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Cybusmen was the original name, during development, for the endpoint of Cybus Industries' Ultimate Upgrade™ project to achieve immortality by converting the entire human population of Pete's World into cyborgs. They were a new breed of Cybermen, a name which John Lumic himself eventually decided was superior to "Cybusmen". (PROSE: Lumic) The Tenth Doctor recognised their rise on this parallel Earth as a repetition of the CyberMondans' on Mondas, within his own universe. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
- You may wish to consult
Cyberman (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
Characteristics
The Cybusmen had a "clean, industrial Art Deco style" personally selected by John Lumic. (PROSE: Lumic) Their form was known as a Cyber-suit, (TV: The Age of Steel) which was constructed from bulletproof steel. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) A chest plate with the Cybus Industries logo housed the emotional inhibitor chip, which the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was capable of turning off once the chest plate was removed. The brain remained contained within the suit's head, (TV: The Age of Steel) though the skull was included in more hastily converted units. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) Artificially grown nervous tissue was threaded throughout the body so the Cyberman responded like a fully biological organism. Without a brain inserted, the Cyber-suit was a robot which apparently had sufficient processing capacity to pursue and attack a human target. (TV: The Age of Steel) In the Doctor's universe, Dalek Sec of the Cult of Skaro instantly recognised the Cybusmen, noting that their "outline resemble[d] the inferior species known as Cybermen". (TV: Doomsday)
Just like other species of Cybermen, the Cybusmen were led by a Cyber-Leader during conversion missions. If the Cyber-Leader was terminated, then the Cybermen downloaded the shared files and nominated a new Cyber-Leader. However, this would take time. (TV: Doomsday) Other leader variations were Cyber-Lords and Cyber-Kings. (TV: The Next Doctor)
Cybusmen spoke in an electronic, monotone voice, far more emotionless and deeper than some of the Cybermen of the Doctor's universe. Because of their lack of emotions, the Cybusmen used technical terms like "compatible" and their battle cry, "DELETE!". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) The Cybusmen were shown to misunderstand lower-level, spoken language terms, instead preferring higher-level language. For example, the Cyber-Lord couldn't understand the word "best", necessitating Mercy Hartigan to say she would "operate at maximum efficiency". (TV: The Next Doctor)
While Cybusmen were mostly immune to bullets, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) they could be destroyed by rocket launchers. (TV: Doomsday; PROSE: Made of Steel) A huge overdose of electricity could also fry their circuits, such as an electromagnetic pulse. (TV: The Age of Steel) A Dalek's gunstick could also kill them in a single shot without difficulty. (TV: Doomsday) A sword could also pierce their armour, (TV: The Pandorica Opens) depending on the momentum. (TV: The Next Doctor)
Conversion
The Cybusmen were created by taking the brains of humans and placing them in cybernetic bodies. These exostructures were built from High Content Metal and were stauncher and more heavily built than the Cybermen of Mondas. The brain was preserved in a cradle of Cybus-copyrighted chemicals and welded to the exoskeleton, to which cyber-kinetic impulses were bonded, while an artificially grown nervous system was integrated. The remaining human body was simply incinerated. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Once complete, the newly developed Cyberman had an emotional inhibitor implanted. This prevented them from feeling their emotions, but, if disrupted, the Cybermen entered a traumatic state as they were overloaded by the pain of the conversion. This would make them die in agony or cause their heads to explode from the emotional overload. (TV: The Age of Steel) In times of emergency, cyber-conversion consisted of only constructing a Cyber-suit around a living being with some internal modifications. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Hierarchy
John Lumic, due to being founder of Cybus Industries and creator of the Cybusmen, led the Cybusmen upon his conversion into a Cyber-Controller, even having a throne like chair. He was their highest authority, so much so those who were captured were brought straight to him, like the Tenth Doctor, Rose and Pete. (TV: The Age of Steel)
