Nyder

 Name: Nyder

 Format: Television Show and Audio

 Time of Origin: Skaro, distant past

 Appearances: "Genesis of the Daleks" and " I, Davros: Guilt"

 Doctors: Fourth Doctor

 Companions: Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan

 History: Although he only appeared once, Nyder is distinctive in that he is the closest thing to a friend that Davros, creator of the Daleks, has ever been shown to have; anyone else he has spent any time working with since Nyder’s death was either betrayed or tried to kill Davros (With the obvious exception of The Doctor, who never really wanted to kill Davros directly even if he genuinely hated him).

Genesis of the Daleks

 Nyder met Davro when he was a lieutenant assigned to recover Davros after he was captured by a Thal platoon, although Nyder was already familiar with Davros’s scientific reputation and had a high opinion of his work. After Nyder saved Davros’s life during the mission with his quick elimination of a Thal spy who had captured Davros, Davros suggested that Nyder join his team, noting that he could use a man of Nyder’s talents. Nyder’s loyalty was so great that he considered Davros the only person who could be trusted to do what was necessary to ensure the purity of the Kaled race. Nyder subsequently assisted in Davros’s efforts to eliminate the council that hampered his attempts to harness the power of evolution to influence the form that the Kaleds would become, helping Davros fake an accident so that the council could be eliminated and allow Davros to take charge to complete his experiments. Nyder was even present at the moment when Davros completed the Mark 1 travel machine using the brain of a Thal spy, Nyder remaining armed to ensure that the creature’s aggressive nature didn’t prompt it to attack Davros.

 Serving as Davros’s main assistant, Nyder’s role in Davros’s life was to attend to meetings that Davros couldn’t attend himself to arrange supply requisitions and other such matters, as well as the more direct role of helping Davros reach things that his physical condition prevented him from reaching on his own. Although Nyder preferred a direct approach due to his military background, he also maintained a network of spies which reached even into the Kaled high council, allowing him to be alerted to the Fourth Doctor’s attempts to warn the Kaled council about Davros’s plan when he and his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan were sent into the past to prevent or delay the development of the Daleks.

Genesis of the Daleks

His loyalty to Davros was so great that Nyder willingly participated in Davros’s plan to betray the Kaled ruling council so that Davros could ensure the success of the Dalek race, even after hearing The Doctor’s warnings of the death and destruction that the Daleks would cause in the future. Despite his usual loyalty to Davros, Nyder was briefly forced to betray his ‘master’ when The Doctor, Sarah and Harry forced him to help them recover a recording that Davros had forced The Doctor to make detailing future Dalek defeats, The Doctor correctly deducing that Nyder would have had to put the tape in the safe as Davros couldn’t reach it.

 Although Davros’s plans to eliminate the Council and begin mass production of the Daleks were successful despite The Doctor’s best efforts, Nyder was finally killed when the Daleks began to exert their independence from Davros and the Kaled population, being one of the first Kaleds shot when the Dalek rebellion began. Although Davros survived the attack in a state of suspended animation when his life-support systems powered down to the bare minimum until he was reactivated by The Doctor and the robotic Movelleans ("Destiny of the Daleks"), Nyder was simply killed by Davros’s creations.

 Despite his repeated returns to life and continued attempts to rise to power, Davros has never managed to find a ‘replacement’ for Nyder, his only true allies after he was brought out of stasis being various Daleks that he had reprogrammed to be loyal to him, while any human allies he acquired were either deceived by Davros into thinking that he would help them or attempting to use Davros for their own ends.