Terry Nation has brilliance in him - but this is not brilliant. Whilst not without merit, this is pretty boring/ average Doctor Who in the shape of a boy's adventure tale. I loved The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth but since then I've been disappointed with Nations' The Chase and The Daleks' Master Plan which seemed to wander aimlessly. Then The Planet of the Daleks and this, Death to the Daleks which have both have good moments but quite a plain generic flavour (to my tastes). I am still waiting for Nation's triumphant return.

I was particularly disappointed with Sarah Jane's depiction in this story. Her first two adventures introduce her as a professional journalist with a strong will, more of an equal to The Doctor than Jo Grant. Here she is a wet pushover, there to scream and ask questions - what a shame.

The unique aspect of the story which worked was the power drainage that was felt throughout the planet. The holidaymakers/ power cut scene in the TARDIS at the beginning of episode one was beautifully shot and refreshingly different - it was nice to see the lighting played around with so effectively. The Dalek guns as an alternative for their usual weapons was another brilliant consequence of this concept.

The Exxilons are dreadfully boring creatures without any defining features - they are bland and uninspiring. The "nice" one was embarrassingly overacted, mawkish and had bizarre movements making it impossible to get into the story. The "bad" ones left less of a negative impact - but they felt like they were just filling screen time chasing our heroes. Does anyone love these creatures? Also, side note, when the Exxilon is on fire and in that pond, why did it not extinguish the flames before dying? It decided to stay stood up and burn to death - completely bizarre.

I liked that the guest human characters had to make tough decisions and as a viewer we are left to decide how moral the individual's actions are. I wish this moral complexity was visible elsewhere in the script.

This was not the first story to include tasks which our heroes to navigate in order to get to the next stage. These tasks do not translate to TV well at all - they are disinteresting and as dull as dishwater.

I didn't hate this story, but I just cannot feel the passion in Nation's writing which was so clearly visible in his initial 1960s Dalek adventures.