Weapons-grade Cyberman
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What the Twelfth Doctor identified as a "weapons-grade version" of a Cyberman (TV: The Doctor Falls) was a Cyber-subspecies seen throughout the Doctor's universe and beyond.
Characteristics[[edit] | [edit source]]
General[[edit] | [edit source]]
The "weapons-grade" Cyber-body was sleeker and far less bulky than previous models. Like the earlier Cyber Legion model and their near-identical Cybus counterparts, the Cyber-helmets on these Cybermen sported faceplates with "tear drop" eye-pods and mouth slits which gave a blue glow when they spoke. Their voices were also deeper than those of the previous design. (TV: Nightmare in Silver) The faceplate could be removed, thus exposing the humanoid face beneath. (TV: Death in Heaven)
They had chest units which gave a blue glow whilst no circuitry was visible outside the suit and they developed a plethora of new features: these Cybermen could move at blurring speed, to the point where everything around them would seem frozen. They were capable of rotating their heads 180 degrees, as well as being able to detach body parts such as their Cyber-hands or their Cyber-head. Their armour was thick enough to deflect lasers, though an anti-cyber gun could completely disintegrate them. (TV: Nightmare in Silver, The Time of the Doctor) (TV: Death in Heaven)
Some weapons-grade Cybermen, such as the Brigadier, had side handles with black corners. (TV: Death in Heaven) Ashad, another Cyberman with this distinction, was addressed by Cyberguards as Leader. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
Cyber-Leader[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Cyber-Leader
One variant of the weapons-grade Cybermen was their Cyber-Leader variant. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen; GAME: Time of the Cybermen) Similar to the earlier Cyber-Leaders of the Cyber Legions (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) and Cyber-Lords, (TV: The Next Doctor, GAME: Blood of the Cybermen) the Cyber-Leader was distinguished by its Cyber-helmet. In one case, the helmet had black side handles with a silver centrepiece, a completely black faceplate, save for a pair of tiny clear rings around the Cyber-Leader's eye sockets, and a transparent glass covering through which its brain could be seen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) Another unit was very similar, but there was no silver centrepiece for the helmet, and the eyes and mouth-plate glowed a bright blue, much like the chest light. (GAME: Time of the Cybermen)
The Cyber-Leader rank existed all the way to the end of the universe, where the former Cyber-Leader was part of a surviving Cyber-colony. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Cyber-Controller[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Cyber-Controller
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At the end of the universe, the weapons-grade Cybermen were led by a Cyber-Controller whose brain was visible through a glass covering on its helmet. It lacked side handles on its helmet, instead possessing a pair of large blank, metal panels where a human's ears would normally be. Additionally, the Cyber-Controller lacked a chest unit or any other kind of external bodily components or mechanisms, aside from a thin, vertical oval-shaped light on its chest that varied between being blue and white in colour. Its body was also significantly more muscular than most Cybermen. The Cyber-Controller's faceplate featured bright, white eye-pods with blue highlights, and lacked the "tear-drop" on the corners that were commonly seen on other Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Wooden Cyberman[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Wooden Cyberman
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Made to bypass the Trenzalore force field, the wooden Cyberman was distinguished by a Cyber-body made out of weathered wood instead of steel. The power cell located in its chest was yellow, as was its mouth slit when it spoke, instead of those features being blue like the regular Cybermen. The wooden Cyberman's Cyber wrist blaster was shaped like a large, flat arrowhead with a small, circular flashing light on its left-hand side, unlike the cuboid-shaped wrist blasters of the regular Cybermen of the wooden Cyberman's design. This wrist blaster also fired a flamethrower instead of energy bolts; due to its body being comprised of wood, the wooden Cyberman's own wrist blaster could incinerate its power cell, thereby terminating itself. The wooden Cyberman's voice was also more raspy than most Cybermen, and it uttered the catchphrase "incinerate" instead of "delete". (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]
By the end of the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen had gained the ability to instantly adapt to anything that posed a threat to damaging their bodies; thus most methods of killing them became obsolete after one use, and this instant immunity was shared through the Cyberiad. The only guaranteed method of destroying these Cybermen was to completely destroy the planet they were on at the time. (TV: Nightmare in Silver) Other encounters with weapons-grade Cybermen showed them being defeated by far less drastic means. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, et. al)
Weapons-grade Cybermen could also learn a person's identity in seconds using a scanner in their chest plate. The "3W Cybermen" could also self-destruct, releasing cyber-pollen spores to upgrade a corpse into a Cyberman as well, albeit allowing some to retain their free will. (TV: Death in Heaven)
While the ones operating in the Cyberiad lacked the ability, (TV: Nightmare in Silver) other factions of weapons-grade Cybermen were capable of flight. (TV: Death in Heaven, The Doctor Falls)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
