Handles was a Cyber-helmet companion to the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Cyber-helmet was a term used, by the Sixth Doctor at least, to refer to the headpiece of a Cyberman's cyber-suit. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen, AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse) Bates referred to it as a Cyber-head. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen, PROSE: Plague of the Cybermen)
Variants[]
Cyber-Controllers were typically distinguished by their enlarged craniums which lacked side handles. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
Cyber-Leaders were distinguished by their black side handles. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
Cybermen were typically recognised by the distinctive side handles located atop their helmets. (TV: The Tenth Planet, The Age of Steel, The Time of the Doctor) In the case of the Mondasian Cybermen of the Mondasian colony ship, the handles were an attachable headset which functioned as an emotional inhibitor, which was lacked by the first Mondasian patients. (TV: World Enough and Time) Conversely, the emotional inhibitors of the Cybermen from Pete's World were located within their chests. (TV: The Age of Steel)
The Mondasians' side handles were linked by a central energy weapon which was capable of killing humanoids, burning through steel, and damaging more advanced Cybermen. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Some Cyber-Controllers, such as the one who resided on Telos, were distinguished from their subordinates in that their helmets sported an enlarged cranium which forgone the handles. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Attack of the Cybermen, COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) Conversely, John Lumic, the Cyber-Controller of Pete's World, had a Cyber-helmet with handles. He was distinguished by his brain which was visible behind the forehead's casing, and a set of four blue lights in each eye. (TV: The Age of Steel) A Cyber-Controller which used Borg technology sported an modified Cyber-helmet with a visible brain; its right side handle was replaced with a tube connected its faceplate's right eye, which was augmented with a Borg implant. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
In both N-Space and Pete's World, Cyber-Leaders were typically distinguished by their black handle bars. (TV: Earthshock, Army of Ghosts) The leader of the CyberNomads had a black helmet with only a silver faceplate. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen) Certain Cyber-Leaders, also designated Cyber-Lords, had black facial plating with visible brains. (TV: The Next Doctor, A Good Man Goes to War, GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
The CyberNomads, such as those who attacked the Nerva Beacon, had energy weapons built into their helmets that were activated with the touch of a hand. Unlike other Cybermen, their helmets had coiled side handles. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
Lesser Cyberslaves appeared as metallic humanoids with Cyber-helmets. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
Vision through a Cybus helmet (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
In the case of the Cybermen from Pete's World, the brain their helmets contained was the sole organic component that remained in a Cyberman. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)
Cyberdogs were supported by canine Cyber-heads. (COMIC: Enemy Mine) Cybershades had bronze Cyber-heads. Like their Cyberman superiors, they had piping like handlebars connected to their heads, except they angled diagonally like the ears of an animal. (TV: The Next Doctor)
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen utilised Borg technology to conquer both N-Space and the Federation universe, Cyber-converted Raxacoricofallpatorians sported bulbous Cyber-helmets which matched the Raxacoricofallapatorians heads. Similarily, converted Judoon had rhinoceros-like Judoon horns atop their helmets. Converted Klingons were distinguished by helmets which matched the unique shape of the Klingon head, with extensions reminiscent of hair. (COMIC: Assimilation²)
In another alternate timeline where the Cybermen conquered all of time and space, Cybermen who participated in an alternate Last Great Time War had helmets whose side handles pointed down rather than upwards. (COMIC: Prologue: The War Doctor) The Cyber-Controller who secretly led the Cyberman invasion of Gallifrey envisioned an ultimate evolution of Cyberman that would be achieved in the "Age of the Cyberiad" after the rebirth of N-Space; this model of Cyberman lacked side handles, similarly to the Controller itself. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)
Cyberdrones[]
Cyberdrones. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
- Main article: Cyberdrone
Capable of flight, Cyberdrones appeared as disembodied Cyber-helmets corresponding with the Cybermen associated with the Cyber Legions in N-Space, who themselves were all but identical to those created by Cybus Industries in Pete's World. Their eye-pods, which gave a blue glow of light, served as both a means of vision, providing a heads-up-display to pinpoint targets, and an energy weapon, firing blue pulses.
In the immediate aftermath of the Cyber-Wars, Ashad and his Cyberguards used a flight of Cyberdrones to attack the last surviving humans. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
Individual cases[]
A fake Cyber-suit, constructed and used by the Second Doctor to infiltrate the Mondasian Cybermen, included a removal Cyber-head. (COMIC: Masquerade)
Partially converted on Telos, Gustave Lytton's head was supported by an incomplete Cyber-helmet without facial plating. Before his conversion could be completed, Lytton was killed defending the Sixth Doctor from the Cyber-Controller. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
The Sixth Doctor kept a Cyber-helmet in his C chest. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse)
The Ninth Doctor, accompanied by Rose Tyler, found that a Cyber-helmet was among the exhibits on display within Henry van Statten's vault in 2012. (TV: Dalek) Years later, Adam Mitchell used the Cyber-helmet to send out a sub-ether signal in order to lure out a Time Agent. (COMIC: Mystery Date)
Partially converted during the Battle of Canary Wharf, Lisa Hallett's head was supported by an incomplete Cyber-helmet without facial plating. Following a failed conversion which resulted in his death, parts of a Cyber-helmet's face were seen embedded into that of Dr Tanizaki. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Despite being detached from its body, the helmet of a damaged and automated Cyberman suit made a failed attempt to replace its expired organic components by assimilating Amy Pond. To that end, the faceplate split in two, emptying the helmet of a humanoid skull. As it attempted to assimilate Amy, the helmet repeatedly opened and closed before it eventually fired a dart at Amy's neck, which rendered her unconscious. Ultimately, however, the Cyber-suit was neutralised by Rory Williams. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
UNIT's Black Archive contained a damaged, Cybusman-type Cyber-helmet which was missing its left side handle, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) identical to the Chess-playing Cyberman. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
After it had been stripped of its organic components, a Cyber-helmet named Handles, which sported some damage to its faceplate. was claimed by the Eleventh Doctor at the Maldovar Market. Having a cybernetic mind of his own, Handles would serve as a companion just prior to and during the early centuries of the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
In the 2010s, Kate Stewart and Josh Carter managed to cut open the Cyber-helmet of a Cyberman they killed when the Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe began invading Fortress Island of the Earth of N-Space. They found the remains of a humanoid face underneath the face plate, as well as numerous cables within the side handles that connected to the Cyberman's brain and chest. Kate concluded that these cables allowed the Cybermen to wirelessly receive power from any worlds that had been assimilated into the Mainframe. (AUDIO: Code Silver) She also presented a severed Cyber-helmet from one of their prior Earth invasions to a group of Cybermen created by Missy. (TV: Death in Heaven)
While disguised as a Cyber-Warrior in the immediate aftermath of the Cyber-Wars, Graham O'Brien struggled to remove his Cyber-helmet, which he refered to as a hat, prompting Yasmin Khan to assist him. (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.