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The Cybermen (First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Doctors)

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The various Cybermen seen throughout the show's history.note 

Voiced by: Roy Skeltonnote  and Peter Hawkins (1966–68); Peter Halliday (1968); Christopher Robbie and Melville Jones (1975); David Banks (1982–88); Mark Hardy (1982–83, 1988); William Kenton (1983); Michael Kilgarriff and John Ainley (1985); Brian Orrell (1985–88); Nicholas Briggs (2006–present); David de Keyser (2012)

The second most famous villains of Doctor Who, alongside the Daleks, the Cybermen first appeared in the First Doctor's final serial, "The Tenth Planet".

A species of cybernetic beings; originally a fully organic humanoid species, they started replacing more and more of their biology with robotics to extend their life, to the point that they have next to nothing living inside them, including emotions, and somewhere along the line they for some reason picked up a drive to "upgrade" the entire universe to be like them. They are an example of "parallel evolution"; they have origins on many planets and in many timelines, essentially an inevitability, arising wherever there are people with the technology — Mondas, Telos, Planet 14, and so on. In fact, the Mondas/Telos Cybermen came from the tenth planet of the Earth's solar system ("Earth's long-lost twin planet").note 


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General Tropes

Mondasian Cybermen

    TV Series Tropes 

Tropes associated with the television continuity:

