Cyberman
- You may wish to consult
Cyberman (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
The Cybermen of the Doctor's universe were a race of artificially modified humans who originated from the planet Mondas, Earth's twin planet. Mondas developed much more quickly than Earth, but a catastrophe left the twin-planet spiraling out of Earth's solar system.
The Mondasians feared the death of their species, and began to replace and modify parts of their bodies with cybernetics. This would lead to the removal of their core emotions, as they fought solely for survival. The Cybermen would attack and kill anything that they saw as a threat to their species, while also converting those who could form new generation of Cybermen. While the Dalek race saw all other life-forms as inferior to their own (and thus worth killing), the Cybermen saw all other life-forms as future generations of the Cyberace (and thus worth converting).
Many species, including their brothers in humanity, fought against the Cybermen in the Cyber-Wars. (TV: Earthshock, Revenge of the Cybermen, et. al) The Cyber-race would go as far in their mission of permanence as to send several of their minor factions into hibernation for the specific situation where they would be the last of their kind. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) Several deceased Cyber-units were sold and converted into other less-serious creations; such as robotic butlers, museum pieces, and carnival attractions. These would often lead to situations where the Cybermen would be re-activated by accident. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen, COMIC: Junkyard Demon, TV: Nightmare in Silver) Even in the final days of the universe the Cybermen still managed to find stability in the depths of space. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Some Cybermen were known to show more clear initiative and emotions than other ranks, seeking out missions not for the further surival of their species but simply out of fear or hatred towards their enemies. (TV: The Five Doctors, COMIC: The Time Museum, et. al) While they usually worked as a team, the Cybermen were just as likely to be used as mindless drones by others as they were to work on their own accord. (TV: Dark Water/Death in Heaven, et al.) While they were known to ally themselves with other species, they would be quick to turn on those close to their operations the moment that they were no longer neccisary. (TV: The Invasion, COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen, COMIC: Assimilation², et al.)
Characteristics
Variants
The Cybermen were cybernetically augmented humanoids. Though they varied greatly in design over time, the many versions had several things in common. Nearly all were silver in colour, except for a black variety in the London sewers. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen, et al.)
Cybermen also exhibited exposed circuitry and tubing covering a rubbery or mylar-like outer skin. (TV: The Tenth Planet) Cybermen frequently attempted to increase their numbers by cyber-conversion.
The Mondasians which the First Doctor met on Snowcap Base in December 1986 had undergone a less radical conversion and still retained biological hands. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
All other Cybermen were entirely covered by their metallic suits. (TV: The Moonbase onwards) Some partial conversions were known to exist that still held human features, among them Tobias Vaughn. (TV: The Invasion)
The Cybermen on the Moonbase and those released by Eric Klieg on Telos were slim. (TV: The Moonbase, The Tomb of the Cybermen) The ones which infiltrated Briggs' freighter in 2526 had bulkier, more imposing forms. (TV: Earthshock) Cybermen like these also existed in the 1980s. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
Mondasian Cybermen had a quavering voice which put inflected syllables in a seemingly random, sing-song manner. (TV: The Tenth Planet) Later Cybermen spoke in more of a monotone, emphasising their lack of emotion. (TV: The Moonbase)
After recovering from the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen had advanced suits. Their chest units glowed blue. (TV: Nightmare in Silver, The Time of the Doctor)
Conversion
Cyber-conversion was the process by which compatible beings were physically and mentally altered into Cybermen. This process was necessary for the Cybermen to increase in number and was carried out at many locations. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
Partial conversions occurred. In a partial conversion, the subject took on several features of the Cybermen. For example, Tobias Vaughn's torso was immune to gunfire. (TV: The Invasion)
A great weakness of the conversion was they could only convert species close to humans. This left Time Lords like the Doctor safe for a time. (TV: Closing Time) However, the post-Cyber Wars variety no longer had this drawback, and were able to temporarily incorporate his mind to create the Cyber-Planner Mr Clever. (TV: Nightmare in Silver) A further upgrade to their process was being able to convert corpses, no matter how decayed or what age the victim died at. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Vulnerabilities
Cybermen had one major weaknesses. The most notable was the element gold which, being non-corrosive, choked their respiratory systems, a property exploited by the glittergun used during the Cyber-Wars. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Earthshock, Silver Nemesis) (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen) On occasion, the mere touch of gold was toxic to them. Gold coins or gold-tipped arrows might destroy them. (TV: Earthshock, Silver Nemesis) Gold also blocked their sensors and caused the cybermats to malfunction. (PROSE: Revenge of the Cybermen) During the Cyber-Wars, these Cybermen merged technology with the Cybus variety, eliminating more of their lingering organic needs, like the respiratory system; though contact with gold could still briefly scramble the operating systems. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
Other fatal weaknesses of the Cybermen included the combination of solvents known as Cocktail Polly, (TV: The Moonbase) excessive levels of radiation, (TV: The Tenth Planet, AUDIO: Telos) and the scent of a particular type of flower. (COMIC: Flower Power)
Cybermen affected by the Cerebration Mentor, an emotion-enhancing device, went "mad". (TV: The Invasion)
20th century guns could damage Cybermen, but did not kill them. Explosives and bazooka shells took them down easily. (TV: The Invasion, Silver Nemesis) UNIT developed gold-tipped rounds to combat Cybermen. (TV: Battlefield) At close range, attacks with energy and laser weapons could kill Cybermen. (TV: Earthshock)
Raston Warrior Robots counted Cybermen among the many beings they could kill. Although equipped only with javelins and blades, the technology of the robots allowed them to easily destroy several Cybermen. (TV: The Five Doctors)
Technology
The Cybermen forces in 2526 used the Cyberlance, a powerful, hand-held cutting weapon. They also used the Cyberscope, a device that allowed Cyber commanders to view the battlefield remotely and access a computer database (containing, among other data, information on their race's encounters with the Doctor). (TV: Earthshock)
Cybermen in 1986 had a built-in distress signal in their heads that could be activated manually. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
The chest unit of a Cyberman was vital to the operation of its life support system. (AUDIO: Telos)
