In 1966, the lumbering behemoth’s from Earth’s dark twin planet debuted. Encased in plastic and metal with tubes carrying life-giving fluid visible along their limbs, these monsters traveled from the dying planet Mondas, desperate for a new source of energy. The Doctor tricked them by simply allowing the Cybermen systems to overload. In the battle, the Doctor’s own essence was drained, prompting his body to undergo a bizarre change (much later coined regeneration).
After 1966, the Cybermen became a classic monster whose popularity rivaled (but never trumped) the Daleks. Facing the second incarnation over several instances, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh through the 26 year-long run of the classic program, the Cybermen evolved as their story got muddied, slight allergies became outright weaknesses and the ability to time travel meant that fans were never quite sure what version of the metal meanies we were seeing (though noble attempts have been made).
There have been novels, comic book stories and even audio adventures that have further developed the Cybermen (sometimes contradicting accepted history). Forever associated with the classic series, the Cybermen became icons of Doctor Who and appeared as toys, mugs, etc.
In 2005, the Doctor briefly noticed a Cyberman helmet in the underground lair of Henry van Statten. It looked to be a classic model from the 1974 Tom Baker adventure, but this was never confirmed on screen. In the subsequent series, the Doctor traveled to a parallel reality in which the Cybermen are created by John Lumic, head of Cybus Industries who seem to have made a lot of money off of hot air balloons and mobile phones.
These new Cybermen are not from the planet Mondas at all. They are humans subjected to a process more at home to a Looney Tunes cartoon in which the body is chopped up and the relevant parts stored in a metal shell that strangely line dances and chants ‘delete’ as if in answer to the Dalek battle cry of ‘exterminate.’
Since 2006, these new Cybus-Cybermen have fought the Doctor several times and are due for a return next year. They have amassed an armada, developed new technology and redesigned their casings… but whatever happened to the Mondasian Cybermen of old? And why were these alternate reality versions created?
The other classic monsters; Sontarans, Ice Warriors… even the Macra have all retained their ties to the past. So why were the Cybermen totally recreated?
This weekend the Cybermen are back in Neil Gaiman’s The Silver Nightmare and Big Finish is celebrating with these amazing audio stories. The silver-clad cyborgs have plagued Doctor Who for generations in various incarnations. In the audio format they are no less deadly. If you are new to Big Finish but a fan of classic Doctor Who, there is a wealth of imaginative and fantastic adventures.
DOCTOR WHO: CYBERMAN WEEKEND OFFER
This weekend, it’s the return of one of the Doctor’s greatest foes on TV: the Cybermen! And to celebrate, we’re doing a special offer on all our Doctor Who Cyber-stories, from main range classics such as Spare Parts and Sword of Orion to Benny story The Crystal of Cantus, stage play The Ultimate Adventure and the complete Cyberman spin-off series. Visit the Big Finish Bargains page for details…
Each story is available at £5 on CD or download (£20 for the Cyberman 2 box set), or you can buy a bundle of the entire lot – 20 releases! – for £100. The bundles button is displayed on all the product pages of the items in the offer, and you can find everything in the Big Finish Bargains section.
1.1. CYBERMAN: SCORPIUS (click to order)
1.1. CYBERMAN: SCORPIUS
THE HUMAN RACE IS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT.
Mankind is fighting a long and costly war with its android creations in the Orion System. The deadlock must be broken at all costs. The president of Earth must think the unthinkable…
‘There is nothing to fear’.
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153. THE SILVER TURK (click to order)
153. THE SILVER TURK
Roll up! Roll up! To the great Viennese Exposition, where showman Stahlbaum will show you his most wonderful creation, the Silver Turk – a mechanical marvel that will not only play for you the fortepiano, the spinet and the flute, it will play you at the gaming table too!
But when the Doctor brings his new travelling companion Mary Shelley to nineteenth-century Vienna, he soon identifies the incredible Turk as one of his deadliest enemies – a part-machine Cyberman.
And that’s not even the worst of the horrors at large in the city…
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135. Legend of the Cytbermen (click to order)
135. LEGEND OF THE CYBERMEN
The Cybermen are on the march through the Hundred Realms, killing and converting as they go. Resistance is useless.
Trapped on the outermost fringes of the battle, the Doctor and Jamie are astonished to encounter an old friend: astrophysicist Zoe Heriot.
It’s the happiest of reunions. But what hope is there of a happy ending against the unstoppable Cybermen?