Upon Lumic's death, a Cyber-Leader became the commander of the Cyber-Army. The original had black handlebars on his headpiece, though subsequent replacements did not. Cyber-Leaders had the power to call other lower ranked Cybermen for support during heavy conflicts and generally controlled all the other Cybermen. They also held talks with other species, proposing alliances and declaring war and surrender to them. (TV: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday)
After the Battle of Canary Wharf, a Cyber-Lord became the Cyber-commander. They were a seemingly higher rank of Cyber-Leader, the only noticeable difference being that their purpose was to prepare for the creation of the CyberKing and that their brain was visible through their black face plate. The CyberKing was the control unit of a Dreadnought ship. They typically led the invasion and takeover of a planet, serving on the front lines, using their advanced weapons to lay waste to cities, and acted as a mass conversion unit. (TV: The Next Doctor)
Then there was the typical Cyberman, a standard fighting unit of the Cyber-Army. They were subservient to all except those beneath them. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Such lower ranks were Cyberdrones, half-converted "basic work units", the Cyberdogs, the search and guard units of converted dogs, (COMIC: Enemy Mine) and the Cybershades, primitive, beast-like worker unit, converted by using a brain of a dog or a cat. (TV: The Next Doctor)
The lowest rank were humans controlled at the brain which were often only kept until fulfilling their required purpose, then killed. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen, Army of Ghosts, The Next Doctor)
Technology
Connected through the Cyber-web, (COMIC: Assimilation²) the Cybusmen were capable of wirelessly communicating with each other, and when a Cyber-Leader was killed, their files were transferred to an appointed Cybusman, who would subsequently be upgraded to a new Cyber-Leader. (TV: Doomsday) They could wirelessly control electronics, such as John Lumic's wheelchair and the "Ghost Shift" control levers at Torchwood Tower; this function was associated with a Cybusman bringing its closed fist to its chest. (TV: The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts) They were also capable of using infostamps, allowing them to communicate information to other Cybusmen when they were low on power. They were also able to steal other technology from the Daleks whilst inside the Void, such as a Dimension Vault. (TV: The Next Doctor) They eventually developed Cyber-weapons of their own, although bulkier and more rifle-like than the Mondasian versions. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
Weaponry
Originally, the only weapons owned by the Cybusmen were their electrified hands, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) but they later gained a small wrist-mounted energy weapon. These wrist blasters could easily kill humans from a distance, even if they were wearing armour, but were ineffective against the Daleks. (TV: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday) They could act on their own, or be commanded by a wireless signal from the head. To keep victims from escaping, the Cybusmen eventually equipped their heads with tranquilliser darts to sedate them. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
History
Development
The Cybusmen were developed by Cybus Industries at John Lumic's request, fulfilling Lumic's lifelong ambition of eradicating mortality at any cost. He also incorporated other inventions of his into the system, including the Sleep Replacement System. Lumic felt that the name "Cybusmen" used throughout development was flawed, and eventually landed upon the name of "Cybermen" as a superior alternative. Due to his work contravening the Genevan Bio-Convention, (PROSE: Lumic) Lumic experimented in secret on vagrants and other people whose disappearances wouldn't be noticed. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
Rise of the Cybusmen
Using the EarPods he designed and sold, Lumic took mental control of the people of London, marching thousands to be cyber-converted. After his life-support systems were damaged by his assistant, Mr. Crane, in an act of defiance that cost him his life, Lumic was converted against his wishes into the Cyber-Controller by his own Cybermen to preserve his flesh form. By the Cybermen's cold logic, it was impractical to cling on to an already dying body. Once converted and revitalised, Cyberman instinct merged with his megalomanical mind and Lumic planned to convert all of the Earth.
