| Cyberman | Gallery | Appearances | Talk |
- You may wish to consult
Cyberman (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
The Cybermen were a "race" of cybernetically augmented humanoids. They varied greatly in design between numerous different Cyber-subspecies, and originated independently through parallel evolution from various locations across time, space and universes, including Mondas, Telos, Planet 14, Marinus, a Mondasian colony ship, the Earths of the Doctor's universe and "Pete's World", and at least one other parallel universe.
Although almost all Cybermen lacked emotions, as they considered them to be a weakness and instead embraced pure logic, they were often born out of a human civilisation's, or an individual's, fear for survival, which was often inflicted by threats such as poverty or the degradation of a civilisation's world. Other times, the Cybermen were born out of an extreme desire for immortality. Through the misuse of Cyber-Technology, Cybermen could be born on other worlds even if a civilisation was not burdened by threats to survival, such as on Samotis, Centuria and Catrigan Nova.
Due to parallel evolution, there were numerous similarities and differences between groups of Cybermen; most lacked names or individuality beyond a rank, and all sought to fully conquer their respective universes to ensure their survival and "upgrade" all "compatible" life forms to ensure those beings survived as well. Some sought to conquer other universes as well, or even the entire multiverse. Unable to naturally breed themselves, the Cybermen most often attempted to achieve these goals via a process called cyber-conversion, the physical and mental re-engineering of organic lifeforms, often humans and humanoids with similar biologies, into Cybermen.
Throughout their collective history, the Cybermen established many Cyber-Empires and engaged in many different Cyber-Wars, often against humanity, which eventually led to the Cybermen being pushed to the edge of extinction. However, they always found ways to survive and rebuild, ultimately allowing the Cybermen to survive until the end of the universe.
Physical characteristics[]
General appearance[]
A Mondasian Cyberman. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
The Cyberman form was known as a Cyber-body (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tenth Planet (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) or Cyber-suit. (AUDIO: Real Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Though the Cybermen's designs varied greatly across time, space and universes, the many versions had several things in common. Nearly all were predominantly silver in colour, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966). et al.) except for the Cyber-Scouts, who were completely black, (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).) and a wooden Cyberman, who was, due to the material used, almost entirely brown. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Many Cybermen also exhibited exposed circuitry and tubing on a rubber or mylar-textured outer skin, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966). et al.) although some Cybermen had entirely metal bodies with no exposed circuitry. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011)., Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).) While some Cybermen had highly muscular Cyber-bodies, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).) the Cybermen that attacked the Dreadnought had skeletal Cyber-bodies. (COMIC: Dreadnought [+]Gary Russell, Radio Times comic stories (BBC Magazines, 1996).)
Helmet[]
The head of a Cyberman was known as a Cyber-helmet, and was often characterised with a pair of side handles on the left and right-hand sides of the helmet, which connected together above the Cyberman's helmet. (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967). et al.) However, there were notable exceptions to this trait.
The CyberMondans possessed a third side handle connecting from the back of their heads. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) The CyberMondans of the Mondasian colony ship used their side handles as an emotional inhibitor in order to "stop [them] caring" about the extreme pain that they experienced both during, and after, their cyber-conversions. The patients that these latter CyberMondans were evolved from lacked side handles. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) By contrast, some Cyber-Controllers lacked side handles, instead possessing enlarged craniums. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).) One Cyber-Controller's vision of the "Age of the Cyberiad" featured a Cyberman whose Cyber-helmet also lacked any side handles. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).)
Some Cybermen also possessed weaponry within their Cyber-helmets. The CyberMondans could fire orange, fiery lasers from the centrepiece of their side handles, (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) while the Cyber-helmets of CyberNomads contained four gun-barrels which fired quick shots. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
Cyberdrones were Cyber-helmets capable of flight, with small, blue thrusters on their undersides and backs. They could fire blue laser blasts from their eye-pods. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
Other features[]
The CyberMondans of Mondas notably retained organic, human hands. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) In contrast, the CyberMondans of the Mondasian colony ship sported caucasian gloves instead. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017)., The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
Most other Cybermen were entirely covered by their metallic suits. (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967). et al.) Some partial conversions were known to exist that still held human features, among them Tobias Vaughn. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).)
The Cybermen on the Moonbase and those released by Eric Klieg on Telos were slim and spoke in a monotone, buzzing voice, emphasising their lack of emotion. (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967)., The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) These Cybermen were identified by the ArcHivist Hegelia as CyberTelosians. (AUDIO: The Early Cybermen)
The Cybermen who attempted to destroy Earth in 2526 had bulkier, more imposing forms and deeper voices. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) Hegelia termed these Cybermen as CyberNeomorphs. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).) Similar Cybermen also existed in the 1980s, (TV: Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).) observed by Hegelia to be "CyberIsomorphs" following the appearance of time traveling Neomorphs in 1985. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990)., TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
A black Cyberman. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
Early Mondasian Cybermen had a quavering voice which put inflected syllables in a seemingly random, sing-song manner. Their suits were not entirely metallic, the face and hands being instead covered in a sort of hardened medical gauze. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) Those on the colony ship, like Bill Potts, spoke like this as well. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
There were Cybermen in the Doctor's universe that had similar appearances to the Cybusmen of Pete's World, the difference being the lack of a Cybus logo on their chest. Two Cybus units were in a post-Cyber-Wars collection, implying the two Cyber-species had united by the war. After recovering from the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen had advanced suits (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) identified as weapons-grade Cybermen. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) This evolution was possibly as a result of cross pollination between the Cybermen of Mondasian evolution and the Pete's World Cybermen. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Their chest units glowed blue. They were sleeker and far less bulky than previous models. No circuitry was visible outside the suit and they developed a plethora of new features: the post-Cyber War Cybermen could move at blurring speed, to the point where everything around them would seem frozen. They were capable of rotating their heads 180 degrees, as well as being able to detach body parts such as their hands or their head. Their armour was thick enough to deflect lasers, though an anti-cyber gun could completely disintegrate them. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Conversion[]
Cyber-conversion. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
Cyber-conversion was the process by which compatible beings were physically and mentally altered into Cybermen. This process was necessary for the Cybermen to increase in number and was carried out in many locations. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
Partial conversions occurred. In a partial conversion, the subject took on several features of the Cybermen. For example, Tobias Vaughn's torso was immune to gunfire. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).) Sometimes, the conversion could be interrupted, yet still partly functional, such as with Ashad. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati [+]Maxine Alderton, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
A great weakness of the conversion was they could only convert species close to humans. This left Time Lords like the Doctor safe for a time. (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) However, the post-Cyber-Wars variety no longer had this drawback, and were able to temporarily incorporate his mind to create the Cyber-Planner, "Mr Clever". (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) A further upgrade to the process resulted in Cybermen being able to convert corpses, regardless of their condition. However, this could only work with the Nethersphere, or a similar Matrix-like computer; the minds of the dead, or "software" would be stored until their bodies were turned into Cybermen. While stored, they could choose to delete their emotions. (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)
Vulnerabilities[]
The Fifth Doctor uses Adric's gold-edged badge against the Cyber-Leader. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)
Different Cybermen had a variety of weaknesses.
The most notable was the element gold which, being non-corrosive, choked their respiratory systems, a property exploited by the glittergun used during the Cyber-Wars. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).; AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2015).) On occasion, the mere touch of gold was toxic to them. Gold coins, gold-tipped arrows, or gold particles could destroy (or, in the case of the particles, at least weaken) them. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988)., Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) Gold (and gold particles) also blocked their sensors and caused Cybermats to malfunction. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Revenge of the Cybermen, Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).)
During the Cyber-Wars, these Cybermen merged technology with the Cybus variety, eliminating more of their lingering organic needs, like the respiratory system; though contact with gold could still briefly scramble the operating systems. They were also still vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses from hand devices, especially when amplified by the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver. An enemy anti-cyber cannon was also capable of outright destroying them, though they later evolved and became immune to it. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) These models were vulnerable to their own blasters. (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) These models could also be disabled when attacked by a Mondasian's cybernetic laser beam and the Master's laser screwdriver after several seconds. The Twelfth Doctor's sonic screwdriver and Missys sonic umbrella could also combine to form a barrier around the Cybermen to slow them down. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) A special wooden variant of these Cybermen could also be destroyed by the flamethrower on its own wrist. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Other fatal weaknesses of the Cybermen included the combination of solvents known as Polly Cocktail, (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).) excessive levels of radiation, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966)., AUDIO: Telos [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) and the scent of a particular type of flower. (COMIC: Flower Power)
Cybermen affected by the Cerebration Mentor, an emotion-enhancing device, went "mad". (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).)
Bullets were unable to damage Cybermen. Explosives and bazooka shells took them down easily. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968)., Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).) UNIT developed gold-tipped rounds to combat Cybermen. (TV: Battlefield [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 26 (BBC1, 1989).) At close range, attacks with energy and laser weapons could kill Cybermen. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)
Raston Warrior Robots counted Cybermen among the many beings they could kill. Although equipped only with javelins and blades, the technology of the robots allowed them to easily destroy several Cybermen. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).)
Many versions of Cybermen could be weakened by damage to their emotional inhibitor. Feedback loops (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) and neural inhibitor systems were some of many ways to damage a Cyberman's emotional inhibitor, although the Thirteenth Doctor only assumed the post-Cyber-Wars Cybermen would be weak to a neural inhibitor system. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
The Mondasian Cybermen the Twelfth Doctor encountered onboard the Mondasian colony ship were shown to be vulnerable to their own cybernetic blasters. The Master's 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 patients could be disabled by them temporarily. In addition these Mondasian Cybermen, including their predecessors and their later evolutions (which resembled the Cybermen of the Cyber Legions and the Cyberiad), could be easily incinerated by igniting the fuel lines of the colony ship. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
Hierarchy[]
The Cybermen that crash landed in Colchester, 2011 lacked a Cyber-Controller and nearly converted Craig Owens into one. (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)
There were also Cyber-drones, partially converted humans, worker units who were used for the slave labour. (COMIC: Enemy Mine)
Cyberslaves were humans converted by being infected with a nano-form. They could fire electricity from their hands and follow basic orders. If desired, a Cyber-leader could easily disable them. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen [+]Phil Ford, The Adventure Games (BBC Wales Interactive, 2010).)
Technology[]
Overview[]
The Cybermen forces in 2526 used the Cyberlance, a powerful, hand-held cutting weapon. They also used the Cyberscope, a device that allowed Cyber commanders to view the battlefield remotely and access a computer database (containing, among other data, information on their race's encounters with the Doctor). (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)
The Cyberman's distress signal is activated. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
Cybermen in 1986 had a built-in distress signal in their heads that could be activated manually. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
The chest unit of a Cyberman was vital to the operation of its life support system. (AUDIO: Telos [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
The head of Cybermen in 1873 contained a neural generation unit. When removed from the head and with a suitable power source, this unit could be adapted to transmit a signal to distances up to 200 light years. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Cybermen's eyes in 1873 were photocell. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
While the Cybermen showed that they were capable of time travel at several points in their history, (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., The Haunting of Villa Diodati [+]Maxine Alderton, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020)., AUDIO: The Reaping [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) it was still primitive, limited and even dangerous as late as the 30th century. (PROSE: Illegal Alien [+]Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, adapted from Illegal Alien, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) Should the Cybermen have mastered time travel, they would have become strong enough to crush the Draconians, the Sontarans, the Time Lords and even the Daleks. (WC: Real Time [+]Gary Russell, BBCi animations (2002)., AUDIO: Real Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
By the end of the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen had gained the ability to instantly adapt to anything that posed a threat to damaging their bodies; thus most methods of killing them became obsolete after one use, and this instant immunity was shared through the Cyberiad. The only guaranteed method of destroying the Cybermen was to completely destroy the planet they were on at the time. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) These Cybermen could also learn a person's identity in seconds using a scanner in their chest plate. They could also self destruct, releasing spores to upgrade a corpse into a Cyberman as well, albeit allowing some to retain their free will. (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)
Weaponry[]
A Cyberman with a gun. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).)