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34. SPARE PARTS (click to order)
34. SPARE PARTS
The story of the genesis of the Cybermen. One of our listeners’ favourite releases. Dark, moving and terrifying…
On a dark frozen planet where no planet should be, in a doomed city with a sky of stone, the last denizens of Earth’s long-lost twin will pay any price to survive, even if the laser scalpels cost them their love and hate and humanity.
And in the mat-infested streets, around tea-time, the Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in second-hand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.
And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, their worst suspicions are confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour…
58. THE HARVEST (click to order)
58. THE HARVEST
On the morning of October 12th, 2021 Hex woke up. He was expecting to go to work at St Gart’s in London as normal and, that evening, have a great time in the bar of the White Rabbit, celebrating his 23rd birthday.
But after his ex-flatmate is wheeled into A&E following a bike accident, and the strange young woman from Human Resources tries to chat him up and an eight-foot tall guy in a Merc tries to run him down, Hex realises things are not going quite as he expected.
Then in a Shoreditch car park he meets the enigmatic Doctor who explains that he’s an extra-terrestrial investigator and something very strange is going on up on the thirty-first floor of St Garts.
Therefore, aided and abetted by the Doctor and his other new friend ‘Just McShane’, Hex decides to investigate. Trouble is, everything that goes on at the hospital is being observed and noted by the occupants of the thirty-first floor. Occupants who are none too pleased that people are poking their noses into business that doesn’t concern them. Occupants who will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that no one discovers the truth.
86. THE REAPING (click to order)
86. THE REAPING
On the morning of 9 May 1984, Peri woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing in Lanzarote and, that evening, leave her mother and stepfather to go travelling with some guys she’d only just met.
But things don’t always go as expected as her friends and family discover when, four months later, she returns home having travelled further than anyone could have imagined.
Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, mourns her father and Peri finds herself meeting some other familiar faces.
87. THE GATHERING (click to order)
87. THE GATHERING
On the morning of 22 September 2006, Tegan woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing at home and, that evening, tolerate a party thrown to celebrate her 46th birthday. But things don’t always go as expected, it’s been over twenty years since she chose to leave the Doctor. She’s got a job, mates… a life.
Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, makes a decision that could change all their lives, and Tegan discovers that you can never really escape the past.
1.3. THE BLUE TOOTH (click to order)
1.3. THE BLUE TOOTH
“I suppose that was one of the Doctor’s most endearing qualities: the ability to make the bizarre and the terrifying seem utterly normal.”When Liz Shaw’s friend Jean goes missing, the Doctor and U.N.I.T. are drawn to the scene to investigate. Soon Liz discovers a potential alien invasion that will have far-reaching affects on her life… and the Doctor is unexpectedly re-united with an old enemy…
17. SWORD OF ORION (click to order)
17. SWORD OF ORION
One of our very best-selling releases. Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor along with his brand new companion Charley, in action with the Cybermen for the first time.The human race is locked in deadly combat with the ‘Android Hordes’ in the Orion System. Light years from the front line, the Doctor and Charley arrive to sample the dubious delights of a galactic backwater, little suspecting that the consequences of the Orion War might reach them there. But High Command’s lust for victory knows no bounds.
Trapped aboard a mysterious derelict star destroyer, the Doctor and Charley find themselves facing summary execution. But this is only the beginning of their troubles. The real danger has yet to awaken.
Until, somewhere in the dark recesses of the Garazone System, the Cybermen receive the signal for reactivation…
Story 121
Written by Eric Saward, directed by Peter Grimwade
Transmitted: 8 – 16 March 1982
The TARDIS has become far too uncomfortable and the Doctor needs space to think. Adric has impertinently insisted on charting a path home through the CVE to the dimension of his origin, something that could rip the craft apart, and he refuses to listen to reason. Finding solace in a cave rife with dinosaur bones, the Doctor attempts to find some peace, but becomes a suspect in the grisly murder of an archaeological survey team. Trapped by investigating military, the Doctor tries to explain himself, but is interrupted by a pair of faceless androids firing death rays from their palms. There is much more to the strange situation that the Doctor can guess, and he will soon realize that the planet Earth is the target of a deadly attack from a very familiar foe from his past.
