Cyberon

Stand well clear, Jo!

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Cyberon
Biological type:	Cyborgs
Appearance:	Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?

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.

History

Through false promises, the Licensor ensnared a few Cyberons into his service, 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?)

Behind the scenes

• As Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet not-so-subtly pointed out, the Cyberons 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".

History of the Cyberons

The Cyberons had a significant history of development, beginning in 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)

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.

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.