Cybus Industries
Cybus Industries was a company that existed on a parallel Earth. Notable divisions and subsidiaries of Cybus Industries included: Cybus Airships, Cybus EarPods, Cybus Finance, Cybus Fitness, Cybus FM, Cybus Network, Cybus Property, Cybus SmartPhones, IE24 News, and Vitex. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"], The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"]) In the 2000s, the Ultimate Upgrade™ project began to upgrade humanity into Cybermen. It was headed by CEO John Lumic. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"], The Age of Steel [+]Loading...["The Age of Steel (TV story)"], etc.)
Influence
Cybus Industries was the most influential company on the parallel world. The mega-corporation held a complete monopoly on technology, as well as heavy influence on other services such as finance, media, real estate and transport. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"]) The influence of Cybus was judged to be greater than that of governments, with the President of Great Britain remarking that some people said Cybus had bought out his government. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) Cybus had also been linked to political assassinations, such as that of the Prime Minister of the United States of Mexico, which had been ordered by CEO John Lumic himself. (PROSE: Lumic [+]Loading...["Lumic (short story)"]) Cybus Industries also purchased other companies and helped their owners develop their businesses, while gaining more power by doing so. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) By the 21st century, Cybus Industries had swallowed all competition, incorporating them into their subsidiaries. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"])
One of the more evident examples of the influence of Cybus Industries was the prevalence of the EarPods, which were used by the majority of the population. Through these devices, the public downloaded information directly into their brains through a service known as the "Daily Download". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) These downloads only provided information controlled by the Cybus Network, which had since become the sole information provider on Earth. (PROSE: Lumic [+]Loading...["Lumic (short story)"]) Secretly, the EarPods could also be used for mind control, with certain models of EarPods also having the ability to read minds. As a result, Cybus effectively had control over most of the population through their services, so much so that Ricky Smith believed those who used the EarPods did not have freedom. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Cybus had the power to conduct several secretive experiments, particularly on the homeless. As Cybus controlled the flow of information, these experiments and disappearances were covered up, though they were noticed through "rumours" among the public. These experiments culminated in the creation of the Cybusmen. As this was a creation of a new life form, Dr. Kendrick informed Lumic that it was his duty to inform the Genevan Bio-Convention. As a result, Lumic had him killed by the first Cybusman. Lumic would later present his plan for the "Ultimate Upgrade" to the President, who would reject it, calling it "obscene". This rejection would ultimately be meaningless, as Cybus had already created several Cybusmen units and Cyber-factories and continued ahead with future Cyber-conversions. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Krista Lateef speculated that the parallel Earth had not experienced alien incursions to the same degree as the Earth of the Doctor's universe due to the power Cybus Industries wielded. Despite this, versions of UNIT and Torchwood still existed in Pete's World. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Loading...["The Siege of Big Ben (audio story)"])
History
Cybus Industries was established by John Lumic and an unidentified co-founder in 1982. (WC: Tardisode 5 [+]Loading...["Tardisode 5"], PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"]) In 1985, the co-founder of Cybus died mysteriously, leaving Lumic as CEO. In 1991, Cybus products flooded the market. In 1996, all competition was swallowed. In 2001, worldwide profits reached $78 billion. In 2004, South American State reported 265,000 people went missing, and in 2007, the Ultimate Upgrade began. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"])
In an article on the Cybus Industries website that attempted to recruit new employees for Cybus Industries, Ben Crawford was quoted, specifying the company's "equal opportunity policy" and that one could get in touch with the corporation via an EarPod. The article also sorted potential employees into two categories: the Trainee Scheme, and the Seniors Programme. It had a link to the Cybus Industries Staff Intranet. (PROSE: Our Family [+]Loading...["Our Family (feature)"])
"ChatGuest1" advised the readers of Defending the Earth! on Cybus Industries, helping them find various codes that allow them access to the Cybus Industries Staff Intranet. In doing so, they find the code "Binary9", which ChatGuest1 tells them to remember as they will be needing it within the week. ChatGuest1 assumes the readers know what Cybus Industries is, sarcastically asking if they are from another planet if they ask questions regarding who Cybus are. (GAME: Cybus Spy [+]Loading...["Cybus Spy (video game)"])
