiling with wire.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The general line in fan analysis is that the story is a RedScare allegory, because it's about the Zarbi workers rising up against their Menoptera masters. But it's a really big reach -- there's no absolutely no indication the Zarbi are any more intelligent than farm animals, and even though the monster in the story has the power to control gold it doesn't work in any way analogous to any kind of economic system, which seems like it'd be a no-brainer for an anti-communism story. Maybe it's just a PlanetaryRomance {{Xenofiction}} runaround with pretty butterfly people fighting the ant people? Not only that, but if you do approach the story as an anti-Communist parable, it says that [[ArtisticLicenseHistory the workers were totally content until an evil outside force stirred them up]] and expects us to root for aristocrats who compare the working class to cattle. A flaw in this analysis however is that the Zarbi are never shown to be anything more then animals, and there is no indication that they were exploited by the Menoptera before the Animus' takeover.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The general line in fan analysis is that the story is a RedScare allegory, because it's about the Zarbi workers rising up against their Menoptera masters. But it's a really big reach -- there's no absolutely no indication the Zarbi are any more intelligent than farm animals, and even though the monster in the story has the power to control gold it doesn't work in any way analogous to any kind of economic system, which seems like it'd be a no-brainer for an anti-communism story. Maybe it's just a PlanetaryRomance {{Xenofiction}} runaround with pretty butterfly people fighting the ant people? Not only that, but if you do approach the story as an anti-Communist parable, it says that [[ArtisticLicenseHistory the workers were totally content until an evil outside force stirred them up]] and expects us to root for aristocrats who compare the working class to cattle. A flaw in this analysis however is that the Zarbi are never shown to be anything more then animals, and there is no indication that they were explotied by the Menoptera before the Animus' takeover.

** Oh lord. Mostly in regards to the insect Halloween-costume getups and ridiculous mannerisms of the bee-like Menoptera and grub-like Optera as well as the enemy Zarbi, who look like giant ants with a single pair of human legs and two pairs of useless ant legs and make siren noises at each other. Also, one of the Menoptera constantly calls Ian "Heron" for no apparent reason (they also tend to refer to Barbara as "Arbara", though this sounds ''way'' less ridiculous).

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: It was well liked in 1965, but is downright laughable today.

** The Zarbi would look rubbish even if they didn't have two obviously human legs in trousers and shoes sticking out of the bottom and even if they didn't constantly make incredibly synthetic beeping noises.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The general line in fan analysis is that the story is a RedScare allegory, because it's about the Zarbi workers rising up against their Menoptera masters. But it's a really big reach -- there's no absolutely no indication the Zarbi are any more intelligent than farm animals, and even though the monster in the story has the power to control gold it doesn't work in any way analogous to any kind of economic system, which seems like it'd be a no-brainer for an anti-communism story. Maybe it's just a PlanetaryRomance {{Xenofiction}} runaround with pretty butterfly people fighting the ant people? Not only that, but if you do approach the story as an anti-Communist parable, it says that [[ArtisticLicenseHistory the workers were totally content until an evil outside force stirred them up]] and expects us to root for aristocrats who compare the working class to cattle.

* CriticalDissonance: The serial was immensely popular when it aired, with four of its episodes still in the top twenty most-watched ''Doctor Who'' episodes '''ever''', and it was the subject of the third novelisation. These days, it features in the bottom quarter of ''Doctor Who Magazine'''s 2009 and 2014 fan polls. Critics tend to be even-handed, criticising the slow plot while loving the mad ambition and absolute ''strangeness'' of the whole thing. Creator/PeterCapaldi recalled watching it as a child and being captivated by it.

** The tube-like structures the Animus uses to communicate with the Doctor are supposed to look like webs, but instead are just clear plastic drums with some web stuff glued on them -- {{Lampshaded}} when the Doctor calls one a 'silly hairdryer thing'. Attempts were made to obscure the lousy special effects by [[GaussianGirl greasing the camera within an inch of its life]], and it doesn't work.

** The Zarbi would look rubbish even if they didn't have two obviously human legs in trousers and shoes sticking out of the bottom and even if they didn't constantly make incredibly synthetic beeping noises. The Larvae Guns are fringed with rags. The Animus and the Menoptera are better-looking, but the Menoptera's wings, which look striking when stationary, rustle in a plasticy way when they move them, and the Animus is obviously just a bunch of hoses glued to a hula-hoop like structure and hung off the ceiling with wire. The tube-like structures the Animus uses to communicate with the Doctor are supposed to look like webs, but instead are just clear plastic drums with some web stuff glued on them -- {{Lampshaded}} when the Doctor calls one a 'silly hairdryer thing'. Attempts were made to obscure the lousy special effects by [[GaussianGirl greasing the camera within an inch of its life]], and it doesn't work. On the plus side, the WireFu flight of the Menoptera is extremely convincing thanks to some clever camera angle trickery and the graceful motions of the actors.
** The Zarbi also suffer from the fact that the costumes were so delicate that the Doctor and Ian couldn't actually touch most parts of the costume when fighting them, which both actors said made the job unbearably hard. This led to a lot of FightSceneFailure -- for instance, in a scene where Ian fights the Zarbi, he does a weird manoeuvre where he drops to his back and kicks it away with both legs, simply to ensure he could drop a controlled blow on it at the one point he knew wouldn't fall off (the Zarbi's torso). On top of that, many of the actors playing the Zarbi developed back problems as a result of the uncomfortable costumes and the way they forced them to move. Creator/TheBBC even had to have special stools made for them.