CyberMondan

CyberMondan was the term used by the Cybermen to refer to the Mondasians who did not fully embrace cyber-conversion like the Faction did. As such, they were the earliest form of Cybermen. (PROSE: Iceberg) The Twelfth Doctor recognised them on sight as Mondasian Cybermen. (TV: World Enough and Time) In her CyberHive history ArcHivist Hegelia identified what she termed CyberMondasian as the original Cyber-subspecies. (AUDIO: Origins of the Cybermen, The Early Cybermen)

Somewhat contradicting the above accounts, while the Faction left Mondas for Planet 14, the CyberMondans remained on their homeworld until they returned to Earth. After a failed invasion in 1954, (COMIC: The Good Soldier) they tried in 1986 to steal Earth's energy before being defeated by the First Doctor because of their susceptibility to radiation. (TV: The Tenth Planet) This would later be recorded in the Cyber-race's history computer as their second invasion attempt of Earth. (PROSE: Iceberg)

Appearance and variants
As opposed to the CyberFaction which fully embraced cyber-conversion before leaving Mondas, the CyberMondasians had undergone a less radical conversion, replacing only essential body parts to prolong their lives. (AUDIO: Origins of the Cybermen, The Early Cybermen) Their Cyber-suits were not entirely metallic, the face and hands being instead covered in a sort of hardened medical gauze. (TV: The Tenth Planet)

As observed by ArcHivist Hegelia, the CyberMondasians had faces swathed in "plastic flesh", the humanoid skull beneath still clearly discernible. A cap of skull bone was removed and replaced by a metal cover, presumably to render the brain more accessible for adjustment to remove "certain weaknesses", becoming an entirely logical organ scoured of all emotion. Flesh flaps of humanoid ears had given way to thick side handle antennae, tubes extending from the oral cavities on each side of the Cyber-head to meet above at a device for gathering life-sustaining energy beamed from Mondas; the support system of their exoskeleton, a series of connected metal rings, became inactive without Mondasian energy, rendering the organic remains within helpless. A third tube fed directly from the lamp-like device above the head to the back of the brain, keeping it plentifully supplied with energy that it was essential to it as oxygen to a human brain. The chest unit, bulkier than those of the CyberFaction, was a respiratory aid which potentially also functioned as a kidney dialyser and artificial heart and lungs. Unlike the CyberFaction, the chest unit was larger, cuboid and constructed not of plasticised, silvery alloy but of some transparent material that reveals flashing lights within to each side of the central vented area, below which was a solitary control knob. Beneath hung a detachable dish-shaped Cyber-weapon, "clumsily bulky" in comparison with the Cyber-weapons of the early CyberFaction. Curiously, they appeared to retain organic hands, appearing externally human in every detail. (AUDIO: The Early Cybermen, TV: The Tenth Planet)

Using a voice mechanism for speech, (COMIC: The Cyber Empire) early Mondasian Cybermen had a quavering voice which put inflected syllables in a seemingly random, sing-song modulation. In contrast to the monotonous electronic voice of early CyberFaction, Hegelia noted it as an expression more akin to speech which emanated from human thought processes, though it was undoubtedly produced artifically. (AUDIO: The Early Cybermen, TV: The Tenth Planet) Those on the Mondasian colony ship, like Bill Potts, spoke like this as well. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

On the Mondasian colony ship at least, the jug-handles-like device fitting over the skull served as these Cybermen's emotional inhibitor; while it did not lessen the pain felt by the Cybermen ever after their conversion, it "did stop [them] caring about it". (TV: World Enough and Time)

The CyberMondans' eyes were ruby crystals (PROSE: Iceberg) and they were capable of hypnotism. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)

Vulnerabilities
The CyberMondans were vulnerable to excessive levels of radiation, (TV: The Tenth Planet, AUDIO: Telos) and the scent of a particular type of flower. (COMIC: Flower Power)

The Mondasian Cybermen the Twelfth Doctor encountered were shown to be vulnerable to their own cybernetic blasters. The Master's new laser screwdriver could also destroy one with a single strike. While the farmhands' standard rifles on Floor 0507 barely damaged Bill Potts' Cyber-converted self, the partially cyber-converted individuals could be disabled by them temporarily. The Cybermen could be easily incinerated by blowing up the fuel lines of the colony ship. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Hierarchy
Like the other Cybermen, the CyberMondans were led by a Cyber-Controller. (COMIC: Flower Power) The Fifth Doctor identified Krail as a Cyber-Leader. (AUDIO: The Five Companions)

