The Cybermen are a race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor. Their first known encounter with the Doctor occured shortly before the end of his first incarnation. (However, the First Doctor's detailed knowledge of the existence and history of the Cybermen's home planet of Mondas, and Susan's apparent familiarity with Cybermen in the Death Zone, hint at a possible earlier encounter.). They have since made numerous reappearances in their bid for world or galactic conquest.
Physical characteristics
The Cybermen are humanoid, but have been cybernetically augmented to the point where they have few to no organic parts. In their first appearance in the series, the only portions of their bodies that still seemed human were their hands, but by their next appearance, their bodies were entirely covered up in their metallic suits. It is presumed that underneath their suits there still exist organic components and they are not true robots, but this has not been confirmed.
Early Cybermen had a somewhat sing-song voice constructed by putTING the INflecTION in the wrong PLAces (sic). Later Cybermen spoke in more of a monotone, emphasizing their lack of emotion.
Cybermen have a number of major weaknesses, of which the most notable is the element gold. Due to its non-corrodable nature, gold essentially chokes their respiratory systems. For example, the glittergun, a weapon used during the Cyber-Wars in the future, fired gold dust at its targets. However, in later serials, gold appeared to affect them rather like silver affects werewolves, with gold coins or gold-tipped bullets fired at them having the same effect. Other weaknesses include solvents and excessive levels of radiation.
Over the years Cybermen have been shown with various forms of weaponry. During their attack on Earth in 1986 they had large handheld energy weapons. Centuries later Telosian Cybermen used a hand-held Cyber-weapon which was a form of X-ray laser. In the 21st century, the Cybermen who attacked Space Station W3 had death rays built into their chest units. The Cybermen encountered by UNIT in the 1970s displayed these same built-in weapons as well as also carrying large rifles for medium distance combat. The Cybermen who attacked the Nerva beacon in the third millenium had their weapons built into their helmets. Subsequent appearances have shown them armed almost exclusively with cyberguns. The Cybermen also have access to weapons of mass destruction known as cyberbombs, which were banned by the galactic Armageddon Convention.
The Cybermen also use small cybernetic creatures called cybermats as weapons of attack and as carriers of plagues. Cybermats resemble oversized metallic silverfish and have segmented bodies with hair-like tactile sensor probes along the base of their heads. Two models of cybermat are known to exist, the first with crystalline eyes and antennae through which they receive commands. The second have photoreceptors for eyes instead of crystals.
As they are few in number, the Cybermen tend towards covert activity, scheming from hiding and using human pawns or robots to act in their place until they need to appear. Cybermen are typically credited as Cyber Leader, Cyber Lieutenant, and Cyber Scout. However, one Cyberman exists with a title, the Cyber Controller. The Cyber Controller has appeared in multiple forms, both humanoid and as an immobile computer. The Controller seen (and destroyed) in various serials may or may not be the same consciousness in different bodies, as it appears to recognize and remember the Doctor from previous encounters. Early in their history, some Cybermen had individual names such as "Karg," a vestigial custom from their humanoid origins (see History below). Cybermen frequently attempt to increase theur number by converting their victims into Cybermen (a process known as cyber-conversion) .
Appearance
Unlike the Doctor's other foes, particularly the Daleks, the Cybermen have changed substantially in appearance over the years, looking more and more technologically advanced, although retaining certain commonalities of design. Nearly all are silver in colour, with exposed circuitry and tubing which may contain hydraulic fluids for motion covering a rubber or mylar like outer skin. Curiously, as the Doctor's encounters with the Cybermen have not been sequential with their own timeline, Cybermen from earlier periods of their history sometimes look more sophisticated than those from later ones.
History
Origins
Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids that began to implant more and more cybernetic parts into their bodies. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating, with emotions usually only shown when naked aggression was called for. Although the Cybermen often claim that they have done away with human emotion, they have exhibited emotions ranging from anger to smug satisfaction in their confrontations with the Doctor.
The race originated on the planet Mondas, Earth's twin planet in prehistoric times, which was knocked out of solar orbit and drifted into deep space. The Mondasians, fearful for their race's survival, sent out spacecraft to colonise other worlds, including Telos, where they pushed the native Cryons aside and used the planet to house vast tombs where they could take refuge in suspended animation when necessary.
On Mondas, the native inhabitants installed a drive propulsion system in place of the planet's core. As the original race was limited in numbers and were continually being depleted, the Cybermen became a race of conquerors who reproduced by taking other organic beings and forcibily changing them into Cybermen.
The Earth invasions
The Cybermen's first attempt at invading Earth occurred in the 1970s. The Cybermen had allied themselves with industrialist Tobias Vaughn, who installed mind control circuits in electrical appliances manufactured by his International Electromatics company, paving the way for a ground invasion. This was uncovered by the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, who repelled the invasion with the help of the Second Doctor.
