Cyberman

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You may be looking for a Cyberman overview or the Cybermen from Mondas.

One type of Cyberman originated in another universe, where they were created by John Lumic, the owner of Cybus Industries and the original Cyber Controller of this breed. His Cybermen believed that all people must be "upgraded" to Cyber-form, so that information would never be lost and that the humans' physical and emotional weaknesses would be abolished. Beyond this, it remains unknown what the cyber-race would do if they completed conversion of humanity. If there was such a goal, it perished with John Lumic. Although the Tenth Doctor said "all you'll be left with is a metal earth, with metal people, with metal thoughts; you won't advance, you'll stop. "

Most Cybermen escaped from their home dimension and into the Doctor's, beginning their goal anew. Likely, because the technology on their home world was too advanced to counter.

Characteristics

Conversion

Unlike the Cybermen of the Doctor's universe, these Cybermen were created by taking the brains of humans and placing them in robotic bodies. These exostructures were built from High Content Metal and were stauncher and more heavily built than the Cybermen of Mondas.

Cyber-conversion involved painfully removing the brain of the subject and placing it within a suit of armour. The brain was preserved in a cradle of Cybus-copyrighted chemicals and welded to the exoskeleton, to which cyber-kinetic impulses were bonded. The remaining human body was simply incinerated. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Once complete, the newly developed Cyberman had a special implant placed within them. The implant prevented them from feeling their emotions, but, if the implants were 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 overload of emotions. (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)

Operation

A Cyberman's vision through its eyepieces. (TV: 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 remained contained within the suit's head, though the skull was included in more hastily converted units. Artificially grown nervous tissue was threaded throughout the body so the Cyberman responded like a fully biological organism. (TV: The Age of Steel) The eyepieces of a Cyberman allowed it to see the world as blue, digital graphics. The hearing of a Cyberman let it hear things similar to radio, albeit slightly garbled. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

Inside the Cyberman's helmet. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

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) Cybermen heads were programmed to seek out 'fresh meat" and try assimilating a compatible new head into the body if the original organic part rotted away. Because the victim would obviously fight back, the heads were outfitted with tranquilliser darts; wires from the head could also operate as tentacles to restrain the victims as well. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

If a Cyberman was dismantled, its body parts were still capable of operating independently and rejoining together, so long as they remained in working condition. (TV: 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. However, this would take time. (TV: Doomsday) Other leader variations are Cyber-Lords and Cyber-Kings. (TV: The Next Doctor)

Weapons and technology

A Cyberman wrist blaster operating on its own. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

Originally, their only weapons were their electrified hands, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) but they later gained a small wrist-mounted energy weapon. (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 Cybermen eventually equipped their heads with tranquilliser darts to sedate them. (TV: 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. (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 Cyberman bringing its closed fist to its chest. (TV: The Age of Steel, TV: Army of Ghosts). They were 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. (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)

They eventually developed means of space travel and ventured into space. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, GAME: Return to Earth) However, their technology was initially quite primitive and incompatible with time travel, as demonstrated when their ship was destroyed by a Dalek Time Axis. (GAME: Return to Earth) By the time they joined the Alliance, their space travel seemed more advanced, similar to that of the Cybermen from Mondas. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

Voice

These Cybermen spoke in an electronic, monotone voice, far more emotionless and deeper than the Cybermen of the Doctor's universe. Because of their lack of emotions, the Cybermen used technical terms like "compatible" and their battle cry, "DELETE!". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) The Cybermen 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' so Miss Hartigan had to say "I will operate at maximum efficiency". (TV: The Next Doctor)

Hierarchy

History

Creation and expansion

Cybermen shortly after their creation. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)

The Cybermen were created in a parallel universe by John Lumic, a terminally ill and insane genius. To find a way to survive, by 2007 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. He assassinated the President of Great Britain after the President rejected his plans. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)

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 betrayal that cost him his life, Lumic was converted into the Cyber-Controller by his own Cybermen against his own wishes to preserve his flesh form. By the Cybermen's cold logic, it was impractical to cling to an already dying body. Once converted and revitalised, Cyberman instinct merged with his megalomanical mind and he planned to convert all of the parallel Earth. However, the Tenth 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. (TV: The Age of Steel)

Following the destruction of the Cybus Factory and the Cyber Controller in 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 and bases 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, as Jake seemed aware of when he gave his congratulations: "You did it! The Cybermen are sealed up in their factories. We're safe for now." (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 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.

