The Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright materialize on the petrified planet Skaro, having their mercury fluid link confiscated by the metal city's robotic inhabitants. Nation contrasts the militaristic, xenophobic Daleks—trapped in metallic travel casings dependent on static electricity from metal floors—with the blonde, beautiful, pacifist Thals. The serial explores the limits of neutrality: Ian and Barbara must actively persuade the pacifist Thals that survival against an exterminating foe requires armed self-defense. The First Doctor, initially depicted as cynical, evasive, and self-interested, is compelled to take a moral stand.

Nation's script described the creatures as legless mutants encased in machinery, but BBC staff designer Raymond Cusick solved the physical reality on a shoestring budget. Cusick rejected conventional humanoid monster suits, opting for an unearthly tripartite structure: a domed head with a rotating eyestalk and flashing indicator lights; a midsection equipped with a telescopic manipulator arm (the famous rubber suction cup plunger) and an energy ray gun; and a fluted, sloping skirt studded with sensory hemispheres. The apocryphal legend that Cusick took inspiration from a pepper pot was debunked by Cusick himself, who explained that he used a pepper pot purely to demonstrate to Nation and Lambert how the creature would glide smoothly without stepping.

The Dalek's terrifying identity was completed through audio performance. Actors Peter Hawkins and David Graham performed the dialogue live in the studio, using an erratic, staccato delivery with hysterical rising pitch. Their vocal signals were fed in real time through a ring modulator designed by Brian Hodgson and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The resulting harsh, metallic, oscillating drone severed all vocal warmth, creating a sound instantly recognizable and deeply terrifying to children and adults alike.

Nation, who lived through the Cardiff Blitz as a child in the 1940s, explicitly modeled the Daleks on Nazi totalitarianism. Their obsession with absolute racial conformity, total eradication of biological difference, and systematic militarism mirrored the fascist machinery of the Second World War. By stripping the creatures of human expression, Nation turned the Dalek into an enduring metaphor for ideological fanaticism devoid of reason or empathy.

In November 1964, Nation penned a monumental six-part sequel that liberated the Daleks from Skaro and brought them to a conquered, future London. With paratransit saucers hovering above Trafalgar Square and Daleks emerging from the River Thames by Westminster Bridge, the serial evoked visual imagery of the Nazi Blitz and occupation. It also introduced Robomen—human slaves lobotomized and controlled via radio headsets—cementing the Daleks as an overt metaphor for post-war European totalitarian fascism.

The term "Dalekmania" entered national headlines. Toy manufacturer Louis Marx produced millions of battery-operated and friction-drive plastic Daleks; Cherilea made miniature soldiers and Dalek sets; Walter Tuckwell managed explosive licensing encompassing Dalek annuals, bubble gum cards, playsuits, sweets, and comic books in TV Century 21. Nation gained immense personal wealth and creative freedom, allowing him to operate as a freelance dramatist rather than a salaried studio staffer.

Amicus Productions (operating as AARU Productions) acquired film rights from Nation and the BBC, producing two lavish Technicolor, widescreen feature films: Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). Starring Peter Cushing as the eccentric human scientist "Dr. Who" and Roy Castle or Bernard Cribbins as comical companions, the films boasted rebuilt, wider Dalek props with towering illuminated dome lights and fire extinguisher carbon dioxide blasts, introducing the monsters to international cinematic audiences.

Nation escalated the scale of Dalek warfare in The Chase (1965), where Daleks pursue the TARDIS across space and time, culminating in a clash with the robotic Mechonoids on the planet Mechanus. Later that year, Nation co-scripted the titanic 12-part epic The Daleks' Master Plan with Dennis Spooner. Featuring the Time Destructor weapon and the tragic death of companion Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh), the serial marked the absolute zenith of 1960s television space opera.

Sent by the Time Lords to avert or alter the Daleks' creation, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) materialize in the trenches of a thousand-year war of attrition between the Kaleds and the Thals. Nation strips away all cosmic romance, presenting barbed wire, gas masks, radiation mutations, and a brutal fascist military government in the Kaled bunker that mirrors the Third Reich.

