Origins of the Cybermen (audio story)

 was the first installment of The ArcHive Tapes anthology, narrated and produced by David Banks. It was rerelased inside the Cybermen soundtrack boxset under the alternative title The Origins of the Cybermen.

It gave an account of the genesis of the Cybermen on Mondas, putting forward that a "CyberFaction" fully embraced cyber-conversion and left for Planet 14 while the original CyberMondasians were more restrained in their augmentations. By this account, it was the Faction that was responsible for the "first invasion" of Earth seen in The Invasion, explaining how an invasion by more advanced Cybermen occurred prior to the return of Mondas in The Tenth Planet.

This account is at odds with The World Shapers, which established that Mondas and Planet 14 were both alternate names for Marinus, of The Key of Marinus. Later, The Doctor Falls cited all three as separate places where the Cybermen rose as an example of parallel evolution.

Publisher's summary
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Plot
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Cast
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Continuity

 * The documents cover the origins of the Cybermen on Mondas, (TV: The Tenth Planet) and the divergence between the original Mondasians and the Faction of Planet 14. (TV: The Invasion)
 * The narrator acknowledges the Mandragora Helix (TV: The Masque of Mandragora) and the destruction of the solar system's fifth planet. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)