Within the first three stories of a TV series, the tone and overall scope of the series is standardized.
Also, the primary (or secondary) recurring adversary will make its appearance by the second story.
On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we were introduced to magic and witches, which rose to prominence slowly over time. On Ultraman, the alien Baltan was introduced.
And on Doctor Who, he first encountered the Daleks.
Of all the monsters and foes, the Doctor has been defined in part by his enemies. The Joker to his Batman (who was introduced along with Catwoman in the second appearance of the character). They are a menace that, despite their simplistic appearance, have frightened children for decades.
How did a pepper pot with a toilet bowl plunger and egg whisk for arms manage to do that?
For this, I basically went through what are considered the best Dalek stories, among them: Power of the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Dalek and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.
Biology
Daleks can bed be described as Nazi Stephen Hawking in their own personal tanks. They have been alluded to be at least partly cybernetic, usually called “machine creatures”. They were once humanoid beings called “Kaleds”, but thanks to a millennial-long war, they began to mutate. A scientist, Davros, accelerated the mutation to a stable form and created a war machine for it to traverse the universe. Thus the Daleks were born.
Their actual form is, well, disgusting. Like it should be screaming “Why am I alive?!” rather than its typical battle cry. Like an octopus with a deformed human face, the Daleks have several tentacles of varying length, two eyes and a large brain. They subsist on the energy the machine provides them, and it is almost part of them.
The softball sized aliens are basically cruise around in their own hover-tanks. The oft-mentioned ‘weakness to stairs’ was more an FX/technology limit of the show rather than that of the Daleks. This is because they were never shown to climb stairs, but would be shown approaching them, then leaving them.
The tank itself is rather heavily armored (pre-time war upgrade, an anti-tank shell was needed to destroy just one). One arm was the aforementioned plunger (which apparently can conform to contours and grasp things) and the other a “Dalek Gun”. This gun is a direct energy weapon which, given how rarely it damages neutral substances and how it ignores protective body coverings/armor and creates an X-ray effect (or photo-negative effect in older stories) in a victim, I suspect it to be a gamma ray burst of some type, or at least primarily. How else can we explain how people glow green/blue and come down with sudden cases of “ACTING!” before falling down.
I tease only because I love.
These implements have many modes. One story from the First Doctor’s run (The Daleks Master Plan), had the Daleks emit a flamethrower from the sucker arm.
The Dalek creatures are extremely intelligent, at least as in so far as mathematically and knowledge wise. They do make mistakes – otherwise, they’d win and the show would end. They are also rather good at manipulating emotions, even though the only one they have is hate. They have the cold thinking of a machine, but all the hatred a living thing can muster.
The actors in the Dalek machines have commented that after being in the shells for a long period of time, one starts to understand just how angry the Daleks are.
Despite their belief in their own superiority, there have been upgrades and variations over time. Including a civil war amongst themselves, leading to the creation of the Special Weapons Dalek, which is just a Dalek with a different chassis and bigger gun.
A lot of the differences among them amount to more of a cast system. With a differently colored Dalek being a field leader (black or gold depending on whichever point in time the story occurs), beneath the giant Emperor Dalek or a Supreme Dalek. Often, they work underneath their creator Davros, who was actually initially killed by them after he created them. This lead to a civil war amongst them as he made “Imperial Daleks” to serve him directly, which lead to the aforementioned civil war.
They may have a caste system, but deviations from it were not looked upon very well. The others Daleks were simply labeled “Renegades”, followed the Supreme Dalek. With such a long running (largely low budget) series, it’s no wonder there’s a bit of confusion in terminology. With the revived series, the Daleks are a bit more uniform at first but with distinct casts and duties they were bred for (IE: Soldier, scientist). They serve the emperor (or Davros), but there is also the Cult of Skaro (Daleks with more freedom to think creatively) who serve as a secret council from behind the scenes.
Their last appearance before being upgraded into Power Rangers for Matt Smith’s Doctor also re-introduced a new Supreme Dalek operating under Davros. How time does change.
Symbolism
They are Nazis, plain and simple. As originally conceived, they were direct allegories of the Nazis. Men literally exaggerated into a deadly caricature. They believed themselves to be the supreme race in the universe, and all inferior life forms had to die, simply because they were not Daleks. Their primary battle cry harkens to the most horrific of all the Nazi’s goals: “exterminate” rings in the ear. They even have their own personal panzers to drive around in.
“This is not war. This is pest control. . . You are superior in only one respect. . . You are better at dying.”
They are creatures without conscience. No sense of right or wrong. No pity. No remorse. No other emotion except hate. There is only the supremacy of the Daleks, and the hatred of all other life forms.
“Pity? We do not know the meaning of the word. It is not in our vocabulary banks. EXTERMINATE!”
That little nugget comes from Genesis of the Daleks and was said to their creator.
Then there’s the voice. I love it. It is pure evil and wrong, expressing its unnatural nature. When they attempt to play nice with other beings, they take on a softer tone, but it’s still horrible. This is on display in Dalek and Power of the Daleks. They aren’t just genocidal maniacs. They’re smart and manipulative. They still speak crisp and briskly with a voice that’s just this side of madness. It bubbles underneath the surface, and with each just barely masking its hate. Once the floodgates are open, the harshness flows freely.
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This harshness in tone as well as their single minded drive is what really ups the fear factor. The inhuman shape almost comes as an afterthought. Though for decades the idea of some unknown, horrible mutant living inside the Dalek certainly fueled nightmares. Daleks have stuck around alongside the doctor for decades, perhaps a century if things can continue on into the future. Reminding all of what mankind once did, and what men can become with hate.
There’s only one way to close out this analysis: referencing the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