Pete Tyler worked for Cybus Industries as a right-hand man for Lumic, after his Vitex company was bought out by Cybus prior to 2007. Angela Price also worked for Cybus as an "ordinary" 9-to-5 employee, until she "found something [she] wasn't supposed to" on the Cybus mainframe, forcing her into a life on the run as Cybus tried to hunt her down. (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Loading...["The Age of Steel (TV story)"])
Cybus Industries provided the main communications network, CybusNet. Features of their service included the 'Daily Download' which downloaded news (local, national and international), sport, weather forecasts, television schedules, lottery numbers, jokes and other information into the customers' brains via EarPods. Another feature included internet access. Broadcasts from news networks such as IE24 News also formed part of the CybusNet, and were part of a free trial offered to new customers. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) Lumic authorised the global upgrade of all compatible humans after the Cybermen were revealed. (WC: Tardisode 6 [+]Loading...["Tardisode 6"])
The EarPods were used by most residents of the parallel Earth, and were usually worn at all times. Those that did not use them included CEO John Lumic himself, as well as the anti-Cybus group called the Preachers. After several experiments involving abducted homeless people, Lumic sent his new Cybermen to gatecrash Jackie Tyler's thirty-ninth birthday party, having retrieved information on security arrangements from her brain via her own EarPods. At the party, the Cybermen killed the President (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) and wiped out the entire government. Following this, Lumic activated a mind control sequence in the EarPods, which forced everyone who wore them to walk to Battersea Cyber-factory to be "upgraded" into Cybermen. Thousands of Londoners, including Jackie, were converted, but Lumic was ultimately defeated by the Tenth Doctor and the Preachers after they overloaded the Cybermen's emotional inhibitors and destroyed the EarPod transmitter on Lumic's Zeppelin. Lumic was himself upgraded into a Cyber-Controller, and was later killed in the chaos when his factory exploded. (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Loading...["The Age of Steel (TV story)"])
Legacy
As Lumic had authorised the global upgrade of all humans prior to his death, the upgrades continued worldwide despite the destruction of the London Cyber-factory and the Controller's demise. Cyber-factories existed on all seven continents, (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Loading...["The Age of Steel (TV story)"], GAME: Cyber Assault [+]Loading...["Cyber Assault (video game)"]) with Paris being the centre of a battle. (GAME: Airships [+]Loading...["Airships (video game)"]) A global war subsequently began between humans and the Cybermen, following which the Preachers managed to seal the surviving Cybermen inside their factories. Over five million humans were converted into Cybermen. Cybus Industries and its subsidiaries had collapsed as a corporation following Lumic's death. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"], AUDIO: The Endless Night [+]Loading...["The Endless Night (audio story)"] etc.)
Cybus Industries still left a significant impact on Pete's World, even after its demise. According to Pete Tyler, the post-Cybus world along with the presidency of Harriet Jones was widely referred to as a "golden age", though Pete himself considered this a lie. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) Krista Lateef was impacted by the death of her daughter after her Cyber-conversion at Battersea Cyber-factory. After hearing that the Meta-Crisis Doctor was growing a TARDIS, she tried to force him to take her back to the events of Lumic's mass upgrades in London in hopes of saving her daughter, but was unsuccessful. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Loading...["The Siege of Big Ben (audio story)"])
Even after their journey to the Doctor's universe and their affiliation with the company long over, the Cybermen of Pete's World continued to sport a "C" engraved on their chest that represented Cybus Industries. (TV: Army of Ghosts [+]Loading...["Army of Ghosts (TV story)"], The Next Doctor [+]Loading...["The Next Doctor (TV story)"], The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"] etc.) 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 [+]Loading...["The Whoniverse (novel)"]) Other Cybermen models existed that resembled the Cybus Cybermen, only without the Cybus logo, such as those of the Cyber Legion (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"], Closing Time [+]Loading...["Closing Time (TV story)"]) or the Cybermen uncovered at GSO Zebra Bay in 2010. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Blood of the Cybermen (video game)"]) The Twelfth Doctor stated this to be a case of parallel evolution. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Loading...["The Doctor Falls (TV story)"])