Technology
Like later Cybermen, CyberMondans used Cybermats at times. (COMIC: Flower Power)

Weaponry
When they attacked Earth in 1986, Cybermen carried large, hand-held, energy weapons beneath their chest units, (TV: The Tenth Planet, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) known as ray machines. (COMIC: Test Flight) In addition, ray guns were used. (COMIC: The Time Museum)

The Mondasian Cybermen encountered by the Twelfth Doctor had a powerful laser weapon built into their headframe. It emitted a thick yellow laser beam powerful enough to cause large explosions, nearly kill the Doctor, destroy other Mondasian Cybermen, melt through steel and incinerate a fully evolved Cyberman when combined with 's upgraded laser screwdriver. When grappling a target, they could also emit an electro-magnetic pulse that, while non-fatal, was powerful enough to trigger a Time Lord's regnenerative process; the Twelfth Doctor was rendered unconscious and suffered impaired mobility after being attacked in this way despite trying to recover for several weeks. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Vehicles
The Mondasian Cybermen operated Cyber-craft, Cyber-rocket-planes (COMIC: Test Flight) and Cyber-Scout craft. (COMIC: The Dead Heart, The Prodigal Returns) On the ground, they used the Cyber-Mole. (COMIC: Cyber-Mole)

In the mid-20th century, the Cybermen made use of saucer-shaped Cyber-Warships and Cyber-shuttles equipped with escape craft. (COMIC: The Good Soldier)

In December 1986, the Cybermen used a circular shaped Cyber-ship to travel from Mondas to invade Earth. (TV: The Tenth Planet)

Culture
Unlike most later Cybermen, CyberMondans retained names such as Zheng, (AUDIO: Spare Parts) Krail, Talon, Shav, Krang, Jarl, Gern. (TV: The Tenth Planet)

Cybermen in positions of authority included the ground level Cyber-Leader who commanded a group of ordinary Cybermen. (TV: Doomsday, The Next Doctor) Cyber-Leaders were sometimes aided by a Cyber-Lieutenant. Immobile computer-like Cyber-Planners would sometimes make decisions and long-term plans. (TV: The Wheel in Space, The Invasion) The Cyber-Controllers, who possessed enlarged craniums, had the position of highest possible authority. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Attack of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel)

Cybermen no longer possessed emotions and viewed them as a weakness. (TV: The Tenth Planet) The Cybermen that evolved on a Mondasian colony ship were also emotionless, although Bill Potts showed anger and sadness in her cyber-converted form. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Early history
Most sources indicated that Mondas was the birthplace of the Cybermen. (TV: The Tenth Planet, Attack of the Cybermen; AUDIO: Spare Parts; COMIC: The World Shapers, The Cybermen) Indeed, Bernice Summerfield once corrected one of her students who believed that Cybermen originated on Telos. (AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus)

According to one account, the Cybermen were originally an aquatic species known as the Voord. The Voord were fused with bodysuits which telepathically linked the entire race. Through experimentation with a worldshaper, they quick-evolved their bodysuits into full-fledged Cybersuits. With this change, they renamed their homeplanet Marinus, designated Planet 14, to Mondas. (COMIC: The World Shapers)

Howe the Twelfth Doctor claimed that the Cybermen were the product of parallel evolution; as such, the Cybermen were "inevitable", "always get[ting] started" wherever there was people. He seperately cited Mondas, Marinus and Planet 14 as places where the Cybermen rose. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Prehistoric Cybermen
Mirroring the events of Mondas' sister planet Earth, the Lizard Kings and the Sea Devils rose to power. They used their technology to augment Mondasian apes into ape-servants. (COMIC: The Dead Heart) A Cyberman from the near future came to Mondas through a cosmic cloud and was captured by the Lizard Kings, who vivisected it and studied its technology. An ape-servant was sent through the cosmic cloud to investigate and it was captured by the Cybermen of the future. (COMIC: The Prodigal Returns)

