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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 so that information is never lost and that the Humans physical and emotional weaknesses are abolished.
- For the Original Cyberman, see Cyberman. See also Cyberman (disambiguation).
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) In times of emergency, cyber-conversion consisted of only constructing a Cyber-suit around a living being with some internal modifications. (TW: Cyberwoman) The living being would eventually age, die and decay, but the suit would still function, searching for a new living being to assimilate. Once found, the suit would eject its previous inhabitant and forcefully take over the new component. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
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, even it's head alone. (DW: The Age of Steel, The Pandorica Opens)
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 heads 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) At some point the Cybermen gained the abililty to fire a tranquilizer dart from their mouth. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
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 (DW: Doomsday). 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 what materials they could find.
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 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, 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)
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, Lisa was finally killed by the Torchwood team. (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, these Cybermen, under the leadership of a Cyber-Lord, 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) This event was then temporarily erased from history by the Time Field (DW: Flesh and Stone), but later restored due to the Doctor's efforts. (DW: The Big Bang)
Another group of Cybermen apparently managed to escape the Void, but into a different point in time and space. Eventually these Cybermen would become a space-faring race, and at some point joined the Alliance formed to imprison The Doctor in the Pandorica in order to save the Universe. They had previously placed one of their own as a sentry to the Pandorica, and later their representatives were among those who arrived at Stonehenge in 102 AD to confront the Doctor. The Alliance proceeded with their plans and imprisoned the Doctor in the Pandorica. (DW: The Pandorica Opens) The explosion of the TARDIS which caused the Universe to end however still happened, and for some time the Cybermen ceased to exist. The Doctor managed to contain the explosion, saving the Universe and re-writing history. The Alliance was therefore never formed. (DW: The Big Bang) The Alliance's plan failed however, and as a result, several species, including the Cyberman, were wiped from existence, leaving only stone "after-images" behind. When the Doctor reset the universe and timeline, The Cyber Leader along with all things that were destroyed throughout history, were restored to their original form and place in space and time. (DW: The Big Bang)
An army of Cybermen and Cybermats were dug up underneath the Arctic Circle. Though they resembled these Cybermen, they also donned a different logo on their chests. It is unknown as to whether these were the Cybermen from our universe or from Pete's world. (DW: Blood of the Cybermen)
The Lurman Vorgenson used his machine, the Minimiser, to capture several Cybermen to be part of his travelling show dedicated to the Doctor, the Cybermen were one of many many mind controlled versions of his recently encountered enemies. It was revealed that the New Paradigm Daleks planted the idea in his had, so it would attract the Doctor to the show with his monsters, and capture him in the Minimiser. This plan worked, although Vorgenson learned the truth, the audience managed to save the Doctor, and help him to release the Cybermen from the Minimiser to destroy the Daleks. (SP: The Monsters Are Coming!)
During the 41st century an interplanetary info-thief stole Cybermen blueprints from the Torchwood Archive and used them to build a new Cyber army on Centuria with the intent of auctioning them of 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 while on Centuria for a holliday and the beach he was on was attacked. 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 heppaned. The Doctor and Jayne managed to escape the Cybermen and blew the restraint circuits and the Cybermen factory (Factory Zero One) was destroyed. (DWBIT: 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 follow 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. (DWBIT: 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 here. 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 has already departed with its cargo. Homaj waited for them and informed them he intercepted a message saying that the cargo was going to Centuria Central. He then took the explosives from Kadett and heas 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. (DWBIT: Enemy Mine)
The Tardis landed in Centuria Central and 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 has been robbed of its Hargstone reserves to enable the Cybermen to maintain a stasis machine. The Doctor learned from the Cybermen that they built the stasis machine from Torchwood files and used the device to subdue overwhelming 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 is 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 enables 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. (DWBIT: Time of the Cybermen)
If that is so, it is possible the Centurian Cybermen became the space-faring Cybermen seen in DW: The Pandorica Opens
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-Lord 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. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)