CYBERMAN

Place of Origin: Mondas / Parallel Earth

Description:

Ruthless silver giants dedicated to the furtherance of their species by the conversion of others into more Cybermen. Originally from Earth's twin planet Mondas, Mondasians were very similar to Humans. However Mondas began to leave the Solar System, causing the Mondasians to grow weaker as their lifespans shortened. To combat this the Mondasians began to replace their body parts with stronger cybernetic components. Eventually only a vestige of their former selves survived and, literally heartless, they became emotionless Cybermen.

Bent on a path of galactic conquest the Cybermen still possessed the urge to perpetuate their species, but bereft of emotion, resorted to cyber-conversion. The physical appearance of the Cybermen changed during the centuries but retained some constants, such as the jug-eared helmet, silver suit and chest-mounted respirators, a replacement for the heart and lungs.

When Mondas finally returned to the Solar System in 1986, the Cybermen were rather clumsy looking, with bare hands and cloth facemasks. As Mondas began draining energy from Earth, the Cybermen planned to save Humanity from it's resultant destruction by taking them to Mondas and converting them into Cybermen. Humanity fought back however, exploiting the Cybermen's vulnerability to radiation. Absorbing too much energy, Mondas was destroyed.

So too, it was thought, were the Cybermen. However the species survived, albeit a more sinister-looking three-fingered design with helmets, plastic respirators and the power to render people unconcious with an electrical charge. In 2070 these Cybermen attempted to destroy life on Earth by taking over the weather controlling station on the Moon. Others had taken refuge on Telos with their Cybercontroller, hibernating in a vast tomb complex.

The Cybermen planned to capture and convert anyone curious and intelligent enough to reactivate the tombs, thus awakening the Cybermen from their slumber and building a new Cyber-race. When an archaeological team did just that, the galaxy was once again under threat.

These Cybermen utilised a wide range of technologies in their attacks, including neurotropic viruses, Cybermats, X-ray handguns and laser cannon. In addition to the control room the tombs on Telos also featured a weapons testing room and a revitalisation chamber.

Another model of Cyberman, with stubbier fingers and a different helmet and respirator, infiltrated a space wheel as a precursor to an invasion of Earth. Instructed by a Cyberplanner their goal was to plunder the planet's mineral wealth. Although still using Cybermats, these Cybermen also fought with chest-mounted energy weapons. Approaching the space wheel in a hijacked supply rocket they used white 'eggs' with the ability to pass through metal hulls to transport themselves and the Cybermats into the station. Backing up this infiltration team was an invasion force carried by a larger ship.

In the 20th century another type of Cyberman was contacted by a power-crazed industrialist and hatched a plan to render Earth's population unconcious with a Cyber-hypntoic signal and invade.

With a Cyberplanner acting as intermediary a vanguard was dispatched to Earth in cocoons and reactivated in the sewers below London. Armed with chest-mounted energy beams, flame throwing guns and, as a last resort a Cyber-Megatron bomb the Cybermen attacked. However their ally attempted to double-cross them, taking advantage of the fact that strong emotions were alien to their nervous system and ultimately fatal.

The Cybermen also had to contend with UNIT who, armed with hand grenades and bazookas, put up a tough and tenacious resistance to the invasion. A Cyberman of this type was captured and exhibited in a Miniscope, while the head of such a Cyberman eventually found it's way into Van Statten's collection of alien artefacts. Centuries later a similar variant with head-mounted weaponry appeared, confounding the popular belief that the Cybermen were wiped out following a series of Cyber Wars.

During these wars Humanity had been able to defeat the Cybermen after discovering that gold was fatal to them. Being non-corrosive it was found that the metal plated their breathing apparatus, effectively suffocating them.

At the same time vast reserves of gold were located on the planetoid Voga. Their return was heralded by an attempt to take over Nerva Beacon. Led by a Cyberleader and aided by a new design of Cybermat, they poisoned most of the beacon's crew, forcing the survivors to carry devastating Cyber-bombs into the solid gold heart of Voga.