The head of Cybermen in 1873 contained a neural generation unit. When removed from the head and with a suitable power source, this unit could be adapted to transmit a signal to distances up to 200 light years. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)
The Cybermen's eyes in 1873 were photocell. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)
While the Cybermen were capable of time travel, (TV: Earthshock, AUDIO: The Reaping) it was still primitive, limited and even dangerous as late as the 30th century. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Should the Cybermen have mastered time travel, they would have become strong enough to crush the Draconians, the Sontarans, the Time Lords and even the Daleks. (WC: Real Time, AUDIO: Real Time)
By the end of the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen had gained the ability to instantly adapt to anything that posed a threat to damaging their bodies; thus most attempts to kill them only worked once, and this instant immunity was shared by the Cyberiad. The only sure way to kill a Cyberman was to blow up the planet it was on, as there was no way a Cyberman adapt to instant destruction. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
Weapons (short range)
When they attacked Earth in 1986, Cybermen carried large, hand-held, energy weapons. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
On the Moon in 2070, Cybermen could produce arcs of electricity from their hands to stun, disable and kill. (TV: The Moonbase, Tomb of the Cybermen)
In the 21st century, the Cybermen who attacked Space Station W3 had death rays built into their chest units. (TV: The Wheel in Space)
The Cybermen encountered by UNIT in the late 20th century displayed these same built-in death ray weapons. They also carried large rifles that emitted a flame for medium range combat on London's streets. (TV: The Invasion)
The Cybermen who attacked the Nerva Beacon had their weapons built into their helmets. They were activated with the touch of a hand. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
In time, the Cybermen came to favour the hand-held cyber-gun over the built-in weapon. (TV: The Invasion onwards)
The Cybermen used Cyber wrist blasters on their wrists. (TV: Nightmare in Silver, The Time of the Doctor)
Weapons (other)
In the 20th century, the Cybermen invasion fleet had a megatron bomb that could destroy all life on Earth. (TV: The Invasion)
In 2070, the Cybermen had a cannon which could operate in the vacuum of Space. They used it on the surface of the Moon. Due to its mass, it required two Cybermen to operate it. (TV: The Moonbase)
Cybermen in 2526, the invaders of Voga, and the Cybermen removed by Time Scoop to the Death Zone had portable cyber-bombs that could devastate planets. (TV: Earthshock, Revenge of the Cybermen, The Five Doctors)
Neurotrope X incapacitated humans before the Cybermen made an overt move. (TV: The Moonbase) Cybermen sometimes used Cybermats to spread the virus to the population. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
The Cybermen were strong enough to kill with their hands without any extra weaponry or electric-based attack. (TV: Earthshock)
Culture
Cybermen made survival their central objective. Since they could not reproduce naturally, they needed to create new members of their population by other means, via cyber-conversion. At times they tended to focus on converting the population of Earth, at other times on simply destroying it. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Cybermen tended toward covert activity, scheming from hiding and using human or other agents, cybermats or androids to act as their proxies until they deemed it necessary to appear in person. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Earthshock, Attack of the Cybermen)
Individuality and emotion
Throughout their history, Cybermen, for the most part, lacked individuality or names. This was a result of their emotions being removed during the conversion process. (TV: The Tenth Planet, et al.)
A few Cybermen had individual names such as Krang (TV: The Tenth Planet), Kroton, (COMIC: Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman), Bremm and Gramm. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)
Cybermen in positions of authority included the ground level Cyber-Leader who commanded a group of ordinary Cybermen. Cyber-Leaders were sometimes aided by a Cyber-Lieutenant. Immobile computer-like Cyber-Planners would sometimes make decisions and long term plans. (TV: The Wheel in Space, The Invasion) The Cyber-Controllers, who possessed enlarged craniums, had the position of highest possible authority. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Attack of the Cybermen)
Cybermen no longer possessed emotions and viewed them as a weakness. However, several of the Cyber-Leaders displayed characteristics that could be linked to emotions such as anger, amusement, and, at times, smugness. (TV: Earthshock)
When they reemerged after the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen now appeared to be truly emotionless, except for Mr Clever, who had a maniac personality. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
History
Early history
- Main article: Creation of the Cybermen
Prehistoric Cybermen
According to one account, the Cybermen were originally an aquatic species known as the Voord. The Voord were fused with bodysuits which telepathically linked the entire race. Through experimentation with a worldshaper, they quick-evolved their bodysuits into full-fledged Cybersuits. With this change, they renamed their homeplanet Marinus to Mondas. (COMIC: The World Shapers)
Mirroring the events of Mondas' sister planet Earth, the Lizard Kings and the Sea Devils rose to power. They used their technology to augment Mondasian apes into ape-servants. (COMIC: The Dead Heart) A Cyberman from the near future came to Mondas through a cosmic cloud and was captured by the Lizard Kings, who vivisected it and studied its technology. An ape-servant was sent through the cosmic cloud to investigate and it was captured by the Cybermen of the future. (COMIC: The Prodigal Returns)
After the Constructors of Destiny manipulated a rogue planet into messing with Mondas' orbit, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) sending it on a journey to "the end of space", (TV: The Tenth Planet) the empire of the Lizard Kings went into decline. With the Lizard Kings hibernating in the Dark Continent, the ape-servants evolved into early Cybermen. They used leftover cyberfication machinery to convert regular Mondasians into Cybermen. The Cybermen tamed the dinosaurs, (COMIC: The Dead Heart) created airships, and established cities. (COMIC: The Flesh Unbound)
An ape-servant from the past crashed on Mondas after coming through a cosmic cloud. It was captured and studied by the Cybermen, who sent a scout through the cloud to investigate if there were more apes there that could be converted into Cybermen. (COMIC: The Prodigal Returns)
The Cybermen came in a series of conflicts with remnants of the Lizard King empire. First, they accidentally awakened R'lyeh, (COMIC: The Flesh Unbound) then they were attacked by metamorphs. (COMIC: The Black Sky) The Cybermen mounted an expedition to the Dark Continent to strike back at the Lizard Kings. Along the way there, they were attacked by Sea Devils. (COMIC: The Hungry Sea) The expedition ventured deep into the Dark Continent, where they were obliterated by Golgoth. (COMIC: The Dark Flame) The Cybermen waged a forty-day war against Golgoth which ended in the utter destruction of all involved. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath)
Beginning of the modern Cyberman
Could do with more information from Spare Parts.