After the Constructors of Destiny manipulated a rogue planet into messing with Mondas' orbit, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) sending it on a journey to "the end of space", (TV: The Tenth Planet) the empire of the Lizard Kings went into decline. With the Lizard Kings hibernating in the Dark Continent, the ape-servants evolved into early Cybermen. They used leftover cyberfication machinery to convert regular Mondasians into Cybermen. The Cybermen tamed the dinosaurs, (COMIC: The Dead Heart) created airships, and established cities. (COMIC: The Flesh Unbound)

An ape-servant from the past crashed on Mondas after coming through a cosmic cloud. It was captured and studied by the Cybermen, who sent a scout through the cloud to investigate if there were more apes there that could be converted into Cybermen. (COMIC: The Prodigal Returns)

The Cybermen came in a series of conflicts with remnants of the Lizard King empire. First, they accidentally awakened R'lyeh, (COMIC: The Flesh Unbound) then they were attacked by metamorphs. (COMIC: The Black Sky) The Cybermen mounted an expedition to the Dark Continent to strike back at the Lizard Kings. Along the way there, they were attacked by Sea Devils. (COMIC: The Hungry Sea) The expedition ventured deep into the Dark Continent, where they were obliterated by Golgoth. (COMIC: The Dark Flame) The Cybermen waged a forty-day war against Golgoth which ended in the utter destruction of all involved.

For the next 2000 years, the Mondasians developed an Earth-like society on Mondas. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath)

Cybermen of the Mondasian colony ship
At one point, a colony ship was created to ferry Mondasians to another world. It became trapped in the orbit of a black hole. Engineers were sent to floor 1056 to reverse the engines. However, the black hole cause a time dialation effect, slowing time at floor 0. The lower floors of the ship experienced thousands of years in the space of a few minutes for the upper floors. The engineers were unable to return and stayed there. (TV: World Enough and Time) eventually crashed on Floor 1056 and took over, until the residents overthrew him. He was forced into hiding as Razor, the caretaker of the hospital. (TV: The Doctor Falls) Eventually, conditions at the floor became uninhabitable, and the hospital began to work on Operation Exodus, transforming people into cyborgs to lead an expedition to the upper decks. The cyborgs would go and lead people to the hospital to be converted. (TV: World Enough and Time) They also went to the upper decks to collect people to also be converted. (TV: The Doctor Falls) The only person at the control deck, Jorj, sent out a distress signal. Eventually, the Twelfth Doctor, trying to rehabilitate, went to the ship. When Missy, Nardole, and Bill Potts arrived, the cyborgs detected Bill's life signs and ascended up the lifts. Jorj shot Bill, but the cyborgs arrived and took her to the hospital, where she was fitted with a chest unit. There, she made friends with Razor, and stayed there for ten years before he tricked her into going to the conversion theatre, where she was converted into the first fully functional Cyberman. The Doctor eventually arrived and found Bill, (TV: World Enough and Time) and fled to Floor 0507 while the Cybermen continued to evolve and take over the floors. Eventually, they were defeated by the Doctor, who blew up the fuel lines below, incinerating them, while the residents of the floor escaped to Floor 0502. (TV: The Doctor Falls) While Cybermats would still show up every spring, the colonists would ultimately "sort" their conflict against the Cybermen. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time)

Rise of the Cyberman
About 2000 years after the end of the previous Cyberman civilisation, Mondas reached the zenith of its orbit away from Earth. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath) By this time, Mondasian society was similar to that of 20th century Earth. (AUDIO: Spare Parts, COMIC: The Ugly Underneath) According to one account, the surface of Mondas was inhospitable, meaning that all the Mondasians lived underground. (AUDIO: Spare Parts) However, the Cult of C'iva were able to survive on the planet's surface. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath)

