I've never seen it, but even if I was the world's biggest fan of Planet of the Spiders, I'm not sure I'd find much to enjoy in Worldwide Web. Like its predecessor, it's very rarely outright bad... but it is often dull. The characters continue to be ciphers operating at the whims of an increasingly complicated plot. The human characters keep on being de- and rehypnotized left, right, and center, leaving little time for interesting character development. The spiders' plan is a little convoluted, and it's only made worse by some tedious infighting within the spider race-- though that only seems to happen when it's convenient to the plot. Our heroes need a way in, so they parlay with the rebels. The Great One needs a reason to rush her plan, so the rebels force her hand. It doesn't feel like a natural development at all. It also seems odd that such emphasis has been placed on the stellar manipulator when in the end it never even attempts to manipulate a star; it seems to largely be a big battery. And heaven for some reason? I dunno. By that point, I wasn’t really all that heavily involved anymore. (I do have to admit, however, that I liked the explanation for how the stellar manipulator had gotten to Earth from Orbis-- that was clever.)

At the end of the story, the Doctor and Lucie decide to head off to a distant corner of the universe to take care of something important... and then promptly set the co-ordinates for Blackpool for no apparent reason. It’s the last unsatisfying moment in what has been a thoroughly unsatisfying conclusion to this season of the NEDAs. (The theme music was a blessed relief after the overlong set of ending scenes. Indeed, I found myself enjoying the theme. I know it hasn’t changed and it’s still godawful, so the only rational explanation is that I've come down with Stockholm Syndrome.) The story was rarely out-and-out bad, but it was certainly hard to care about it to any real degree. It's all the more disappointing because Eddie Robson can usually be depended on for something far more interesting. This just wasn't it.

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.

The season finale, by Eddie Robson, takes Lucie and the Doctor to near-future London where I have to admit that I was pleased and delighted by the revelation at the end of the first part of who the baddies actually were (though the titles of the plays contain pretty good clues). That was the best bit of it, unfortunately; yet another religious cult turns out to be brainwashing people for alien invasion, and the Doctor and Lucie spend a lot of time running around being imprisoned and attacked. Poor Stephen Moore, as the displaced cult leader, sounded more and more like Marvin as his lines got less and less interesting. ( )