Over 2000 years after the end of the previous Cyberman civilisation, (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath) the Mondasians had developed a society similar to that of 20th century Earth. The surface of Mondas was inhospitable, meaning that the majority of the Mondasians lived underground, (AUDIO: Spare Parts) although the Cult of C'iva were able to survive on the planet's surface. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath)
The Mondasians adapted by turning themselves into cyborgs. (TV: The Tenth Planet) Eventually all of the Mondasians underwent forced cyber-conversion. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)
The original Mondasians retained more of their organic form. They had personal names. Another group, the Faction, left Mondas and headed for Planet 14. These developed into groups without connection to one another. (PROSE: Iceberg)
The Cybermen refused to attend the Armageddon Convention, and destroyed the robot messengers who sent the invitations. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
Return to Earth
Mondas developed a drive propulsion system. This was placed in the planet's core to move the entire world. As the original Cybermen were limited in numbers and were continually being depleted, they decided to invade Earth. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
Zogron was one of the first Cybernauts. During his pioneering of the instellar Cyber-empire, Zogron became stranded on AS4. (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon)
Scouting missions
Scout crafts were sent to find its location. The first expedition to find Earth crash-landed in the mountains of Austria around 1873. However, due to the extensive damage sustained during the landing, they failed to report the location of Earth to Cyber-Control on Mondas, which was 200 light-years away. The Eighth Doctor made sure that all Cyber-Technology from the expedition was destroyed. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin saw people made of metal. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
The Seventh Doctor and Ace fought Cybermen in Nevada in 1954. These Cybermen were from Mondas, trying to invade. Their attack was delayed until 1986. (COMIC: The Good Soldier)
In the early 1970s, Gareth Arnold uncovered a Cyberman ship that had crashed in Cambridge many years beforehand and experimented with the technology that had survived. Using Cybermats, Arnold attempted to convert all of Cambridge, but was stopped by the Third Doctor. During this incident, Liz Shaw was almost converted. The Cybermen that Arnold had created went into stasis on the ship, awaiting an activation signal. (AUDIO: The Blue Tooth)
Pre-IE invasions
Despite the fact that the Cybermen would record their first invasion of Earth as the one involving International Electromatics, (PROSE: Iceberg) some accounts indicate they attacked Earth at a few earlier points.
In 1970, the Cybermen attempted to disarm all of Earth's armies so that they could take over the planet without the death of a single Cyberman. Three Cybermen landed in the English countryside in a rocket and began tunnelling with a Cyber-Mole. With the Mole, they stole the doomsday bomb from Earth's underground secret weapons store and used it to put the entire Earth at ransom. The Second Doctor and John walked down the tunnel left by the Cyber-Mole and killed the Cybermen with ray guns before they could detonate the bomb. (COMIC: Cyber-Mole)
International Electromatics & Isos II
In 1969, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) 1970, (PROSE: No Future, Killing Ground) 1975, (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen) or the late 1970s; (TV: The Web of Fear, The Invasion) the Faction put into motion what would later be recorded as the first attempted Cyberman invasion of Earth. (PROSE: Iceberg)
Prior to coming to Earth, the Faction had invaded the planet Isos II and converted its humanoid population into Cybermen. By repurposing Isos II's monorail system, a dimensional warp was created which led to Earth. A large invasion fleet of Cybermen waited on Isos II while a smaller amount of Cybermen and a Cyber-Planner went through the warp to establish themselves on Earth and put the planet into a weakened state. (AUDIO: The Isos Network)
After several years, (PROSE: Prelude Iceberg) they had established a base on the dark side of Earth's Moon. The Cyber-Planner had contacted the industrialist Tobias Vaughn, the head of the International Electromatics corporation. Vaughn installed mind control circuits in his company's appliances, paving the way for an invasion. He also grafted cybernetic arms onto several of his workers.