Shortly before his regeneration, the First Doctor met an advance force of Cybermen that landed near an Antarctic space tracking station in the in the year 1986. This advance force was to prepare for the return of Mondas to the solar system and the draining of Earth's energy for the Cybermen's use. In the process, however, Mondas absorbed too much energy and was destroyed, as were the Cybermen on Earth.
In 1988 a fleet of Cyber warships was assembled to turn Earth into New Mondas now that their homeworld had been destroyed. A scouting party was sent to Earth in search of the legendary Nemesis statue, a Time Lord artifact of immense power, made of the "living metal" validium. Due to the machinations of the Seventh Doctor, however, the Nemesis destroyed the entire Cyber-fleet instead. (Silver Nemesis).
In 2012, the inert head of a Cyberman was part of the Vault, a collection of alien artefacts belonging to American billionaire Henry van Statten. According to its label, it was recovered from the London sewers in 1975 and presumably came from the 1970s invasion attempt, although it was of a design only seen in the late 29th century (Dalek').
By the mid-21st century, mankind had reached beyond its planet and set up space stations in deep space. One of these, Space Station W3, known as "The Wheel," was the site of a takeover by Cybermen who wanted to use it as a staging point for yet another invasion of Earth. The Second Doctor and his companions prevented this(The Wheel in Space).
The Cybermen returned in the year 2070, when Earth's weather was being controlled by the Gravitron installation on the Moon. The Cybermen planned to use the Gravitron to disrupt the planet's weather patterns and destroy all life on it, eliminating a threat to their survival. This attempt was also stopped by the Second Doctor (The Moonbase) .
The Cyber-Wars
Five centuries after the destruction of Mondas, the Cybermen had all but passed into legend when an archeological expedition to the planet Telos uncovered their resting place. However, those Cybermen were not dead but merely in hibernation, and were briefly revived before the Second Doctor returned them to their eternal sleep (The Tomb of the Cybermen). .
The Doctor's imprisonment of the Cybermen was short-lived, however. By the beginning of the 26th century, the Cybermen were back in force, and the galactic situation was grave enough that Earth hosted a conference in 2526 that would unite the forces of several planets in a war against the Cybermen. A force of Cybermen tried to disrupt this conference, first by trying to infiltrate Earth in a freighter and when that was discovered by the Fifth Doctor, to crash the freighter into Earth and cause an ecological disaster. Although the attempt failed, the freighter was catapulted back in time to become the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs (Earthshock').
The Cybermen faced complete defeat now that humanity was united against them in the Cyber-Wars. The glittergun had been developed as a weapon against them, and the native Cryons of the planet Telos had also risen up and sabotaged their hibernation tombs. Using a captured time travel machine, a group of Cybermen travelled back to Earth in 1985 to try and prevent the destruction of Mondas, but were stopped by the Sixth Doctor and his companion Peri (Attack of the Cybermen').
By the late 29th century, the Cybermen had been reduced to small remnant groups wandering around the galaxy. One group tried to take revenge by making a desperate attempt to blow up the remnants of the planet Voga, a planetoid of pure gold that had wandered into the solar system and become a moon of Jupiter. They hoped that this would disrupt their enemy's supply of the metal, but were stopped by the Fourth Doctor. This was their last chronological appearance to date, with the Cybermen seemingly vanishing from history after this point (Revenge of the Cybermen).
A Cyberman in the Miniscope in Carnival of Monsters
A Cyberman was among the life-forms exhibited in Vorg's Miniscope (Carnival of Monsters). Cybermen were excluded from the Death Zone games, possibly out of fear that they could prove a threat to the Time Lords should they escape. Borusa, however, brought Cybermen to the Death Zone to threaten and harry the Doctor's various incarnations, probably to add greater incentive to seek refuge and answers in the Tower of Rassilon ("The Five Doctors"). Indications exist that the Doctor's current tenth incarnation may soon encounter the Cybermen once more.
Major appearances
Television
- The Tenth Planet - October 8 - October 29, 1966
- The Moonbase - February 11 - March 4, 1967
- The Tomb of the Cybermen - September 2 - September 23, 1967
- The Wheel in Space - April 27 - June 1, 1968
- The Invasion - November 2 - December 21, 1968
- Revenge of the Cybermen - April 19 - 10 May, 1975
- Earthshock - March 9 - March 17 1982
- The Five Doctors - November 23 1983
- Attack of the Cybermen - January 5 - January 12, 1985
- Silver Nemesis - November 23 - December 7, 1988
Stage plays
Audio plays
- Sword of Orion
- Spare Parts
- Real Time
- The Harvest
- Bernice Summerfield: Silver Lining
Novels
- Iceberg by David Banks
- Killing Ground by Steve Lyons
- Illegal Alien by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry