The Portrayal of the Cybermen in New Who
Guest contributor Paddy Brennan looks at how the Cybermen have been portrayed in the revival so far.
Cybus, Mondas and Cyberiad. Shades, Mats and Mites. We’ve seen a lot of the Cybermen over the last eight years, yet the approach to these men of steel has varied between show runners, and between individual writers. In the following article I will examine how the Cybermen have been portrayed from Rise of the Cybermen right through to Nightmare in Silver as well as some speculation of what to expect in Dark Water/Death in Heaven.
Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel
When tasked with reintroducing the Cybermen to a modern audience, the production team made the decision to relocate them from Earth’s twin planet to a parallel London where they could be born anew. I believe that this is a wise decision, seeing the homeless being abducted from the streets made for visceral viewing and by telling an origins story, the episodes were not bogged down by the continuity of the classic series.
The creator of these parallel Cybermen, John Lumic, sees the ‘upgrading’ of the human race as a logical step forwards in evolution. A Cyberman will never “age or die” and the uniformity of the new species will remove the divisions that define everyday life. However, Lumic is insane and his decision to strip the Cybermen of their emotions removes any trace of humanity from his invention.
These episodes emphasise the horror of the conversion process more than any other, whether that be physical or mental conversion. The factory scenes, with endless queues of brainwashed citizens waiting to be upgraded, or the flying sparks and screams that permeate the bleak space are particularly notable. Also, the memorable point of view shot of an empty Cyber-helmet, illuminated like a Halloween pumpkin and being lowered down onto the head of a victim effectively presents the experience of undergoing the process. Perhaps more horrific still is when a Cyberman identifies itself as Jackie Tyler, retaining knowledge of its former life yet regarding it with complete apathy before disappearing once more into a crowd of identical troops.
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
Occurring in the same series as their previous story, the portrayal of the Cybermen is much the same as before. Despite this, the Cybermen are shown to pose an immediate threat due to their ability to materialise in their millions on our streets and in our homes. The crossing of the Cybermen from one universe to another also demonstrates their determination and ruthlessness in carrying out their mission to upgrade the human race, whatever version of the human race that may be.
The statement that the Cyber Leader makes to the people of Earth provides a concise description of why they are so frightening to us: “Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove sex and class and colour and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us”. Likewise, the inability of the Cyber Leader to comprehend why the humans will not be upgraded without putting up a fight makes clear the Cybermen’s loss of fundamental humanity and empathy.
The Next Doctor
Having escaped from the void, the Cybermen find themselves in Victorian London, devoid of the necessary technology required to continue their plight. Therefore in The Next Doctor, the Cybermen are seen to make use of whatever resources are available to them. The Cyber Shades contain the brains of a cat or a dog and are deployed as slaves to carry out menial tasks such as the abduction of humans to be upgraded. Child urchins are also used to provide brute force in order to run the Cyber-factory in the absence of more sophisticated equipment.
The episode also portrays the Cybermen as championing the physical human form, if not humanity itself. The Cyber King, a walking powerhouse of sorts, is not the most practical of vessels for their mission. Explaining this mentality of the Cybermen, Russell T Davies said, “if the Cybermen have chosen to be man-shaped, then that’s exactly what they want to be. There’s an arrogance behind that, a sort of Nietzschean ideal, exalting the body and its purity. So I began to think that the Cybermen would make everything in the shape of a man. It’s their template, their default, and they’d impose that pattern on the World.” Incidentally, the Cyber Shades too, recast animals in the image of man, physical evidence of their drive for conformity.
The Pandorica Opens
The series five finale is not strictly a Cyberman story although the first episode contains a memorable scene that causes us to look at the Cybermen in a new light. When the severed head of the Pandorica sentry attacks Amy this proves that different parts of a Cyberman’s body can function independently of one another. The scene also shows that the Cyber-suit is not reliant on a human brain to function, at least to some extent. The head ejects the decayed and worn out human element within in order to claim a new host in the form of Amy, although whet her the casing requires a new head in order to function fully, or simply to carry out its default programming is not established.
This episode is thought to feature the first appearance of the Mondas Cybermen in the revived series (although the continued use of the Cybus chest-plate has caused some confusion). In this iteration, the Cyber-suit seems to be more an armour than an actual body as it appears to nhouse the entire human form rather than just the brain. Similarly, the Cyber-head’s articulated cables and its ability to shoot stun-darts imply that the suit is more than simply a means of ensuring the survival of the human race.
Closing Time
In this episode, the Cybermen play the same role as that in The Next Doctor, run-down scavengers stealthily abducting humans for conversion. The conversion process is arguably diminished by the knowledge that it can be reversed by the victim themselves, in Craig’s case it is the power of love that restore his emotions.
Notably, the story also features the first (and only as of yet) appearance of the Cybermats in the revived series. Here, the Cybermats act as technological parasites, draining the electrical power from their environment or the gain of the Cybermen. The Cybermat displays a prominent organic feature, sharp gnashing teeth, which shows that the Cybermen are willing to make some use of natural forms.
Nightmare in Silver
In what appears a considerable change from their usual modus operandi, in this episode the seemingly extinct Cybermen were said to have fought a war against humanity in which they used the humans only as “spare parts”. Their conversion process has again been adapted by the use of micro-technology, providing a cleaner and more effective method. The Cybermites grow over the victim’s body, almost like bacteria, and join together to form a suit. It is unclear whether the mites penetrate the skin in any way although they obviously are able to exert an influence on the brain.
The Cybermen have also adopted a more innovative means of survival. Individuals with superior imaginations may be selected as Cyber Planners in order to fulfil a role that a regular Cyberman would be incapable of, to think beyond their default programming. Lastly, each Cyberman is connected to the Cyberiad, a network through which Cybermen may ‘download’ new abilities in order to overcome any weakness that presents itself. These various new aspects of the Cybermen all contribute to elevating the species far beyond simple men of steel.
Over the course of their stories and numerous cameos in the revived series, the Cybermen have been portrayed as the ‘logical’ next step for the human race, through to decrepit vampires plotting their return to power and, most recently, as the perfect soldiers in a war against the species they had once belonged to. What role will they play in the upcoming finale? It would seem that Cyber conversion will act as a perverse means of cheating death, but how and why is Missy involved in this scheme? Are the Cybermen under the control of Missy or are they simply working with her?
One thing is for sure, with such diverse storytelling potential, the Cybermen will endure for as long as Doctor Who.