Vaughn had a Cyber-Planner installed in his office. The plot was uncovered by the newly formed UNIT and the Second Doctor, who helped avert the invasion on the Earth and at the Cyberman base on the Moon. (TV: The Invasion) The invasion fleet from Isos II came to Earth when the planet was put under cybercontrol by radio waves from IE products, but it was destroyed in a chain reaction started by missiles fired by UNIT. (TV: The Invasion, AUDIO: The Isos Network)
Bits and pieces of damaged Cybermen remained in the London sewers. One Cyberman managed to cannibalise garbage it found in the sewers to repair itself and create a considerable amount of Cybermats. The Third Doctor and Jo Grant stopped it from infecting an entire hospital with cybermites. (PROSE: The Piper) In 1975, two Cyberman heads were found in the sewers; one was sent to the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum (GAME: Security Bot) while the other head would eventually end up in Henry van Statten's Vault. (TV: Dalek)
UNIT kept at least two Cyberman heads from this invasion, one of which was stored at the Underbase. (TV: Death in Heaven, COMIC: The Age of Ice)
Some Cybermen survived the destruction of the invasion fleet. Many were propelled into deep space. One Cybership crashed in Antarctica, where it remained frozen and hidden for two decades. (PROSE: Iceberg) Another Cybership managed to escape back to Isos II. The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot followed the ship and destroyed all traces of the Cybermen on Isos II. (AUDIO: The Isos Network)
Vaughn survived his apparent death by transmitting his mind into a robotic copy of himself created with cybertechnology. For many centuries, Vaughn continued to influence Earth while repairing his robotic body with parts salvaged from failed Cyberman attacks on humanity. (PROSE: Original Sin, AUDIO: Original Sin)
Mondas destroyed
In December 1986, (TV: The Tenth Planet, PROSE: Iceberg, Mondas Passing, COMIC: Blood and Ice) the 1990s, (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks) or 2000, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) the First Doctor met an advance force of Mondans near Snowcap Base in Antarctica. This force was to prepare for Mondas' return to the Sol system and to drain Earth's energy for the Cybermen. Mondas absorbed too much energy and was destroyed, as were the Cybermen on Earth who depended on Mondas for power. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
One account also claims that the Cyberships were examined and exploited by humans, allowing them to make advances in space travel. Sarah Jane Smith described the invasion as "both the greatest disaster and most astonishing blessing ever to have happened to the human race." (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks)
Following the destruction of Mondas, the Cyberman would make Lonsis their new home. (AUDIO: Human Resources)
Further attacks on humanity
Late 20th century
The Cybermen and a group of mercenaries led by Karl made an alliance with the Daleks in a gambit to sabotage a peace conference on Earth in 1988 and have the planet destroyed. The Cybermen and the mercenaries had a much more active role than the Daleks, as they were tasked with kidnapping an American envoy on whom the success of the conference depended and in capturing the Doctor whom the Dalek Emperor declared a vital part of the plan. The Daleks took a more behind-the-scenes approach as they planned to use the mercenaries and Cybermen as nothing more than scapegoats who could be blamed for the destruction of Earth by the Galactic Council while the Dalek involvement remained a secret. When the Sixth Doctor revealed this information to the Cybermen and the mercenaries, they immediately turned on the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)
In November 1988, a scouting party was sent to Earth in search of a statue made of validium called Nemesis, a Time Lord weapon. The Cybermen met Lady Peinforte, who brought many of their number down with gold-tipped arrows. The Leader apparently forced the Seventh Doctor to surrender the Nemesis. Their force was destroyed by Nemesis as the Doctor had instructed. (TV: Silver Nemesis) UNIT collected the body of one of the Cyberman that was killed by Lady Peinforte and stored it at the Underbase. (COMIC: The Age of Ice)
21st century
Early 21st century
In 2000, the Cybermen infected the Earth computers with a virus that removed all vowels. (PROSE: Vrs)
In 2006, the Cybermen on Lonsis tried to invade Earth via the portal in the main branch of Hulbert Logistics.The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller destroyed them. They used a quantum crystalliser to make the Cybermen and their ship rapidly rust into dust. (AUDIO: Human Resources)
In December 2006, exactly 20 years after Mondas returned to Earth, Cybermen who had been in hiding in the South Pole since the International Electromatics invasion attempted to sabotage the FLIPback project and take over the Earth in the ensuing chaos. With the help of Ruby Duvall, the Seventh Doctor prevented the Cybermen from carrying out their plan and destroyed them. (PROSE: Iceberg)
In 2008, several Cybermen and a Cyber-Planner who were allergic to gold attempted to gain time travel. They converted Byron, but their ship was destroyed by Charlotte Pollard (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was)
In the 2010s, a Cyberman was a resident of the hidden trap street in London which housed lost aliens on Earth under the protection of Mayor Me. As with the rest of the inhabitants it appeared cloaked in human form through use of the lurkworms. It was observed by the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald as it had maintenance performed on it by an Ood. (TV: Face the Raven)
In 2021 a group of Cybermen claimed to want to become organic again. A space program used this to their advantage. However the Cyberleader lied, in fact having tricked the agency into creating a conversion chamber. The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex foiled this scheme. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
In the 2030s, the Cybermen attacked Earth in a series of incursions which would later be known as the Cyberbreaches. UNISYC was heavily involved in stopping these attacks. Some cybertechnology was salvaged by the humans and stored at the Toy Box. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
Late 21st century
By 2070, the Cybermen were known and feared in several galaxies (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen) but were thought extinct by Earth. At this time the Earth's weather was controlled by the Gravitron installation in the Moonbase, the Faction planned to use the Gravitron to disrupt Earth's weather and destroy all life on the planet. (TV: The Moonbase) According to Terri Willis in 2136, the Cybermen practically disappeared from human space after this event. (PROSE: The Murder Game)
By 2079, (AUDIO: Second Chances) the Second Doctor was "known and recorded as an enemy of the Cybermen". In this year, Space Station W3 was the site of a takeover by the Faction, but were defeated by the Second Doctor. (TV: The Wheel in Space) In a second attack on the wheel, the Cybermen were sent into the Land of Fiction by Zoe Heriot. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
Vogan War
- Main article: Vogan War
By the 2150s, the CyberNomads were involved in a war with Voga. In order to expand their numbers, the Nomads invaded the human colony Agora and used the threat of total destruction to turn the planet into a self-renewing source of physically healthy humans. For the next few decades, the Nomads returned to Agora every three years to collect 500 ready-to-convert humans. (PROSE: Killing Ground)
After the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth, the Cybermen fought a series of skirmishes for territory on the outermost human colony planets. During a conflict on Titan 317, some Cybermen took an entire research bunker hostage. Both these Cybermen and the hostages were slaughtered by the Space Marines. (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction)
In 2176, the Cybermen stopped an attempted rebellion on Agora. (PROSE: Killing Ground)
The Cybermen eventually managed to destroy most of Voga, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen) but not without severely weakening themselves. At this time, the Nomads had more organic components than any other previous model except the original Mondans. They were forced to use a stolen Selachian ship as their ship.