The nineteenth season of Doctor Who was a reinvention of the program, a much needed jab in the arm from the seven year stretch of Tom Baker. Yet the year to date was riddled with production problems regarding scripts, rotating script editors and more. John Nathan-Turner had lost Christopher H. Bidmead and Antony Read in short order, but gained Eric Saward who was massaging the script ‘The Enemy Within’ by Christopher Priest which would have involved the Doctor facing off against a weird creature that lived in the heart of the TARDIS. It would have also seen the departure of Adric, a character intended as an Artful Dodger-type who had fallen rather flat. Yet the script failed to come together and with nothing else planned, Saward swooped in with ‘Sentinel,’ a story that would eventually morph into Earthshock, the story that brought sufficient impact to the nineteenth season for new fans and old and brought a beloved monster out of cold storage.
The opening episode is among the best in the program’s history as it starts off normal as you like with the TARDIS bicker fest and the Doctor landing in an unknown situation. But the supporting cast of characters searching through the caves adds tension. The Doctor has inadvertently wandered into a crime scene, one in which the killers are still in residence. As he approaches the danger, so does the rescue party who are being systematically picked off as they descend deeper into the labyrinth.
The innocuous title of the story leaves the identity of the killers a mystery to the viewer as well as the Doctor. So determined was John Nathan-Turner to keep the reveal of the Cybermen a secret that he refused a Radio Times cover featuring the newly redesigned Cybermen and blocked off the viewing gallery. He was also determined to keep Matthew Waterhouse’s departure a secret by including him in the following story as a flashback.
What a cunning guy!
Peter Davison’s first year was very unusual. The opening conclusion to Logopolis, Castrovalva, was a mind-bender, and Christopher Bailey’s Kinda too far ahead of its time for some. The more traditional Four to Doomsday and the Visitation served as steadier ground, but there was something missing from the program that had been absent for some time. In many ways, Doctor Who goes through periods of introspection and reinvention, looking to its past for inspiration. In this case, Earthshock was not just a return of the Cybermen, but a hearkening back to the Troughton era when monsters lurked in shadows and lumbered toward the viewer, hands out-stretched in horrifying deadly purpose. Likewise the Doctor himself had become more flawed, not at all the flippant Superman Tom Baker had portrayed who laughed in the face of danger and offered sweets to glowing skulls.
In his first year as the Doctor. Davison was given little direction on how to portray the character other than ‘not Tom Baker.’ His performance can often come off as overwhelmed and breathless, but if you look deeper there is a lot going on there. This Doctor is a somewhat reluctant adventurer who inherited the laundry of his past. He seems more drawn toward tranquil pass times such as cricket and drinking tea than fighting evil. Yet when he encounters evil forces or insidious plots, he is more likely to assimilate the situation and only comes to the rescue in the eleventh hour. This was Davison’s justification behind the all beige costume with red piping that visually subdued his presence rather than popping out as Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee had.
At only 30, Davison was a celebrated TV actor at the time and looked at the role of the Doctor as too good of an opportunity to pass up. More attuned to playing roles that are informed by background, it is impressive to see an unusual version of the Doctor that is both charming and socially awkward all at once. Surrounded by companions, he continually disappoints them in the face of adversity! It’s no wonder that the phrase ‘Brave heart, Tegan,’ was coined by this incarnation to plead for courage and optimism when facing insurmountable odds (a line improvised by Davison on the spot).
Peter Davison’s Doctor was a genius (evidenced is in the fact that he defuses the Cyber-bomb and turns the hatch leading to the bridge into an unstable substance trapping the invading Cybermen), yet his mind is frazzled. He can be seen calculating and plotting outcomes at several points through the story, but in the end he is just a man who is unusually adept with mechanics. It is his technical skill and nerves of steel that lead to the destruction of the androids and the defusing of the bomb they are guarding. But the mystery remains, what was the bomb for and who put it there?
In deep space, an old enemy has been battling him at every move, frustrated by this stranger’s intelligence. The Cybermen have yet to show their hand, but are unmasked to the viewer in a truly shocking climax.
After the Cybermen are revealed as the main threat, Saward wisely reminds the audience just who they are. This is clever as the Cybermen had not been seen since 1974 and before that not since 1968!
A beloved monster second only to the Daleks in popularity, the Cybermen were mostly a 1960’s craze along with the Yeti and Ice Warriors. But through the use of rarely seen flashback footage, we are reminded that these creeps have fought the Doctor many times before. This is a big deal in an age when repeats were rare, the internet non-existent and most of the episodes lost.
As some fans put it, this short sequence in which the Cyber Leader recounts the identity of the Doctor and his race’s many encounters with him in the past creates a connection all the way back to the beginning of Doctor Who, making it feel like one ongoing story (for the first time in easily ten years).