Carrying enough spare parts to rebuild an entire army, the Cybermen intended to conquer the galaxy once Voga and thus Humanity's gold supply was destroyed. A much more militaristic type of Cyberman armed with laser blasters was discovered in 2526. These Cybermen attempted to wipe out an interstellar anti-Cyberman conference on Earth by planting a devastating Cyber-bomb on the planet.

By also sending in a team to wipe out any survivors after the explosion and thus destroying any combined multi-species opposition, the Cybermen would be able to conquer the galaxy with ease. To facilitate this a squad was hidden onboard an Earth-bound freighter while androids guarded the bomb's hiding place.

A squad of Cybermen were also kinapped by a Gallifreyan timescoop and deposited in the Death Zone. Here they were forced to play the Timelord's ancient and bloody games as part of an evil quest for immortality. In earlier times the Cybermen were said to have played the game far too well. After a time-craft crashed on Telos, the Cybermen used it to travel back to 1985 with the aim of devastating Earth by redirecting Haley's comet onto a collision course.

Thus disrupted the authorities on Earth would be unable to resist the Cybermen when Mondas arrived in the Solar System in 1986. Once again the Cybercontroller was at the heart of operations, directing events from the Cybermen's icy tomb. As part of the plan London's sewers once more swarmed with Cybermen, including pitch black Cyber-scouts.

The Cybermen, their metal armour now polished to a silver sheen, also attempted to invade Earth in 1988, drawn to the planet by the Nemesis statue. While thousands of shrouded Cyber-warships orbited the planet, a squad fought against the Doctor, Neo-Nazis and the sorceress Lady Peinforte before finally getting hold of the powerful statue and it's destructive tendencies.

The Doctor next encountered these metal monsters on a parallel Earth where evil businessman John Lumic created a race of Cybermen in his quest for immortality. His attempt to share this gift with Mankind saw Lumic's cronies kidnapping homeless men and women for conversion in factories across the world.

Their brains were sustained in a cradle of copyrighted chemicals before being bonded to a metal exoskeleton, the two being connected with cybernetic impulses via an artificially grown central nervous system. A heart of steel and an emotional inhibitor completed the operation, turning innocent and unwilling victims into emotionless Cybermen. Although it was possible to knock out one of these Cybermen with an electromagnetic bomb, these creatures were virtually indestructible.

Their offensive capability, notwithstanding their incredible strength, consisted of delivering a fatal electric charge with their hands. With this metal army at his disposal, Lumic was prepared to round up all the inhabitants of this parallel world and ease their pain and suffering with conformity, uniformity and conversion via the ultimate upgrade. Thanks to him a new race of Cybermen was born.

Facing virtual defeat on this parallel world, the Cybermen mysteriously disappeared after infiltrating the parallel Torchwood Institute. Led by a black-handlebarred Cyber Leader, a rank that could be uploaded to other Cybermen should this upgraded individual be destroyed, they followed a void ship into the nothingness between universes and slowly began to imprint themselves onto another reality.

Armed with an energy weapon mounted on each forearm, the Cybermen crossed into this universe, conquering a Humanity who initially welcomed their ghostly forms. Thus in possession of the Earth they hurriedly began to upgrade it's populace, for the void ship they followed contained another alien race bent on invasion. The scene was set for an epic confrontation between the Doctor's two greatest enemies...

See Also:

Cyber-Android
Cybercontroller
Cybermat
Cyberplanner

Appearances:

The Tenth Planet
The Moonbase
The Tomb of The Cybermen
The Wheel In Space
The Invasion
Carnival of Monsters
Revenge of The Cybermen
Earthshock
The Five Doctors
Attack of The Cybermen
Silver Nemesis
Rise of The Cybermen
The Age of Steel
Army of Ghosts
Doomsday