When a small party of Cybermen came to Agora in 2191, they were destroyed by cybernetic warriors created by the Agorans using Cybertechnology. The main Cyber ship came to Agora to destroy the rebellion, but instead it was infiltrated by the Sixth Doctor and flooded with radiation which killed the Cybermen.
By the end of the 22nd century, the Cybermen were believed to be extinct. In actuality, most of the Cybermen were hibernating on Telos. A few small, isolated groups still existed. (PROSE: Killing Ground)
23rd century - Orion War
In 2246, a lone Cybership attacked the human freighter Dreadnought in deep space. They converted all of the freighter's crew save one, Stacy Townsend. When the Eighth Doctor landed on the Dreadnought, the Cybermen captured him and his TARDIS. The Cybermen attempted to gain the Doctor's knowledge of time travel, but were instead ripped to pieces when he made them all magnetically repellent to each other and the Dreadnought. (COMIC: Dreadnought)
In the 25th century, the Cybermen had all but passed into legend. The Brotherhood of Logicians scoured the universe for Cybermen, believing that they would be receptive to the Brotherhood's cause. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
A Cyberman was found by scrap collectors Flotsam and Jetsam. Shortly after the Fourth Doctor landed on their ship, the Cyberman reactivated, kidnapped Jetsam, and stole the TARDIS. The Cyberman used the TARDIS to visit the site of the crashed command ship of the ancient cybernaut Zogron on AS4. Before the Cyberman could force Jetsam to restore Zogron, the Doctor and Flotsam landed on AS4 and destroyed the Cyberman. (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon) Flotsam and Jetsam stayed on AS4 and salvaged technology from the remains of Zogron's fleet. They discovered a troop ship full of well-preserved hibernating Cybermen.
Flotsam and Jetsam spent the next four months reprogramming Cybermen and selling them as butlers, bus conductors, and politicians. This attracted the attention of the Brotherhood of Logicians, who sent Joylove McShane and Yellow Stinker to AS4 to collect the remaining unreprogrammed Cybermen. The Fourth Doctor returned to AS4 and prevented the Cybermen from fully awakening and getting off-planet. The Doctor then packed the cybership with explosives and blew up the hibernating Cybermen.
With their attempt to ally with the Cybermen on AS4 a failure, (COMIC: Junkyard-Demon II) the Brotherhood of Logicians financed Parry's expedition to find the cyber-tombs on Telos. Eric Klieg and Kaftan accompanied the expedition so that they could negotiate an alliance with the Cybermen. With the help of either the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Victoria Waterfield (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) or Iris Wildthyme (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress), the expedition found and opened the cyber-tomb. After the hibernating Cybermen were reawakened, the expedition realised the true danger of the Cybermen and the tombs were quickly resealed. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
A group of CyberNomads reopened the Telosian cyber-tombs and forged a new race, the CyberNeomorphs, with the Telosian Cybermen. The Neomorphs would rise to power in the 26th century. (PROSE: Killing Ground)
Orion War
- Main article: Orion War
During the Orion War of the early 26th century, humans tried to salvage Cyber-Technology from derelict ships to defeat the androids. This led to both sides nearly wiped out and the temporary conquest of Earth before the Cybermen resurgence was stopped. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion, AUDIO: Cyberman)
At some point during the war, Telos was shattered by an asteroid impact. (AUDIO: Telos)
Great Cyber War
In 2526, several planets united to oppose the Cybermen in an event called the Cyber-Wars. A force of Cybermen tried to devastate Earth with a Cyberbomb and convert the survivors. Failing this, they hoped to crash the freighter into Earth and cause an ecological disaster. Although the effort failed, the freighter was catapulted back in time to become the "meteor" that wiped out the dinosaurs. (TV: Earthshock)
After a timeship landed on Telos, the Cybermen captured it and formulated a plot to save Mondas by diverting Halley's Comet to Earth to destroy it in 1985. A party of Cybermen travelled back in time and established a command centre hidden in the London sewers from which they could affect the comet. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) The Torchwood Institute collected several rumours of Cybermen in the London sewers. (WC: Monster File: Cybermen)
When the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown visited London in 1985, the Cybermen captured the Doctor's TARDIS and forced him to take them back to Telos. Bringing the Doctor and Peri to Telos led to several losses for the Cybermen, including the death of the Cyber-Controller and the Cryons gaining help in their revolution against the Cybermen. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
One of the last acts of the Cybermen in this war the attempt to blow up the planet Voga to stop the production of glitterguns. (PROSE: Revenge of the Cybermen) In the aftermath of their failure, the Cybermen were reduced to scattered remnants. One group relentlessly hounded the remaining fragment of Voga. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
The war ultimately ended when the Tiberian spiral galaxy was blown up, destroying apparently all of the Cybermen. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
Later history
Telos was not the only site of Cyber-Tombs. There were dozens across the galaxy and more wars were started. Bernice Summerfield spoke of the Telos expedition and other tombs being discovered in the past tense. She was sent to one by Irving Braxiatel in the early 27th century. Braxiatel intended to use the Cybermen as a private army but was thwarted. (AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus)
The Tremas Master sent The Graak to a Cyber-Tomb populated by Cybermen to steal a Cybermat. These Cybermen were either going in- or coming out of the tombs. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