The Doctor tracks the signal to the bomb to a freighter in deep space where another mystery waits. Again, the Doctor wanders around and is again a prime suspect for murder as he is found next to a pair of corpses in the freighter’s hold. But there is more going on than anyone suspects. The captain is more concerned with her pay for delivering the cargo and her twitchy security officer Ringway is making her life miserable. Power failures run rampant through the ship and a heightened level of security surrounding Earth means more delays. Little does she know that she is carrying an army of Cybermen to Earth to attack a special meeting of Earth forces. It’s an impressive twist on a contemporary plot idea in which terrorists commandeer a plane for safe passage to their target.
Whereas in previous stories the Cybermen are shown as cunning and cruel creatures ruled by logic, they are downright ruthless here, even stating that the Doctor must ‘suffer’ for his past actions. Saward has come under for for giving emotions to an emotionless race, but I think that is a misunderstanding of the Cybermen. They do not possess a full spectrum of emotions, but they are driven toward their goal, much like a predator is compelled to kill out of instinct. The Cyber Leader toys with the Doctor by threatening to kill his companions not because he enjoys watching the Doctor squirm but to remind his enemy of the weakness of emotion and attachment.
The actual first meeting between the Doctor and the Cyber Leader is very impressive. Actor David Banks towers over Davison and clad as he is in a modified flight suit, appears strangely alien and bizarre. The Doctor attempts to find some kind of emotional connection with the Cybermen which is laughable since they are so INhuman, yet he tries out of sheer desperation. All of this heightens the drama as he is no longer the man with all the answers, just a man determined to fight the good fight as best as he can. From this moment on, the Doctor is clutching at straws and his options are rapidly slipping away. When he must finally surrender his TARDIS to the Cybermen and leave Adric behind on the freighter, he is overcome with anxiety, dumbfounded with impotence.
Again, portraying the Doctor as being this powerless (without later saving the day) would never happen today.
So desperate is the Doctor that he at one point raises a gun at a Cyberman (an image that was weirdly reproduced for posters that year). Saward’s script shows just how remarkably smart and resourceful the Doctor is, but in the end, the Cybermen have prepared for every eventuality, through the use of the androids, the bomb, the mole on the freighter and finally by taking control of the ship’s computer with technology that cannot be hacked without sufficient time. The Doctor has lost. This is such an important moment that it carries over into Davison’s final year when he chooses to kill Davros and later the Master! He finally realizes the stakes of the game he has been playing and how lucky he had been up to Adric’s death.
Earthshock is full of amazing images and while the cast complained that director Peter Grimwade was a taskmaster one cannot argue with the final result, a spine-tingling thriller that would be remembered for generations. It brought back the Cybermen in a big way in much the same way that Resurrection of the Daleks brought menace back to the Daleks two years later. Sadly, the Cybermen would become rather boring and lose their impact in subsequent outings, but Earthshock saw them at their menacing best!
The soundtrack by Malcolm Clarke of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is nothing short of stunning. Yes, the same madman behind the atmospheric and odd Sea Devils soundtrack provided the moody audio landscape for this one. After some of the strange incidental music by Paddy Kingsland which was mainly evocative of synthesized flutes, it was something else entirely to hear throbbing beats, metallic clangs and strained warbling mechanical wailing. The alien atmosphere and sense of dread is evident through all four parts from the dark and mysterious caves to the claustrophobic confines of the star freighter. Topping this all off is a signature tune of the Cybermen, an eerily threatening march that clearly announced a classic monster had returned.
Of course one of the main impacts of Earthshock is the loss of Adric which was played incredibly well all things considered. Given that the companions of modern Who are constantly portrayed as the most special people who have ever lived, it is an interesting choice to have the Doctor and Adric at odds with each other throughout their relationship rather than have Adric raised to some kind of near-mythical importance. In fact, most fans despised Adric and still do. It’s the age old case of a too clever audience refusing to take the bait of accepting a smart kid as being ‘just like them.’
Throughout Earthshock, it becomes clear that the stakes are higher than usual and that the Doctor is out of his depths, wandering into a mystery beginning with a slaughtering of innocents to a devastating bomb to an entire space craft full of kill crazy robots. THEN things get really bad when the Cybermen turn the craft into a time traveling explosive aimed at the planet Earth! As became the usual trend in later Eric Saward scripts, the death toll is rather high. However, in difference to his later work such as Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks, the sacrifice by Adric in Earthshock is a noble one. Granted, Adric was hamstrung by fate, but he bravely faces his fate rather than pleading for rescue. It’s quite touching (and something we would not see today, I wager). Tegan and Nyssa plead with the Doctor to save him, but sadly, this is one point in which he cannot intervene. The Web of Time is resolute and irrefutable, making Adric’s death part of a landmark in history.
