Cybermen have been an essential component of Doctor Who since the First Doctor's closing story. But have the Cybermen always been consistently brilliant, or did they hit a few snags along the way? Let's take a look!
The thing I always say about the Cybermen is that they were always going to get less creepy and interesting. The reason the Mondasian Cybermen are so chilling is that they're patchworks; they still have human hands, you can see their eyes behind the black eye mesh, they still obviously have a skull with a jaw that's programmed to simply drop down to speak, it's horrific. But, by their very nature, which is to upgrade, they can only improve, meaning they get more efficient and streamlined. Sure, the 2013 Cybermen are basically Iron Man, but that was always going to happen because it had to happen, that's what the Cybermen do, they improve. But by improving, they move away from the chilling body horror of their original design. Aside from Rise of the Cybermen and World Enough and Time (both origin stories, not a coincidence), I personally think no Cyberman story from the revived era has truly utilised what's interesting about the Cybermen. I'd like it if the race got set back and they had to start improvising and weren't such a perfect army. A bit like Closing Time but better
I actually had an idea for a Doctor Who Story, set in the 2100s. The doctor and their companion land on an abandoned ship, and come across a lone mercenary/junker-for-hire. They split up and investigate the ship, but the companion goes missing after awhile. The doctor and mercenary start searching the ship, and the doctor finally realizes that it belongs to the Cybermen. They finally come across the companion, though she's been half-converted, and used to test a new way of cyber-conversion: nanites. Eventually, the three beat the cybermen, and they chose to destroy the cyber-ship. Afterwords, they take the companion to a hospital, to be de-converted. Unfortunately, she is unable to be fully de-converted, so she remains half-cyberman for the rest of her life.
David Banks once wrote a Doctor who novel in the 90’s that revealed why the Cybermen of the 80’s seemed more human. Apparently they sometimes replicate and impersonate human emotions to try and unsettle and intimidate their enemies. Considering that the Cybermen in the far future have a widespread reputation, it kinda makes sense that they would try and subvert people’s expectations just to put them on edge.
I think you may be referring to *Killing Ground* by Steve Lysons. The Cybermen in it are based on the Tom Baker _Revenge of the Cybermen_ story, which attracted criticism for the Cyber-leader using emotional overtones and gestures (including standing with his hands on his hips). In the novel the Sixth Doctor mocks the Cyberleader for doing so, and is told "It is useful for the intimidatory effect on humans" - but nonetheless, the Leader stops doing it!
Yeah, it's mentioned in the ArcHive Tapes, if I remember correctly. I think he said it was for the tactical knowledge of knowing how humanoids would react in certain scenarios, hence the mention of "a great psychological victory", but I could be misremembering that
The 1967 Cybermen from The Moonbase and Tomb of the Cybermen worked the best out of the entirety of Doctor Who. But I say the scaries looking Cybermen will have to go the the original Mondasian design back in 1966 as you can see the actor's eyes inside the circles on their face
The Telos and Mondasian are the pinnacle of Cybermen design. Now that the Mondasians showed up again, let’s hope the Telos models return as well (hopefully without Chibnall as the writer and the Telos Cybermen aren’t given the stompy footsteps the Mondasians were bafflingly given in their more recent appearances)
The Tenth Planet cybermen were by far the best. They looked _exactly_ as they should: cyborgs. They were human beings with parts of their bodies replaced by machines, or supplemented by machines. They had mobile life support systems attached, and they had visibly human hands which perfectly implied that their existing limbs were either replaced with artificial ones, or were augmented with mechanical exoskeletons. The cloth faces were incredibly creepy because you knew there was the remains of a human face under it. And their weird voices were great too, composed of words strung together in a completely inhuman fashion that made them disturbing to listen to - _almost_ human but not quite. Unfortunately they became much more like robots in following stories. I though the "Cybusmen" were very poor. They might has well have been robots with their ririculous DELETE DELETE
Cybus is just the modern version of it. They’re industrial, mass produced. BUT (and this is why they’re better than the newer variants of NuWho), they still have that darker bodysuit under all the silver armor, to let you know that there’s still a human being underneath.
Only thing that I dislike about the mondasian look in capaldi’s era was the skin gloves, I prefer their hands exposed as it gave that feeling that the hands were the only part of them left that was organic and not mechanical
@@nathanjordon6950 don’t get me wrong other than the gloves I loved the capaldi era look, they did an amazing job of bringing the mondasian cybermen to the 21st century, but as I said having real hands gave them a much more eerie feeling
One thing that a dislike about them in the Capaldi era was how the Mondasian Cybermen were given the same stompy type steps that the Cybusmen were given from the RTD era. The Mondasians are supposed to be humanoid creatures with cyber implants in their bodies, not the tank like bodies of the Cybusmen!