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"Weapons-grade" Cybermen were upgraded from the Cyber Legions, which were speculated by one source to be the result of cross-pollination between two Cyber-races: the Cybermen of Mondas and their descendants, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) who had previously fought numerous Cyber-Wars against humanity, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen et al.) and the Cybermen of Cybus Industries, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) the latter of whom, having failed to conquer their universe's Earth, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel) had crossed into the Doctor's universe and attempted to conquer its Earth instead, (TV: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday) only to be reduced to scattered remnants across the universe thanks to the Tenth Doctor, (TV: Cyberwoman, PROSE: Made of Steel, COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen) The work of natural historians who were allowed to study the monster information vaults of the Doctor's TARDIS identified the weapons-grade Cybermen of Hedgewick's World of Wonders as the direct descendants of the Cybus Cybermen who had long since dispensed with the Cybus Industries brand as they operated in the Doctor's universe. (PROSE: The Monster Vault)
Aboard a Mondasian colony ship, one of numerous places where the Cybermen began as a result of parallel evolution, "weapons-grade" Cyberman advanced from Cybermen identical to those of the Cyber Legions, with both following from the original CyberMondans. The first of these "weapons-grade" Cybermen to attack was killed through a combination of the Mondasian-converted Bill Potts' cyber-weapon, the Saxon Master's laser screwdriver, Missy's sonic umbrella and the Twelfth Doctor's sonic screwdriver. In the Battle of Floor 0507, numerous "weapons-grade" Cybermen, along with "Cyber Legion" Cybermen and CyberMondasians, moved to upgrade the remaining Mondasians only to be destroyed by the Doctor. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
The Cyberdears[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: 3W Cyberman
Operating on Earth in 2014, (COMIC: The Fractures) Missy oversaw the creation of a new weapons-grade Cyber-Army, (TV: Dark Water, Death in Heaven) whom she personally referred to as her "Cyberdears". (PROSE: Meet Missy!) Creating a paranoia that the minds of the deceased remain alive and conscious of what is happening to them, even after death, she created the 3W Institute, with the purpose of caring for the bodies of dead humans. The organization had facilities all around the world. Its main base of operations was in St Paul's Cathedral, hidden by use of dimensional engineering. A dying person's mind would be uploaded to a matrix data slice called the Nethersphere where their emotions would be removed while their bodies would be upgraded into Cybermen. The people that paid the organization to preserve their bodies, would be placed inside tanks filled with a substance called dark water to hide their nature as Cybermen, while their minds were uploaded. (TV: Dark Water, Death in Heaven)
In the ensuing 3W Institute Affair, (PROSE: Missy on Trial) the institute was discovered by Clara Oswald and the Twelfth Doctor, who were trying to find Danny Pink, who was also uploaded to the Nethersphere upon death. Missy activated the tanks, and drained away the dark water, revealing the Cybermen. They were then released, flying into the sky and exploding over major populated areas, creating clouds to produce cyber-pollen for converting those who had not been preserved. Missy also planned for a next wave of pollen to kill and convert every human on Earth. The Cyber-Army was offered by Missy as a "gift" to tempt the Doctor to enforce "good" throughout the universe. This was rejected by the Doctor, who maintained that he was just "an idiot" who "help[ed] out" before handing control of the army to the cyber-converted Danny Pink, who had the Cybermen fly into the clouds and self-destruct, destroying both them and the clouds. Missy teleported away after the cyber-converted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart fired his wrist-blaster at her, powering her vortex manipulator. (TV: Dark Water, Death in Heaven, The Witch's Familiar)
21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 2010s, a weapons-grade Cyberman was a resident of the hidden trap street in London which housed lost aliens on Earth under the protection of Mayor Me. As with the rest of the inhabitants, it appeared cloaked in human form through use of the lurkworms. It was observed by the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald as it had maintenance performed on it by an Ood. (TV: Face the Raven)
As noted by the Twelfth Doctor in propaganda broadcasts to an occupied Earth in the late 2010s, the weapons-grade Cybermen were among the menaces to humanity whom the Monks took credit for defeating. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
After their previous sightings at St Paul's Cathedral, the Time Fracture resulted in many weapons-grade Cybermen to be sighted; UNIT warned the human participants of Operation Time Fracture against engaging with them. (PROSE: Cybermen) Tia Kofi, one of the humans sent by UNIT to observe the effects of the Time Fracture, who had travelled back to the Elizabethan era and met a courtier, were frightened by a weapons-grade Cyberman when it was zapped back to the court of Elizabeth I. (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!) A group of humans also faced Cybermen, along with Daleks and Weeping Angels, after being recruited by Kate Stewart. (PROSE: And now for a story...)