Weapons used by the Cybermen were known as Cyber-weapons. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Moonbase (Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1975).)
When they attacked Earth in 1986, Cybermen carried large, hand-held, energy weapons. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
On the Moon in 2070, Cybermen could produce arcs of electricity from their hands to stun, disable and kill. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) They also possessed a cannon that could operate in the vacuum of space. The virus Neurotrope X was used by Cybermen to incapacitate humans. (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).) Cybermats were sometimes used to spread this virus amongst a population. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
In the 21st century, the Cybermen who attacked Space Station W3 had death rays built into their chest units. (TV: The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968).)
The Cybermen encountered by UNIT in the late 20th century displayed these same built-in death ray weapons. They also carried large rifles that emitted a flame for medium range combat on London's streets. They also possessed a megatron bomb that was capable of destroying all life on Earth. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).)
The Cybermen who attacked the Nerva Beacon had their weapons built into their helmets. They were activated with the touch of a hand. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) Cybermen in 2526, the invaders of Voga and the Cybermen removed by a Time Scoop to the Death Zone had portable cyber-bombs capable of devastating a planet. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).)
In time, the Cybermen came to favour the hand-held cyber-gun over the built-in weapon. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968). onwards)
.jpg){kind=link}
The Mondasian Cybermen using their energy beam. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
The Mondasian Cybermen encountered by the Eighth Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor had a powerful laser weapon built into their headframe. It emitted a thick yellow laser beam powerful enough to stun Destrii, kill humans, (COMIC: The Flood [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2004-2005).) cause large explosions, nearly kill the Doctor, destroy other Mondasian Cybermen, melt through steel and incinerate a fully evolved Cyberman when combined with the Master'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 for several weeks after being attacked in this way. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
Culture[]
Focus on survival[]
Cyber-conversion in progress (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
Cybermen made survival their central objective. Since they could not reproduce naturally, they needed to create new members of their population through cyber-conversion. At times they tended to focus on converting the population of Earth, at other times on simply destroying it. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) They deemed "upgrading" compatible lifeforms to be a necessity: not only did it help ensure their survival by growing their numbers, they also deemed it to be logical to remove emotion and natural mortality from others, further seeing it as a way to bring about true equality and peace. Overall, Cybermen considered themselves to be beings that improved other beings: in their eyes, they brought an "upgrade" to those they converted. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) The Cyberman Krail believed that its race had achieved "true mastery" through "freedom from disease", a lack of pain, and "protection against heat and cold", suggesting that the alternative was to "die in misery". Overall, Krail remarked that "[people] will have no need of emotion", which he saw as a weakness anyway, post-conversion. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
When lacking in numbers, Cybermen tended toward covert activity, scheming and using human or other agents, cybermats or androids to act as their proxies until they deemed it necessary to appear themselves. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).) When in large numbers, the Cybermen attacked in massive numbers to overwhelm. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
Individuality and emotion[]
Throughout their history, Cybermen, for the most part, lacked individuality or names. This was a result of their emotions being removed during the conversion process. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966)., et al.) Removal of emotions was a necessary part of Cyber-conversion as otherwise the pain would be too much for those who were "upgraded". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) Post-conversion, the Cybermen defended the removal of emotion as the removal of a weakness. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966)., Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., et. al) Indeed, the Cybermen saw removing emotion as a way they helped those who were upgraded, becoming a part of the "evolution" the Cybermen believed they represented. Those who were converted would no longer suffer from emotions like — as listed off by John Lumic — "grief, and rage, and pain". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., The Age of Steel [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) Another Cyberman once heralded its race as one that would "remove all fear", (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) as did one Cyber-Leader. That Cyber-Leader also bluntly stated "You are proof that emotions destroy you" to the Tenth Doctor. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
Early Cybermen had individual names such as Kreel, (AUDIO: Way of the Burryman [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) Krang, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) Kroton, (COMIC: Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman [+]Steve Moore, DWM backup comic stories (Marvel Comics, 1979).) Bremm and Gramm. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Eventually, the Cybermen abandoned individual names. (AUDIO: Way of the Burryman [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) The later "Lone Cyberman" Ashad regarded his name as an old thing that no longer mattered. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati [+]Maxine Alderton, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
Cybermen in positions of authority included the ground level Cyber-Leader who commanded a group of ordinary Cybermen. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006)., The Next Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2008 (BBC One, 2008).) 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 [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968)., The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).) The Cyber-Controllers, who possessed enlarged craniums, had the position of highest possible authority. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., The Age of Steel [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
Cybermen no longer possessed emotions and viewed them as a weakness. However, several of the Cyber-Leaders — specifically CyberNeomorph and CyberIsomorph design leaders — displayed characteristics that could be linked to emotions such as anger, amusement, and, at times, smugness. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).) Hegelia believed that "cybernetic instinct" developed to such an extent that it became something akin to emotion; pointing to a Cyber-Leader who wanted to make the Fifth Doctor "suffer for [the Cyber-race's] past defeats", Hegelia reasoned that the Neomporph Cyber-Leader saw torturing the Doctor as a "logical imperative" for his "offense against the Cyber-race." Meanwhile, Hegelia noted how a human being would see such an act as "malicious retribution."
The Neomorph Cyber-Leader (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) Hegelia regarded as "the apotheosis of the cybernetic phenomenon" (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).)
Hegelia also pointed to another CyberNeomorph leader, one "of immense intelligence and ruthless logic", as being "the apotheosis of the cybernetic phenomenon." Of great interest to Hegelia, who further regarded it as an important part of Cyber-studies, was how "cybernetic functioning" seemed to transform more and more into "a parody of human characteristics" as "the process to replace human functioning" with cybernetics became "more refined and subtle": despite the push towards more cybernetics, the Cybermen seemed to gain something akin to human emotion. While the Cyber-Leader Hegelia pointed to was one of "cold calculation, intense and logical pursuit of the Cyber-cause," she noted how "a deep malignity" was present in the leader's voice, (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).) with several other Cyber-Leaders also displaying a similar voice. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).) The Cyber-Leader "simply" used "thrusting finger" movements and the closing of its fist to as "an effective signaling of "cybernetic intention and brute strength." (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).)
At other points in their history, the Cybermen acted as truly emotionless figures, although the Cyber-Planner "Mr Clever" showed personality. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) The Cybermen that evolved on a Mondasian colony ship were also emotionless. Bill Potts showed anger and sadness in her cyber-converted form while the programming was being held back. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
History[]
Points of origin[]
Parallel evolution[]
- Main article: Genesis of the Cybermen
Being the product of parallel evolution, the Cybermen were "inevitable", "always get[ting] started" wherever there were people. As such, there was no single homeworld for the Cyber-race, since Cybermen arose on various worlds from their populations at various points in time. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
On Mondas[]
Mondas and Marinus[]
Various sources indicated that Mondas was the birthplace of the Cybermen. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).; AUDIO: Spare Parts [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).; COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987)., The Cybermen [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Sixth Doctor watches the Voord evolve into the first Cybermen. (COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987).)
According to one account, the Cybermen were originally an aquatic species known as the Voord, (COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987).) who themselves had theorised origins as a Remote experiment. (PROSE: Interference [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) 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 home planet Marinus to Mondas. (COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987).) While the Ninth Doctor expressed doubt at the idea of Marinus being a cyber-homeworld, (AUDIO: The Forth Generation [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) the Twelfth Doctor believed it. However, he stated that Mondas and Marinus were separate locations, but they were both origin points for Cybermen. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
Prehistoric CyberMondans[]
An ape-servant of the Lizard Kings. (COMIC: The Dead Heart [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994).)
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 [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994).) 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 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
After the Constructors of Destiny manipulated a rogue planet into messing with Mondas' orbit, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel [+]Craig Hinton, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2001).) sending it on a journey to "the edge of space", (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) 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 [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994).) created airships, and established cities. (COMIC: The Flesh Unbound [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994-1995).)
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 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
A glyph depicting the final battle between the Cybermen and Golgoth. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1996).)
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 [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994-1995).) 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 [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1996).)
Rise of the CyberMondans[]
An early Cyberman precursor. (AUDIO: Spare Parts [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).)
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 [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1996).) By this time, Mondasian society was similar to that of 20th century Earth. (AUDIO: Spare Parts [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002)., COMIC: The Ugly Underneath [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1996).) According to one account, the surface of Mondas was inhospitable, meaning that all the Mondasians lived underground. (AUDIO: Spare Parts [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).) However, the Cult of C'iva were able to survive on the planet's surface. (COMIC: The Ugly Underneath [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1996).) While one account claimed the Mondasians eventually developed into Cybermen in pursuit of immorality, (PROSE: The Creation of the Cybermen [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) most accounts agreed their development into Cybermen was spurred on after years of trying to survive on their harsh planet.
Carvings detailing the history of Mondas show the transition into Cybermen. (COMIC: The Dead Heart [+]Alan Barnes, The Cybermen (1994).)
The beginning of the modern Mondasian Cybermen could be traced back to two actions the Mondasians undertook to survive; the Mondasians created the Central Committee of Mondas by plugging twenty of their "Greatest Thinkers" into a computer and also constructed a propulsion system to pilot their planet back to Earth. In order to work this propulsion system, they drafted in people to install it. They were forced to augment these workers 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 were 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, which 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 [+]Marc Platt, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).)
According to one account, as the planet became uninhabitable, the early Mondasian Cybermen]] organised a mass exodus from Mondas in "colossal spaceships or arks" such as (GAME: Worlds Apart [+]Doctor Who card games (Reality+, 2021).) the colony ship encountered by the Twelfth Doctor and his companions, although that ship was originally crewed by non-converted humanoids, survivors of whom would go on to seemingly "reinvent" the Cybermen. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017)., The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) The Cybermen who arose on those colony ships were known as Exodus Cybermen and were "marked by their resourcefulness and determination, as they sought to survive and propagate their race in the face of their planet's impending annihilation". (GAME: Worlds Apart [+]Doctor Who card games (Reality+, 2021).)
On the Mondasian colony ship[]
Sometime in Mondas' history, a Mondasian colony ship was launched from Mondas to pick up some colonists; when the ship nearly flew into a black hole, (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) twenty Mondasian engineers (PROSE: Jorj [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) were sent from Floor 0000 to Floor 1056 to reverse the rear thrusters, but as the ship was undergoing the effects of time dilation generated by the black hole, the engineers were unable to return to Floor 0000, and so spent the rest of their lives on Floor 1056. A thousand years later, the Mondasians' descendants inhabited a huge city on Floor 1056, which had significantly degenerated over the centuries. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) After the Saxon Master crashed his TARDIS on Floor 1056 and ruled the city for a time, before being forced into hiding as "Razor", (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) the city's hospital began Operation Exodus, a mission to evolve the Mondasians of Floor 1056 into Cybermen to survive the journey to Floor 0000 to gain control of the ship.
The Cybermen started as the patients, who escorted humans from the city to the hospital for conversion, (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) and also travelled to the higher floors and captured any other humans on the colony ship for cyber-conversion, including the remaining Mondasian crew members on Floor 0000. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017)., PROSE: Jorj [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) During their development, the Master incorporated a number of functions into the patients that would allow him to control the patients upon their evolution into full Cybermen, (PROSE: Alit in Underland [+]Richard Dinnick, The Missy Chronicles (2018).) in a bid to use the Cybermen that would arise on Floor 1056 as his personal army (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) to conquer the galaxy. (PROSE: Alit in Underland [+]Richard Dinnick, The Missy Chronicles (2018).)