The 1960's ones are the best - super creepy voices. There is just something so awesome about the 1980's cyber leader though, 'Excellent', 'We meet again Doctor' and 'Eradicate Them!!!' classic stuff!!!
Minor note, technically there was the single cyberman that made a cameo in Carnival of Monsters so that was actually the first time we saw one colourized.
I can't speak for the script-writers, but I think the 60s Cybermen actors moved in a more measured and robotic way because the suits were very uncomfortable and prone to damage. The newer Cybermen costumes are much baggier, and ventilation in the body and helmet was improved. The actors became more free in their movements and read as more human.
I find Cybermen most interesting when they don't just feel like a slave or drone race. It's interesting when they have their own schemes and stuff. I feel new who goes back and fourth between getting that right. From the Daleks and The Cybermen I really want to see what they're like when they're at home or not conquering something. Like what does a day in the life of a Cyberman look like?
I had the 10th anniversary souvenir when I was little. There was a large close up of an original Cyberman that I found fascinating and disturbing. Many years later when I got the 10th Planet DVD I thought I'd have to do a but of disbelief suspension and allow for when it was made. Honestly, those cloth faces with an occasional glympse of eyeball deep in the dark sockets, the weird artificial voices spewing out of an unmoving hole and those have man hands made these just about the creepiest thing I've ever seen on Dr Who.
My old friend Gerry Davis had a very dim view of the Earthshock redesign. “Dog-faced” is what he called them. He wasn’t overly fond of the script, either. As for the flying ones… he was turning in his grave when that was broadcast, without a doubt.
60s were the best! 70s to 80s ones were crappy and showed too much emotion for apparently emotionless beings. Nuwho ones are just generic stompy stompy robots who want to take over the universe.
keep in mind, even after eradicating all other mondassians, original universe cybermen are still two things: One, an entire civilization beyond just mindless death machines, similar to the daleks in that regard, and two, not entirely converted (its more like a series of inplants added internally, then wrapped up in an external shell, not a whole robotic chassis with a brain jar) nor always entirely wiped of personality, even though their emotions are gone. They still have different aptitudes and intelligences, as shown by exceptions being made for specific ranks, and they often retain memories. the ones from the parallel universe however are more robotic because, well, they're more robotic. these ones too show memory and even sometimes character, as shown by the leader of torchwood turning on the cybermen after being converted, and jackie tyler recognising pete. But, they act more as a tightly connected hivemind than their mondassian cousins. It makes perfect sense in their canon for them to act with varying levels of humanity (mondassianity), as their mechanical and neural augmentations change over time.
Oh, and they should have kept more of the design elements from the parallel cyberman for the newest reimagining. The helmet is actually flawless, but putting fuckin lights on their suits is stupid, and the plating has too many unnecessary details. The reason that the first new-who version worked is because they looked industrial, utilitarian, no frills. If you have no emotions, you aren't gonna add decorations unless you want to terrify people, or I guess if you want to play diplomacy. But the new suits look like something out of a marvel c-list movie, designed to look "cool". That's stupid. Keep the expanded abilities, keep the *amazing* new helmet, but put it on the original new-who bodies. Plus, the material the reworked bodies are made of doesn't convincingly portray metal, it looks plasticy.
I loved the 'Invasion' era helmets, and don't mind admitting I punched the air when one appeared in Van Statten's museum when the show returned :) I did also like the 'silver wetsuit' outfit of that time, although it was a shame about the lace-up boots...
I personally like the original 60's Cyber-Mondasians and Cyber-Telosians the most, back then the creators of Dr Who had a limited budget and I think they did pretty well despite it.
Most of the designs were great in my opinion, but really it's the original (shifting tonal scale) voices the Cybermen used that were rather unique and so ethereal in quality, so likable, aesthetically pleasing even, especially(jarring and thus working very well for the effect it produced in viewing the narrative, immersive and surprising storytelling...) in juxtaposition to their emotionless and almost casual killing of the human opposition...