Other invasion efforts[[edit] | [edit source]]
In July 2114, weapons-grade Cybermen invaded the human colony on Tiestus and attempted to convert its population. Humans were rounded up by the Cybermen and taken to a warehouse which had been adapted into a cyber-conversion factory. The invasion was stopped when Jacob Sowersby used his BOB implant to interfere with Cybercontrol and overload the Cybermen with emotion. (PROSE: Cybermen: Status Update)
In the 67th century, a vid-briefing series entitled Perils of the Constant Division provided information on, amongst species, weapons-grade Cybermen. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
Handles and Trenzalore[[edit] | [edit source]]
A group of twelve "weapons-grade" Cybermen, formerly of the Cyber-Legions, were acquired and modified by Dorium Maldovar to function as a patrol of guards for the Maldovarium. When Kiz the Head-Taker, Vertebrae and Agrakos attempted a theft of the Maldovarium, all of Dorium's Cybermen were beheaded by Kiz, with one Cyber-head being used to keep a door wedged open for when the three criminals escaped, with an Auton copy of Dorium naming this Cyber-head "Handles". Later, when Kiz chose to escape alone, he found that somebody had moved Handles from the door, cleaned it, and placed the Cyberman head in the centre of the door's service duct, locking him and the others inside the Maldovarium. (PROSE: The Heist)
Stripped of all organics, Handles was eventually acquired from the Maldovar market by the Eleventh Doctor. Handles went on to assist the Doctor when a message began repeating throughout the universe from the planet Trenzalore. Among the spacecraft that converged on Trenzalore were Cyber-ships manned by weapons-grade Cybermen. Handles teleported the Doctor aboard several of the ships only to teleport him back when the crews inevitably opened fire on him. On one occasion, Handles was brought aboard one of the ships as a symbol of comradeship only for the Doctor to discover it was a cyber-ship, the Cybermen opening fire with the Doctor using Handles' immunity to cyber-weapons as a shield. Handles' analysis of the message led to him identifying the planet as Gallifrey, finding the message to be of Gallifreyan origin. Investigating the message in person, the Doctor affixed a Seal of the High Council to Handles allowing him to fully decode the message which Handles broadcast to the entirety of the orbiting fleet: "Doctor Who?".