Missy and the Saxon Master declare Bill Potts's cyber-conversion as "the genesis of the Cybermen". (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
When the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS landed on Floor 0000, Bill Potts was taken by some patients to Floor 1056, and after being partially-converted into a patient, Bill spent ten years living in the hospital with Razor, until being fully converted into a Mondasian Cyberman. Two hours later, the Doctor and Nardole found Bill in the hospital's Conversion Theatre, before Missy and the Master confronted them. (TV: World Enough and Time [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) Shortly before being knocked out by the two Masters, the Doctor expanded the Cybermen's definition of humanity to register lifeforms with two hearts as humans; later, while the Cybermen were mass-converting the people of Floor 1056, several newly-converted Mondasian Cybermen attacked the hospital, although the Doctor, the two Masters, and the converted Bill escaped with Nardole in a shuttlecraft, before crashing on Floor 0507. Following this, the Cybermen began evolving themselves further in preparation for their final assault on Floor 0507, whose inhabitants the patients had previously failed to convert. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
After a Cyber-Planner was created on Floor 1056, the Master, Missy and Alit were detected on Floor 0508; in response, the Cyber-Planner sent seven CyberNeomorphs to Floor 0508 to capture the Master and Missy for interrogation concerning the Cybermen's changed definition of humanity, as well as to unleash a swarm of Cybermats to attack Floor 0507. However, after destroying the patrol's Cyber-Lieutenant and escaping capture by the Cybermen, Missy and Alit escaped to Floor 0508's weather control hub, where Missy hacked into, and deadlocked active, an old failsafe system that her predecessor programmed into the patients - which had also been inherited by the evolved Cybermen and the Cybermats - and sent the Cybermats back to Floor 1056. Afterwards, Missy sacrificed "Topknot", a patient from Floor 0507, as a distraction for the CyberNeomorphs, before rescuing the Master. When the remaining Cybermen returned and tried to kill the Master, Missy and Alit, the Master fired his laser screwdriver at the floor's steel deck; as Missy had already hacked Floor 0508's weather settings to generate a strong rainstorm, the resultant electrical burst destroyed all the CyberNeomorphs and allowed the two Masters and Alit to escape before more Cybermen could arrive. (PROSE: Alit in Underland [+]Richard Dinnick, The Missy Chronicles (2018).)
Two weeks after their arrival on Floor 0507, the Doctor, Bill, Missy and the Master found Floor 0507's Inertia lift entrances, but were forced to destroy an advanced Cyberman after Missy summoned one of the lifts. However, the Cybermen on Floor 1056, who were now radically more advanced than when they were first converted, began flying en masse to Floor 0507. That night, when the Cybermen attacked, Nardole and the farmers of Floor 0507 fought off the Cybermen long enough for Nardole to lead an evacuation of the children to Floor 0502, while the Doctor and Bill stayed behind to destroy both the Cybermen and, in the process, Floor 0507, by igniting all the fuel stored underneath the solar farm.
Bill managed to survive the destruction of Floor 0507 before succumbing to her damages, but she was found through her tears by Heather; using her powers as a creature of sentient oil, Heather relieved Bill of her Cyber-form, before the pair took the Doctor's body and left the Mondasian colony ship in his TARDIS. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).) Jorj was able to learn from readings that Floor 0507 had been rocked by an explosion, only for the "cloth-faced monsters" to continue to try to advance up the ship. (PROSE: Jorj [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Following the evacuation, Nardole defended the evacuees of Floor 0507 from the remaining Cybermen on Floor 1056 on a near-daily basis, (WC: The Best of Days) until their conflict was "sorted". Nonetheless, they were still attacked by the Cybermats, (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Twice Upon a Time (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) whose failsafe systems had been deactivated again, (PROSE: Alit in Underland [+]Richard Dinnick, The Missy Chronicles (2018).) on an annual basis in the spring for at least several centuries, even when Nardole eventually died. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time [+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Twice Upon a Time (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
On Telos[]
.jpg){kind=link}
CyberTelosians of the Telos Cyber-tombs. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).)
While Telos was considered by some humans to be the home of the Cybermen, the Telosian Cyber-Controller on Telos referred to Mondas as their "first planet". (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) Indeed, they claimed that their Cyber-tombs were only established sometime after the destruction of Mondas, with the Cybermen fleeing to Telos to serve as their new base of operations after losing Mondas. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).) Similarly, one account reported that the Cybermen had colonised Telos during their "original diaspora" from Mondas. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
Conversely, other accounts held that Cybermen had arisen on Telos after the inhabitants of Telos sought to achieve immortality through cybernetics. They gradually replaced parts of their bodies with machinery until they reached the point where they replaced their brains with computers. These first Cybermen became aware of their lack of love and emotion and found a new goal: power. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Moonbase (Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1975)., Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tomb of the Cybermen (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1978)., Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Revenge of the Cybermen, Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976)., Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tenth Planet (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) Something forced many of these Cybermen to leave Telos and take refuge on Mondas. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tenth Planet (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).)
Reflecting these contradictory accounts, Telos' status as a birthplace of the Cybermen was academically contentious, with Bernice Summerfield once correcting one of her students who believed that Cybermen originated on Telos by insisting that Mondas was their true homeworld. (AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) In addition, the Twelfth Doctor remembered that Mondas and Telos were both origin points of the Cybermen by parallel evolution. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
From the future[]
Some Cybermen were present in early history due to time travel. One faction of Cybermen, for example, were caught in a temporal storm and buried under the Arctic tens of thousands of years before 2010. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen [+]Phil Ford, The Adventure Games (BBC Wales Interactive, 2010).)
Spreading into the universe[]
Spread[]
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 [+]Steve Parkhouse, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1981).) 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 [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) While the Ninth Doctor doubted it, (AUDIO: The Forth Generation [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) the Twelfth Doctor knew that the original people of Planet 14 had developed into Cybermen as well, another example of the Cybermen's parallel evolution. (TV: The Doctor Falls [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 10 (BBC One, 2017).)
In 1609, the Cybermen were invited to the Armageddon Convention, but they destroyed the robot messengers who sent the invitations. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
In the 20th century Cybermen attacked London but were forced to dance due to pop music. (PROSE: Dr. First [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Word of the Cybermen spread as far as the Wrarth Galaxy. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast [+]Pat Mills and John Wagner, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1980).)
Early activity on Earth[]
Despite the fact that the Cybermen would record their first invasion of Earth as the one involving International Electromatics, (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) some accounts indicate they attacked Earth at several earlier points.
An army of Cybermen were located in Incan Temples. (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Another army of Cybermen invaded medieval England, they began converting the locals by creating large statues of themselves to make the locals gather to see them. When the Doctor and Amy Pond arrived, they activated the Cybermen's power systems and used electrical currents to disable the Cybermen. (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
A Cyber-ship full of Cybermen, either on a mission for colonisation or military purposes, crash landed in Klimtenburg at some point prior to the 19th century. The survivors began capturing humans, using body parts to replace their own damaged parts, and they created their own thunderstorms so they could revive themselves using power from the lightning. The Eleventh Doctor arrived in Klimtenburg during the 19th century and began to investigate an illness the villagers were catching which he identified as Hapthoid Radiation poisoning from a Cyber Ship's generator. As more and more Cybermen began to revive, the Doctor rallied the villagers to fend off the oncoming attack. When battle began, the Doctor infiltrated the Cybermen's base of operations and, with the help of the mostly converted Victor Ernhardt, overloaded the Cyber-network with excess power. All the Cybermen exploded. (PROSE: Plague of the Cybermen [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Cybermen of the Cyber Legion design (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) attacked a group of Hollywood sets in the 1930s, where they upgraded all the actors into Cybermen, including Polly Church. Church's father put a hit out on his daughter as a mercy kill, which was picked up by the time traveling assassin Doom during her hunt for the Doctor. Doom destroyed all the gathered Cybermen with explosives, promising the converted Church that it was better to be dead than a Cyberman. (COMIC: High Noon in Hollywood [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) A Cyberman invasion of Earth was stopped by the First Doctor and Susan, who used pop music to confuse the Cybermen. (PROSE: Dr. First [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
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 Who 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)
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 [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) Before Mondas' return to Earth, the Faction attempted a separate invasion of the planet which involved International Electromatics. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968)., PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)
Expeditions to Earth[]
Information from Monsters in Metropolis [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., Way of the Burryman [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022)., The Forth Generation [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).
Gramm, a Cyberman scout who crashed on Earth circa 1873. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
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 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin saw people made of metal. (AUDIO: The Wanderer [+]Richard Dinnick, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2012).
.jpg){kind=link}
The damaged Cyber-Scout that the Ninth Doctor encountered in 1925 Berlin. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
A pair of scouts from Mondas became separated in a time storm. (AUDIO: Way of the Burryman [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) One Cyber-Scout found itself isolated on Earth in the 1920s, having been damaged by its arrival by teleport in Berlin. It was exploited by Dieter Jovanovic, who used it in 1925 to sabotage the production of Metropolis. The Ninth Doctor discovered it and helped it rebel against Dieter's orders, as it had begun regaining its emotions and morality. The Cyberman incapacitated Dieter, showing him mercy, and the Doctor later showed it the finished film, which moved it. It insisted the Doctor shut it down, fearing it would be exploited again. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) The second scout arrived in Edinburgh in the late 19th century and created a new generation of Cybermen from workers on the Forth Bridge. However it lacked the power to erase their memories of their past lives so was unable to awaken them once converted. The scout instead stored them dormant within the bridge until it could find a way to erase their identities. (AUDIO: Way of the Burryman [+]Roy Gill, Old Friends (The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Series 1, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
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 [+]Andrew Cartmel, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1991).)
International Electromatics & Isos II[]
Information from Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value.
In 1969, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]David Bishop, Virgin Books (1996).) 1970, (PROSE: No Future [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994)., Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).) 1975, (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2015).) or the late 1970s; (TV: The Web of Fear [+]Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968)., The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).) the Faction put into motion what would later be recorded as the first attempted Cyberman invasion of Earth. (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)
Prior to coming to Earth, the Faction had invaded the planet Isos II and converted its humanoid population into Cybermen. By repurposing Isos II's monorail system, a dimensional warp was created which led to Earth. A large invasion fleet of Cybermen waited on Isos II while a smaller amount of Cybermen and a Cyber-Planner went through the warp to establish themselves on Earth and put the planet into a weakened state. (AUDIO: The Isos Network [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) A scout ship was sent ahead of the invasion but crashed near Cambridge, killing its crew. (AUDIO: The Blue Tooth [+]Nigel Fairs, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)
Tobias Vaughn, the semi-cyberconverted leader of International Electromatics. (PROSE: Prelude Iceberg [+]David Banks, DWM preludes (1993).)
After several years, (PROSE: Prelude Iceberg [+]David Banks, DWM preludes (1993).) they had established a base on the dark side of Earth's Moon. The Cyber-Planner had contacted the industrialist Tobias Vaughn, the head of the International Electromatics corporation. Vaughn installed mind control circuits in his company's appliances, paving the way for an invasion. He also grafted cybernetic arms onto several of his workers.
Vaughn had a Cyber-Planner installed in his office. The plot was uncovered by the newly formed UNIT and the Second Doctor, who helped avert the invasion on the Earth and at the Cyberman base on the Moon. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968).) The invasion fleet from Isos II came to Earth when the planet was put under cybercontrol by radio waves from IE products, but it was destroyed in a chain reaction started by missiles fired by UNIT. (TV: The Invasion [+]Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1968)., AUDIO: The Isos Network [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
An "incomplete cyborg specimen" found in Deffry Vale station. (GAME: Security Bot [+]BBC (2006).)
Bits and pieces of damaged Cybermen remained in the London sewers. One Cyberman managed to cannibalise garbage it found in the sewers to repair itself and create a considerable amount of Cybermats. The Third Doctor and Jo Grant stopped it from infecting an entire hospital with cybermites. (PROSE: The Piper [+]Mark Morris, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015).) In 1975, two Cyberman heads were found in the sewers; one was sent to the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum (GAME: Security Bot [+]BBC (2006).) while the other head would eventually end up in Henry van Statten's Vault. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)
UNIT kept at least two Cyberman heads from this invasion, one of which was stored at the Underbase. (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., COMIC: The Age of Ice [+]Dan McDaid, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2009).) They also kept a number of disordered Cyber-parts in their Vault. Five years later, when UNIT HQ became a space-time Waypoint, the vortex energy revived multiple things kept within the Vault, including allowing some of the cyber-parts to reassemble into a complete, more advanced Cyberman. It broke into the Third Doctor's lab and attacked Benton and Jo Grant, but Jo was able to bring it down using her gold bracelet. (GAME: Lost in Time [+]Doctor Who video games (Eastside Games, 2022).)
