Brigitte Helm

Brigitte Helm was a German actress during the 1920s.

Helm was attached to Fritz Lang's science fiction epic Metropolis, in which she played three roles.

The original plan was also for her to play a fourth role, the film's robot known as the Machine Man, in full costume. Plans for this changed in August 1925, however, when Dieter Jovanovic infiltrated Babelsberg Studio with a Cyberman, which he presented to Lang as an advanced puppet that could play the robot instead. Helm stepped down from the role.

Jovanovic was later exposed as a fanatic utilising the Cyberman to sabotage the film's production. The Ninth Doctor helped deal with the incident, but with the Cyberman gone, Lang and his assistant, Anna Dreyfus, decided to revert to the original plan once production resumed, reinstating Helm as the role of the Machine Man.

The Doctor knew Helm's costume to be notoriousy "uncomfortable". He also questioned why the robot was refered to as the Machine Man, when its features, owing largely to Helm, were clearly feminine. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)