Handles remained with the Doctor as he stayed to defend the planet from the numerous species that sought to prevent the Time Lords from returning to the universe, including the Cybermen. On one occasion, the Cybermen dispatched a Wooden Cyberman to bypass the Papal Mainframe's Trenzalore force field, only for the Doctor to destroy it using its own weapon, a wrist-mounted flamethrower. Ultimately, after 300 years in the town of Trenzalore, Handles broke down, much to the Doctor's dismay. Shortly after, the Siege of Trenzalore escalated when the force field was broken by the Daleks. Over the following centuries, Cybermen were among the forces that landed on the planet and were fought by the Doctor and his allies, the Church of the Papal Mainframe and their Silents. By the end of the siege, all the invaders had "retreated or burned". (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The Cyber-Legions[[edit] | [edit source]]
It was following the conquest of Agrippina that the Cybermen of the Ninth Cyber Legion began using the significantly sleeker and advanced "weapons-grade" Cyber-bodies, with blue power cells replacing their chest plates. Locations invaded by the Ninth Legion following this included Delastrio, Xexos, Aaster, Niami Majora Quintus, Tagarn, Quell, Barranos IV, Cadogan, Praxes, Houndstooth, the sky galleon Drowning Vale, and Erodas. After these, the Ninth Cyber Legion launched an attack on the space station New Cadmus, during which they sought to destroy the Cadmus Engine; said attack also led to the destruction of 9.9P-VIV, the former designation of a Cyberman who, after hallucinating the appearance of a human girl across the Ninth Cyber Legion's battles since their attack on Hȳf, had gradually been driven insane by its inability to have corrected what it and the Legion's Cyber-Controller perceived as an error. 9.9P-VIV destroyed itself when it overheated its wrist blaster from rapid-fire use, and was examined by the Sixth Doctor and Peri, who were on New Cadmus during the Ninth Cyber Legion's attack. (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine)
As a result of being besieged by both the Ninth and Eleventh Cyber Legions, Agrippina was reduced to a ruined wasteland. Eventually, a small number of humans who survived the Eleventh Cyber Legion's attack on Agrippina Primus - Sergeant Terrick, Raoul, BaDoris and Memnis - banded together to locate and destroy the planet's Cybermite hive before the Cybermites could begin repairing the thousands of abandoned and damaged Cybermen still left on Agrippina; they also intended to destroy all the remaining Cybermen to eliminate the possibility of the Cyber Legions returning to Agrippina and the Cyber-Leaders ordering the leftover Cybermen to destroy what was left of the planet. To assist in locating the Cybermite hive, the four survivors recovered and reprogrammed individual Cybermen into believing that they were humans so as to ally with them and seek out the hive.
Eventually, "Doubt", one of the many Cybermen the survivors reprogrammed, located the Cybermite hive inside one of Agrippina Primus' old churches, where the Cybermites had already begun to repair the Cybermen left on Agrippina. As Sergeant Terrick prepared to detonate a bomb to destroy the entire hive, the Doctor's TARDIS crashed through one of the church's stained-glass windows, and the Fifth Doctor emerged, having arrived to assist the survivors in destroying the Cybermites. It was at this point that Doubt learnt of its true identity, and Sergeant Terrick prepared to destroy the reprogrammed Cyberman; although the Doctor and the other survivors attempted to persuade Terrick not to kill Doubt, he fired anyway. However, Doubt was repaired by the Cybermites, although it retained its reprogrammed state. From this, it decided to seek out the remaining Cybermen on Agrippina and issue them a new order: to plant crocuses. (PROSE: A Girl Called Doubt)
The Cyber-Wars[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the 250th Millennium, a series of Cyber-Wars (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) were waged by the Cybermen of the Cyber Legions including "weapons-grade" models, and the Cybus Cybermen. The conflict was devastating for humanity, as the Cybermen were able to quickly upgrade themselves to respond to their foes' weaponry and then move in to convert their enemies. The conflicts finally ended when the Tiberian spiral galaxy was blown up, destroying apparently all of the Cybermen. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
Sometime after the destruction of the Tiberian spiral galaxy, the hand and arm of a "weapons-grade" Cyberman came to be regarded as a legendary "gauntlet" that granted immortality and could radically improve any form of technology. The gauntlet was traded across numerous planets and was pursued by Seeker Sylen of Catrigan Nova over several years, until Sylen acquired the gauntlet and presented it to Lydia, queen of Catrigan Nova, as a gift. Lydia, unaware of the gauntlet's true nature, used it over several days to improve the technology of Nova Palace, and to partially cyber-convert her soldiers. Lydia also accidentally used the gauntlet on her daughter, but her partial conversion was reversed by the Twelfth Doctor, who had been pursuing the gauntlet for a while. As the guards gradually became complete Cybermen, they began "conscripting" people to Nova Palace for conversion, but were eventually destroyed by the Doctor who, using Lydia as bait, lured the Cybermen to the planet's liquid gold whirlpools, dissolving them, along with Lydia's gauntlet. (PROSE: The Mondas Touch)
In the early years of the Third Cyberwar, a force of weapons-grade Cybermen used a swarm of hundreds of Cybermats to attack the space station Hamlyn. However, the Cybermat attack was thwarted by the Second Doctor, who used his recorder to lure all the Cybermats away. (PROSE: The Scruffy Piper)
Fall of the Cyber-Empire[[edit] | [edit source]]
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In what the Thirteenth Doctor described as the "very far future", a series of Cyber-Wars between humanity and the Cybermen were fought over a period of some decades. In that time, the Cybermen used Cybus-style Cyber-bodies like the Cyber Legions and another model, which looked like the weapons-grade model but with the head of a Cybus/Legion Cybermen. By the end of the Wars, they had also begun to evolve themselves into Cyber-Warriors. The bodies of these "warrior class" Cybermen had elements of the weapons-grade Cybermen, in particular the chest unit. During the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen were led by the Cyberium, an AI containing the complete knowledge and future history of the Cybermen.
