Dave Martin collaborated with Bob Baker on eight Doctor Who scripts, creating Omega and K9. They also produced short animations for  Vision On, a highly visual television show indented to appeal to deaf children. Aardman Animations was founded to create filmed pieces for this series, and Baker remains their principal script writer. Martin also wrote for police dramas Hunter's Walk and Z Cars, and was the story editor for the historical drama Pretenders.

Martin was criticized for his ambivalent attitude to science in his scripts, which tended to proceed from a dramatic premise using jargon to justify the story rather than implications of current research. In 1975 they wrote the series Sky for HTV (now ITV Wales and West Ltd), featuring the same high concept and jargonistic approach to science. It has been rumored this has been either destroyed or damaged beyond transmission quality. In the 1981 HTV series Into the Labyrinth they dropped all pretense of scientific explanations.

Dave Martin's last known interview was for a forthcoming DVD release. He was diagnosed with lung cancer this year, with the announcement of his death being made public on April 12 2007. He was 72.