Quite surprised that a Doctor Who youtuber would praise any of the New Who cybermen. Out of the New Who cyberman designs the Cybus cybermen are my favourite especially in the Age of Steel story (banging score as well) and Doomsday story as they embody what the cybermen are all about removing any differences such as personality, interests and humour etc even removing the negative ones removes any sense of humanity. Loved when emotional inhibitors were destroyed in their first story as it helped show how horrifying it would be to become a cyberman. Plus they are not all metal having a plastic suit under the metal plating, having hydraulics, being clunky which gives them a proper cyborg feel and the skeletal helmet.
I love the Cybus versions for feeling like a perfect modern reimagining of the entire concept of a Cyberman. But they didn’t go too far in the opposite direction and make them total robots like the later versions. They’re a good happy medium. Loud, flashy, industrial armor on top, and a dark bodysuit underneath to still allude to the humanity buried underneath.
Cybus men can be very quiet when needs be like the one who killed Mrs Moore. They still have a very human shape to them with the helmet being very skull like.
its so funny how earthshock comes back to making a point about how cybermen lack emotion and even has a speech about it... and then they decide to give them the most melodramatic performance
You have to remember The Cybermen split into many different Factions so we only see a small story of each faction and how they progressed, have you seen this picture before? i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/13/dc/7a13dcfcf52da10d034534ae61ff988c.jpg
If I was a Who scriptwriter, I'd create Cybermen sects born from different cities on dying Mondas. Imo Cybermen are scariest when they have human motivations, and there are a lot of human ways to react to, "We're dying, and our entire planet is our coffin." First sect: a stagnant sect that refuses to upgrade past the crude Mondasian cybermen. They are the humans of Mondas. They survived. They won. Now, they save others on dying worlds. Just enough conversion to survive. They regrow their damaged organic parts. Second sect: One city spent its dying years making a historical archive of Mondas history and culture. The last survivors are converted, loaded into a crude pod, and ejected from Mondas. The madness comes from knowing their knowledge is imperfect/incomplete. They might abduct organics in a futile effort to recreate a festival or hunt down other Mondasian Cybermen for historical information. Third sect: a city that just wanted their unborn children to live. They created a gene bank of frozen embryos and fired it toward the nearest habitable star under the guidance of Cyber-nannies. Later, the nannies are keeping their human charges under lock and key. "You can not leave. It is not safe. Your parents loved you. They sacrificed so much for you."
I’m so glad I found your channel! It’s great . I’m really torn on the Cybermen in the finale 3 parter. Lone Cyberman (shout out to Kroton though) - big yes! LC’s plan of pure robots, no organics - not great. Cybermasters - torn. I like the idea of converted Time Lords, touched on in Nightmare in Silver, Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic), The Doctor Falls kinda with reading 2 hearts as human, so that was neat. Their design had just enough time lord campiness. The only downside was it was the third master finale that featured Cybermen as the backdrop again within a 5 series span, which really isn’t the Cybermen’s fault.
As a kid of the 80s, I loved the Earthshock Cybermen, with their glass chins, allowing you to see organic (albeit silver) matter moving behind it. The Silver Nemesis Cybermen weren’t quite the same as the early 80s ones. The headpiece was the same (tho now polished), but the suits were different with pipes running round the legs, connected with what was obviously electric cabling terminal block 😁 I think the New Who designs are fantastic with the mix of modern and retro.
My opinion? Most of what you say it's true, but still, both Cybermen and Daleks tend to work much better in their older versions. Destroying a single Cyberman or Dalek was relatively easy at the beginning. For the very first daleks it was actually trivial: just make them fall on one side. Maces, cars, falls from a first floor, all these things were perfect weapons to get rid of a single Dalek. Now an army is not enough. Both Cybermen and Daleks were scary because... they were MANY. Destroying one hundred of them was not just very hard, but also basically useless, because there were too many more. They had this in common with zombies, and the Borg, for example. Making every single Cyberman incredibly strong makes the story idiotic and doesn't scary anyone. Forget the days you used to hide behind a sofa, these are special fx times.
: The Cyber Lords and that entire story and that Master were bad. They were laughable, alas. The redesign that preceded them in the immediately previous stories was really good, and the Lone Cyberman was a really good idea and character. The Nightmare in Silver Cybermen were good, even if the story they were in wasn't. You're right about the '80s being the era when the Cybermen were unravelled by the production team. All that said, for my money, The Invasion was tops, both the Cybermen and the story. -- Great video, sir. Gracias for posting.
ill always be a fan of the MoonBase + Tomb of Cybermen design. The use of the voice boxes with their sliding mouths is the best part about them that feels missing in every other Cyberman design.
