- For other meanings of Cyberman, see Cyberman (disambiguation).
One type of Cyberman originated in another universe, where they were created by John Lumic, the owner of Cybus Industries. His Cybermen believed that all people must be "upgraded" to Cyber-form, removing their emotional and physical weakness.
Characteristics
Cyber-conversion involved painfully removing the brain of the subject and placing it within a suit of armour. Once complete, the newly developed Cyberman had a special implant placed within them, which prevented them from feeling their emotions. However, if the implants were disrupted, then the Cybermen entered into a traumatic state as they were overloaded by the pain of the conversion, resulting in them dying in agony or their heads exploding from the overload of emotions. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
The Cyber-suit was constructed from bulletproof steel. A chest plate with the Cybus Industries logo housed a "heart of steel", the function of which is unclear, and the emotional inhibitor chip. The brain was contained within the head. Artificially grown nervous tissue was threaded throughout the body so the Cyberman responded like a fully biological organism. (DW: The Age of Steel)
Without a brain inserted, the Cyber-suit was a robot which apparently had sufficient processing capacity to pursue and attack a human target. (DW: The Age of Steel)
Typically, Cybermen 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. (DW: Doomsday)
Weapons and Technology
Unlike the Cybermen of the main universe, these Cybermen were created by taking the brain of humans and placing them in robotic bodies. These exo-structures were stauncher and more heavily built than the Cybermen of Mondas, and the Cyberman weakness for gold was not present in these alternate Cybermen, though a tie-in Cybus Industries webpage mentioned that the initial models had, indeed, suffered from heavy impairment when exposed to gold. However, in keeping with the in-universe story, this defect was purged from the finished model.
Originally, their only weapons were their electrified hands, (DW: Rise of the Cybermen) but they later gained a small wrist-mounted energy weapon (DW: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday). To prevent them from realizing what they were, the Cybermen were programmed with a computer chip that prevented them from having emotions or a sense of feeling. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)
The Cybermen were capable of wirelessly communicating with each other, and when a Cyber-Leader was killed, their files were transferred to an appointed Cyberman, who would subsequently be upgraded to a new Cyber-Leader. They also capable of using infostamps, allowing them to communicate information to other Cybermen 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. (DW: The Next Doctor)
History
The Cybermen were created in a parallel universe by John Lumic, a terminally ill and insane genius. To find a way to survive, he perfected a method to sustain the Human brain indefinitely in a cradle of chemicals, bonding the synaptic impulses to a metal exoskeleton. Lumic began to trick and abduct homeless people and convert them into Cybermen, and later assassinated the President of Great Britain after the President rejected his plans.
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, Lumic was converted into the Cyber-Controller. However, the Doctor and his companions, having accidentally landed on the 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. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)
- At some point after this, the Cybermen upgraded themselves with ranged energy weapons.
Despite this, some of the Cybermen survived and were able to infiltrate Torchwood Institute. They found a crack in the universe, caused by the passage of the Void Ship. The Cybermen were able to travel from their dimension into ours, and infiltrated the planet in the disguise as the benign ghosts of deceased Humans. They established a base inside the Torchwood Tower at Canary Wharf. While there, they started making some new Cybermen, using purely Earth materials from our universe.
After two months (three years in parallel Earth time), the Cybermen suddenly appeared in their true form, occupying every landmass on the planet before breaking into houses and promising to upgrade all Humans, commanded by the new Cyber-Leader. 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, or in Dalek Sec's words, "pest control".
After a skirmish Humans versus Cybermen versus Daleks, the Cult travelled to the main room in Torchwood Tower Canary Wharf, elevated outside above the roof, and opened the Genesis Ark, releasing millions of Daleks who, under Sec's command, proceeded to "exterminate all life-forms below", killing Human and Cyberman alike. (DW: Army of Ghosts / 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. One victim of this process was Lisa Hallett, girlfriend of Ianto Jones. (TW: Cyberwoman) Eventually, the Doctor and Rose Tyler opened the Void, sucking all the Daleks and Cybermen who had been in the Void back into it. (DW: Doomsday)
However, this was not the last of the Cybermen. The Cybermen that were made on Earth, like Lisa Hallett, had never passed through the Void, therefore they were not sucked in. 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, as she killed Dr. Tanizaki, fought with Torchwood staff and eventually transplanted her brain into the body of a pizza delivery girl. (TW: Cyberwoman)
After the battle, two boys, 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 his individual pieces. Not knowing what it was, Sam decided to put it back together so it could watch them play. Eventually, it awoke, threatening to upgrade both Harry and Sam. It forced Sam to help build a "Cyber-Conversion Unit" using the other leftover electronics from the Torchwood Tower in the box. They, however, managed to knock the Cyberman into the Cyber-Conversion unit, Causing the latter two to be destroyed. (DWF: Going Off the Rails)
Due to the Daleks' damaging the barriers between realities (DW: The Stolen Earth), the Cybermen were able to escape the Void, assisted by technology stolen from the Void-trapped Daleks. Landing accidentally in 1851 London, they made an alliance with the human Miss 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 came across Jackson Lake and his family, during which time an infostamp was misused, leading to Lake believing he was the Doctor. Lake and his new companion tried to defeat them, but were unsuccessful until the real Doctor arrived. When Miss Hartigan was converted into the CyberKing and the ship became mobile, the Doctor showed Hartigan what she had done and in her rage she destroyed herself and the Cybermen. They were stopped and destroyed, with the CyberKing being sent to be disintegrated in the Time Vortex. (DW: The Next Doctor)
Speech
These Cybermen spoke in a electric voice, far more emotionless sounding than the Cybermen of our universe. The Cybermen's voices had deepened. Because of their lack of emotions, the Cybermen used technical terms like "compatible" and mostly their battle cry, "DELETE!". The Cybermen had shown to misunderstand emotional terms, for example, the Cyber Leader couldn't understand the word 'best' so Miss Hartigan had to say "I will operate at maximum efficiency". (DW: The Next Doctor)
Process
John Lumic explained to the president of Great Britain just what this "ultimate upgrade" entailed, He begins by saying that the Human brain was the most precious thing on the planet and yet we allow it to die, but Cybus Industries has perfected a way to sustain the brain indefinitely in a cradle of 'Copyrighted' chemicals along with the latest advances in synapse research allows cyber-kinetic impulses to be bonded to a metal exo-skeleton but it is commonly mistaken to have said that they have perfected a way to bond the Human brains' own synaptic impulses to a metal exo-skeleton.
Behind the Scenes
- The Cybermen will return in Series 5 (Doctor Who) as they appeared in a trailer. From a DWM interview with new executive producer Steven Moffat, he mentioned the use of flaming torches in the Series 5 finale. In the trailer, a flaming torch is used to combat a Cyberman. It is believed that they will feature in the Series 5 finale possibly alongside other monsters and enemies including Daleks and Sontarans. The Cyberman in the trailer appears to be severely damaged with one of its arms broken off and one of its handle bars missing. A trailer shown at the end of The Eleventh Hour showed at least three more Cybermen, including a Cyber-Leader. One is seen picking up a decapitated Cyberman head.