The Cybermen in France. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

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. (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, or in Dalek Sec's words, "pest control".

The Cybermen encounter Daleks. (TV: Doomsday)

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. One victim of this process was Lisa Hallett, girlfriend of Ianto Jones. (TV: Cyberwoman)

The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler opened the Void and anything contaminated with void stuff was pulled in. This included the Cybermen. (TV: 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. 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. Ianto had desperately tried to salvage what was left of his girlfriend's former identity, but could not succeed. He mourned Lisa's death, moved on, and eventually set his romantic attentions elsewhere. (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, threatening to upgrade both Harry and Sam. It forced Sam to help build a "Cyber-Conversion Unit" using the other left-over 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. (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 re-open 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 but the Cyber-Leader and a few others escaped to the Millennium Dome and kept the army out with a forcefield. The Doctor and Martha, however, having recovered the TARDIS, were able to enter. The Doctor was able to trick the Cybermen, allowing them to link up their equipment with the TARDIS and giving them instructions. However, the Cybermen were instead sent back to the time of the dinosaurs where they were attacked and killed by a Tyrannosaurus rex. 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)

Escaping the Void

The Cyberman-created CyberKing stomps Victorian London. (TV: The Next Doctor)

Due to the Daleks' damaging the barriers between realities by using the Reality bomb (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End), a small number of Cybermen were able to escape the Void, assisted by technology stolen from the Void-trapped Daleks while the rest of the Cybermen, along with the Daleks trapped in the Void, perished. Landing accidentally in London, in the year 1851, 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, who in his fugue state absorbed knowledge of the Doctor from an infostamp. Lake and his new companion tried to defeat them, but were unsuccessful until the real, Tenth 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 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) This event was then erased from history by the Time Field (TV: Flesh and Stone), resulting in no one but the Doctor remembering it.

An army of Cybermen were located in Incan Temples. (GAME: The Mazes of Time)

Another army of Cybermen invaded medieval England, they began converting the locals by creating large statues of themselves to make the locals gather to see them. When the Doctor and Amy Pond arrived, they activated the Cybermen's power systems and used electrical currents to disable the Cybermen. (GAME: The Mazes of Time)

Other groups 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. One group, during what appeared to be an early period for them in space-travel, possibly around the 26th century, were attracted towards an artefact they could not identify, which was in fact a Dalek Time Axis. As their technology was incapatible with time travel, their ship was destroyed. The Cybermen escaped and took over the ship, the SS Lucy Grey. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy were also attracted to the SS Lucy Grey by the signal from the Time Axis. The Doctor was able to overload the ship's systems, destroying the Cybermen before the Daleks arrived. (GAME: Return to Earth)

The Cybermen in suspended animation in Cyber-Tombs on Telos. (GAME: The Mazes of Time)

The Doctor later encountered these Cybermen on Telos, where the earlier arrival of Billy Jones had caused the "advanced guard" to awake from the cyber-tombs early to defend the others. The Cybermen tried to convert Billy, but he was saved by the Doctor before they could do so. (GAME: The Mazes of Time)

The Cybermen were among the species that made up the the Alliance. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) However, the Alliance was never formed after the Big Bang Two. (TV: The Big Bang)

The dead shells of some of these Cybermen were recovered after the Cyber-Wars and put on display at Hedgewick's World of Wonders. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)

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)

Cybermen on Centuria

The Cybermen on Centuria. (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen)

During the 41st century an interplanetary info-thief stole Cyberman 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 holiday 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 had happened. The Doctor and Jayne managed to escape the Cybermen and blow the restraint circuits; the Cybermen factory (Factory Zero One) was destroyed. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen)

The Cybermen attempt to upgrade. (COMIC: Drones of Doom)