However, the Tenth Doctor and his companions, having accidentally landed from a parallel Earth, managed to foil his plans. They freed London from mental control and disabled the Cybermen's emotional inhibitors, causing them to go insane and, in some cases, explode. Lumic himself fell to his apparent death into the burning remains of his factory. A human resistance group, the Preachers, then set about to clean up the remainder of Lumic's factories around the world. (TV: The Age of Steel) Before his death, Lumic had indeed authorized full global cyber-conversion to begin, ordering that anyone who was deemed "incompatible" be deleted. (WC: Tardisode 6)
Preacher-Cyberman War
- Main article: Preacher-Cyberman War
Following the destruction of the Cybus Factory and the Cyber-Controller in Great Britain, the Preachers moved around the rest of the world to carry out assaults on the rest of the Cybus Factories. One of their earliest victories came in Paris, where a stolen Cybus airship under the command of Mickey Smith fought its way through the streets, saving civilians and destroying attacking Cybermen along the way with a new weapon attached to the ship. Once the airship reached the factory, it destroyed it using an EMP. After the Cyber threat in Paris was ended, Mickey sent a video message to those who were sent on the mission, congratulating and thanking them. (GAME: Save Paris)
Eventually, the Preachers had Cyber resistance set up all over the world, just as the Cybermen had factories. Soon they were ready to begin their assault on what remained of Lumic's legacy. The mission was commanded overall by Jake Simmonds. The Preachers managed to develop firearms which were effective against the Cybermen and sent troops into other countries, where they recruited others to aid them in their cause. Battles ensued when a squad moved into Cyber territory but successful battles ultimately gained them control of countries where a Cyber Factory was located. From there, the Preachers would surround the factory while a single commando unit entered the factory and fought their way to the emotion inhibitor and taking it out, thus destroying the factory and all the Cyber units converted there.
However, the Cybermen also sought to do the same thing: expand, "recruit", take over, and destroy the Preacher bases. The conflict was fought all over the planet. Ultimately though, the Preachers were victorious as they succeeded in sealing the Cybermen inside their factories. Jake congratulated the resistance, but it was known that the Cybermen were not completely defeated, they had only been delayed. (GAME: Cyber Assault)
The Battle of Canary Wharf
Despite their defeat, at least five million Cybermen survived and were able to infiltrate their universe's Torchwood Institute. They found a crack in the universe, caused by the passage of the Cult of Skaro's Void Ship. The Cybermen were able to travel from their dimension into the Doctor's, and infiltrated the planet in the guise of benign ghosts of deceased humans. They established a base inside the Torchwood Tower at Canary Wharf. While there, they started making new Cybermen, using what materials they could find.
After three years, which only lasted two months in the Doctor's universe, the Cybermen were able to completely breach into the other universe, occupying every landmass on the planet before breaking into houses and promising to upgrade all humans, commanded by the new Cyber-Leader. (TV: Army of Ghosts) Simultaneously, the Cult of Skaro had exited the Void Ship with the Genesis Ark. The Cult, led by Dalek Sec, communicated with the Cybermen via Dalek Thay and declared war.
After a skirmish between humans, Cybermen and Daleks, the Cult travelled to the main room in Torchwood's Canary Wharf, elevated outside above the roof, and opened the Genesis Ark, releasing millions of Daleks who, under Sec's command, started to "exterminate all life-forms below", killing human and Cyberman alike. (TV: Doomsday) Towards the end of the Cybermen-Dalek battle, the Cybermen, desperate for more troops, began directly converting people rather than transplanting their brains into Cybershells, such as Lisa Hallett. (TV: Cyberwoman) The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler opened the Void and anything contaminated with "void stuff" was pulled in, including the Cybermen. (TV: Doomsday)
Lingering in the Doctor's world
However, the Cybermen that were made on Earth, who had never passed through the Void, were not sucked in. (PROSE: Made of Steel)
Ianto took Lisa away from the battle and hid her in the basement of Cardiff's Torchwood Three facility, setting up a life-support system, planning to restore her humanity. He was unsuccessful. She killed Dr. Tanizaki, fought with Torchwood staff and eventually transplanted her brain into the body of a pizza delivery girl, which proved to be her unduing when the Torchwood team gunned down her new human body. (TV: Cyberwoman)