Some Cybermen survived the destruction of the invasion fleet. Many were propelled into deep space. One Cybership crashed in Antarctica, where it remained frozen and hidden for two decades. (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) Another Cybership managed to escape back to Isos II. The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot followed the ship and destroyed all traces of the Cybermen on Isos II. (AUDIO: The Isos Network [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Vaughn survived his apparent death by transmitting his mind into a robotic copy of himself created with cybertechnology. For many centuries, Vaughn continued to influence Earth while repairing his robotic body with parts salvaged from failed Cyberman attacks on humanity. (PROSE: Original Sin, AUDIO: Original Sin)
Liz Shaw, Gareth Arnold, and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. (AUDIO: The Blue Tooth [+]Nigel Fairs, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)
In the 1970s, Gareth Arnold uncovered a Cyberman ship that had crashed in Cambridge and experimented with the technology that had survived. Using Cybermats, Arnold attempted to convert all of Cambridge, but was stopped by the Third Doctor. During this incident, Liz Shaw was almost converted. The Cybermen that Arnold had created went into stasis on the ship, awaiting an activation signal. (AUDIO: The Blue Tooth [+]Nigel Fairs, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)
Mondas destroyed[]
The return of Mondas to Earth's solar system saw the second recorded attempted Cybermen invasion of Earth, (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) although the Seventh Doctor believed it to be the first. (COMIC: The Good Soldier [+]Andrew Cartmel, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1991).) This occurred in December 1986, (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966)., PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993)., Mondas Passing, AUDIO: The Reaping [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) the 1990s, (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from The Power of the Daleks (David Whitaker), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1993).) or 2000. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tenth Planet (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976)., Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Tomb of the Cybermen (Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1978).)
On 7 June 1984, the last ever Mondasian Olympics was held. The event was subsequently cancelled after all of the competitors drew in every single event. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Chris Farnell, BBC Children's Books (2020).)
Also in this year, 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 [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
A Cyberman encounters the First Doctor and Polly Wright. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
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 [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
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 [+]John Peel, adapted from The Power of the Daleks (David Whitaker), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1993).)
Aftermath of early invasions[]
Following the destruction of Mondas, some Cybermen based themselves on Planet 14 and made a series of attempts at invading Earth. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).) By the 1990s, these Cyberman had been driven from Planet 14 after the planet’s power was turned against them, resulting in a catastrophic explosion. (PROSE: Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value.) Another group of Cyberman attempted to establish a homeplanet away from Earth; they colonised Lonsis (AUDIO: Human Resources [+]Eddie Robson, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2007).) and colonised Telos. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., et al.)
In the 1990s, the Cybermen driven from Planet 14 infiltrated the production of a film based on their first invasion. They used the production to identify errors in their original strategies. The Second Doctor arrived and warned them to withdraw as UNIT was aware of their activities. (PROSE: Lua error in Module:Cite_source at line 420: attempt to index a nil value.)
In 2000, the Cybermen infected the Earth computers with a virus that removed all vowels. (PROSE: Vrs [+]Lawrence Miles, Short Trips and Side Steps (Short Trips short stories, BBC, 2000).) The Preternatural Research Bureau assisted in eradicating the virus. (PROSE: The Last Dose [+]James Hornby, Cyberon (Arcbeatle Press, 2020).)
In 2006, the Cybermen that had migrated to Lonsis were attacked by Hulbert Logistics, who were hired by the Shinx. After the Eighth Doctor, unaware of the Cybermen, disabled the combat machine, the Cybermen occupied it. The Cybermen then tried to invade Earth via the portal in the main branch of Hulbert Logistics. The Doctor and Lucie Miller destroyed them. They used a quantum crystalliser to make the Cybermen and their ship rapidly rust into dust. (AUDIO: Human Resources [+]Eddie Robson, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)
A Cyberman reaches towards Ruby Duvall. (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)
In December 2006, exactly 20 years after Mondas returned to Earth, Cybermen who had been in hiding in the South Pole since the International Electromatics invasion attempted to sabotage the FLIPback project and take over the Earth in the ensuing chaos. With the help of Ruby Duvall, the Seventh Doctor prevented the Cybermen from carrying out their plan and destroyed them. (PROSE: Iceberg [+]David Banks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)
Attacks during the 2010s[]
Invasion of the Cyber-Mainframe[]
In the 2010s, UNIT battled the Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe (AUDIO: Code Silver [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).) after experimenting with dimension bridge technology (AUDIO: Telepresence [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) recovered from the Auctioneers. (AUDIO: Game Theory [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) After Petronella Osgood and Vikram Shindi were virtually converted by Mechanising Worms during an expedition on a parallel Earth, a dimension bridge formed, and the Machine activated Hive Section 49, who crossed the dimension bridge (AUDIO: Telepresence [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) and attempted to commence full dimension seeding of N-Space, starting with the UNIT base Fortress Island on Earth.
The War Master and Kate Stewart face the Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
As the Cybermen deleted and upgraded the soldiers of the fort, the virtually-converted Osgood allied with Hive Section 49's Cyber-Controller to modify the Auctioneers' virtual reality app, itself adapted from dimension bridge technology, into a smart phone app to virtually-convert millions of people in seconds. Despite the efforts of Kate Stewart and Josh Carter, Osgood successfully broadcast the app (AUDIO: Code Silver [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) and the Cybermen flew across the Earth to the virtually-converted humans, in order to build conversion factories for full cyber-conversions. However, when the War Master crossed the dimension bridge from a parallel universe that the Cyber-Mainframe had invaded, he reluctantly allied with Kate and Josh to defeat the Cybermen and recover his TARDIS. After he was seemingly converted into the "Cyber-Master" by a modified mobile conversion unit, the Master reprogrammed the dimension gate to upgrade the Cybermen's power connections by drawing power from all parallel Earths; however, as this also included the parallel Earths that the Cybermen failed to successfully invade, the power drawn was contaminated, destroying all the Cybermen connected to the Cyber-Mainframe. Shortly after, the Master, free of his converted state, used the contaminated energy to power his TARDIS to return to the Last Great Time War, saving the remaining virtually-converted humans from being killed by the contaminated energy. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds [+]Matt Fitton, Cyber-Reality (UNIT: The New Series, Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
2010s[]
.jpg){kind=link}
The inactive Cybermen. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen [+]Phil Ford, The Adventure Games (BBC Wales Interactive, 2010).)
While in the Arctic in the year 2010, the Doctor encountered Cybermen that had been buried under the ice for tens of thousands of years after being hit by a temporal storm. An excavation began to awaken the army, commanded by a Cyber-Lord, releasing Cybermats which in turn created Cyberslaves. The Eleventh Doctor arrived on 4 May 2010 and stopped their awakening. He blew up their ship and returned them to stasis. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen [+]Phil Ford, The Adventure Games (BBC Wales Interactive, 2010).)
The Doctor kept the chest plate and head of one of these Cybermen in the TARDIS drawing room. (GAME: TARDIS, The Gunpowder Plot [+]Phil Ford, The Adventure Games (BBC Wales Interactive, 2011).)
A Cyberman under Sanderson & Grainger. (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)
In 2011, a group of Cybermen was encountered by the Eleventh Doctor and Craig Owens in Colchester. They were based in another crashed ship which the Doctor claimed had been crashed in the future site of the Sanderson & Grainger department store, "centuries" before the survivors were revived by the council laying down cables on top of it, which activated the ship's Cybermats. The Cybermen attempted to rebuild their numbers and upgraded store employees Shona and George, but they were eventually defeated when Craig's love for his son Alfie allowed him to resist cyber-conversion and destroy the Cybermen with a surge of emotion. (TV: Closing Time [+]Gareth Roberts, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)
The Cybermen invaded at some point during 2012, but an incarnation of the Doctor stopped their attack. (COMIC: Invasion of the Mindmorphs [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Another invasion was attempted in 2013. When the Cybermen landed in Cardiff however, they abandoned their plan upon discovering the the Doctor's TARDIS bereft of power. Unable to fight back the Eleventh Doctor and Rory Williams were brought to the flaghship which was set to self-destruct as the Cybermen evacuated. Despite their efforts, the Doctor and Rory managed to escape the vessel before it was destroyed. (COMIC: The Doctor and the Nurse [+]Brandon Seifert, Doctor Who (2012) (IDW Publishing, 2012-2013).)
Later in the 2010s, Missy engineered a new breed of Cybermen, (TV: Dark Water [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) whom she personally referred to as her "Cyberdears". (PROSE: Meet Missy! [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Creating a paranoia that the minds of the deceased remain alive and conscious of what is happening to them, even after death, she created the 3W Institute, with the purpose of caring for the bodies of dead humans. The organisation had facilities all around the world. Its main base of operations was in St Paul's Cathedral, hidden by use of dimensional engineering. A dying person's mind would be uploaded to a matrix data slice called the Nethersphere where their emotions would be removed while their bodies would be upgraded into Cybermen. The people that paid the organisation to preserve their bodies, would be placed inside tanks filled with a substance called dark water to hide their nature as Cybermen, while their minds were uploaded. (TV: Dark Water [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)
In the ensuing 3W Institute Affair, (PROSE: Missy on Trial [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the institute was discovered by Clara Oswald and the Twelfth Doctor, who were trying to find Danny Pink, who was also uploaded to the Nethersphere upon death. Missy activated the tanks, and drained away the dark water, revealing the Cybermen. They were then released, flying into the sky and exploding over major populated areas, creating clouds to produce cyber-pollen for converting those who had not been preserved. Missy also planned for a next wave of pollen to kill and convert every human on Earth. The Cyber-Army was offered by Missy as a "gift" to tempt the Doctor to enforce "good" throughout the universe. This was rejected by the Doctor, who maintained that he was just "an idiot" who "help[ed] out" before handing control of the army to the cyber-converted Danny Pink, who had the Cybermen fly into the clouds and self-destruct, destroying both them and the clouds. Missy teleported away after the cyber-converted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart fired his wrist-blaster at her, powering her vortex manipulator. (TV: Dark Water [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., Death in Heaven [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., The Witch's Familiar [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
Further into the decade, a Cyberman was a resident of the hidden trap street in London which housed lost aliens on Earth under the protection of Mayor Me. As with the rest of the inhabitants, it appeared cloaked in human form through use of the lurkworms. It was observed by the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald as it had maintenance performed on it by an Ood. (TV: Face the Raven [+]Sarah Dollard, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
Operation Time Fracture[]
On 19 August 2020, a Cyber-Warrior emerged in London via the Time Fracture, but was stopped by the military before it could attack any citizens. It (WC: 14683 UNIT Field Log) would become one of many Cybermen encountered over the course of Operation Time Fracture, with UNIT remnants warning their volunteers not to engage Cybermen they encountered. In particular, weapons-grade Cybermen were a common sight during the operation. (PROSE: Cybermen) Upon entering the fracture, Tia Kofi encountered a Cyberman in Elizabethan England, (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!) with other Operation Time Fracture operatives encountering a group of them storming Elizabeth I's palace in 1590. (WC: Full-Length Trailer: Time Fracture)
Later 21st century[]
Due to events involving future Cybermen, the System was active in 2021, and, during the year, a group of Cybermen claimed to want to become organic again. The European Council used this to their advantage. However, the Cyberleader lied, in fact having tricked the agency into creating a conversion chamber. The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex foiled this scheme. (AUDIO: The Harvest [+]Dan Abnett, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2004).)
In the 2030s, the Cybermen attacked Earth in a series of incursions which would later be known as the Cyberbreaches. UNISYC was heavily involved in stopping these attacks. Some cybertechnology was salvaged by the humans and stored at the Toy Store. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
By 2070, the Cybermen were known and feared in several galaxies (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, adapted from The Moonbase (Kit Pedler), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1975).) but were thought extinct by Earth. At this time the Earth's weather was controlled by the Gravitron installation in the Moonbase. The Faction planned to use the Gravitron to disrupt Earth's weather and destroy all life on the planet. (TV: The Moonbase [+]Kit Pedler, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).) According to Terri Willis in 2136, the Cybermen practically disappeared from human space after this event. (PROSE: The Murder Game)
Cybermen in the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen [+]Mike Maddox, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2010).)