Nation introduced Davros, the megalomaniacal Chief Scientist of the Kaled Scientific Elite. Paralyzed and confined to a mobile life-support chair modeled on the Dalek lower skirt, Davros deliberately speeds up the genetic mutations of his race, stripping out all pity, remorse, and affection, declaring hatred to be the only survival trait. Performed with terrifying, whispered intensity by Michael Wisher through a rubber prosthetic mask sculpted by John Friedlander, Davros provided the Daleks with a philosophical voice and personal foil for the Doctor.

The moral climax of the serial occurs when the Doctor holds two touching electrical wires that would detonate explosives to destroy the Dalek incubation chamber. Pausing, he asks: "If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil... could you then kill that child?" This philosophical hesitation elevates the drama from pulp adventure to serious moral inquiry: to commit genocide even against monsters risks becoming monstrous oneself.

In Nation's final script for Doctor Who, Destiny of the Daleks (1979), the Daleks return to Skaro to exhume Davros (now played by David Gooderson) to break a military stalemate against the android Movellans. Both factions possess perfectly logical combat computers that constantly anticipate each other's moves, resulting in tactical paralysis. Nation uses the standoff to celebrate organic fallibility and improvisation over cold mechanical calculation.

In an extraordinary display of creative stamina, Terry Nation solo-scripted every single episode of Series A (13 episodes, broadcast 2 January to 27 March 1978). Directed by Pennant Roberts, Vere Lorrimer, and Michael E. Briant, the first series charts Roj Blake's framing on manufactured child molestation charges, his transport aboard the prison barge London, the escape during an alien assault, the acquisition of the abandoned super-ship Liberator, and the assembly of seven reluctant outlaws.

Roj Blake is not an idealized cinematic savior like Luke Skywalker; he is a driven, increasingly fanatic political zealot whose absolute belief in his righteous crusade blinds him to the collateral damage of his rebellion. As the war against the Federation intensifies, Blake risks the lives of his crew to destroy Federation communications centers and military computers, transitioning from victimized freedom fighter to a dangerous military commander obsessed with victory at any cost.

In computer fraudster and master hacker Kerr Avon, actor Paul Darrow and script editor Chris Boucher created television's definitive anti-hero. Avon openly confesses that he cares nothing for Blake's revolution, Freedom, or social justice; his goals are personal wealth, control of the Liberator, and survival. Yet Avon repeatedly rescues Blake and the crew through cold, brilliant tactical logic. His dry, sardonic banter with Blake, Vila, and the supercomputer Orac redefined science-fiction dialogue into Shakespearean wit and psychological dread.

The Federation was brought to vivid, decadent life through Jacqueline Pearce's iconic portrayal of Supreme Commander Servalan. Clad in glamorous white silk and flowing evening gowns while executing generals and ruthlessly orchestrating galactic coups, Servalan subverted every sci-fi villain cliché. Beside her stood Space Commander Travis (played with scarred, sadistic ferocity by Stephen Greif and later Brian Croucher), an unhinged military hound whose personal vendetta against Blake reflected the Federation's underlying savagery.

In Series B (1979), the quest to destroy Star One (the Federation's centralized climate and control computer) leads to a devastating intergalactic alien invasion. Gareth Thomas and Sally Knyvette departed at the conclusion of Series B. In Series C (1980), Avon took de facto command, joined by weapons designer Dayna Mellanby (Josette Simon) and Federation officer-turned-rebel Del Tarrant (Steven Pacey). The season concluded with the shocking destruction of the beloved alien vessel Liberator by fluid corrosive spores. In Series D (1981), the battered crew relocated to a planetary hideout on Xenon, operating from the cramped, unglamorous transport Scorpio alongside cynical mercenary Soolin (Glynis Barber) and the computer Slave.

On 21 December 1981, Blake's 7 aired "Blake", written by Chris Boucher. Tracking Blake to the lawless frontier planet Gauda Prime, Avon discovers his former leader posing as a bounty hunter. Consumed by paranoia and feeling betrayed, Avon asks Blake if he has sold out to the Federation; when Blake smiles ambiguously and explains he was testing him, Avon fatally shoots Blake point-blank in the chest. Federation troopers commanded by Servalan burst into the room and open fire, gunning down Tarrant, Vila, Dayna, and Soolin in brutal succession. The series ends with Avon standing alone over Blake's corpse, surrounded by Federation lasers, slowly raising his weapon and smiling as the screen cuts to black over gunshots and radio static—the bleakest, most shocking finale in British television history.