After the battle, two children, Harry and Sam, were working on a model train set when they found stuff from Harry's dad's previous job. Inside the box was a Cyberman, in all its individual pieces. Not knowing what it was, Sam decided to put it back together so it could watch them play. Eventually, it awoke and threatened to upgrade both Harry and Sam. It forced Sam to help build equipment intended to upgrade Sam and Harry into more Cybermen using the other left-over electronics from Harry's dad's job in the box. They, however, managed to knock the Cyberman into the equipment, causing the latter two to be destroyed. (PROSE: Going Off the Rails)
Other humans were converted during the battle, but fully. These survivors stole teleportation technology from Torchwood Institute in order to gather technology to help them reopen the Void and free the trapped Cybermen. They did not know how to do this, however, and so they stole the Doctor's TARDIS, trying to lure the Tenth Doctor to them for aid. Some Cybermen were destroyed by the army with the Doctor's help, but the Cyber-Leader and a few others escaped to the Millennium Dome and kept the army out with a forcefield and kidnapped Martha Jones to draw in the Doctor and force him to help them. The Doctor, having recovered the TARDIS, was able to enter and agreed to help them reopen the Void. However, instead of opening a gateway into the Void, the Doctor opened a space-time portal to the time of the dinosaurs from which emerged a Tyrannosaurus rex. The T-rex dragged two of the Cybermen back through the portal and destroyed them while the Cyber-Leader was destroyed after Martha damaged the forcefield and the Doctor used an electrical cord from it to destroy the leader. (PROSE: Made of Steel)
At some point, as seen in an image in Justin Richards' The Secret Lives of Monsters, a Sontaran fought the Cybusmen. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
Escaping the Void
When the barriers between worlds were weakened by Davros' reality bomb, (TV: Journey's End) a small number of Cybermen were able to escape the Void, using a Dimension Vault. However, the rest of the Cybermen, along with the Daleks trapped in the Void, perished. Landing accidentally in 1851 London, these Cybermen, under the leadership of a Cyber-Lord, made an alliance with the human Mercy Hartigan, created a minion race known as Cybershades and began construction of a dreadnought robot called the CyberKing, with which they planned to conquer the Earth. They also attacked Jackson Lake and his family, who, in a fugue state from seeing his wife killed, absorbed knowledge of the Doctor from an infostamp. Lake and his new companion, Rosita Farisi, tried to defeat them, but were unsuccessful until the Tenth Doctor arrived. When Hartigan was converted into the CyberKing and the ship became mobile, the Doctor showed Hartigan what she had done and, in her anguish, she destroyed herself and the Cybermen, with the CyberKing sent to be disintegrated in the Time Vortex before it fell on London. (TV: The Next Doctor)
One Cyberman fell through the Void into a universe where the Doctor was the main character in a television show called Doctor Who. The Eleventh Doctor sent the Cyberman back into the Void to "its own home". (COMIC: The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who)
With the Alliance
When the total event collapse caused by the sabotaging of the Doctor's TARDIS by the Silence threatened "all reality", the Cybermen realised that "all universes [would] be deleted" if the crisis was allowed to continue. They investigated the source of the crisis and concluded that "all predictions correlate[d], all evidence concurr[ed]" that the Eleventh Doctor himself would be responsible for the destruction of the universe. Unaware that others, such as River Song, could fly the TARDIS, they crossed over into the Doctor's universe and allied with the Daleks, the Sontarans and many other species as part of the Alliance to seal the Doctor into the Pandorica. One Cyberman posted early at Stonehenge was hacked apart by the locals, but still managed to threaten Amy Pond until it was fully deactivated by the Auton posing as Rory Williams. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) After escaping the Pandorica, the Doctor managed to reboot reality through Big Bang Two, erasing the Cracks from history and thus preventing the Alliance from ever having needed to form. (TV: The Big Bang)
Facing the USS Enterprise-D
In a daring attempt at conquest, the Cybermen prepared an armada of Cyber-ships and attempted to take over other universes as well as their own. Led by a Cyber-Controller, the armada crossed from their universe into the 24th century of the Federation universe and entered into an alliance with a species similar to their own known as the Borg and together they attacked the planet Delta IV. The Deltan Prime Minister escaped the attack and warned Starfleet of the newly assembled war force. The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams accidentally found themselves on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D just as it was attacked by a massive fleet of Cyber Ships and Borg cubes. Joining forces with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Doctor intended to help Starfleet end the Cyber threat. He also began to remember an encounter with the Nomad Cybermen from Mondas during his fourth incarnation that took place in the same universe - which he also remembered not remembering - and concluded that the Cybus Cybermen were rewriting history.