As a return to form for a classic baddie, Earthshock gets top marks. The Cybermen are creepy, lurk in the shadows and attack en masse. They cause high levels of destruction, but humanity survives by a hair’s breadth. What strikes me as particularly chilling is the mocking laughter of the Cyberman as he fires his rifle at the ship computer Adric had been working on.
The first death of a companion since the 1960’s, Earthshock was unnerving and rattled viewers who suddenly wrote in to defend the previously unloved character. The ratings soared which is unfortunate due to the lackluster finale of the season, Timeflight.
To celebrate the return of the Cybermen and continue the exploration of the classic series, Earthshock will be shown this Sunday, May 26th, at 8:00 pm ET/PT as part of the Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited – The Fifth Doctor on BBC America.
I have been paying some attention to BBC America scheduling of these classic stories and am pleased with the choices they have made (though personally I would not have gone for the Aztecs for Hartnell). This weekend is a special thrill as the Cybermen will be returning in Nightmare in Silver.
Doctor Who Cybermen Masterpiece bust is available exclusively from Forbidden Planet
The Doctor Who Davison Masterpiece statue is available for pre-order from Forbidden Planet
Written by: Nigel Fairs, Directed by: Mark J Thompson
Story 1.03
Release Date: 5 February 2007
An educated scientist, Liz Shaw is having a bit of a professional and personal crisis. Her life has been turned upside down after getting dragged into service of U.N.I.T., a kind of James Bond outfit crossed with UFO enthusiasts. What’s worse is that she has been saddled with a flamboyant stranger who claims to have traveled in time and space and dresses like a stage magician. The fact that she regularly encounters the impossible hardly helps. Her quiet life of normalcy has been replaced with a wild mad experience and she is in desperate need of something familiar. She is therefore overjoyed when an old school friend rings her up. Sadly, the bizarre world of the weird and frightening knows no social bounds and soon Liz finds that while there’s no escaping the monsters, the monsters cannot escape the Doctor.
A filler story that serves as a bridge between Inferno and Terror of the Autons, this audio adventure attempts to give fans some closure on why Liz Shaw left U.N.I.T. One of the more inspired companions, Liz Shaw was a direct reaction to the screaming leggy assistants by outgoing producer Derrick Sherwin. When the ratings were crashing in 1969, Sherwin had many notions on how to enhance and modernize the program. An alien genius, the Doctor rarely had anyone to speak to on an equal ground. Liz Shaw would rectify that, and actress Caroline John wasn’t hard on the eyes either (even through those massive false eyelashes).
Sadly, script editor Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts disagreed with many of the concepts that Sherwin hads left them with and the character of Liz was deemed to be ‘too clever by half’ and written out for their second series on the program. But Liz Shaw never got a farewell scene (something she shares with few other companions including Peri and Ace) or even any development as to why she would leave. Liz Shaw clearly bristled at working with the military, but The Blue Tooth shows how the horror of the alien threats she faced touched her on a personal level, leaving the listener with plenty of reason for why she would move on.
On screen, Caroline John and John Pertwee gelled and presented what to many is one of the more iconic pairings in the program’s history. A period of reinvention, the seventh series of Doctor Who was far more sophisticated and mature than it had ever been before. The character of the Third Doctor was often ostentatious and grand, but he could be very sensitive and serious as well. Liz Shaw softened the hard edges of the Third Doctor while making his more dramatically heroic moments all the more exciting. A highly intelligent and forthright personality, she was rarely a ‘lady in distress,’ as her predecessor Jo Grant was, which raised the bar for threats. When Liz was in a pickle, the situation was clearly dire.
The Blue Tooth sees that bar and raises it.
Jon Pertwee (The Doctor) and Caroline John (Liz Shaw)
Finding the apartment of her old friend ransacked, Liz is at a loss. When the Doctor and the Brigadier arrive to assess the damage, a personal crisis becomes part of her job. A line has been crossed. On the surface, it might have looked like a kidnapping or robbery, but the shredded reference books, melted television console and strange small bore holes in the front garden catch the Doctor’s eye. This was no ordinary intrusion.