The remaining Cybermen from the Cyber-Wars ship finally caught up to Voga, now in orbit around Jupiter. Their attempt to destroy it would be defeated and their craft and themselves detroyed due to the involvement of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
In the 30th century, a group of Cybermen with limited time travel capabilities attempted to invade the Earth in 1940. They were stopped by the Seventh Doctor and Ace. (PROSE: Illegal Alien)
By 3286, the Cybermen had been thought dead for centuries. A group of these Cybermen led by a Cyber-controller attempted to gain time travel. Around this time, Goddard arrived. Goddard was a super developed Cybermen,from an alternate 1930s where the human race had become cyborgs indistinguishable visually from humans thanks to a Cyber virus. The Cybermen managed to reverse-engineer the virus Goddard brought but were defeated by the Sixth Doctor. (WC: Real Time, AUDIO: Real Time)
Post-Cyber Wars upgrades
The Cybermen were notable customers of the information regarding the Doctor held by the Inforarium. When the Eleventh Doctor discovered the Cybermen, as well as the Daleks and Sontarans, had been purchasing this information, he infiltrated the Inforarium and memory-proofed their database using methods he learned from the Silence. The information sold was thus instantly forgotten. (HOMEVID: The Inforarium) This led to the Cybermen losing data on the Doctor. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
A thousand years after the destruction of the Tiberian spiral galaxy and the end of the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen were thought to be extinct. Yet surviving Cybermen lay beneath the future site of Hedgewick's World of Wonders. When the theme park was built, the Cybermen began using Cybermites to kidnap people as "spare parts". Angie and Artie Maitland arrived on Hedgewick's World with the Eleventh Doctor and their nanny, Clara, and were taken by the Cybermen. With enough components to reawaken them, after being presumed extinct for a thousand years, the Cybermen awoke from their tombs.
The Cybermen began attacking Natty Longshoe's Comical Castle to convert the humans there, but the Doctor, in a battle for his mind with the Cyber-Planner, Mr Clever, had them stop in place to bring in the local resources to win the chess game. The Doctor used a hand pulse to redistribute Clever among the rest of the Cybermen. Angie and Artie were also released. Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI gave the verbal command to start the countdown of a planet-imploding bomb. This drew the attention of his ship, which transmatted the Doctor and the humans on the planet while the Cybermen were left behind. The planet and the Cybermen were destroyed; however, one Cybermite survived the destruction. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
The remains of one Cyberman were put on sale at the Maldovarium market. The Eleventh Doctor purchased the Cyberman's head and called him "Handles". (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The Cybermen were involved in the Siege of Trenzalore. After being summoned to Trenzalore by the First Question, the Cybermen attempted to pass through the Papal Mainframe's force field. One attempt involved a Wooden Cyberman as it was low-tech and would not trigger any alarm system but the Doctor tricked the Cyberman into destroying itself. Later, the Daleks attacked the Mainframe and learned how to break the force field. The Cybermen followed them and fought the Doctor and the Silents until all the Cybermen, like many other species involved in the battle, were either killed or saw fit to retreat. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
A Cyber Ship was chased by a Dalek flying saucer. Inside the ship, two Cybermen interrogated a Dalek Lumpy about the whereabouts of the Orb of Fates before be flattened by the Doctor's TARDIS. The Twelfth Doctor sent Lumpy on Telos to retrieve a second element of the Orb. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
Incompatibility with humanity
Cybermen from the far future would use time travel to return in time to the 2000s to convert Earth. They used rain that caused extreme emotions (sadness, fear, anger) to convince the humans that emotions were bad and to accept conversion willingly. The reason they needed humans from a past era was clear to the Doctor; in the future of the Cybermen, the human genetic template had been corrupted and augmented by their interactions with many alien races. The Cyber-conversion protocols were keyed to human or Mondasian biology; the number of available converts would drop dramatically.
The Doctor offered to regenerate for them so they could gather the data of his regeneration and upgrade their conversion protocols to include other races, in exchange for leaving the Earth alone. The Cybermen agreed, but betrayed him at the last moment (the Doctor was expecting this). Using the fragment of the Time Vortex the future Cybership used as a power source, the Doctor destroyed the Cyberfleet and dissolved them into rain. (COMIC: The Flood)
Final evolution
By the 101st century, the Cybermen had nearly died out. Several centuries earlier, they had become the pacifist Cyberlords. (PROSE: Synthespians™) By the 108th century, the Cyberlord Hegemony was a major political power. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus)
The Cybermen would ultimately transcend into pure energy. They would redeem the whole of sentient life and become the most peace loving-species in the whole of creation, purely thought with no physical presence. (COMIC: The World Shapers)
Remnants of the Cybermen
A Cyberman head was once seen destroyed on a desert planet that the TARDIS once visited. The Cyberman lay dead with his silver wires on his face stretched. (WC: TARDIS Cam No.1)
A Cyberman remained ensnared by the fibre-optic cables within the Cloisters on Gallifrey. It begged for Clara Oswald's help when she and the Twelfth Doctor walked through the Cloisters. (TV: Hell Bent)
Attempting to change history
One of the last surviving Cyber-Leaders found a TARDIS "abandoned on a planet ruined by fire". It tried to pilot the ship to prehistoric Earth and cyberconvert a few early ancestors of humanity, but it was unable to fully control the TARDIS. The Cyber-Leader was severely damaged by exposure to the Time Vortex and it crashed near Baltimore in late 1982.