Meanwhile, the Cybermen betrayed the Borg and the two sides fought a devastating battle on Cogen V. The Cybermen were victorious and the Borg collective was at risk of falling completely under Cyber control. The Enterprise arrived at the planet to find only the remnants of numerous Borg ships in its orbit and the bodies of Cybermen and Borg on the planet's surface. The Borg contacted the Enterprise and offered Picard an alliance. Picard refused, having painful memories of a previous encounter with the Borg, but the Doctor, Amy and Guinan realised the alliance was necessary. Picard realised this too after the Doctor took him in the TARDIS and showed him a future in which the Cybermen had succeeded. The Borg accepted the temporary alliance and they and Starfleet organised a raid on the Cyber-Controller's command ship and they weakened the Cybermen by filling the air with gold dust. After a struggle with the Cyber-Controller, one of the Borg set all ships linked to the Cyber-web to self-destruct, much to the Doctor's disgust as he considered this genocide, despite what the Cybermen had done. With the complete destruction of the Cybermen from the Federation universe, the Doctor guessed that any changes they had made had unwound themselves, although all involved would retain their memories of the event. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
Rebuilt on Centuria
In the 41st century, an interplanetary info-thief stole Cybus Industries Cyberman blueprints from the Torchwood Archive and used them to build a new Cyber-army on Centuria with the intent of auctioning them off as hi-tech soldiers. However, they turned on him and made him a half-converted slave. They started to kidnap hundreds of tourists and convert them. However, the Doctor discovered this after the beach he was on was attacked while he was on Centuria for a holiday. He and the other beachgoers were thrown into a van. Jayne Kadett, who was tracking down interplanetary Info Theft when the Cybermen caught her, revealed to the Doctor what had happened. The Doctor and Jayne managed to escape the Cybermen and blow the restraint circuits, destroying Factory Zero-One. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen)
The Doctor and Kadett followed the Cyberman's signal, taking a robot-run airship across the now-deserted continent of Azlon on the planet Centuria. Before arriving at the airbus terminal (a Cyber-conversion factory), the conductor/law enforcer became influenced by the Cybermen's hypnotic signal, which was being used to subjugate the arriving humans. The Doctor, Kadett and a reprogrammed robot conductor pretended to be hypnotised and followed the other arrivals. Seizing the right moment, the Doctor disrupted the hypnotic signal and the conductor robot attacked the Cybermen. A stray shot from the conductor ruptured the fuel banks, causing a huge explosion which killed most of the newly converted Cyber-drones (basic work units) as their humanity started to become more dominant. As the Doctor and Kadett fled the explosion, they found a bit of a map in a Cyberman's hand. (COMIC: Drones of Doom)
Using the TARDIS, the Doctor and Kadett followed the Cybermen's map to Centuria's arctic zone where the Cybermen planned to ship upgraded human drones. Homaj, a half human, half Cyber drone, escaped the Cybermen who forced him and others to mine Hargstones. A giant purple Ice Snake attacked, but Cybermen with Cyberdogs deleted it. Homaj ran off into the frozen wasteland but the Doctor and Kadett were captured and taken to a huge mine below the ice. Inside the mine, the Doctor created a distraction while Kadett stole some explosives. The distraction caused a Cyberman to split one of the cave walls, disturbing a nest of Ice Snakes which attacked them. Escaping the mine, the Doctor and Kadett saw the Cybership had already departed with its cargo. Homaj waited for them and informed them he had intercepted a message saying that the cargo was going to Centuria Central. He then took the explosives from Kadett and headed back to the mine. In an act of self-sacrifice, he permanently sealed it. The Doctor and Kadett left in the TARDIS in pursuit of the Cybership. (COMIC: Enemy Mine)