By 2079, (AUDIO: Second Chances) the Second Doctor was "known and recorded as an enemy of the Cybermen". In this year, Space Station W3 was the site of a takeover by the Faction, but were defeated by the Second Doctor. (TV: The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968).) In a second attack on the wheel, the Cybermen were sent into the Land of Fiction by Zoe Heriot. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen [+]Mike Maddox, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2010).)
First Cyber-Wars[]
- Main article: Cyber-Wars
By the 2150s, the CyberNomads were involved in a war with Voga. In order to expand their numbers, the Nomads invaded the human colony Agora and used the threat of total destruction to turn the planet into a self-renewing source of physically healthy humans. For the next few decades, the Nomads returned to Agora every three years to collect 500 ready-to-convert humans. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
After the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth, the Cybermen fought a series of skirmishes for territory on the outermost human colony planets. During a conflict on Titan 317, some Cybermen took an entire research bunker hostage. Both these Cybermen and the hostages were slaughtered by the Space Marines. (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction)
In 2176, the Cybermen stopped an attempted rebellion on Agora. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
The CyberNomads on Agora. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
The Cybermen eventually managed to destroy most of Voga, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) but not without severely weakening themselves. At this time, the Nomads had more organic components than any other previous model except the original Mondans. They were forced to use a stolen Selachian ship as their ship.
When a small party of Cybermen came to Agora in 2191, they were destroyed by cybernetic warriors created by the Agorans using Cybertechnology. The main Cyber ship came to Agora to destroy the rebellion, but instead it was infiltrated by the Sixth Doctor and flooded with radiation which killed the Cybermen. By the end of the 22nd century, the Cybermen were believed to be extinct. In actuality, most of the Cybermen were hibernating on Telos. A few small, isolated groups still existed. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
Reference was made to "Cyber-Wars" occurring by the mid-23rd century, having left Earth financially destroyed in combination with the 22nd century Dalek invasion. (PROSE: Theatre of War [+]Justin Richards, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) One account held that the first Cyber-War began in the 2260s, when human colony worlds like Burnt Salt had their populations ravaged by mass conversions. (AUDIO: The Tyrants of Logic)
Another reference was made to Cyberwars in the early 24th century, (PROSE: The Dimension Riders) followed by a period of peaceful expansion until colonial incidents in 2387. (PROSE: Infinite Requiem) Even though most accounts implied the Cybermen were not prone to civil wars, as most Cyber-subspecies shared a goal in survival that pushed the logically-minded cyborgs to ally together, (AUDIO: The Cyber Nomads, PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016)., et. al) one time traveller claimed the Cybermen had been caught in a series of civil wars, dubbed the "Upgrade Wars", that had started in 2342. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary [+]Chris Farnell, BBC Children's Books (2020).)
Between Wars[]
Carrying on survival[]
Cybermen in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS control room. (COMIC: Dreadnought [+]Gary Russell, Radio Times comic stories (BBC Magazines, 1996).)
In 2246, a lone Cybership attacked the human freighter Dreadnought in deep space. They converted all of the freighter's crew save one, Stacy Townsend. When the Eighth Doctor landed on the Dreadnought, the Cybermen captured him and his TARDIS. The Cybermen attempted to gain the Doctor's knowledge of time travel and convert him, but the cyborgs were instead ripped to pieces when he made them all magnetically repellent to each other and the Dreadnought. (COMIC: Dreadnought [+]Gary Russell, Radio Times comic stories (BBC Magazines, 1996).)
In the 25th century, the Cybermen had all but passed into legend. The Brotherhood of Logicians scoured the universe for Cybermen, believing that they would be receptive to the Brotherhood's cause. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).)
The Cyberman collected by Flotsam and Jetsam. (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon [+]Steve Parkhouse, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1981).)
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 [+]Steve Parkhouse, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1981).) 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: Junk-Yard Demon II [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Cyber-Controller tries to stop Toberman from closing the Telosian cyber-tomb. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).)
Cybermen on Telos[]
Return to Telos [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., Secrets of Telos
With their attempt to ally with the Cybermen on AS4 a failure, (COMIC: Junk-Yard Demon II [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the Brotherhood of Logicians financed Parry's expedition to find the cyber-tombs on Telos. Eric Klieg and Kaftan accompanied the expedition so that they could negotiate an alliance with the Cybermen locked within (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) the Master Hibernation Unit. (AUDIO: Conversion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2005)., Telos [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) With the help of the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Victoria Waterfield, the expedition found and opened the cyber-tomb. After the hibernating Cybermen were reawakened, the expedition realised the true danger of the cyborgs and the tombs were quickly resealed, despite the Cyber-Controller fighting to reopen the doors, (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1967).) being damaged in the process. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
Iris Wildthyme later claimed she and Jeremy were the ones to accompany the expedition and fight the Cybermen, (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) but a later Cyber-Leader affirmed the Second Doctor was the one responsible for re-sealing the Cyber-tombs. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) The Fourth Doctor and Leela were also present, fighting the awakening Cybermen but staying out of the Second Doctor's sight. (AUDIO: Return to Telos [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) A group of CyberNomads eventually reopened the Telosian cyber-tombs and forged a new race, the CyberNeomorphs, with the Telosian Cybermen. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)
The Cybermen on Telos during the plot to change history. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
After a timeship landed on Telos, the Cybermen, led by the Cyber-Controller, captured it and formulated a plot to save Mondas by diverting Halley's Comet to Earth to destroy it in 1985. A party of Cybermen travelled back in time and established a command centre hidden in the London sewers from which they could affect the comet. When the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown visited London in 1985, the Cybermen captured the Doctor's TARDIS and forced him to take them back to Telos. Bringing the Doctor and Peri to Telos led to several losses for the Cybermen, including the death of the Cyber-Controller and the Cryons gaining help in their revolution against the Cybermen. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).)
One group of Cybermen were attracted towards an artefact they could not identify, which was in fact a Dalek Time Axis. As their technology was incompatible with time travel, their ship was destroyed. The Cybermen escaped and took over the ship, the SS Lucy Grey. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy were also attracted to the SS Lucy Grey by the signal from the Time Axis. The Doctor was able to overload the ship's systems, destroying the Cybermen before the New Dalek Paradigm arrived. (GAME: Return to Earth)
The Cybermen in suspended animation in Cyber-Tombs on Telos. (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Doctor later encountered the Cybermen on Telos, where the earlier arrival of Billy Jones had caused the "advanced guard" to awake from the cyber-tombs early to defend the others. The Cybermen tried to convert Billy, but he was saved by the Doctor before they could do so. (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Telos would later be destroyed during the early 26th century by an asteroid, only for the Cybermen to continue to make use of its remains. (AUDIO: Telos [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
Great Cyber War[]
- Main article: Great Cyber War
- Main article: Vogan War
At one point the Great Cyber War was waged between humanity and the Cybermen, led by the Super Controller on Telos. During this war, the glittergun was invented. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2015).) During this time the Cybermen were also involved with the Vogan War. During these conflicts, (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996)., TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) The Cybermen attempted to blow up the planet Voga to stop the production of glitterguns, in one of their last acts in the war. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Revenge of the Cybermen, Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) The Time Lords also took some kind of action against the Cybermen during the Great Cyber War. (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
During the war the Cybermen encountered and converted time tourists from the future, learning from them that Oberon Fix’s work on the Aurum in orbit of Voga would be critical to their defeat. A Cyber-Leader led an attack on the Aurum, succeeding in killing Fix however the interference of the Eighth Doctor ensured that his superweapon, the Golden Pulse, was activated. The Pulse retroactively altered the Cybermen’s design to create the vulnerability to gold and converted all gold within a large radius into sub-space particles to attack the Cybermen. (AUDIO: The Great Cyber-War)
The Great Cyber War culminated in a final human attack on Telos. A Cyber fleet consisting of tens of thousands of ships intended to turn the tide of the battle was trapped in warp space at Planetoid X due to a Cyber-Planner malfunctioning. The human forces bombarded surface of Telos and the Super Controller was destroyed. Afterwards remnant groups of Cybermen fled across the galaxy. The Sixth Doctor theorised that, with the destruction of the Super Controller, these remnants would be less stable and more prone to emotions, such as revenge. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2015).) One group relentlessly hounded the remaining fragment of Voga (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) in a campaign later dubbed "the Pursuit of Voga". (AUDIO: The Cyber Nomads)
Ten years later, the fleet trapped in warp space was freed by Zennox. They planned to travel back in time to the last battle to ensure the Cybermen’s victory. However, they were prevented from changing history by the Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
Post-wars Cybermen and a Cyber-Leader. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
"Centuries" after the Cyber-Wars, the ship pursuing Voga finally caught up to the planet, now in orbit around Jupiter, and infiltrated the nearby Nerva Beacon to launch their plans. The Cybermen’s attempt to destroy it was defeated and their craft and themselves destroyed due to the involvement of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) In another account of these events, a volunteer group of Cybermen infiltrated Nerva Beacon whilst it was in the asteroid belt, intending to collide it with an asteroid of gold which would destroy themselves in the process. They were foiled by the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry. (AUDIO: Return of the Cybermen)
The Cybermen involved in the pursuit of Voga had records of the Doctor and regarded him as "a traditional enemy" of their race from "hundreds of Earth years" prior, but they failed to realise the Fourth Doctor was this foe; as noted by the Cyber-Leader, the Cybermen believed the Doctor to be a human and therefore assumed he had died off centuries prior. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Revenge of the Cybermen, Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) Later Cybermen, the CyberNeomorphs, had come to realise the Doctor was a Time Lord and thus realised the Fourth Doctor had been an incarnation of their old foe. (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) Whilst visiting the Garazone system in 2503, (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).) the Eighth Doctor considered the Cyber Wars to be a long time ago and found a gold-plated Cyber helmet leftover from them for sale. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001).)
Great Orion Cyber Wars of 26th century[]
Orion conflict[]
- Main article: Orion War
After centuries of relatively little activity from the Cybermen, (PROSE: Heliotrope Bouquet, AUDIO: Sword of Orion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001).) the 26th century saw a re-ignition of conflict between Cybermen and humanity (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) as the Neomorphs rose to power. (PROSE: Killing Ground [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).) This time period included the Orion War, (AUDIO: Sword of Orion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001)., et al.) which by the 33rd century were known by historians as the "Great Orion Cyber Wars". (WC: Real Time [+]Gary Russell, BBCi animations (2002).)
In 2503, (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).) eight years into the Orion War, a human plan to salvage Cyber-Technology from derelict ships to defeat the androids was usurped by an android double agent. They found one near the Garazone system. However, the Cybermen and the Cybermats were revived, and began converting the crew. The Eighth Doctor, Charley and Jensen was able to defeat the Cybermen, allowing them to be destroyed by an Ion storm. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001).)