At some point, the Mondasians created the Central Committee of Mondas by plugging 20 of their "Greatest Thinkers" into a computer. Eventually, the Mondasians constructed a propulsion system to pilot the planet and drafted in people to install it. They were forced to augment them to survive in the harsh conditions of outer space. They were also forced to remove their emotions, as the processing drove them insane. The cyber-conversion succeeded, producing the first modern Cybermen. However, the first Cybermen's bodies would reject the implants, which would kill them. Those flaws was corrected when the Fifth Doctor (who had arrived on Mondas with Nyssa), had an biological analysis done on him. In the scan, they discovered an extra brain lobe that only Time Lords had. This feature was then recreated in the Cybermen, rectifying those flaws. Horrified at his unwitting part in the creation of the Cybermen, the Doctor destroyed the Committee (who by now had become the first Cyber-Planner, and was now bent on converting all Mondasians) by pouring wine into their Nutrient Vats, and reprogramming a swarm of Cybermats to feed off their electricity, killing them. His efforts were, ultimately, in vain as eventually all of the Mondasians underwent forced cyber-conversion. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)

Spreading into the universe
Zogron was one of the first Cybernauts to leave Mondas. During his pioneering of the instellar Cyber-empire, Zogron became stranded on AS4. (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon)

While one group of Cybermen stayed on Mondas, another group, the Faction, left Mondas and headed for Planet 14. These developed into groups without connection to one another. (PROSE: Iceberg)

Return to Earth
The humans on Mondas developed a drive propulsion system. This was placed in the planet's core to move the entire world. As the original Cybermen were limited in numbers and were continually being depleted, they decided to invade Earth. (TV: The Tenth Planet) Before Mondas' return to Earth, the Faction attempted a separate invasion of the planet which involved International Electromatics. (TV: The Invasion, PROSE: Iceberg)

Scouting missions
Scout crafts were sent to find Earth's location. The first expedition to find Earth crash-landed in the mountains of Austria around 1873. However, due to the extensive damage sustained during the landing, they failed to report the location of Earth to Cyber-Control on Mondas, which was 200 light-years away. The Eighth Doctor made sure that all Cyber-Technology from the expedition was destroyed. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk)

The Seventh Doctor and Ace fought Cybermen in Nevada in 1954. These Cybermen were from Mondas, trying to invade. Their attack was delayed until 1986. (COMIC: The Good Soldier)

In 1970, the Cybermen attempted to disarm all of Earth's armies so that they could take over the planet without the death of a single Cyberman. Three Cybermen landed in the English countryside in a rocket and began tunnelling with a Cyber-Mole. With the Mole, they stole the doomsday bomb from Earth's underground secret weapons store and used it to put the entire Earth at ransom. The Second Doctor and John walked down the tunnel left by the Cyber-Mole and killed the Cybermen with ray guns before they could detonate the bomb. (COMIC: Cyber-Mole)

When Earth's most brilliant scientists gathered to witness the test flight of the Dart, Cybermen attempted to kidnap all of them to weaken Earth's military progress. The Second Doctor worked with the United States Air Force to destroy the Cyberman spaceships before the scientists could be taken. (COMIC: Test Flight)

Mondas destroyed
The return of Mondas to Earth's solar system saw the second recorded attempted Cybermen invasion of Earth, (PROSE: Iceberg) although the Seventh Doctor believed it to be the first. (COMIC: The Good Soldier) This occurred in December 1986, (TV: The Tenth Planet, PROSE: Iceberg, Mondas Passing, AUDIO: The Reaping) the 1990s, (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks) or 2000. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet, Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen)

In 1984, two years before the return of Mondas, the Sixth Doctor left a damaged Cyber-Leader from the far future on Mondas, where it was considered faulty by its ancestors and taken to be reprocessed. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

The First Doctor met an advance force of Mondans near Snowcap Base in Antarctica. This force was to prepare for Mondas' return to the Sol system and to drain Earth's energy for the Cybermen. Mondas absorbed too much energy and was destroyed, as were the Cybermen on Earth who depended on Mondas for power. (TV: The Tenth Planet) This would later be recorded in the Cyber-race's history computer as their second invasion attempt of Earth. (PROSE: Iceberg) ArcHivist Hegelia believed that the destruction of Mondas marked the extinction of the Mondasian Cyber-subspecies. (AUDIO: The Early Cybermen)

The Cyberships leftover from the invasion were examined and exploited by humans, allowing them to make advances in space travel, leading Sarah Jane Smith to describe the return of Mondas as "both the greatest disaster and most astonishing blessing ever to have happened to the human race." (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks)

Legacy
A Cyberman was found by scrap collectors Flotsam and Jetsam. Shortly after the Fourth Doctor landed on their ship, the Cyberman reactivated, kidnapped Jetsam, and stole the TARDIS. The Cyberman used the TARDIS to visit the site of the crashed command ship of the ancient cybernaut Zogron on AS4. Before the Cyberman could force Jetsam to restore Zogron, the Doctor and Flotsam landed on AS4 and destroyed the Cyberman. (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon) Flotsam and Jetsam stayed on AS4 and salvaged technology from the remains of Zogron's fleet. They discovered a troop ship full of well-preserved hibernating Cybermen.

