Clue # 3 In this episode, people are incapacitated by various means. There is the aforementioned mechanical tool used as a primitive weapon, and it goes without saying that some old fashioned hand-to-hand techniques are used sporadically to take out a couple of more people. Then there is another person who is incapacitated by yet another means. A very sneaky and snake-like method is used - still an old method, but injected into this future setting. There are other methods too which go beyond even these, and yet are fundamentally non-futuristic.
Basically, we end up with several methods being used to incapacitate many people without the need of phasers, disruptors, lasers, photon torpedoes or other sci-fi gadgetry. A story set in our times or even well into the past could use all of these methods without being unrealistic.