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. (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 has 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 Cybermen threaten to kill. (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen)

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 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. (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen)

Other information

Behind the scenes

  • The non-narrative based work Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary revealed much more:
The Cybermen are powered by thermionic generators, their brain was kept in a patented protein solution at 6 °C, and their armor made from a very, very durable manganese-steel alloy.
The points of weakness on Cybermen were the ankle joint and the exposed coolant lines on the inner (right) side of their left knee.
Their fingertips incorporate touch sensitive pads and their voice-box was located in their metal mouth (that doesn't open, obviously, only lights up blue when they talk).
The coolant lines were Kevlar-lined and were bullet-resistant.
The particle-beam gun technology is capable of being handheld with an outsized grip (because Cybermen are so big) or being incorporated into their forearm. The particle beam guns were top of the arms market and were constructed in John Lumic's Blue Skies laboratory.
  • According to non-narrative information in DWBIT 17 and the DWBIT Daleks vs Cybermen Special, during the Battle of Canary Wharf, 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 page in Battles in Time, a single Cyberman ended at the bottom of the oceans of Philjax III during the Daleks' battle with the Squeeth.
  • In a website launched by the BBC for the promotion of season 2, International Electromatics, it was indicated that Cybus Industries derived their Cyberman technology from the deactivated bodies of alien Cybermen found at the North Pole.
  • In the stage play The Monsters Are Coming!, the Lurman Vorgenson used his machine, the Minimiser, to capture several Cybermen to be part of his travelling show dedicated to the Eleventh Doctor. The Cybermen were one of many mind-controlled versions of his recently encountered enemies. It was revealed that the New Paradigm Daleks had planted the idea in his head to attract the Eleventh 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 helped him to release the Cybermen from the Minimiser to destroy the Daleks.
  • Neil Gaiman has stated[1] that he has the theory that, at one point, the Cybus Cybermen encountered the Mondasian/Telosian Cybermen and the two races merged into one, explaining why, in Series 5 and Series 6, the Cybermen share characteristics of both the originals and the Cybus versions. It may also explain why the Cybus Cybermen appear in the ice tombs on Telos (in The Mazes of Time) and why the Cybermen have connections with Mondas Cybermen in the past but have the Cybus design (in Assimilation²). This merged Cyber race is implied in Gaiman's Series 7 episode Nightmare in Silver, where the Cyber-suits of two Cybus Cybermen are seen and said to have been found after the Cyber-Wars (a Mondasian Cyberman conflict) along with the suit of a Cyberman of the Cyber Legions. However, no explicit confirmation of this theory is given in the episode.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ EXCLUSIVE – Neil Gaiman Talks Doctor Who And Cybermen. SFX (May 7th, 2013). Retrieved on January 5th, 2014.
v • e
Cyberman variants
Cyber-subspecies
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Cyberman agents
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v • e
Cyberman stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Cyberman story" is one in which one living, authentic Cyberman plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as Dalek are absent due to only featuring deceased Cybermen on display. Stories like Carnival of Monsters, A Good Man Goes to War and The Vanquishers are also not included due to the Cybermen's appearance being of little consequence to the plot of the story.
Television
Webcast
Audio

Sword of Orion • Spare Parts • Real Time • The Harvest • Silver Lining • Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Crystal of Cantus • The Reaping • The Gathering • The Blue Tooth • Human Resources • The Girl Who Never Was • The Ultimate Adventure • Kingdom of Silver • Legend of the Cybermen • The Silver Turk • Last of the Cybermen • Return to Telos • The Isos Network • The Tyrants of Logic • Code Silver / Master of Worlds • Hour of the Cybermen • Conversion • Return of the Cybermen • The Gates of Hell • Scourge of the Cybermen • Altered Status • Monsters in Metropolis • Secrets of Telos • Way of the Burryman / The Forth Generation • Bad Day in Tinseltown • Willkommen • Wulf • Übermensch • Auf Wiedersehen • The Great Cyber-War • Sins of the Flesh

Cyberman
Prose
Novels
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Features
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The Cybermen
Supremacy of
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