Flotsam and Jetsam spent the next four months reprogramming Cybermen and selling them as butlers, bus conductors, and politicians. This attracted the attention of the Brotherhood of Logicians, who sent Joylove McShane and Yellow Stinker to AS4 to collect the remaining unreprogrammed Cybermen. The Fourth Doctor returned to AS4 and prevented the Cybermen from fully awakening and getting off-planet. The Doctor then packed the cybership with explosives and blew up the hibernating Cybermen. (COMIC: Junkyard-Demon II)

Ashad, an incomplete Cyberman who was active during and immediately following the Cyber-Wars, sported a left arm resembling those of the Mondasian Cybermen, attached to a Cyber-suit mostly resembling those associated with the Cyberiad. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Ascension of the Cybermen)

Undated events
The Second Doctor encountered CyberMondans several times while travelling with John and Gillian, including defeating a plot to destroy Earth, (COMIC: The Coming of the Cybermen) infiltrating their Cyber-City with deadly flowers, (COMIC: Flower Power) and escaping a trap set for them in a Time Museum. (COMIC: The Time Museum)

Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen allied with Rassilon to take over history, Mondasian Cybermen intercepted and attacked the First Doctor in 76 Totter's Lane on the day that he was supposed to leave Earth with Susan, Ian, and Barbara. (COMIC: Prologue: the First Doctor)

In an alternate timeline in which a successful WOTAN paved the way for World War III, the Cybermen successfully occupied the Arctic in their 1986 invasion. They came to agreements with the South African forces fighting the British, supplying them with technology and weapons that gave the former a huge advantage in the war, particularly in the South African invasion of Britain. The First Doctor averted this timeline by halting the world on its road to war in 1972, (PROSE: The Time Travellers) and later averted its causes altogether by defeating WOTAN in 1966. (TV: The War Machines)

Other references
In the video game Happy Deathday, played by Izzy Sinclair on the Time-Space Visualiser, a CyberMondasian was among a host of "every single enemy" that the Doctor had ever defeated, who were assembled by the Beige Guardian and pitted against the Doctor's first eight incarnations. (COMIC: Happy Deathday)

Behind the scenes

 * Introduced in 1966's The Tenth Planet, the CyberMondasians were the very first Cybermen to appear in Doctor Who.
 * Prior to their reintroduction in Doctor Who proper, a CyberMondasian costume was reproduced for the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. It is infact the sight of a Cyberman actor smoking a cigarette on the set of The Tenth Planet which opens the feature.
 * While the CyberMondasians appeared in various off-screen stories over the years, they would not feature again on-screen until World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, the two-part finale of Series 10 in 2017, marking an almost 51 year gap since their original appearance.
 * For the BBC One premiere of The Doctor Falls, Duncan Newmarch's regular continuity announcement was interrupted by a Mondasian Cyberman (Nicholas Briggs) who, after breaking through the door, announced to the incensed and skeptical Newmarch that they would be performing the announcement whilst he was to be "upgraded". Immediately after, as Newmarch was upgraded, the Cyberman introduced The Doctor Falls.
 * For the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time, which featured the First Doctor just prior to his regeneration, director Rachel Talalay shot a number of scenes from The Tenth Planet, with a complete set reconstruction, recast characters, and the series 10 Mondasian Cybermen. These scene recreations were not used in the final edit of Twice Upon a Time; the original footage was used in its place. However, these specially shot re-tellings were shown in the cinema feature Twice Upon a Time.
 * A Mondasian Cyberman appears briefly in the 2017 webcast Merry Christmas!, wearing fake reindeer antlers in place of its emotional inhibitor "side handles" and carrying a sign that reads CHRISTMAS WILL BE UPGRADED.