Twenty years into the Orion War, the Earth military found a second source of Cyber-Technology, a Cyber-Ship from an old campaign, buried near the Isle of Wight. The Earth Government created the Scorpius programme to do this, under the command of Paul Hunt. (AUDIO: Scorpius [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2005).) A Cyber-Planner took control of Scorpius, and turned Hunt into their agent. (AUDIO: Conversion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2005).) Through Hunt, they arranged the political rise of President Karen Brett and convinced her to come to Scorpius. (AUDIO: Scorpius [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2005).) Now under Cyber control, she sanctioned the creation of new Cybermen units from the refugees, publicly being deployed as new commandos with which Earth could finally defeat the Androids. (AUDIO: Fear) With their hold on Earth's Government secure the Cybermen fully converted Karen and designated her a Cyber-Leader. She was ordered to lead an expedition to Telos (AUDIO: Conversion [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2005).) to reactivate their cyber tombs. The Cybermen discovered that Telos had been shattered by an asteroid impact, though the tombs has survived adrift in the debris field. Karen’s former aide Liam Barnaby, allied with the Android Horde, including Samantha Thorn, defeated the Cybermen, and Karen was killed in the battle. (AUDIO: Telos [+]Nicholas Briggs, Cyberman (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
With Karen lost, the Cybermen used Hunt as their spokesperson and enforced martial law on the planet. As resistance began to grow, Cybermen were deployed as a police force and began abducting humans for conversion, under the cover of terrorist activities. (AUDIO: Outsiders) They took these humans to conversion bases across the world. (AUDIO: Terror) As well as converting humans, resistance members Hazel Trahn, Dane and Yan discovered that the Cybermen were taking genetic material and force breeding clones for more bodies to convert. (AUDIO: Machines) After his capture, the Cybermen planned to use the execution of Liam Barnaby to bolster the support of the populace. Samantha Thorn made her way to Earth and rescued Liam, working with the human resistance, and together they infiltrated the Cyber-Planner’s base so Sam could interface with the Planner directly. Though unable to defeat it with logic attacks, Sam managed to get the Planner to concede that logically they would waste resources by continuing to occupy Earth in this way. The Planner ordered the Cybermen to withdraw from Earth. Afterwards, the Cyber-Fleet was attacked by the Android Horde. (AUDIO: Extinction)
Cyber-War of 2526[]
Warzone and Conversion
Cybermen and a Cyber-Leader.(TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)
In 2526, several planets began to unite to oppose the Cybermen in a war. A force of CyberNeomorphs under a Cyber-Leader tried to devastate Earth on the eve of their conference to finalise the alliance, intending to detonate a Cyberbomb and convert the survivors. After the Fifth Doctor thwarted this plan, they hoped to crash a freighter into Earth and cause an ecological disaster. Although the effort failed, the freighter was catapulted back in time to become the "meteor" that wiped out the dinosaurs, (TV: Earthshock [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) and the rest of the Cyber-Fleet retreated. (TV: Time-Flight [+]Peter Grimwade, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) ArcHivist Hegelia suggested that an agreement was reached to join forces against the Cybermen, resulting in a Cyber-War beginning in the solar system with a battle between the main Cyber-Fleet and human forces which extended to other parts of the galaxy before the Cybermen were ultimately overcome. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).)
Cyber-Wars Survivors[]
Entombed and another empire[]
Dozens of Cyber-tombs beyond those on Telos were based across the galaxy, and as a result, more wars were started. Bernice Summerfield spoke of the Telos expedition and other tombs being discovered in the past tense. (AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) In the early 27th century she was invited to investigate a tomb on Tysir IV (AUDIO: Silver Lining) and later sent to one by Irving Braxiatel. Braxiatel intended to use the Cybermen as a private army but was thwarted. (AUDIO: The Crystal of Cantus [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Tremas Master sent the Graak to a Cyber-tomb populated by Cybermen to steal a Cybermat. These Cybermen were either going into or coming out of the tombs. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
In the 30th century, a group of Cybermen of the "Late" CyberFaction, with limited time travel capabilities, attempted to invade Earth in 1940. They were stopped by the Seventh Doctor and Ace. (PROSE: Illegal Alien [+]Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, adapted from Illegal Alien, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).)
An offshoot faction of Cybermen evolved to have more organic technology and more individuality. The Sixth Doctor saw some of these "evolved Cybermen" on the Habitat in 3174. (PROSE: Burning Heart)
A Cyber-Leader on New Mondas (COMIC: Cyber Crisis [+]Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, 2017).)
Sometime prior to 3985, (PROSE: Legacy [+]Gary Russell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994)., Theatre of War [+]Justin Richards, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) a Cyber-Empire was established by the CyberNeomorphs, with New Mondas established as the heart of the Empire. A Cyber-ship of the Seventh Cyber-Fleet attacked a cruiser and killed half of the crew, with the other half being taken by the Cybermen to be converted; however, the Cyber-ship was attacked by the Daleks, who exterminated the Cybermen onboard and completed the conversions of the cruiser's crew members, before installing Oblivion Continuums into their chest units. The newly-converted Cybermen were eventually presented by a Cyber-Leader to the Cyber-Controller at Cyber-Command on New Mondas, only for the hijacked Cybermen to detonate the Oblivion Continuums inside themselves, destroying Cyber-Command and bringing the Cyber-Empire under the control of the Daleks. (COMIC: Cyber Crisis [+]Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, 2017).)
Presence in the late 20th century[]
After the Sixth Doctor foiled the Neomorph Cybermen's time travel attempt at saving Mondas, (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985).) some Cybermen remained stranded in the 1980s, becoming known as the CyberIsomorphs. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen [+]David Banks, adapted from Archive - A History of the Cyber Race, The ArcHive Tapes (1990).) The Torchwood Institute collected several rumours of Cybermen in the London sewers. (WC: Monster File: Cybermen [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Neomorph Cybermen and a group of mercenaries led by Karl made an alliance with the Daleks in a gambit to sabotage a peace conference on Earth in 1988 and have the planet destroyed. The Cybermen and the mercenaries had a much more active role than the Daleks, as they were tasked with kidnapping an American envoy on whom the success of the conference depended and in capturing the Doctor whom the Dalek Emperor declared a vital part of the plan. The Daleks took a more behind-the-scenes approach as they planned to use the mercenaries and Cybermen as nothing more than scapegoats who could be blamed for the destruction of Earth by the Galactic Council while the Dalek involvement remained a secret. When the Sixth Doctor revealed this information to the Cybermen and the mercenaries, they immediately turned on the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from The Ultimate Adventure (Terrance Dicks), The Stageplays (Big Finish Productions, 2008).)
A squad of CyberIsomorphs on Earth in 1988. (TV: Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).)
In November 1988, a scouting party was sent to Earth in search of a statue made of validium called Nemesis, a Time Lord weapon. The Cybermen met Lady Peinforte, who brought many of their number down with gold-tipped arrows. The Leader apparently forced the Seventh Doctor to surrender the Nemesis. Their force was destroyed by Nemesis as the Doctor had instructed. (TV: Silver Nemesis [+]Kevin Clarke, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1 and TVNZ, 1988).) UNIT collected the body of one of the Cybermen that were killed by Lady Peinforte and stored it at the Underbase. (COMIC: The Age of Ice [+]Dan McDaid, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2009).)
A Neomorph Cyberman was one of a group of aliens present at a Treen colony in 1991. They initially refused Dan Dare and Digby's appeal to donate money to charity, but were convinced with the assistance of the first seven incarnations of the Doctor. (COMIC: Comic Relief Comic)
In 1992, a Cyber-Force composed of a Cyber-Fleet of at least twenty Cyber-Warships with at least two hundred thousand Neomorph Cybermen attempted to conquer Earth by dehydration, but the Sixth Doctor programmed their weapons to target the methanol that served as the "lifeblood" of cyber-technology. (AUDIO: Hour of the Cybermen)
41st century[]
Cybusmen of Centuria[]
The Power of the Cybermen (comic story), Drones of Doom (comic story), Enemy Mine (comic story), Time of the Cybermen (comic story)
.jpg){kind=link}
The Cybermen of Centuria are destroyed (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen [+]Steve Cook, DWBIT comic stories (GE Fabbri Ltd, 2007).)
In the 41st century, a thief stole Cyberman-documents of the Cybusman model from the Torchwood Archive and rebuilt them on the planet Centuria, intending to turn the Cybermen into high-tech soldiers they could auction off. However, the Cybermen resisted, converted the thief into a Cyber-drone, and tried to take over the planet. The Cybermen began converting people into Cyber-drones to mine hargstones. However, the Tenth Doctor would arrive and defeat the Cybermen once more, unaware of a Cyber-helmet that remained alive and out of his sight. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen [+]Steve Cook, DWBIT comic stories (GE Fabbri Ltd, 2006)./ Drones of Doom [+]Steve Cook, DWBIT comic stories (GE Fabbri Ltd, 2007)./Enemy Mine [+]Steve Cook, DWBIT comic stories (GE Fabbri Ltd, 2007)./Time of the Cybermen [+]Steve Cook, DWBIT comic stories (GE Fabbri Ltd, 2007).)
The Siege of Trenzalore[]
Elsewhere during the 41st century, (PROSE: Tales of Trenzalore, A Perfect Christmas) a force of Cybermen resembling the highly advanced models that the Cyber Legions developed (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018)., TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) were among a large number of species that travelled to Trenzalore's orbit after hearing the Question being broadcast across the universe and throughout time. The Eleventh Doctor landed his TARDIS onboard a Cyber-ship in Trenzalore's orbit with "Handles", a severed Cyber-helmet, after detecting the Cyber-ship as a new vessel of unknown origin, unaware that the ship was owned by the Cybermen; upon being detected by the ship's security systems, the Cybermen awoke from stasis and attempted to capture the Doctor for cyber-conversion, but he escaped with Handles and was pursued by the Cyber-ship after his TARDIS dematerialised.
.jpeg){kind=link}
The wooden Cyberman created by the Cybermen during the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Following this, the Cybermen became involved in the Siege of Trenzalore, and, like most of the species in Trenzalore's orbit, attempted to bypass the Church of the Papal Mainframe's force field surrounding the planet, that allowed the Papal Mainframe to swiftly intercept and destroy any highly-advanced technology that attempted to bypass the force field. More specifically, three-hundred years into the Siege, the Cybermen deployed a wooden Cyberman to infiltrate Christmas and capture the Doctor - the wooden Cyberman's primitive nature allowed it to successfully pass through the force field surrounding Trenzalore. The wooden Cyberman attacked Christmas and confronted the Doctor, but the latter used his sonic screwdriver, in conjunction with the Truth Field broadcasting from the crack in time in Christmas' clock tower, to trick the wooden Cyberman into destroying itself by firing its flamethrower wrist blaster into its chest. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
Shortly following this, the New Dalek Paradigm (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) attacked the Church of the Papal Mainframe and shut down the force field surrounding Trenzalore. The Cybermen, along with many of the other species involved in the Siege, followed the Daleks to fight Christmas with full force; on at least one occasion, numerous Cybermen transmatted to Christmas and fought the Doctor, the Papal Mainframe's Silents, and the soldiers of Christmas. Eventually, however, the Cybermen, like many of Trenzalore's invaders, were either completely destroyed or retreated from the conflict. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
51st century onwards[]
Cyber-Wars of the Cyber Legions[]
The Twelfth Cyber Legion. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)
By the 52nd century, the Cyber Legions, of which there were at least twelve, were a major power in the universe. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011)., et al.) One account speculated that the advanced Cybermen of the Cyber Legions were the result of cross-pollination between the Cybermen of N-Space and the Cybermen of Cybus Industries, harnessing the most powerful aspects of both Cyber-races and thereby resulting in a radically more powerful species. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Indeed, another account depicted the Cyber Legions gradually evolving into these Cybermen from Cybus-style Cybermen that lacked the Cybus Industries logo on their chest plates, (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018)., A Girl Called Doubt) and the Cyber Legions and Cybus Cybermen both engaged humanity in the next series of Cyber-Wars. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)
In the 52nd century, the Twelfth Cyber Legion was positioned 20,000 light-years away from Demons Run when it was largely obliterated by the Eleventh Doctor and Rory Williams, who were planning to assault the asteroid station to rescue Amy and Melody Pond. This gave the Cyber-Leader little choice but to give the Doctor and Rory the information they needed regarding Demons Run. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)
Sometime after the Cybermen of the Cyber Legions began using sleeker Cyber-bodies with blue power cells in their chests, (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) Dorium Maldovar secretly stole twelve Cybermen from the Cyber Legions and reprogrammed them to function as security guards for the Maldovarium. (PROSE: The Heist [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) After Dorium left the Maldovarium to help the Eleventh Doctor at Demons Run, (TV: A Good Man Goes to War [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).) the twelve Cybermen were destroyed by Kiz the Head-Taker, who beheaded them with a sword composed of Gallifreyan zinc, during a heist of the Maldovarium. One of the Cyber-heads was nicknamed "Handles" by an Auton copy of Dorium who assisted in the heist, and used as a door-stop to provide an escape route, until Dorium's Ood removed it. (PROSE: The Heist [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).) Handles later had its organics removed and was bought from the Maldovarium by the Eleventh Doctor, and served as the Time Lord's companion during the first three-hundred years of the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown once encountered the Ninth Cyber Legion. (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).)