Using its access to the entire history of the cyber-race, the Cyber-Leader concocted a plan to attract the Doctor to Baltimore by killing Anthony Chambers, a family friend of Peri Brown, in September 1984. The plan worked and the Cyber-Leader captured the Sixth Doctor and forced him to pilot the TARDIS to prehistoric Earth. The Doctor tricked the Cyber-Leader into thinking that history had been changed and instead of pilotting the ship to a new version of 1984 where Cyberman had been the dominant life form on Earth for millennia, the Doctor took the Cyber-Leader to Mondas in 1984. The Cyber-Leader was considered faulty by its ancestors and taken to be reprocessed. (AUDIO: The Reaping)
While the Cyber-Leader was destroyed with Mondas in 1986, (AUDIO: The Reaping, TV: The Tenth Planet) some of the cyber-technology it left in Baltimore was salvaged by Katherine Chambers and taken to Brisbane. She partially converted her brother to extend his life. In 2006, the Forge manipulated Katherine to create an artificial intelligence by fusing the cyber-technology with other alien technology and the mind of Eve Morris. The Fifth Doctor attempted to destroy all traces of System, but a backup copy was saved (AUDIO: The Gathering) and System went into widespread use by 2021. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
Supremacy over all of time and space
At the end of the universe, a group of Cybermen living within an asteroid were found by Rassilon after he was banished from Gallifrey. Rassilon saw the potential in allying with the Cybermen and let himself be converted into a Cyber-Leader. With Rassilon's assistance, the Cybermen attacked and conquered Gallifrey, and rewrote history with the Time Lords' technology to keep the Doctor occupied at Rassilon's insistence.
In the new timeline, Cyber-Silurians seeded the universe with ark ships containing cybertechnology. The Eleventh Doctor attempted to stop the launch of the arks, but he was captured and assimilated into the cyberiad.
After the CyberKings captured nearly all Sontaran cloning worlds and caused the extinction of the Rutan Host, the Tenth Doctor, Gabby Gonzalez and Cindy Wu were taken to the Sontaran-Prime on Sontar by some of the last surviving Sontarans . The Doctor tried to protect Sontar from the CyberKings, but was unable to stop an ark from converting Sontar on a planetary scale. The Sontaran cloning factories were then altered by the Cybermen so that they produced an endless supply of Mondasians to convert.
The Cybermen conquered countless more planets, including Alpha Centauri, Karn, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) Skaro, (COMIC: Prologue: The Fifth Doctor) and even invaded the Matrix during the Sixth Doctor's trial on Space Station Zenobia. (COMIC: Prologue: The Sixth Doctor) The Daleks were destroyed, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) so much so that the Cybermen took their place in the Last Great Time War. (COMIC: Prologue: The War Doctor) Earth was completely taken over by Cybermen in 2006. After Rose Tyler was converted and Jack Harkness was killed, the Ninth Doctor tried to destroy the Cybermen. Instead, he was infected with nanobots and cyberconverted. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
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The First Doctor was captured at 76 Totter's Lane in 1963, (COMIC: Prologue: The First Doctor) the Second Doctor was converted into a Cyber-Leader at the Moonbase in 2070, (COMIC: Prologue: The Second Doctor) a time distortion brought a cyberfication machine into the Third Doctor's laboratory which converted the Master. (COMIC: Prologue: The Third Doctor) and the Fourth Doctor found himself surrounded by Cybermen when K9 was converted. (COMIC: Prologue: The Fourth Doctor)
The Fifth Doctor and Peri Brown were pursed by Cybermen on Skaro. (COMIC: Prologue: The Fifth Doctor, Supremacy of the Cybermen) The Seventh Doctor attempted to destroy the cyber-fleet with nemesis mines, but he was attacked by a cyberconverted Ace. (COMIC: Prologue: The Seventh Doctor, Supremacy of the Cybermen) The Eighth Doctor and Josie Day were captured by Cybermen and Cybermats on a spaceship. (COMIC: Prologue: The Eighth Doctor)
At the end of the universe, the Cybermen used looms to siphon the regenerative energy from Time Lords into the Eye of Harmony. They planned to use the Eye of Harmony to shape formation of the next universe, making a reality perfectly suited to the cyberiad. The Twelfth Doctor came to Gallifrey and confronted Rassilon and the Cybermen. When the Doctor was forced into a loom, the Cyber-Controller betrayed Rassilon and put him in a loom as well. The Doctor and Rassilon used their combined willpower to influence the energy being pumped into the Eye of Harmony and instead of regenerating the future, they regenerated the past. Everything the Cybermen had done was reversed and their supremacy over all of time and space was wiped from the memory of the universe. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Undated events
A Cyberman was among the life-forms exhibited in Vorg's Miniscope. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
The Seventh Doctor and Catherine Broome battled a squad of Cybermen in the Prenadene asteroid belt. (PROSE: Companion Piece)
After the Last Great Time War ended, the Cybermen fought other races for control over time. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)
Rassilonian Era
During the Dark Times on Gallifrey, the Cybermen were excluded from the games in the Death Zone, because the Time Lords believed they had an unfair advantage over other victims of the games. Borusa, having found the Game of Rassilon, transported a squadron of Cybermen to the Death Zone to threaten and harass the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. These Cybermen were mostly destroyed by a similarly transported Raston Warrior Robot. The survivors allied with the Tremas Master, but he betrayed and destroyed them. (TV: The Five Doctors)
The Cybermen were part of the Supremo's alliance in the war against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)
During the Doctor's era, the Cybermen allied themselves with the Tremas Master to become the rulers of Gallifrey. After they kidnapped Susan Foreman, they were stopped by the Fifth Doctor. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
Other realities
Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian where the First Doctor never left Gallifrey, the Cybermen were one of many races which fought over control of Earth. This timeline was destroyed when the Seventh Doctor retrieved the Key to Time. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
In an alternate timeline where the Daleks were peaceful, the Cybermen remained a dangerous force in the universe in the universe alongside the Sontarans. (PROSE: The Ripple Effect)
In a timeline in which a successful WOTAN paved the way for World War III, the Cybermen successfully occupied the Arctic in their 1986 invasion. They came to agreements with the South African forces fighting the British, supplying them with technology and weapons that gave the former a huge advantage in the war, particularly in the South African invasion of Britain. The First Doctor averted this timeline by halting the world on its road to war in 1972, (PROSE: The Time Travellers) and later averted its causes altogether by defeating WOTAN in 1966. (TV: The War Machines)
If the Eleventh Doctor and Jean-Luc Picard did not defeat the Cybermen and the Borg, the Cybermen would eventually defeat the Borg, and invade both the Doctor's universe and the Federation universe, with planets invaded incluing; Raxacoricofallapatorius, Qo'noS, the Judoon homeworld, and finally Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
Parallel universes
In a universe created by the Quantum Archangel in which the Third Doctor's Exile on Earth never ended, a Cyberman BattlePhalanx attacked Earth in 1989, but was stopped by the Doctor. In 2010, the Cybermen returned to Earth and the Doctor - sick and tired of being stuck on one planet for so long - willingly offered himself up for conversion. He led a devastating invasion of Earth.