After some additional investigation, it becomes clear that there has been a series of similar abductions with one connecting thread, a particular dental practice. While the Doctor and Brig look for more clues, Liz attempts to crack the mystery by playing detective and instead becomes a victim. I have lots of issues with dentists and dental pain, so this story really hit home for me. An adventure where humans are assaulted by alien blue metal that infiltrates the body through a dental filling is one of the craziest and scariest plot ideas I have ever heard. On screen, it would have worked as well!
Soon, the connection to a crashed space craft containing a damaged Cyberman is revealed and the Third Doctor finally gets to face the steely foes. There are several tragedies of Doctor Who such as the death of Roger Delgado, the loss of several episodes and of course Delta and the Bannermen, but for me one of the biggest tragedies is that the Third Doctor never faced the Cybermen. Nigel Fairs’s The Blue Tooth rectifies that and while it is an audio adventure that Jon Pertwee sadly could not be heard in, it serves the purpose.
There is a lot of body horror and inspired plotting in this story that makes it a real stunner. An invention developed by a lone desperate Cyberman, the blue metal that infects humans is an ingenious device that I would love to see another writer pick up. While they are an iconic monster, on screen, the Cybermen have a spotty record of success.
A race of alien nomads, the Cybermen are members of a race on the verge of extinction driven by extremes to embrace the logic of cybernetic enhancement, even at the loss of their own personality and free will. In the 1960’s, they were terrifying zombie-like creatures that came in the night, abducted you and transformed humans into members of an undying blank-faced legion. The 1980’s saw some enhancements but an eventual devolution into an silver action figure.
The new BBC Wales series does them no favor whatsoever as they have been reduced to Irish step-dancing buffoons. The Blue Tooth is a harsh reminder of why Cybermen are cool… and scary.
A ‘damaged Cyberman’ by MindRobber.co.uk
A brilliant story full of action, horror and continuity, The Blue Tooth comes highly recommended.
The Blue Tooth can be ordered directly from Big Finish or from online retailers such as Mike’s Comics.
Pandorica Complete Set
The Doctor Who series five finale pulled out all the stops by setting up a unified force of the Doctor’s greatest enemies in placing the most articulate trap ever laid out for the Timelord. Finally, Character Options has announced a set of deluxe action figures celebrating this exciting adventure. Each of the six figures comes with an audio CD of a classic adventure, making this an ideal gift idea for fans of the new series who are interested in learning more about the classic program.
The first Jon Pertwee adventure, ‘The Auton Invasion,’ The first Silurian story, ‘The Cave Monsters,’ and the first Tom Baker adventure ‘Giant Robot’ are presented as MP3 CDs along with pieces of the Pandorica itself. The MP3 CDs are even part of the Pandorica with designs printed on the faces so that when they are clicked into place they recreate the mythical trap.
11th Doctor With Fez
The Eleventh Doctor includes CD 01 – Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion part 1
Each 5-inch action figure includes a MP3 CD with audio book instalment and one piece of the Pandorica! Collect and build your own Pandorica CD cube case! There are three complete classic stories across 6 CDs. One CD supplied with each figure – or just order this set to get the entire collection in one!
All due for release on the 20th December from Forbidden Planet in the UK.
The longest running science fiction television program, Doctor Who is mostly known for its monsters. Some are bug-eyed or spew slime or just wriggle like a plate of spaghetti, but each is instantly recognizeable as a Doctor Who Monster.
While the most popular monster that the Doctor has faced must be the Daleks, The Cybermen run a close second. Introduced during the final adventure of the first Doctor played by William Hartnell, the Cybermen were thew survivors of Earth’s doomed sister planet, Mondas which had hidden on the other side of the sun before being transformed into an exploration vehicle by advanced technology. In order to cheat the slow decay of their bodies, the Cybermen had replaced their failing organs with cybernetics, eventually becoming more machine than human being. Their resources exhausted, they stalk the universe for raw material. In 1966’s The Tenth Planet, the Cybermen plotted to drain the planet Earth of its energy entirely and were narrowly defeated by the Doctor right before he regenerated into a new form.
Cyberman '66
More terrifying than any other monster due its humanoid appearance and zombie-like walk, the Cybermen are a grim reminder of human frailty and our reliance upon technology to survive the rigors of aging and disease. Constantly scouting for new raw material, the Cybermen of the 1960’s are usually seen dragging their prey off-screen to be harvested for parts of transformed into Cybermen, another nod to the modern zombie myth. The new version of these monsters introduced in 2006 is an entirely different creation but it still draws upon similar concepts and I have no doubt that the children of today find them horrifying.
Cybermen '06
The second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, faced the Cybermen on four occasions but they were not seen again until 1975 when they pitted their computerized brains against the fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker.
