This story also features, somewhat surprisingly, Daleks. Indeed, they have lost their guns due to an issue removing their power, forcing them to forgo their energy weapons and find some other way of surviving through an uneasy alliance with the humans who are also trapped on the planet. This is a fantastic idea, as it takes away the extermination from the Daleks and forces them to be more cunning (although thanks to being written by Terry Nation, cunning here means loudly stating your plan to the rest of the Daleks).
However, almost immediately, the Daleks find a work-around, using traditional projectile weapons instead of the energy beam, thus removing all of the tension that was set up in the first few minutes of the episode. But here, we have another piece of interest for the Daleks. They now have power but cannot use it without revealing themselves. It forces them to be stealthy, and to hide their true nature until they are ready for a full attack.
A full attack that comes later in the episode, thus squandering this plot development as well. Nation apparently had strong ideas about what the Daleks were and weren't, and that he was the only writer who really 'got' the Daleks. But to be honest, he really doesn't and it's a brutal shame to see all of these fascinating opportunities for the Daleks ruined through some incredibly poor writing.
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