In another universe created by the Archangel in which the Sixth Doctor led the Time Lords in the War against the Enemy, the Cyberlords were the Time Lords' greatest ally until history was altered so that they weren't. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
In the Federation universe, the Cybermen invaded an Archaeological site on Aprilia III and began to convert the people onboard into Cybermen. They encountered the Fourth Doctor, Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty. The Fourth Doctor stopped them by using the gold on Kirk's communicator to clog the Cybermen's respiration. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
The Cybermen entered into an alliance with another cybernetic species, the Borg, from a Federation due to their identical goals of assimilating other species. On Stardate 45635.2 in 2368, a joint Borg/Cyberman assault force attacked the Federation planet Delta IV and quickly overran it. This attack made the Cybermen known to the Federation. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
References
An image of a Cyberman was one of the fears pulled from the Doctor's mind when he faced the Keller machine. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
In their war with the Cybermen of another universe, the Cult of Skaro noted their resemblance to the Cybermen from the prime universe. (TV: Doomsday)
Behind the scenes
Inspiration for the Cybermen
The idea for the Cybermen came from Kit Pedler's interest in new medical advances and his fears of where they might lead. Early concepts of the Cyberman design emphasised the "man" part of the name, but the proposed design would have cost too much money. Indeed, the televised version of The Tenth Planet featured much more human-like Cybermen with human hands.
Prologues to certain Target Books novelisations reflect the earlier ideas about the Cybermen and state they perfected the science of cybernetics to gain immortality. The Cybermen were the result: immortal, but at the price of loss of their humanity.
Development of the characters
The second appearance of the Cybermen in The Moonbase (pre-planned by the production team even before The Tenth Planet had aired), re-designed them radically, making them much more robotic in appearance. The Cybermen went through another major re-design in The Invasion, yet another in Earthshock, one in the comic strips in The Flood and one more in Nightmare in Silver. Minor re-designs would take place as well. As the Cybermen stories do not appear in a chronological order, this makes their evolution rather confusing; more 'advanced' Cybermen are around at the same time as more 'primitive' ones. This can be explained by time travel, though the Cybermen only captured one time ship. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
The Brilliant Books
The non-narrative sources The Brilliant Book 2011 and The Brilliant Book 2012 had further information about Cybermen.
- According to The Brilliant Book 2011, at Blenheim Palace, the Fourth Doctor was hunting Cybermats, suggesting Cybermen activity.
- According to The Brilliant Book 2012, at one point, Vastra and Jenny battled the Cybermen.
Cybermen
The non-narrative source Doctor Who: Cybermen, by David Banks, went into further detail about Cybermen and Cyberman factions. Banks created a number of terms — CyberFaction, CyberNomad, CyberTelosian, CyberMondasian, and others — to explain the differences in the Cybermen's costumes on television. Some of the terms, in adapted forms, appear in his later novel, PROSE: Iceberg. It is these forms — Mondan and the Faction, which this wiki prefers, according to our canon policy.
The history Banks presented as "non-fiction" was largely ignored by other authors and so can't be considered in the writing of most of our articles. Here are some of the points that Banks made which never made it beyond Doctor Who: Cybermen:
- The departure of the CyberFaction (that is, the Faction) from Mondas was thought to have occurred around 5000 BC in what Banks called the "First Divergence".
- In the "Second Divergence", a group which author David Banks called "CyberNomads" diverged from the Faction. These so-called "Nomads" searched for the validium statue Nemesis and tried and failed to destroy Voga.
- Possibly after the 21st century, the Faction abandoned their home in the Sol system and journeyed into the galaxy to colonise a suitable planet. The Cybermen which colonised Telos, possibly in 2175, split from the Faction and were called the CyberTelosians. This group united with the CyberNomads after they discovered the frozen CyberTelosians, and became CyberNeomorphs. These Cybermen planned to use Halley's Comet against Earth and were taken to the Death Zone on Gallifrey.
In other words, what Banks was trying to do was create terms for each of the different costumes he and his fellow performers had worn throughout the years. In effect he was saying that the costumes in Attack of the Cybermen were of CyberNeomorphs, the ones worn in The Tomb of the Cybermen were of CyberTelosians, and so forth.
The idea has not been widely ignored by other works. Even he did not in his book, Iceberg, which mentioned none of his terms precisely. It did not reference the CyberNeomorphs and CyberTelosians, and called the CyberFaction, "the Faction", and CyberMondasians, "Mondans".
Other matters
- Mondasian Cybermen are among Cyberman enemies used in Doctor Who Legacy mobile game.
External links
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