The Ninth Cyber Legion's Cyber-Planner. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Ninth Cyber Legion invaded London in 2012, commanded by a Cyber-Leader and a Cyber-Planner using a piece of the Eternity Clock. They made a Cyber-factory that was full of Cyberman storage units, guarded by Cybermats. The Legion was destroyed by the Eleventh Doctor and River Song by shutting down their thermionic core. The shells of dead Cybermen remained in London as far as 2106 when the Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm invaded. (GAME: The Eternity Clock [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Other Cyber-activity[]
During the early years of the Third Cyberwar, hundreds of Cybermats were sent by the Cybermen to attack Space Station Hamlyn. However, the Cybermats were all lured to defeat by the Second Doctor, using his recorder. (PROSE: The Scruffy Piper)
Cybermen in the 54th century. (COMIC: The Bidding War [+]Cavan Scott, Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor (Titan Comics, 2017).)
In the 54th century, the Cybermen annexed Malleon. Ten to twenty years later, they attacked Nomicae in an attempt to capture the Ninth Doctor's memories of the Last Great Time War. (COMIC: The Bidding War [+]Cavan Scott, Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor (Titan Comics, 2017).)
Remnants of the Cyber Legions[]
In the 250th Millennium, another series of Cyber-Wars (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) were waged by the Cybermen of the Legions' design, the sleeker Legion design, and the Cybus Cybermen. The conflict was devastating for humanity, as the Cybermen were able to quickly upgrade themselves to respond to their foes' weaponry and then move in to convert their enemies. The conflicts finally ended when the Tiberian spiral galaxy was blown up, destroying apparently all of the Cybermen. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)
Sometime after the destruction of the Tiberian spiral galaxy, the hand and arm of an advanced Cyberman of the Cyber Legions came to be regarded as a legendary "gauntlet" that granted immortality and could radically improve any form of technology. The gauntlet was traded across numerous planets and was pursued by Seeker Sylen of Catrigan Nova over several years, until Sylen acquired the gauntlet and presented it to Lydia, queen of Catrigan Nova, as a gift. Lydia, unaware of the gauntlet's true nature, used it over several days to improve the technology of Nova Palace, and to partially cyber-convert her soldiers. Lydia also accidentally used the gauntlet on her daughter, but her partial conversion was reversed by the Twelfth Doctor, who had been pursuing the gauntlet for a while. As the guards gradually became complete Cybermen, they began "conscripting" people to Nova Palace for conversion, but were eventually destroyed by the Doctor who, using Lydia as bait, lured the Cybermen to the planet's liquid gold whirlpools, dissolving them, along with Lydia's gauntlet. (PROSE: The Mondas Touch)
The Cybermen were notable customers of the information regarding the Doctor held by the Inforarium. When the Eleventh Doctor discovered the Cybermen, as well as the Daleks and Sontarans, had been purchasing this information, he infiltrated the Inforarium and memory-proofed their database using methods he learned from the Silence. The information sold was thus instantly forgotten. (HOMEVID: The Inforarium) This led to the Cybermen losing data on the Doctor from their Cyberiad collective. A thousand years after the destruction of the Tiberian spiral galaxy and the end of the Cyber-Wars, the Cybermen were thought to be extinct. Yet surviving Cybermen lay beneath the future site of Hedgewick's World of Wonders, and, when the theme park was built, the Cybermen began using Cybermites to kidnap people as "spare parts".
Cybermen attacking Natty Longshoe's Comical Castle. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).)
Angie and Artie Maitland arrived on Hedgewick's World with the Eleventh Doctor and their nanny, Clara, and were taken by the Cybermen. With enough components to reawaken them, after being presumed extinct for a thousand years, an army of three million Cybermen awoke from their tombs. As the army began to attack Natty Longshoe's Comical Castle to convert the humans there, the Doctor was caught in a battle for his mind with a Cyber-Planner that had dubbed itself "Mr Clever", who had been able to provide information on the Doctor to the Cyberiad once again. (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) Indeed, the Cybermen of "the very far future" were able to recall the battles between the Doctor and their race through the Cyberium database. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
When the Doctor was able to force Clever to stop the Cyber-Army in place to "bring in the local resources" needed to win their ongoing struggle, the Doctor used a hand pulse to wipe Clever from his body, forcing the Cyber-Planner to redistribute itself among the rest of the Cybermen. Angie and Artie were also released. Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI gave the verbal command to start the countdown of a planet-imploding bomb. This drew the attention of his ship, which transmatted the Doctor and the humans on the planet while the Cybermen were left behind. The planet and the Cybermen were destroyed; however, one Cybermite survived the destruction, (TV: Nightmare in Silver [+]Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013).) giving the Cybermen another chance to begin again. (WC: Who Are The Cybermen?) Accordingly, a historical account of the universe said that the battle had only arrested the scourge of the Cybermen, noting that it never ended their threat. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
A Cyber-ship was chased by a Dalek flying saucer. Inside the ship, two Cybermen interrogated a Dalek Lumpy about the whereabouts of the Orb of Fates before being flattened by the Doctor's TARDIS. The Twelfth Doctor sent Lumpy to Telos to retrieve a second element of the Orb. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
In the far future[]
Incompatibility with humanity[]
Cybermen from the far future. (COMIC: The Flood [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2004-2005).)
Cybermen from the far future would use time travel to return in time to the 2000s to convert Earth. They used rain that caused extreme emotions (sadness, fear, anger) to convince the humans that emotions were bad and to accept conversion willingly. The reason they needed humans from a past era was clear to the Doctor; in the future of the Cybermen, the human genetic template had been corrupted and augmented by their interactions with many alien races. Since the Cyber-conversion protocols were keyed to human or Mondasian biology, the number of viable converts had dropped dramatically by then.
The Doctor offered to regenerate for them so they could gather the data of his regeneration and upgrade their conversion protocols to include other races, in exchange for leaving the Earth alone. The Cybermen agreed, but betrayed him at the last moment (the Doctor was expecting this). Using the fragment of the Time Vortex the future Cybership used as a power source, the Doctor destroyed the Cyberfleet and dissolved them into rain. (COMIC: The Flood [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2004-2005).)
Lone survivors of war[]
At a point in the far future where exact measurements of time were no longer meaningful, the Cybermen were utterly destroyed in a great war with the universe. Only a handful of Cybermen survived, but they were tracked down by bounty hunters and mercenaries. One Cyber-Controller, who was the Sixth Doctor's former companion Evelyn Smythe, hid on Chronos and discovered a time portal leading to 3286 which he used to make a bootstrap paradox of not just his own past cyber-conversion but the complete Cyberman conquest of the universe.
A Cyberman with the Sixth Doctor. (WC: Real Time [+]Gary Russell, BBCi animations (2002).)
The Controller was unable to travel through the portal, but eventually the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn, and Reece Goddard all came through to the future. The Doctor and Evelyn escaped back to the 33rd century, leaving Reece to defeat the Controller, but in his final moments Reece learned that the Controller was Evelyn's future self and that the Evelyn with the Doctor had been infected with techno-virus. The Doctor and Evelyn then went to Earth in 1927, creating the Cyberverse. However, the Doctor earlier believed the Cyberverse was a divergent timeline (WC: Real Time [+]Gary Russell, BBCi animations (2002)., AUDIO: Real Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) and during the Lamprey crisis a version of the Sixth Doctor travelling with a partially cyber-converted Evelyn was said to be from a parallel universe to Melanie Bush's Sixth Doctor. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)
One of the last surviving Cyber-Leaders found a TARDIS "abandoned on a planet ruined by fire". It tried to pilot the ship to prehistoric Earth and cyberconvert a few early ancestors of humanity, but it was unable to fully control the TARDIS. The Cyber-Leader was severely damaged by exposure to the Time Vortex and it crashed near Baltimore in late 1982.
Using its access to the entire history of the cyber-race, the Cyber-Leader concocted a plan to attract the Doctor to Baltimore by killing Anthony Chambers, a family friend of Peri Brown, in September 1984. The plan worked and the Cyber-Leader captured the Sixth Doctor and forced him to pilot the TARDIS to prehistoric Earth. The Doctor tricked the Cyber-Leader into thinking that history had been changed and instead of pilotting the ship to a new version of 1984 where Cyberman had been the dominant life form on Earth for millennia, the Doctor took the Cyber-Leader to Mondas in 1984. The Cyber-Leader was considered faulty by its ancestors and taken to be reprocessed. (AUDIO: The Reaping [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
While the Cyber-Leader was destroyed with Mondas in 1986, (AUDIO: The Reaping [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006)., TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).) some of the cyber-technology it left in Baltimore was salvaged by Katherine Chambers and taken to Brisbane. She partially converted her brother to extend his life. In 2006, the Forge manipulated Katherine to create an artificial intelligence by fusing the cyber-technology with other alien technology and the mind of Eve Morris. The Fifth Doctor attempted to destroy all traces of System, but a backup copy was saved (AUDIO: The Gathering [+]Joseph Lidster, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) and System went into widespread use by 2021. (AUDIO: The Harvest [+]Dan Abnett, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2004).)
Rekindling of the Cyber-Empire[]
- Main article: Restoration of the Cyber-Empire
In the far future, after the Cyber-Wars, Ashad, also known as the Lone Cyberman, set out to resurrect the Cyber-Empire, (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) by seeking out the Cyberium which had been sent back through time and space by the Alliance, a resistance unit during the war. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon [+]Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020)., The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) After the Cyber-Wars, which had ended with the Fall of the Cyber-Empire, the Cybermen were nearly wiped out, though the same was true for humanity. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
Ashad and his two Cyberguards during their attempted restoration of the Cyber-Empire. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
Ashad was able to retrieve the Cyberium on Earth in 1816 (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati [+]Maxine Alderton, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) and brought it back to his own time where the survivors of humanity were hunted by the surviving Cybermen. Using the Cyberium, Ashad located an intact Cybercarrier at the location of one of the last battlefields of the war which contained a Cyber-Army of hundreds of thousands of Cybermen and Cyberfighters. Using his new army, Ashad planned to upgrade the Cybermen to become a purely robotic race and then use the death particle to wipe out all organic life in the universe, leaving only the Cybermen and other robotic lifeforms intact. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020)., The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).)
Shortly after arriving on the Planet of the Boundary, Ashad was invited through the Boundary to the ruins of Gallifrey by the Spy Master who was interested in using the Cybermen and Cyberium to his own ends. The Master decided to use the carrier's cyber conversion chambers to create a race of CyberMasters with the corpses of the Time Lords he had killed when the Master ravaged the planet and killed Ashad in order to gain the Cyberium for himself. Ashad's plan to rekindle the Cyber-Empire was foiled by the Thirteenth Doctor, her companions and several survivors of the Cyber-Wars who destroyed the Cybercarrier and the army aboard it with explosives before most of the army could be awakened. In order to stop the Master, Ko Sharmus, who blamed himself for the whole event as he was a part of the Alliance, sacrificed himself to detonate the death particle on Gallifrey, wiping out all orgainic life on the planet in an attempt to kill the Master and his army of CyberMasters.
However, the Master called for his CyberMasters to follow him to safety, (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) so they survived. Furthermore, the Master cloned Ashad. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).) After the destruction of her home, the Doctor was arrested by a Judoon cold case unit and taken to a maximum security facility. (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 12 (BBC One, 2020).) In this prison, one of her fellow prisoners was a Cyberman. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who New Year Special 2021 (BBC One, 2021).)