Additionally, a human known as Ashad, who developed an intense hatred for humanity, offered himself up for cyber-conversion, but was "denied" partway through, leaving him with a unique, incomplete Cyber-body which had elements of the weapons-grade Cybermen amongst other models. Eventually, the Cyber-Empire fell, driving both humanity and the Cybermen to near-extinction. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Ascension of the Cybermen)
Undated events[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Cyber-ship manned by weapons-grade Cybermen was chased by a Dalek flying saucer. Inside the ship, two Cybermen interrogated a Dalek Lumpy about the whereabouts of the Orb of Fates before being flattened by the Doctor's TARDIS. The Twelfth Doctor sent Lumpy to Telos to retrieve a second element of the Orb. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
A weapons-grade Cyberman was once encountered by the Fourth Doctor when time flies began swarming as part of Ethel's plan to destroy the Doctor. The Doctor offered it a jelly baby. (COMIC: A Stitch in Time)
A weapons-grade Cyberman attempted to gain access to the Matrix hidden underneath the Capitol on Gallifrey during the Cloister Wars. It was attacked by the Cloister Wraiths, and it became a part of the Matrix hard drive. The Matrix attempted to use the Cyberman to attack Clara Oswald whilst she and the Twelfth Doctor traveled through the Cloisters, but the Doctor saved her. (TV: Hell Bent) Elsewhere in the Cloisters were earlier Cyber Legions-design Cybermen. (TV: Hell Bent, COMIC: Ophiuchus)
Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Age of the Cyberiad[[edit] | [edit source]]
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- Main article: Alternate timeline (Supremacy of the Cybermen)
In an alternate timeline, Rassilon, following his exile from Gallifrey by the Twelfth Doctor, discovered the Cyberman asteroid colony at the end of the universe; inhabited by weapons-grade Cybermen, the asteroid itself was shaped like the Cyber-helmet of these Cybermen. Proposing an alliance with the Cybermen, Rassilon was converted into the Cyber-President and forged the Gallifreyan Cyber Fleet with the Cyber-Leader, leading a full-scale invasion of both Karn and Gallifrey and, by extension, all of time and space. In particular, Rassilon and the Cybermen managed to force the first twelve of the Doctor's incarnations into impossible situations with the Cybermen so that they could not intervene together. The Cybermen ultimately betrayed Rassilon and harvested his regeneration energy, as they did to nearly all the Time Lords on Gallifrey. However, the Twelfth Doctor and Rassilon managed to stop the Cyber-Controller from regenerating the universe into the "Age of the Cyberiad" by using the harvested regenerative energy to erase the events of this timeline via the Eye of Harmony and the Cyberiad's presence across all of history. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Cyber-Ideal[[edit] | [edit source]]
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The Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe, who attempted to upgrade the entire multiverse to fulfil the Cyber-Ideal, originated from a parallel universe that Kate Stewart speculated was neither her universe nor "Pete's World". Their drones were externally identical to the weapons-grade Cybermen seen in her universe, but spoke using a modulated voice with similar infliction to that of the CyberMondans. These Cybermen attempted to conquer the universe starting with Earth in the 2010s, only to be destroyed by the War Master. (AUDIO: Code Silver, Master of Worlds)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Weapons-grade Cybermen appear as enemies in the Doctor Who: Legacy mobile game. The original version, dubbed "Standard Cyberman" and appearing in attack position, is followed by several variants including "Wooden Cyberman", "Damaged Cyberman", "Giant Damaged Cyberman", and "Upright Cyberman". In addition, the Cyberman forms of Danny Pink and the Brigadier appear as allies.
- A figurine of this model of Cyberman was released in the fourteenth issue of Doctor Who: Figurine Collection under the name "Hedgewick's World Cyberman".
- Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File identified the Cyberman model introduced in Nightmare in Silver as the "Mark VI", following the Mark I, II, III, IV and V.
- Weapons-grade Cybermen feature in the video game LEGO Dimensions.
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
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