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| “ | This broadcast is for humankind. Cybermen now occupy every landmass on this planet. But you need not fear. Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove sex and class and color and creed. You will become identical, you will become like us. | „ |
| ~ CyberLeader One's broadcast in Doomsday. |
The Cybermen are the secondary antagonists of the Doctor Who franchise.
They are a race of cyborgs that are created out of humans, or humanoid species, who need to survive no matter what, whether to preserve their dying species, a bid for immortality, or an attempt to improve all those around them. Various factions of Cybermen have originated independently due to parallel evolution, but are essentially the same in core.
Introduced in the Season 4 serial "The Tenth Planet", the Cybermen effectively served as the main antagonists for the Second Doctor's era. They appear as the main antagonists of Season 5 of the classic series and Series 2 of the revival, alongside the Cult of Skaro.
The Cybermen were originally voiced by the late Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins in The Tenth Planet and The Wheel in Space, with Hawkins also voicing them in The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen, and the late Peter Halliday in The Invasion. They are voiced by Nicholas Briggs in the revived series and Big Finish's audio dramas, who also voices the Daleks.
Personality[]
All Cybermen are essentially living brains inside a cybernetic metal body that robs them of emotions and free will. They are programmed to see themselves as perfect lifeforms and work to "upgrade" others into more Cybermen, by force if needed.
Any life-forms that resist or are incompatible with Cyber technology are to be "deleted". It is because of this that almost all Cybermen lack any sense of individuality since their emotions are removed during the upgrading process to the point that they see having any emotions as a weakness, thinking only using pure logic instead.
Origins[]
It has been noted by the Doctor and other characters that the Cybermen and their subspecies originated independently through parallel evolution from multiple locations across time, space, and other universes. As such, there was no single homeworld for the Cyber-race, since Cybermen arose on different worlds from their populations at various points in time.
Most of these origins occur out of a human civilisation's, or an individual's, fear for survival and 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 technology, Cybermen could be born on other worlds even if a civilisation was not burdened by threats to survival. It is because of this that the Doctor concluded that any human civilization throughout space-time could have the potential to become Cybermen when given enough time.
No matter their origins, the Cybermen have established many Cyber-Empires and military conquests against the rest of the universe throughout their history, often targeting humanity. Despite their various defeats and being pushed to the edge of extinction, they always found ways to survive and rebuild.
Variants[]
Within the Doctor Who universe, the various eras of Cyberman design have been given titles to demonstrate their place in their evolution.
The titles of the Classic series' incarnations are from David Banks Cybermen guidebooks.
Mondasian Cybermen[]
The Mondasian Cybermen are the earliest version of the Cybermen created. These are seen in The Tenth Planet, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, and the audio Spare Parts. These Cybermen have cloth faces, bulky chest units with a laser attached to the unit, and spoke with a quavering, sing-song electric voice, they still retained some traces of humanity, such as organic hands.
Faction and Telos Cybermen[]
The Cybermen in The Moonbase and Tomb of the Cybermen looked more mechanical than their predecessors, with plastic faces, and smaller chest units. They spoke in a buzzing monotone, and had the ability to shoot electricity, in The Wheel in Space, these Cybermen were similar in design, but with different faces, including the "tear-drop" motif for the first time. Cybermen said to be from Planet 14 in The Invasion were designed to look stronger and more powerful.
Nomads[]
Neomorphs[]
Cybus and Cyber Legions[]
Cyberiad[]
A faction of Cybermen thought to be descended from a union of the Mondasian Cybermen and those from a parallel-universe known as Pete's World grew at some point in the far future of the universe to become known as the Cyberaid. These Cybermen constantly upgraded themselves, coming into military conflicts with humanity until they became such an overwhelming threat that at least a whole galaxy had to be destroyed to defeat them, and even then the Cybermen secretly survived as seen in Nightmare in Silver.
During the events of Supremacy of the Cybermen, Rassilon found the Cybermen and gave them leadership and direction, joining with their Cyberiad to assimilate all of history. In the alternate timeline this created, the Cyberiad augmented by Gallifreyan technology became the dominant force in the universe, defeating the Doctor across all their incarnations and even fighting in the Last Great Time War. After the Cybermen betrayed him, Rassilon realized his mistake and helped the Doctor reset the universe so these events never happened.
Cyber-Warriors[]
Cyber-Masters[]
The Cyber-Masters are a variant created by The Master out of Time Lord corpses with the ability to regenerate.
Trivia[]
- The Doctor has pointed out numerous times that the Cybermen have a flawed existence.
- They have no goal beyond converting all life into cybernetic beings like themselves.
- They lack any sense of emotions, creativity, freedom, or individuality.
- If the Cybermen succeed, there would be nothing left for them to do besides exist in a universe devoid of emotions or free will.
