The Cyber-body, also known as the Cyber-suit (AUDIO: Real Time, TV: The Age of Steel) or cyber-form, (TV: Closing Time) was a suit of Cyberarmour which functioned as the cybernetic body of the Cybermen. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) The Cybermen functioned through a Cyber-operating system. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
Anatomy[]
Head[]
The Sixth Doctor referred to the headpieces of these suits as the Cyber-helmet, (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse) alternately known as Cyber-heads. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) They were capable of operating without the body, (TV: The Pandorica Opens) and in this form could be used as Cyberdrones. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
Attached to either side of the Cyber-head were the side handles. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) The front of the Cyber-helmet was the faceplate, (WC: Real Time/AUDIO: Real Time) where eye-pods served as a means of vision. (PROSE: Earthshock)
Cyber-filament connected human brains to earpieces. (PROSE: Made of Steel)
The voice mechanism was used as a means of speech. (COMIC: The Cyber Empire)
Chest[]
On the torso was the chest unit which contained the ventilator unit. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen, Earthshock) At the front was the chest panel. (TV: Silver Nemesis) The chest aerial was a component of the chest units of certain Cybermen. Alongside a built-in microphone, it allowed the Cybermen to communicate with units from afar, whose voices would be received via a small hidden loudspeaker within the chest unit. (TV: The Moonbase/PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen)
Limbs[]
The Eleventh Doctor dubbed the severed arm of a Cyberman as a "Cyber-arm". (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
Variants[]
The Cybermen created on Earth in Pete's World by Cybus Industries were humans whose brains alone were transplated into suits of armour. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel) However, when these Cybermen invaded the Earth of N-Space in the Battle of Canary Wharf, they took to upgrading whole bodies using local technology as a time-saving measure. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Becoming a space-faring power in N-Space, the Cybus Cybermen continued to upgrade whole bodies. In addition, the Cyber-suits themselves could operate independently in the event the organic components within perished. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) Other groups of Cybermen, appeared all but identical to Cybus' Cybermen, distingushed only by their chest armour which sported either faceplate outlines, (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen) or a generic plate in place of the Cybus logo. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Such Cybermen upgraded their victims by encasing them in Cyber-suits. (TV: Closing Time)
In an alternate timeline, the Cybermen used the resources of the Borg to upgrade several non-human races. While bearing the same basic form, variations existed according to species; Vulcans appeared much the same as humans, Judoon shock troopers retained their rhinoceros horns, Klingons bore faceplates modelled on their distinctive foreheads with extensions reminiscent of hair and chest plates bearing the insignia of the Klingon Empire, while Raxacoricofallapatorians stood tall with bulbous Cyber-helmets matching their heads and arms based on their three-fingered claws. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
Following the Great Cyber War, a new race of Cybermen emerged. Conversion could be initiated by cybermites, (TV: Nightmare in Silver) and encompassed the whole body. (TV: Death in Heaven)
During the Siege of Trenzalore, the Cybermen employed a unit whose body was made out of wood. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
By the end of the Cyber-Wars, the suits of the Cyber-Warriors were connected to the Cybermen's shared neural network. By severing the connection and hollowing out the suits, humans could disguise themselves as Cybermen able wield their in-built weaponry. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Partial conversions[]
Tobias Vaughn received a partial conversion which saw his mind preserved within a Cyber-body which appeared externally human. (TV: The Invasion, PROSE: Original Sin)
Rejected converts such as Eregous Bates and Lintus Stratton were humanoids fitted with cybernetic limbs. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
Partially converted on Telos, Gustave Lytton had a partial Cyber-suit applied to his body. Before his conversion could be completed, Lytton was killed defending the Sixth Doctor from the Cyber-Controller. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
Partially upgraded during the Battle of Canary Wharf, Lisa Hallett had a partial Cyber-suit applied to her body. The corpse of Dr Tanizaki, who was killed when Lisa attempted to upgrade him, was found with parts of a faceplate embedded into his own face. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Having undergone a partial conversion, Ashad's human body was housed in an incomplete, weathered Cyber-suit resembling those associated with the Cyberiad, (TV: Nightmare in Silver) but with an unique Cyber-helmet with an incomplete faceplate that exposed the left side of his face. He wielded a functional Cyber wrist blaster, though its energy could be drained by time hopping. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Ascension of the Cybermen)
Individual cases[]
Aboard John Lumic's Zeppelin, Mickey Smith and Jake Simmonds found what the former believed to be an empty and inactive Cyberman. When it came to, Mickey goaded it into into punching the transmitter controls, releasing the humans who had been controlled by Cybus Industries' EarPods whilst the Cyberman itself was disabled by the electricity. (TV: The Age of Steel)
In the immediate aftermath of the Cyber-Wars, Cyber-Warrior suits were used as a disguise by Graham O'Brien, Yasmin Khan, Ravio and Yedlarmi. As Cyber-Warriors, they used their wrist blasters to delete an execution unit that threatened Ethan before revealing themselves to Ryan Sinclair and Ko Sharmus. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Behind the scenes[]
Hybrids[]
During the gap between the broadcasts of The Invasion and Revenge of the Cybermen, a number of hybrid Cyber-suits were crafted out of existing Cyberman parts for publicity purposes.[1]
- The Cyber-head of a "late CyberFaction" along with the chest unit of an "early CyberFaction" was fitted to what was the Cyber-body of the CyberTelosian Controller to form a new Cyber-suit which posed with Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee for the Radio Times in 1970. Notable for being potentially the first appearance of a live-action Cyberman in colour, its image later appeared on the classic Doctor Who website and The Doctors Revisited.
- The Radio Times' Doctor Who Special (1973) featured a pair of Cyberman pursuing Polly Wright and Ben Jackson. One suit was a mostly standard CyberTelosian, with head, chest unit and body but with the legs of the Controller, whilst the other was a "late CyberFaction" head atop a standard Telosian body.
- Elsewhere in the Doctor Who Special, another Cyberman hybrid appeared among a group of monsters menacing the Third Doctor. This Cyberman was an "early CyberFaction" head atop a CyberTelosian body.
- In 1974, a Cyberman which appeared for a photocall with Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker was an "early CyberFaction" with the chest unit and exoskeletal rods of the Telosians.