The only reason they are criticised is because it looks a lot like iron man In fact it exactly reminds me of the iron man in iron man armoured adventures
I REALLY liked the Cybusmen. They looked properly heavy and armored, and their clanking footsteps were one of the best bits of sound design in the new series, especially when paired with their emotionless new voices.
The ultimately uniform cybermen plus the dialogue about being human 2.0, Cyber Lumic about ending pain and suffering, the encounter with cyber jackie, the two emotional inhibitor scenes the autopsy of the Sammy Feeling cyberman and when all the Cybermen have their emotional inhibitors switched off leading them to wail or in the case if the cyberman that looked into the mirror sob itself to self destruct and the conversion chamber scenes.
The Invasion helmet designed was a Tomb version with new ear muffs, as added by Protoco Mouldings of south London, the company that had also made the Mire Beasts, amongst other props. Oh, and the Moonbase/Tomb Cybermen. The Revenge chest units were Tomb units with added panels. And thereby hangs a story...
@@TheChosenChimp The company Trading Post constructed the Cybermen for Revenge but reused items original made by Protoco - the helmets and chest units. Jack Lovel, the owner of Protoco called up Bill Lawrence of Trading Post and suggested - in pretty strong terms - that he was owed some of the fee as his company had done all the hard work.
The Mire Beasts! I watched the old episode with those in just the other day. We were playing Terry Nation bingo with the episode (Peril including a big drop, check, Humanoid alien race opposing the daleks, check, tentacle monsters in underground tunnels, check)
Which design works best depends on what you want to emphasise. If it's the horror of a faceless, emotionless army of mind-linked robots seeking to make everyone like themselves, it's the Cybusmen. If it's the horror of desperate people trying to survive in a hostile universe and driven to inhuman extremes in the process, it's the Mondassian design.
The bodies were made from a plastic-coated cloth that was so heavy it broke the needles on the sewing machines used by the costume department. For Tomb they're wearing surgeon's boots, BTW! The wet suites were used in Wheel. The tubing on the arms kept falling off, hence the lack of movement... one grad gesture and 'ping!'... off comes some more tubing. It was a real issue for the production team. The space walk Cybermen seen in part sic of Wheel are oddly the Tomb version.
As a child, I thought the metal ones were best. However, as I've got older and more in touch with my own sense of personality & mortality, the cloth ones now seem horrific!
Great video, I agree that they were an enemy best served cold, as soon as they stopped being lumbering emotionless space zombies they lost a lot of their fear factor. When they went full camp panto in the Davison era, that’s around when I stopped watching Who quite so religiously. I hate funny robots.
The 80s Earthshock ones, the camp voice of the 60s ones is just unintentionally hilarious, the modern ones are too formidable for my taste (as are the Ice Warriors).
My favorite part about the cyberman is the idea of them some point of time people were desperate enough to let this happen where the Cybermans goals are a warped good nature/gesture of faith to help people survive in the only way they know or the most logical way at least which makes the Cyberman unlike any other dr who monster even the daleks immortal no matter if you get rid of all of them the idea of the Cyberman can’t die someone will be desperate enough for survival and start the cycle all over again
I do find the modern Cybermen to be too robotic in movement and appearance. As a result, it is easy to forget that there is a human trapped within...which is a far creepier concept.
Each Cybermen represents a era and generation. The 60s Cybermen was the best. The Pertwee era had none and I cannot count Carnival of Monsters(Cyberman in the Scope). The 80s where total militaristic theme as they where like a Platoon Commando and yes they used hand weapons. They are all scary in most parts.
As far as I'm concerned, there are only 12 incarnations of the Doctor plus The War Doctor. The arrogance required to alter the canon that had stood (deliberately vague) for well over 50 years. I just hope the RTD undoes it all even if it had to be "..and it was all a dream"! I'm not sure they have yet quite reached their pinnacle, though "World Enough and Time" was wonderfully dark and sinister (helped by John Simm's insane Master and Michelle Gomez's incredible Missy). Some of the concepts would have helped here but it may have destroyed the balance of the story.
The first two designs were the most effective. The RTD ones are overated and lean too far into clunky robots acting like wannabe Daleks, even had a knockoff catchphrase.
Great video! All Cybermen are good and bad in their own way! There is no one perfect Cyberman! Who do you think would win? The Borg or Cybermen? For me i would go with the Cybermen as they are spread throughout the universe and multiverse also they are alot older! (lore wise) The Borg are only a millennium old and only control 1 small section of a galaxy.
