Cyberon

The Cyberons were a species or faction with which the Superiors had dealings.

By the time Chris Cwej was in the Superiors' employ, the Superiors needed large amounts of gold to keep the Cyberons at bay, which prompted Cwej to reflect that it would have been more convenient for the Superiors if Isaac Newton has lastingly turned his genius to alchemy. (PROSE: A Bright White Crack)

Behind the scenes

Although they made their debut in a story with no direct legal connection to the Doctor Who universe, the Cyberons had a significant history of development which bound them inseparably with Doctor Who — long before their first mention in a story considered valid by this Wiki, the Cwej short story A Bright White Crack.

Development history

File:Making The Cyberons - Terry On TuesdayThe Cyberons' complex history began when the August 1994 issue of DWM when BBV Productions announced pre-production on "a chilling CYBERMAN adventure. 'Sword of Orion'." This film would have been an adaptation of the Audio Visuals story of the same name, which was later also adapted by Big Finish as licensed Doctor Who. This film evolved into being a story called Sentinel about Cybermen on an island. In 1995, the film, now called Cyber-War, was covered in DWM 225 and The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond, the latter using Cyberman designs from The Dark Dimension and indicating the film would feature the Cybermen facing the Ice Warriors. However, despite all this, Bill Baggs was unable to secure the rights to use Cybermen. (REF: Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who)

This led to the development of a new creature who would retain the core appeal of the Cybermen, but be distinct enough to constitute a separate copyright in BBV's control. Designer and self-confessed Cyberman fan Terry Cooper was approached, turning in a design which would be used in the Cyberons' live-action appearances — although very different looks were used for the covers of the first handful of audioplays featuring the Cyberons.(REF: Making the Cyberons)

Solo appearances

Evolution of Cyberon designs in the covers of Cyber-Hunt, Cybergeddon, and Cyberon.

The Cyberons had their debut in BBV Productions' audio play Cyber-Hunt, released in November 1998 as the final Series 1 story of Audio Adventures in Time & Space. It was a scaled down version of Cyber-War, with Cyberons in the place of Cybermen. As the first of BBV's The Wanderer series, it also featured Nicholas Briggs as an unnamed version of the Audio Visuals Doctor; the only other The Wanderer story did not feature the Cyberons.

The Cyberons reappeared in February 2000 in Cybergeddon, the first story of Series 3 of Audio Adventures and labelled as part of the Cyberons series.

Tying back to the DWU

The Cyberons appeared in live action as antagonists of BBV's January 2001 film Cyberon, written by Lance Parkin. This film is of interest to Doctor Who for the character of Lauren Anderson, who was reused in the Who spinoff When Being You Just Isn't Enough. This essentially placed Zygon as a crossover between the adventures of Lauren Anderson and Doctor Who, retroactively suggesting that the earlier film, and by extension all previous appearances of the Cyberons, took place in the DWU. The present Wiki does not currently cover these stories, however, as they contained no DWU elements at the time of their release.

The Cyberons as they appear in NOTVALID: Do You Have A Licence to Save this Planet?

The first appearance of the Cyberons in a piece of media covered by this Wiki in its own right came in the comedic, fourth-wall-breaking standalone BBV production Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?. Within the continuity of the film, the Cyberons were an "unlicensed" species. They desired to complete themselves by gaining the "ears" they lacked, which, by making them properly licensed, would allow them to gain fame and fortune through merchandising. The story was, overall, a self-parody of BBV's modus operandi when it came to their Doctor Who spin-offs; as such, the Cyberons' role in the plot lampooned the way in which were originally conceived as stand-ins for the Cybermen, with the only major difference in design between the two races being the Cyberons' lack of the trademark handle-like tubes on their Cyber-helmet — what the parodical Cyberons in Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet refer to as "ears".

Within the story, the Licensor ensnared a few Cyberons into his service through false promises, sending them to what he believed to be Earth as his agents, alongside some regular Autons. The Licensor's schemes were foiled by the Chiropodist (or "Foot Doctor"), who had in truth tricked the Licensor and his party onto Unlicensed Earth, which, due to the ironclad laws of the Licensor himself, thus ceased to exist with them on it. Prior to this, the Foot Doctor had revealed the deceitful nature of the Licensor's deal with the Cyberons, causing them to turn against him. (NOTVALID: Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?)

Finally, in 2020, the Cyberons were properly introduced (albeit through the back door) to the mainstream, "valid" DWU by the short story A Bright White Crack. The second entry in the licensed solo adventures of Seventh Doctor companion Chris Cwej, the story featured a licensed reference to the Cyberons as a species with whom the Superiors had dealings which required gold. This suggested the Cyberons shared the same weakness to gold as the proper Cybermen, although within the text of the story, the phrasing could just as easily have meant that the Superiors appeased the Cyberons through monetary bribes.