The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings (or other similar species) into more Cybermen in order to populate their ranks while also removing their emotions and personalities. They were conceived by writer Kit Pedler (who was also the unofficial scientific advisor to the series) and story editor Gerry Davis, and first appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet.
The Cybermen have seen many redesigns and costume changes over Doctor Whos long run, as well as a number of varying origin stories. In their first appearance, The Tenth Planet (1966), they are humans from Earth's nearly identical "twin planet" of Mondas who upgraded themselves into cyborgs in a bid for self-preservation. Forty years later, the two-part story, "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" (2006), depicted Cybermen invented again in a parallel universe London as a business corporation's attempt at upgrading humanity. Doctor Who audio dramas, novels, and comic books have also elaborated on existing origin stories or presented alternatives. The 2017 episode, "The Doctor Falls", explains the different origins as parallel evolution, due to the inevitability of humans and human-like species upgrading themselves through technology; this perspective resolves continuity differences in the Cybermen's history.
A mainstay of Doctor Who since the 1960s, the Cybermen have also appeared in related programmes and spin-off media, including novels, audiobooks, comic books, and video games. Cybermen stories were produced in officially licensed Doctor Who products between 1989 and 2005, when the TV show was off the air, with writers either filling historical gaps or depicting new encounters between them and the Doctor. The species also appeared in the Doctor Who TV spin-off, Torchwood, appearing in the fourth episode, "Cyberwoman" (2006).
Creation
The name "Cyberman" comes from cybernetics, a term used in Norbert Wiener's book Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (MIT Press, 1948). Wiener used the term in reference to the control of complex systems, particularly self-regulating control systems, in the animal world and in mechanical networks. By 1960, doctors were researching surgical or mechanical augmentation of humans and animals to operate machinery in space, leading to the portmanteau "cyborg", for "cybernetic organism".
In the 1960s, "spare-part" surgery began with the development of gigantic heart-lung machines. Public discussion included the possibility of wiring amputees' nerve endings directly into machines. In 1963, Kit Pedler discussed with his wife (who was also a doctor) what would happen if a person had so many prostheses that they could no longer distinguish themselves between man and machine. He got the opportunity to develop this idea when, in 1966, after an appearance on the BBC science programmes Tomorrow's World and Horizon, the BBC hired him to consult on the Doctor Who serial The War Machines (1966). That eventually led to him writing, with Gerry Davis, The Tenth Planet (1966) for Doctor Who.
Pedler, influenced by the logic-driven Treens from the Dan Dare comic strip, originally envisaged the Cybermen as "space monks", but was persuaded by Davis to concentrate on his fears about the direction of spare-part surgery. The Cybermen were originally imagined as human but with plastic and metal prostheses. The Cybermen of The Tenth Planet still have human hands, and their facial structures are visible beneath the masks they wear, but over time they evolved into metallic, more fully mechanized designs.
A variety of specialized forms of Cybermen have been shown, in particular Cyber Leaders and Cyber Controllers, with power to command other Cybermen.
Appearances Television Classic series (1963–1996)
The Cybermen first appear in the serial The Tenth Planet in 1966, set in 1986. This story explains how, millions of years ago, Earth had a twin planet known as Mondas that was knocked out of solar orbit and drifted into deep space. The Mondasians, already far in advance of Earth's technology and fearful for their race's survival,Parkin, Lance & Pearson, Lars (2012). A History: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe (3rd Edition), p. 48. Mad Norwegian Press, Des Moines. . replaced most of their bodies with cybernetic parts. Having eventually removed all emotion from their brains (to maintain their sanity), the natives installed a drive propulsion system to pilot the planet itself through space. As the original race was limited in numbers and were continually being depleted, the Mondasians – now Cybermen – became a race of conquerors who reproduced by forcibly changing other organic beings into Cybermen. The First Doctor (William Hartnell) opposes these Cybermen when they attempt to drain the Earth's energy to make way for Mondas' return to the Solar System; in this encounter, Mondas absorbs too much energy from Earth, destroying it and all Cybermen on Earth. The adventure takes its physical toll on the Doctor, forcing him to regenerate for the first time, becoming the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton).