Not the most beloved of the Cybermen adventures, Revenge of the Cybermen is still strikes an iconic visual moment in the minds of most fans of the classic series. Written by the co-creator of the Cybermen, Gerry Davis, Revenge of the Cybermen centers on the destruction of Voga, otherwise known as the planet of gold. As the Cybermen are allergic to gold, they fear that the substance will be mined and weaponized by their enemies. A small assault squad is sent to destroy Voga using the Doctor and the crew of the Nerva Beacon orbiting the planet as human bombs.
The Revenge of the Cybermen action figure set
Just announced for release in November is a set of three Cybermen and a Cybermat (a creepy metal baddie used to spread a killer virus throughout the crew of the Nerva Beacon, preparing the way for its master’s assault). They may appear similar to the Cybermen last seen in the previous adventure, 1968’s Invasion, but they are actually a drastic updated design drafted up at the last minute, adding built-in headlamp guns and trousers that look suspiciously like bell bottoms.
The 1974/5 12th series of Doctor Who is regarded by many as a seminal moment when the program entered a new golden age with Tom Baker as the Doctor, Robert Holmes as script editor and Philip Hinchcliff as series producer. The final adventure of the 12th series may not have been as much of a corker as the others, but it still holds a special place in the heart of many a die-hard fan. It can now occupy a special place on your shelf as well with this box set.
Until recently the Revenge of the Cybermen design was one of two Cybermen designs to not be released in action figure form (the other one being from the Wheel in Space). A previous box set of Cybermen action figures ‘Age of Steel’ combined the designs from the Tenth Planet, Tomb of the Cybermen and the Invasion. It is becoming a rarity, so if you are interested in these, I strongly recommend pre-ordering now.
Introduced as far back as 1966, the Cybermen have the unusual honor of being the first monster to ‘kill’ the Doctor. Ofcourse the Cybermen are not actually responsible for the 1st Doctor’s regeneration, but they do appear in the last William Hartnell story, where viewers saw the character die for the first time, only to be reborn in another form. Created by script writer Gerry Davis and medical scientist Kit Pedler, the Cybermen are unique in that they are monsters that say much about humanity and its obsession with technology and fear of death.
They’re also pretty cool.
Appearing opposite 6 of the seven doctors in the classic series (even Pertwee got a brief scene in the Five Doctors), the Cybermen are an awkward adversary it must be said. They are meant to be cold emotionless beings encased in metal life support systems yet they continually show anger, fear, annoyance and even pride. Eric Saward who wrote two of the three 1980’s Cybermen stories took it on the chin saying that it was just impossible to write a scene with an emotionless villain. How can a villain gloat without showing emotion, anyhow? They are also meant to be impervious to harm yet anything from pocket change to nail polish remover can kill them stone dead. Nevertheless, they captivated audiences and aside from the Daleks, still hold a special place in the hearts of the program’s viewers.
Cyberman '66
The initial Cybermen story, Tenth Planet, is looked upon as rather primitive and unsophisticated which I think is unfair. A run-of-the-mill ‘base under siege’ story, the plot can easily put you to sleep. However. the Cybermen themselves are just terrifying! The design is mad, a cloth mask with holes cut out for eyes and mouth, the entire body wrapped in a kind of rain slicker and various electronics strapped to the body as if placed there in desperation. It looks crazy and mush-shapen and that is what makes it so scary to me. Even the voice was unsettling, supplied by veteran vocal actor Roy Skelton. Roy would speak his lines into a machine that would distort the sound of his voice and the actor would mime the delivery. The end result was like watching an animated corpse communicate.
As a viewer, I only saw this initial version in action when the ‘Hartnell Years’ vhs tape was released in the 90’s and I was gob-smacked. The off-time voice and bizarre body movements clashed with the 80’s version I had become accustomed to.
Cybermen '67
Hartnell’s successor Patrick Troughton could possibly have fought more monsters and alien invasions than any other era of the program. In fact he battled the Cybermen four times in his three-year run as the lead. Each time the villains returned they changed slightly, being redesigned by the costume department for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Special effects also advanced greatly, allowing Cybermen to control minds from a distance and even burst from a hybernation sphere (truly one of the weirdest scenes I’ve witnessed in Dr Who).
