I want to love "The Web Planet". I came to terms with thinking it was rubbish as a script ages ago but I so badly want to find the entertainment others do in it that I am incapable of finding. I mean, you can only laugh at the worst bee-like costumes in the history of film or television for so long, right? When the ordeal lasts two and a half hours it expectedly gets unbelievably trying to sit through, especially as the 'plot' here is so bewilderingly, bizarrely dull and pointless. For whatever it's worth I actually kind of like the Zarbi design. For 1965 on the BBC it's not horrible. I kind of like the Zarbi in general. Hell, I even like Vortis as a setting. I like the idea of this story much better than the outcome. Luckily, Big Finish productions would exploit the potential this story had in "Return to the Web Planet", an audio drama featuring the Fifth Doctor which is far from great but fairly entertaining.
The first episode here, titled "The Web Planet", is really quite good. Vortis is quite decently realized and a sense of menace builds quite well. It isn't without its moments of cheesiness, but it is more than tolerable, it's enjoyable. I even like the second episode a bit, although it is mediocre, since it is still introductory and decently paced, I suppose. The third episode slips into 'bad' territory but isn't quite 'terrible' yet. Fourth onwards? Really quite unbearable. Just boring. BORING. Unbelievably... boring. Really, really boring. There are very few if any positives about these episodes.
Like the rest of fandom has said: what was Peter Haining thinking?! "The Web Planet" is not the worst "Doctor Who" story of all time thanks to its first two episodes. They make a nice little story with no conclusion. It is really unbelievable that out of all the First Doctor stories, somehow, SOMEHOW, this little 'gem' survived while "Marco Polo" went missing. How unjust is that? I can understand some defending this as entertaining (no, I can't really UNDERSTAND it, but I'll forgive it), but to think there's still people out there who think this is some sort of avant-garde masterpiece? They should try watching this without LSD...
Episode 1: 7/10, Episode 2: 6/10, Episode 3: 4/10, Episode 4: 2/10, Episode 5: 2/10, Episode 6: 2/10.
Average: 3.83/10