The Cybermen next appeared later in the same television season in The Moonbase (1967) opposite the Second Doctor. In 2070, the Cybermen attempt to remotely destroy the Earth by affecting its weather patterns with a device called the Gravitron. However, the Gravitron is used against them, hurling them into space. In the following season, The Tomb of the Cybermen saw a 25th Century human expedition discover sarcophagi containing hibernating Cybermen on the planet Telos, where the creatures arise and attack. This episode introduced the cybermats, small mechanical scouts used by the Cybermen, as well as the Cyber Controller. In The Wheel in Space (1968), the Doctor and his crew face off against the Cybermen on a marooned Earth space station in the 21st century. This episode introduces the Cyber-Planner, an immobile unit which directs the Cybermen. The Cybermen plan to take over the space station, after which their fleet will invade Earth. The Doctor uses an x-ray laser to destroy the Cybermen. In the next season, The Invasion has the Doctor and his companions visit late 20th century England, where he discovers an army of Cybermen are hidden on Earth and working with magnate Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney) to invade Earth. Their invasion is defeated by the Doctor and the military support of the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
The Cybermen did not face the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) during his era, but one is shown as part of an exhibit in Carnival of Monsters (1973). The Third Doctor would however face Cybermen in the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors" (1983).
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is next to encounter a group of Cybermen in Revenge of the Cybermen (1975). These Cybermen are depicted as the wandering remnants of a fallen empire, ravaged by the so-called Cyber-Wars against victorious humanity, which had exploited the Cybermen's weakness to gold. These Cybermen attempt to restore the glory of their race by destroying the gold-rich asteroid Voga.
Cybermen were not seen again until Earthshock (1982), in which the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) encounters Cybermen in Earth in the year 2526. The Cybermen plan to destroy the planet with a large bomb while alien dignitaries visit Earth to discuss the ongoing Cyber-Wars. After the Doctor foils this plan, they decide to crash their freighter into the planet to achieve the same result. The freighter is hurled back in time, however, and the Doctor's companion, boy genius Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), is trapped on board as the freighter crashes into prehistoric Earth, killing Adric and triggering the K-T extinction event. The Cybermen appear once more in the Fifth Doctor's era, alongside the four previous Doctors, in "The Five Doctors" (1983), when they are transported to the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey by the Time Lord President Borusa (Philip Latham).
Attack of the Cybermen (1985) is set after Tomb. The Cybermen attempt to use a time machine to avert the destruction of Mondas by causing Halley's Comet to crash into the Earth. Their plan fails and, due to the intervention of the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker), they also lose their adopted homeworld of Telos to its original inhabitants, the Cryons.
The Cybermen appeared for a final time in the classic series in Silver Nemesis (1988), in which a fleet of Cybermen warships assemble to convert Earth into a new Mondas. A Cybermen scouting party is sent to Earth in search of the legendary Nemesis statue, a Time Lord artefact of immense power, made of the "living metal" . The intervention of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred), however, ensures that the Nemesis destroys the entire cyber-fleet instead.
Between the series' cancellation and subsequent revival, the Cybermen make one brief appearance, in the 1993 Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, as one of several enemies used by evil Time Lady the Rani (Kate O'Mara) to hunt the Doctor.
Revived series (2005–present)
Doctor Who was revived after a long hiatus by new showrunner Russell T Davies in 2005. By then, development of CGI enabled large numbers of Cybermen or Daleks to be featured in stories. In the first series of the revived programme, the Cybermen do not appear except for the inactive head of one, which is seen in a private museum of alien artefacts on Earth in the episode "Dalek". For Series 2 in 2006, Cybermen were reintroduced with a new origin story set in a parallel universe. In the "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" two-part story, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his companions, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke), crash land in a parallel London where the Cybermen are being created on modern-day Earth. The Cybermen are created by the owner of Cybus Industries, the dying transhumanist mad scientist John Lumic (Roger Lloyd-Pack). Lumic's Cybermen successfully convert much of the world's population by placing their human brains into robotic shells. The Doctor and his friends free London from their control. A human resistance group, the Preachers, then sets about to clean up the remainder of Lumic's factories around the world. The Cybermen reappear in the 2006 two-part finale "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", exploiting a breach between universes to invade the Doctor's Earth. This breach is caused by a transport device belonging to the Daleks, who reveal themselves and trigger all-out war between the two species. The Doctor ultimately re-opens the breach, causing the Cybermen and all but a few Daleks to become trapped inside before it is re-sealed. Cybermen next appear in the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special "The Next Doctor", emerging in 1851 London after the Daleks damaged the walls of reality in the previous episode, "Journey's End". They attempt to raise a new army on Earth using period technology, but are again foiled by the Doctor.