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On an alternate Earth, the Preacher-Cyberman War was a major war by the Preachers against the Cybermen. Created by John Lumic, CEO of Cybus Industries, the Cybermen sought to upgrade all of humanity into their kind. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel) The conflict covered the entire globe, (GAME: Cyber Assault) and even spread into the Doctor's universe. (TV: Doomsday)
Background[[edit] | [edit source]]
In this parallel universe, Cybus Industries was one of the most powerful companies on Earth, covering media, housing, technology, construction, finance, airships, and the health drink Vitex. A small group dedicated themselves to investigating the companies' activities, the Preachers, led by Ricky Smith. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Peter Tyler, the owner of Vitex which had been bought up by Cybus, began discreetly feeding information to the Preachers under the codename "Gemini". (TV: The Age of Steel)
Cybus' CEO John Lumic devoted all of his resources to finding a way to extend his own lifespan, resulting in the creation of the Ultimate Upgrade™ project, a plan to create the Cybusmen, later renamed Cybermen. (PROSE: Lumic) The plan was for an indestructible metal exoskeleton that could house the human brain. He started this project in secret, using Cybus Industries' front organisation, International Electromatics, to abduct homeless people and use them as test subjects, and even went so far as to kill Dr Kendrick when he threatened to tell Geneva, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) whose Genevan Bio-Convention would have forbidden the work from proceeding. (PROSE: Lumic) Because the overwhelming pain of cyber-conversion, a system was implemented in the Cybermen for preventing them from feeling any emotions. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Gemini sent a warning to the Preachers about the upgrade program. (WC: Tardisode 5)
Hoping to gain government approval for his work, Lumic unveiled the Cyberman model to the President of Great Britain. To his dismay, the President rejected the project as "obscene" and told him no country would accept the model, even after Lumic's personal appeals to him that such a decision constituted a death sentence. Lumic therefore decided to proceed without the President's approval, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) and subsequently ordered the mass "upgrade" of all humans around the world. (WC: Tardisode 6)
On the day Lumic unveiled the Cybermen, the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS arrived in this universe, having fallen through a crack in the Time Vortex, bringing the Doctor, Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith, the identical counterpart of Rickey, to Earth. Mickey was mistaken for their leader by the Preachers whilst the Doctor and Rose went to Pete Tyler's house, as in their universe he had died decades earlier. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
Conflict[[edit] | [edit source]]
Rise of the Cybermen[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Battle of Battersea Power Station
The conflict began in the People's Republic of Great Britain on 1 February 2007 when John Lumic sent a vanguard of newly-converted Cybermen to storm Pete Tyler's house, where a birthday party for his wife Jackie was being held with the President of Great Britain attending. The Cybermen killed him and began rounding up the guests for conversion, killing any who resisted. The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler escaped the party with Pete and were rescued by the Preachers who had arrived on the scene, along with Mickey Smith. The Cybermen surrounded them before they could escape, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) however the Doctor was able to use a crystal from his TARDIS to destroy them.
As the Preachers retreated, Lumic activated the EarPods of every citizen in London, comeplling them to march to Battersea Cyber-factory for conversion. After they escaped the Cybermen now marching on the streets, with Ricky being killed in the process, the Doctor organised the Preachers to infiltrate the factory by three methods; himself and Mrs Moore via tunnels, Rose and Pete with the marchers wearing fake EarPods and Mickey and Jake via the roof.
The Doctor and Mrs Moore were caught, with her being deleted, and brought before Lumic now upgraded into the Cyber-Controller, along with Rose and Pete who had been quickly caught. Meanwhile Mickey and Jake disabled the earpod transmitter aboard a hovering airship, freeing the marchers who fled the factory in a mass panic. Knowing Mickey was watching via the security cameras, the Doctor discreetly guided him into finding the code to deactivate the Cybermen's emotional inhibitors and send it to Rose's phone. The Doctor then connected the phone to the factory's, shutting down the Cybermen's inhibitors and sending them mad. With the mad Cybermen exploding, the Doctor, Rose and Pete fled to the roof and reached Mickey and Jake's airship.
Though the cyber factory in Britain had been destroyed, more existed across the globe. Whilst the Doctor and Rose returned to their universe in the TARDIS, Mickey and Jake resolved to continue to fight against the Cybermen. (TV: The Age of Steel)
Global warfare[[edit] | [edit source]]
The conflict spread across the globe, (GAME: Cyber Assault) with Paris being the centre of a battle. (GAME: Save Paris) However, accounts varied on how exactly liberation of Paris happened. (WC: Secret Code, Operation: Paris, GAME: Cybus Spy, Airships, Cyber Assault)
Arthur King and Charlie Haughton were commanders of the Preachers and helped them to destroy the Cybus factories across the world, sending in soldiers to disable the emotional inhibitors.
The Preachers eventually succeeded in sealing the Cybermen inside their factories. (GAME: Cyber Assault) The Cybermen numbered 5 million by this point. A debate raged on what should be done with the Cybermen, with some arguing that they had rights as former humans. (TV: Doomsday)
Crossing universes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Battle of Canary Wharf
Whilst contained in their factories, the Cybermen infiltrated Torchwood and used their experiments with a breach in reality to map themselves onto Earth of the Doctor's universe, seemingly disappearing.
Three years later, after the People's Republic had discovered Torchwood's actions and taken control of the institute, the Preachers developed technology to cross the breach and follow the Cybermen. Mickey went first and infiltrated the Torchwood Institute of that universe. (TV: Doomsday) After the Cybermen arrived in force around Earth, Mickey witnessed the opening of the Void Ship, (TV: Army of Ghosts) unleashing the Cult of Skaro. As tensions between the Daleks and Cybermen escalated, more Preachers led by Jake arrived in Torchwood Tower, in time to rescue the Doctor and destroy Cyber-Leader One. The Preachers became embroiled in the Battle of Canary Wharf, even briefly fighting alongside Cybermen against the Cult, until the Doctor had them retreat across the breach so he could open it fully on his universe's side to send the Cybermen and Daleks into the Void. His plan was successful, imprisoning the Cybermen and sealing the breach between universes. (TV: Doomsday)
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
Cybus' Cybermen persisted after the conclusion of the war. Survivors of the battle manufactured in the Doctor's universe were not pulled into the Void. They made an attempt to force the Doctor to reopen the breach to release their army, but he tricked them into summoning a Tyrannosaurus rex from the prehistoric past instead which destroyed them. (PROSE: Made of Steel) One partially-converted human, Lisa Hallett, was kept alive by her boyfriend Ianto Jones in hopes of finding a way to reverse the process. She ultimately succumbed to cyber conditioning, forcing Torchwood Three to kill her. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Some of the Cybermen in the Void were later released due to the barriers of the universe being weakened, (TV: The Next Doctor) as a side effect of Davros' attempt to detonate the Reality bomb. (TV: Journey's End) A group arrived in London in 1851 and attempted to construct a CyberKing to conquer the planet, but were foiled by the Doctor. (TV: The Next Doctor) A single Cybusman resurfaced in another parallel universe, (COMIC: The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who) and a group of Cybusmen were a part of the Pandorica Alliance to stop Total event collapse. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) 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 weapons-grade Cyberman model used by the Cyberiad. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)
Years after the end of the war UNIT, the combined forces of the Preachers and Torchwood, investigated a report of a Cybus factory. In truth it was a false alarm so Brigadier Krista could attempt to seize the Meta-crisis Doctor's time machine to try to prevent her daughter's cyber-conversion during the war. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)