Alliance with the Master and Daleks[]
- Main article: The Master's Dalek Plan
After cloning Ashad, the Master convinced the Lone Cyberman to ally with him once again on the condition that they could finally destroy the Doctor and take control of the Earth if the Cybermen worked with him, his CyberMasters, and the Daleks. Taking command of a force of Cyber-Warriors, Ashad agreed to the Master's Dalek Plan upon being promised that the Earth would be turned into a Cyberman and Dalek-production world. However, while the Cybermen were indeed under the impression they would use the population to create and "ascend" with a new Cyber-Army, the Daleks hoped to exterminate all human life on the planet. Nevertheless, the plan carried on with Ashad and his Cyber-Warriors being shrunken down into a Russian doll that the Master sent to Tegan Jovanka in 2022. Meanwhile, the CyberMasters attacked a train under a Cyber-Leader to capture a Qurunx.
Despite the intervention of the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan Lewis, the CyberMasters escaped with the Qurunx, which was anchored to a conversion planet in 1916 the Master had ordered the Cybermen to create. Despite being able to convert life forms into Cybermen, the main purpose of the conversion world was to power the Doctor's forced regeneration into the Master, which was watched by Bronze Daleks and CyberMasters. In 2022, meanwhile, Ashad and his Cyber-Warriors were unleashed in the new UNIT Headquarters of London, where they shrugged off gold bullets and began to convert UNIT troops into their new army. While Ashad promised to stop the conversions if Kate Stewart surrendered herself, he proclaimed they would still be upgraded as her conversion began. However, Tegan then overloaded the power of the base, saving Kate and destroying the Cybermen.
The CyberMasters in 1916 were destroyed when they were tricked into firing on each other by a AI hologram of the Fugitive Doctor, with Yaz then ensuring they would not regenerate by using their regneration energy to undo the Doctor's forced regeneration. The conversion planet was then destroyed by the Qurunx. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).) In the aftermath of the incident, a UNIT-allied group recieved intelligence that Cyber-Masters had joined the ranks of Cyber-Warrior battalions. For the crimes of the Cyber-race, the group put out a wanted poster on the Cybermen, whose current aims included securing victory in the Cyber-Wars, according to the poster. (PROSE: Wanted! Cybermen [+]Paul Lang, Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 (Penguin Group, 2023).)
Remnants of the Cybermen[]
A dead Cyberman. (WC: TARDIS Cam No.1 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
A Cyberman head was once seen destroyed on a desert planet that the TARDIS once visited. The Cyberman lay dead with the silver wires on its face stretched. (WC: TARDIS Cam No.1 [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
In the far future, the Tenth Doctor, Gabby Gonzalez, Cindy Wu, and Anubis encountered a group of "fake Cyberdudes" who reenacted battles from the "last great Cyberwar". (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies [+]Nick Abadzis, Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor (Titan Publishing Group, 2017).) Legend suggested that the CyberReaper was constructed at the end of the last Great Cyber War from the remains of Cybermen who had fallen in the bloody battle of Ryzzenbach. (GAME: The Edge of Reality [+]Gavin Collinson, adapted from The Edge of Time, Playstack (2021).)
Final evolution[]
According to one account, in the 101st century, the Cybermen had nearly died out. Several centuries earlier, they had become the pacifist Cyberlords. (PROSE: Synthespians™) By the 108th century, the Cyberlord Hegemony was a major political power. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus) Additionally, into the posthuman era, technosapience became a commonly accepted form of humanity, most prominently with the Silversmiths' Coterie. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Lawrence Miles, et al., Faction Paradox novels (Mad Norwegian Press, 2002)., Weapons Grade Snake Oil)
According to two Time Lords on Marinus, the Cybermen ultimately transcended into pure energy, redeeming the whole of sentient life and becoming the most peace loving-species in the whole of creation, comprised of pure thought with no physical presence. (COMIC: The World Shapers [+]Grant Morrison, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1987).) However, an asteroid colony of Cybermen continued to exist in the final days of N-Space. Still desperate to survive and convert new life-forms as the cosmos crumbled around them, the Cyberman colony was located towards the edge of the universe, (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).) beyond even Gallifrey's position after it had been unfrozen and transported out of its pocket universe. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
After the end of the universe, the City of the Saved was home to all humans who had been forcibly cyber-converted prior to Resurrection Day. While some were resurrected in pre-conversion forms, others retained their cybernetics. The Order of the Iron Soul was a quasi-religious group composed of some who remained certain of humanity's inferiority. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Lawrence Miles, et al., Faction Paradox novels (Mad Norwegian Press, 2002).)
Undated events[]
Various events[]
Information from Conversion
A Cyberman inside Vorg's Miniscope (TV: Carnival of Monsters [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
A Cyberman of the Early CyberFaction was among the life-forms exhibited in Vorg's Miniscope. (TV: Carnival of Monsters [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
The Fourth Doctor had a medal he was given for defeating the Cybermen. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast [+]Pat Mills and John Wagner, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1980).) The Fourth Doctor and his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan also combated Cyberman after a Cyber-Leader had made a deal with the Scratchman for a plague. The deal was a trick, allowing the Sratchman to enter the Doctor's universe from his own universe, where he deposited the Cyber-Leader with some of its memories, and then emotions, restored. After saving Harry on two occasions due to the Scratchman forcing it to perform "good deeds", the Cyber-Leader declared it would do no such acts ever again before walking off into the darkness of the Scatchman's universe, which some said was Hell. (PROSE: Scratchman)
Several Cybermen and a Cyber-Planner attempted to gain time travel, eventually becoming stranded in 500002. They converted Byron, but their ship was destroyed by Charlotte Pollard. (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was)
The Seventh Doctor and Catherine Broome battled a squad of Cybermen in the Prenadene asteroid belt. (PROSE: Companion Piece)
The Cybermen got involved in the Last Great Time War on planets such as Veestrax. (COMIC: Outrun) Seeing that they and the Cyber-race shared a common enemy in the Dalek Empire, the Time Lords actively sought an alliance with the Cybermen during the conflict. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) After the Time War ended, the Cybermen fought other races for control over time. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)
Alerted of the Obverse by Daedelus, the Cybermen were among the groups who fought in the Enclave War. During the war, Iris Wildthyme potentially allied the Cyber factions with the insect races to storm the homeworld of an unknown race which emerged hungrily from the Obverse. (PROSE: The Blue Angel)
The Secret Lives of Monsters present an image of Cybus-style Cybermen fighting Sontarans. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).)
During the Great Disruption caused by the Flux and the Ravagers, Cybermen were among the powers attempting to assert their power. They took over a sector of the galaxy and boarded Bel's spaceship. She killed the boarding party of Cyber-Warriors and interrogated a dying Cyberman on what they knew about the damage to time. (TV: Once, Upon Time [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who series 13 (BBC One, 2021).)
Rassilonian Era[]
During the Dark Times on Gallifrey, the Cybermen were excluded from the the blood sports in the Death Zone, because the Time Lords believed they had an unfair advantage over other victims of the games. Borusa, having found the Game of Rassilon, transported a squadron of CyberNeomorphs to the Death Zone to threaten and harass the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. These Cybermen were destroyed by a similarly transported Raston Warrior Robot. A second squadron under a Cyber-Leader allied with the Tremas Master, intending to stage an invasion of Gallifrey, but he betrayed and destroyed them. A third squadron attempted to destroy the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS, but were foiled when the TARDIS dematerialised at the last second. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).)
The Cybermen were part of the Supremo's alliance in the war against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)
The Cybermen were one of many species involved in the Cloister Wars. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).) When the Fifth Doctor visited the Cloisters, a Cyberman was imprisoned there. (COMIC: Ophiuchus [+]Richard Dinnick, The Many Lives of Doctor Who (Titan Publishing Group, 2018).) A Cyberman was ensnared by the fibre-optic cables within the Cloisters on Gallifrey. It begged for Clara Oswald's help when she and the Twelfth Doctor walked through the Cloisters. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
The Cybermen with the Tremas Master. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade [+]Eric Saward, Radio Times short stories (Radio Times, 1983).)
During the Doctor's era, the Cybermen allied themselves with the Tremas Master to become the rulers of Gallifrey. After they kidnapped Susan Foreman, they were stopped by the Fifth Doctor. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade [+]Eric Saward, Radio Times short stories (Radio Times, 1983).)
Other realities[]
Alternate timelines[]
In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian where the First Doctor never left Gallifrey, the CyberNeomorphs were one of the many species which fought over control of Earth. This timeline was erased when the Seventh Doctor retrieved the Key to Time on the instruction of the White Guardian. (COMIC: Time & Time Again [+]Paul Cornell, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1993).)
In an alternate timeline created when the Seventh Doctor's TARDIS got stuck in the Temporal Plexus, the Cybermen remained a dangerous force in the universe alongside the Sontarans, despite the Daleks having become a peaceful species. This timeline was ultimately erased by the Seventh Doctor due to its existence threatening to destroy the "prime" timeline. (PROSE: The Ripple Effect [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
In a 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 [+]Simon Guerrier, Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) and later averted its causes altogether by defeating WOTAN in 1966 (TV: The War Machines [+]Ian Stuart Black, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1966).) and the Cybermen in 1986. (TV: The Tenth Planet [+]Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
In an alternate timeline created when the Eleven used the Dark Universe to conquer N-Space, he turned the Cybermen into his personal agents. This timeline was eventually undone by the Seventh Doctor and Ace. (AUDIO: Dark Universe [+]Guy Adams, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Cybermen were among the species that made up the Pandorica Alliance. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) However, the Alliance was never formed after the Big Bang Two. (TV: The Big Bang [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).)
The Age of the Cyberiad[]
- Main article: Alternate timeline (Supremacy of the Cybermen)
.jpeg){kind=link}
The Cybermen and Rassilon invade Gallifrey in an alternate timeline. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).)
In an alternate timeline, Rassilon, following his exile from Gallifrey by the Twelfth Doctor, discovered the Cyberman asteroid colony at the end of the universe. Proposing an alliance with the Cybermen, Rassilon was converted into the Cyber-President and forged the Gallifreyan Cyber Fleet, leading a full-scale invasion of Gallifrey and, by extension, all of time and space. In particular, Rassilon and the Cybermen managed to force the first twelve of the Doctor's incarnations into impossible situations with the Cybermen so that they could not intervene together. The Cybermen ultimately betrayed Rassilon and harvested his regeneration energy, as they did to nearly all the Time Lords on Gallifrey. However, the Twelfth Doctor and Rassilon managed to stop the Cyber-Controller from regenerating N-Space into the "Age of the Cyberiad" by using the harvested regenerative energy to erase the events of this timeline via the Eye of Harmony and the Cyberiad's presence across all of history. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen [+]George Mann and Cavan Scott, Titan summer events (Titan Comics, 2016).)
Parallel universes[]
Pete's World[]
- Main article: Cybusman
Cybus Cybermen shortly after their creation. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
The Cybermen of the parallel universe dubbed "Pete's World" were created by John Lumic, an insane and terminally ill genius. To find a way to survive, by 2007 he had perfected a method to sustain the human brain indefinitely in a cradle of chemicals, bonding the synaptic impulses to a metal exoskeleton. Lumic began to trick and abduct homeless people and convert them into Cybermen. He assassinated the President of Great Britain after the President rejected his plans. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) The initial name for the project was Cybusmen, although Lumic later coined "Cybermen" and found it to be a catchier, less tacky name. (PROSE: Lumic [+]Tom MacRae, Cybus (BBC, 2006).)
Using the EarPods he designed and sold, Lumic took mental control of the people of London, marching thousands to be cyber-converted. (TV: The Age of Steel [+]Tom MacRae, adapted from Spare Parts (Marc Platt), Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) He gave the order for all cyber-bases around the world to begin coverting the global population. (WC: Tardisode 6 [+]Gareth Roberts, Tardisodes series 2 (2006).) After his life-support systems were damaged by his assistant, Mr. Crane, in an act of betrayal that cost him his life, Lumic was converted against his wishes into the Cyber-Controller by his own Cybermen to preserve his flesh form. By the Cybermen's cold logic, it was impractical to cling on to an already dying body. Once converted and revitalised, Cyberman instinct merged with his megalomanical mind and he planned to convert all of the parallel Earth. However, the