My feeling on special effects has always been "Did they do the best they could, with what they had to work with?" With Doctor Who, the answer is generally yes. Silly looking lasers and spaceships are easily overlooked. I just accept it and keep watching.
But then you get the unforgivable bits, like the big perspex cube that covers the disintegration bomb in Planet of the Daleks, absolutely covered with smudgy fingerprints, and you see that nobody could be bothered to wipe the darn thing down with a cloth before they started taping.
Or the stone age hut in The Face of Evil which has a huge bright spotlight reflecting off the bald guy's head.
Or the stagehand sitting behind Sutekh, holding down his seat cushions. These things take me right out of the narrative and into the "what were those goofballs smoking?" zone.