The motivation of the Cybermen is rather iffy for some reason. The Cybermen in Tenth Planet were a dying race looking for new bodies to extend their lives, the villains seen in most of the other adventures are by and large monster looking to destroy humanity full stop (which is odd behavior for a race devoid of emotion). The Daleks, in comparison, are much more straight forward extreme Nazis who will kill anything that is not a Dalek. The initial idea behind the Cybermen was that they were dying off and needed more raw material and a new home, making them a kind of parasite on humanity. It’s a shame that this concept wasn’t more firmly accepted by the production team rather than just bringing them back as a baddie because the public loves them.
The later Cybermen stories range from classics like the Invasion and Tomb of the Cybermen to the forgettable until 1982 when the Cybermen returned in Earthshock. The appearance of the Cybermen was a genuine shock to viewers simply because they existed only in the minds of anyone old enough to have seen the 60’s episode or in the pages of Dr Who annuals and monster books. At least, that’s how the story goes. I’m assuming that most viewers just blotted out the very poor outing Tom Baker’s ‘Revenge of the Cybermen,’ which is fair enough.
Cybermen '82
Earthshock is a fan favorite for many but I have to confess that aside from the nostalgia factor I don’t see the appeal. A meandering plot, awful guest actors and an argument from the Doctor that Cybermen need to enjoy a home-cooked meal make the story rather low on the classic totem pole. Yet… it did re-introduce the Cybermen and it did so to great effect. The design was a massive step away from what we had seen previously and screamed that this was a show with a budget to the viewers.
The new ‘Cyberman march’ theme tune was also an instant classic and is the only piece of 1980’s incedental Doctor Who music to make an emotional impact of sheer creepiness, something the 60’s composers did every week.
Unfortunately the Cybermen were brought back in 2006 in the new Doctor Who series.
This version never really worked for me, which is a shame as I’m partial to Cybermen. The fact that they are from a parallel Earth takes a large part away from their relevance and their Riverdance-style movements are almost as laughable as the new catch-phrase ‘delete.’ I mean, what kind of battle cry is that?
Cybermen '06
Nevertheless, the Cybermen live on.
Just this month, Attack of the Cybermen was released on DVD. A Colin Baker adventure, this one is often forgotten by fans as it is hemmed in by the revered Earthshock on one end and the dismal Silver Nemesis on the other. That being the case, it is neither great nor awful. The first episode contains an unusual amount of atmosphere all thanks to Maurice Colburn who reprises his role of intergalactic mercenary Lytton. Lytton’s bank job and the escape of the two prisoners on Telos make the bulk of the first 45 minutes and are very well done, polished examples of 1980’s TV. Unfortunately, the rest is not and withers into the land of plastic rayguns and children’s entertainment. But the folks at the BBC thought of this and included some stellar DVD extras including a retrospective on the Cybermen, a visual journey through their varied designs and even a special segment on a real live cyborg who implanted a microchip in his nervous system.
No kidding.
While the activities of Kevin Warwick are strange and unusual, they are also very feasible. I’m glad that it made it on to the DVD because while it is an obvious connection from fiction to reality, it also drives home the message that the Cybermen had back in 66, the horror or death and our inability to escape it will drive humanity to extremes.
Pretty heady stuff for a goofy British sci-fo show, huh?
Despite my prediction that big changes are on their way for next year with a new producer and new Doctor, it appears that Tennant is still the reigning timelord of the season.
(guest star David Morrissey – the ‘other Doctor’ and David Tennant pictured)
A recent post to a Doctor Who entry on my blog alerted me to the fact that this year’s Christmas Special is already in production and filming in Gloucester. A mixture of a period piece and alien invasion story, this year’s holiday special will feature the dreaded robotic Cybermen in a Victorian England setting.
(on the spot footage)
It bears mention that next year will be a year of specials rather than a full 13 episodes. It has also been mentioned that Tennant may not be in all four of these specials. Could this Christmas Special be a tale from the Doctor‘s past?
And just why is David Morrissey‘s character refered to as ‘the other Doctor?’ Is this the face of the 11th Doctor?
In 2005, the Doctor briefly noticed a Cyberman helmet in the underground lair of Henry van Statten. It looked to be a classic model from the 1974 Tom Baker adventure, but this was never confirmed on screen. In the subsequent series, the Doctor traveled to a parallel reality in which the Cybermen are created by John Lumic, head of Cybus Industries who seem to have made a lot of money off of hot air balloons and mobile phones.
Since 2006, these new Cybus-Cybermen have fought the Doctor several times and are due for a return next year. They have amassed an armada, developed new technology and redesigned their casings… but whatever happened to the Mondasian Cybermen of old? And why were these alternate reality versions created?
Story 121
The Daily P.O.P. 