Thanks for the comment. Interesting question. My instincts tell me that Cybermen would have the edge in terms of individual strength, plus advanced knowledge and experience in the art of war. Just so long as they don't make the mistake of underestimating their foe as, as everybody knows, Borg are EXTREMELY fast learners.🙂
The Borg do have the ability to adapt to any form of damage within minutes, as well as to assimilate virtually any species. The Cybermen also have a shared consciousness. Now imagine what would happen if a cyberman got assimilated. All off that knowledge, now the Borg’s. Also remember, the Borg aren’t interested in the same things as most other empires. They don’t care about survival, expansion, glory. The Borg only value knowledge, which they just so happen to get by assimilating it, along with whatever held it. The reason the Borg only control a comparatively small region of space, is because they have no real interest in controlling more. After all, why spend resources expanding your borders when you can just send a cube in some random direction and assimilate all knowledge it comes across. I will admit that later Star Trek shows and movies kind of nerfed the Borg a little. Kind of ruined it for me, tbh, and I still love the original Next Gen Borg the best. Back when resistance actually *was* futile.
We’ve heard Earthshock Cybermen moans and screams but in my opinion, The Moonbase/Tomb are more disturbing as they are killed, they foam from the chest unit and make “WaWa” noises. Human screams reduced to robotic-like buzzing sounds
Honestly, listen to David Banks’ ArcHive Tapes: Cybermen audiobook. David Banks was the one who played the Cyber Leader in Eartshock. I used to not care for those Cybermen (Cyber Neomorphs he classifies them) or the Revenge Cybermen (Cyber Nomads), but after listening to Banks’ hypothetical history, it really shed some light as to why these Cybermen ‘appear’ to have emotions. Even still, my favorites have to be the ones from Tomb of the Cybermen or the David Tenant Era
the Cybus ones were very scary because they seemed so plausible. one misstep from our current technology & we could easily end up like them. the last Matt Smith era Cybermen were borrowing from the Borg & very, very heavily from Iron Man. the Lonely Cyberman ones were at least a return to something echoing their original appearance - really liked the face & head redesigns from the episodes with our esteemed female doctor
I don't like the spikes on the CyberWarriors' armour, as they don't serve a purpose and Cybermen wouldn't make something that doesn't have a function other than to 'look cool'.
Now my family and friends put up with my Doctor Who/Halloween Movies/Friday 13th Movies/Godzilla movie's. My holy quadrology of stuff i love. But their favourite Halloween number 4 because it starts with Michael a big gunfight action from start to finish. Friday 13th Jason Takes Manhatton because its in New York and more of an action movie again. Godzilla Final Wars. Action from the start about 20 different monsters in that one. Doctor Who Banksy Cyberleader and his Cybermen because they didn't mess about. If there was no Cybermen like these there'd be no Cylons on the original Battlestar Galactica because so many of people i know still call Cybermen Cylons, because of those similarities in the 80s. I was really disappointed with the vioces of Russell T Davies Cybermen. Eradicate sounds better than delete. We ourselves don't often say Eradicate but we always say Delete, which isnt really special.
Classic Who Cybermen were genuinely frightening. The original Borg, cybernetic organisms that were hard to kill and wanted to convert humanity into more of them. NuWho versions just don't come close. Their voices don't have any menace, they walk like they've had an accident filled their pants or like terrible Irish dancers. The sound effects when they walk make them sound like a steam engine and their new catch phrases 'delete' and 'upgrade' are about as scary as a bunny rabbit. Cybusmen were just rubbish. Everything about them was just bad. Nu Who sees them as robots rather than organic beings with cybernetic enhancements. Give me the Classic Who cyber men any day of the week
Best was the first 60s cybermen worst was in revenge of the cybermen but when they returned in earthshock this was a good design pity the other 80s cybermen design was poor
80s Cybermen really bother me. The emotions shown in Revenge, Earthshock and so on, combined with the stupid earmuff heads that I've never liked. Thank Christ for Rise of the Cybermen - proper stompy death suits with brains in that are pretty much unstoppable. Also, screw the flying from Dark Water and Death in Heaven. Flying Cybermen aren't my thing at all.
I only know the modern versions of the Cybermen so this is how I rank them. 1) Cybus Cybermen 2) Cyber Warriors & Masters 3) Off brand Ironman Cybermen.