The TARDIS landed in Centuria Central in a temporal stasis field. Kadett was caught in the frozen moment but the Doctor, being a Time Lord, could resist the field. Cybermen in a patrol aircar spotted him moving around and pursued. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to bring the aircar crashing down, drawing the attention of other Cybermen, who arrived to salvage parts and take them back to base. The Doctor smuggled himself into the base with the salvage. The base was the Triplanetary base which the Doctor suspected had been robbed of its Hargstone reserves to enable the Cybermen to maintain a stasis machine. The Doctor learned from the Cybermen that they had built the stasis machine from Torchwood files and used the device to subdue opposition. Choosing the most secure place for the machine, the Doctor escaped and headed for the bank's vault, but it was made of titanium and was protected by laser-proof glass and destructor rays. When the Doctor couldn't get in he used the sonic screwdriver to turn the destructor rays inwards, destroying the stasis machine. The Cybermen had a mental link with the machine that enabled them to move around inside the stasis field, so when the machine was destroyed the temporal feedback overloaded their circuits. However, a Cyber-helmet in the shadows glowed red, suggesting that the Cybermen presence on Centuria wasn't completely destroyed. (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen)
Influence on the Cybermen of the Doctor's universe
A historical account about the Doctor's universe recounted that it had been suggested that cross pollination of the Cybusmen and the Cybermen of Mondas led to the advanced Cyberman model used by the Cyberiad, seen at Hedgewick's World of Wonders. (PROSE: The Whoniverse) Indeed, the Eleventh Doctor on several occasions had crossed paths with Cybermen who resembled the characteristic outline of the Cybusmen, but lacked the Cybus logo on their chest and seemed to be native to his universe. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, Closing Time) However, a branch of Mondasian Cybermen identical to these Cybus-like models also developed without outside influence on a Mondasian colony ship, evolving from more primitive Cybermen. The Twelfth Doctor referred to this as simple parallel evolution. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Undated events
A Cybus Cyber-ship once fell through reality to Rome in 312, where its Cybermen were taken over by the Entity. The Eleventh Doctor made these Cybermen believe in a Cyber-God and allowed them to remain in this era, away from Earth, and spread the word of their deity. (COMIC: Conversion)
Alternate timelines
In a potential future that the Eleventh Doctor showed to Jean-Luc Picard, the Cybermen defeated the Borg after the Cybermen betrayed their alliance, and invaded both N-Space and the Federation universe. The locations conquered by the Cybermen included Raxacoricofallapatorius, Qo'noS, Judoonia and the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. Ultimately, this future never existed, as the Doctor convinced Jean-Luc Picard to ally with the Borg, and the Cybermen were destroyed before they could take control of the Borg homeworld. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
Other information
The Tenth Doctor kept one of the Cybus logos from a Cyberman chest plate in the TARDIS within the C chest. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp) The Eleventh Doctor kept one in the TARDIS drawing room. (GAME: TARDIS)
Behind the scenes
Information from invalid sources
Two Dalek Wars short stories looking back on the Battle of Canary Wharf attempted to add some nuance to Doomsday's fairly clear decree that the Cybermen were hopelessly outmatched compared to Bronze Daleks in terms of combat ability. According to these stories, the weaponry of the Cybermen was mostly ineffective to Dalek casing, but there were some Dalek casualties as the Cybermen were able to tear the domes of some Daleks right off, in some instances as part of an ambush. (In another Dalek Wars story, a single Cyberman ended at the bottom of the oceans of Philjax III during the Daleks' battle with the Squeeth.)