  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
    • They spoke like this in their first appearance, giving their voices a rather unSETTling sINg-song quality.
      SIIIIlenCE! AnyONNNNNNNNNNNNE who MOOOOOOOVES willbekilled inSTANTlyyyyyy!
    • The Troughton-era Cybermen have their own version, where they tend to stretch out words.
      YOU BEEEEEELONG TO UZZZZZZ.
  • Action Figure Speech: Because their mouths don't move, they frequently move their hands when speaking amongst each other so the audience knows which one is talking.
  • Adaptive Ability: Ramped up in "Nightmare in Silver", wherein they survive an electrified moat without a single loss, and eventually become immune to Cyberguns.
  • Always Second Best: They never have a great time of it when the Master's around.
    • In "The Five Doctors", he dupes a whole bunch of them and gets them zapped by a Time Lord trap.
    • They're little better than Missy's muscle in the larger backdrop of her and the Doctor's latest fall-out in "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven", with their main effect on the story being Danny becoming one.
    • After "World Enough and Time" explored their origin and the horror of the early Cyber-Conversion process, they're Out of Focus in "The Doctor Falls" in favour of the Doctor's relationship with the two Masters, with their main effect once more being someone close to the Doctor - this time Bill - becoming a Cyberman herself.
    • Likewise, they go from a convincing threat to Big Bad Wannabe status in "The Timeless Children" as soon as the Master arrives, with his killing Ashad opening his own scheme with the Cyber-Masters.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear whether or not the Cybermen from "The Pandorica Opens" to "Closing Time" are Mondasian or Cybus Cybermen.
  • Animesque: Their 2013 incarnation takes some design cues from Humongous Mecha anime, most notably their Gundam-like vented breastplates and Neon Genesis Evangelion-inspired spinal detailing along their backs. From a non-anime perspective, they also look very much as if they were the latest products of Stark Industries.
  • Arch-Enemy: Only second to the Daleks in being the most recurring and iconic antagonists to the Doctor.
  • Art Evolution: The Cybermen tend to change their look in many of their appearances. The only aspects that remain unchanged are the handlebars on the sides of the head and the soulless dark eyes. The general trend is that they look more robotic and sophisticated with each redesign.
  • Assimilation Plot: Their whole shtick.
  • The Assimilator: Coupled with the Unwilling Roboticisation trope, and equally definitive.
  • Author Appeal: Eric Saward loved him some Cybermen. Conversely, Terrence Dicks hated 'em, which is why the Third Doctor never got a serial with so much as a cybersausage as an antagonist. The Dicks-scripted "The Five Doctors" had the Cybermen (included at Saward's insistence) get brutally killed in a variety of ways through the special.
  • Big Bad: The Cybermen are some of the Doctor's most tenacious enemies, second only to the Daleks. During the Second Doctor's tenure (in which the Daleks were Put on a Bus) the Cybermen were the most prominent antagonists he fought. The Cybus Cybermen and Ashad are lesser members in Big Bad Ensembles with the Cult of Skaro and the Spy Master in Series 2 and 12, respectively. In Series 10, the Mondasian Cybermen overshadow the Saxon and Missy Masters after the former helps create them, reprogrammed by the Doctor to include Time Lords among their targets.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Most notable in their debut appearance. From the perspective of the Cybermen, they are simply trying to survive and are offering other life forms what they perceive as a better life. However, later generations would behave more ruthlessly and don’t accept anyone refusing to be upgraded.
  • Body Horror: Part and parcel of who they are. Played up by the original design, which had medical cloth surrounding their heads and ordinary human hands.
  • Breakout Villain: As with the Daleks, the Cybermen were just intended as a Monster of the Week, but their striking designs, coupled with them being the villains of the First Doctor's final story, promoted them to being one of the cores of the Doctor's Rogues Gallery.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "You belong to us"/"You will become like us", or variations upon those phrases. "WE MUZZT SURVIVE!" also tends to pop up fairly often.
    • And now: "DELETE!", basically the Cyberman equivalent to the Dalek's famous "EXTERMINATE!"
    • In "Nightmare in Silver", they get a new one: "Upgrade in progress."
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Cybermen will never hold up to their end of an alliance, instead being firm believers of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
  • Conspicuous Gloves: The Mondasian Cybermen in "World Enough and Time" have gloves that resemble the skin of a Caucasian man, as opposed to being actual human hands, making it very useful for hiding the race of the actors. Or indeed, that of the characters, i.e. Bill Potts.
  • Costume Evolution: They are one of the most frequently redesigned of Doctor Who aliens, with major new design changes being introduced in numerous stories. Expanded Universe material such as Doctor Who: Cybermen and its audio adaptation The ArcHive Tapes would give labels to identify several of these designs, while others are identified by their affiliation or by the episodes they appear in.
    • "The Tenth Planet" - The original design originating from the planet Mondas and the ancestor of most other variants, referred to as the Mondasian Cyberman or CyberMondan. This variant incorporated many Body Horror elements, with visible human hands and a cloth-covered face/bodysuit implying that organic elements still survived underneath.
      • The much later "World Enough and Time" brought back the Mondasian Cybermen with a slightly altered appearance, sporting a more form-fitting mask, notably smaller chest unit, less prominent tubing extending from it, Caucasian-colored gloves covering the human hands and a smaller "handle-bar"/light combination on the head. While Mondasians, they originated on a Mondasian colony ship under influence from the Master, separate from those on Mondas itself. Additionally, what was originally their weapon (the large, detachable lamp hanging under the chest unit) is now part of the unit itself, and their weapon has been relocated to their headlamp.
    • "The Moonbase" - A radical overhaul which was dubbed the Telosian Cyberman or CyberTelosian, these Cybermen were less clunky but nonetheless keep the general outline of the Mondasian Cybermen, albeit with a sleeker and less surgical look, an entirely metal helmet incorporating a much smaller light at the top, a silver bodysuit with external tubing, three-fingered hands and greatly downsized chest units and transparent "handle-bars" on the helmet. According to some of the crew members who played the Cybermen in their debut story, they disliked the experience of wearing the costumes, hence the redesign.
      • "The Wheel in Space" - This redesign, affiliated with the Late CyberFaction (a group of Mondasian Cybermen who abandoned Mondas and further upgraded themselves), mainly looked the same as the Telosian ones, but featured a more detailed suit design, keeping the three-fingered hands, along with streamlining the external tubing and flipping the chest unit around to make the round light on it into a death ray. It also introduced the famous "tear-drop" holes on the eyes of their helmets. Would later evolve into the Telosian design according to some sources.
    • "The Invasion" - Cybermen affiliated with the Early CyberFaction (and thus a precursor to the Late Faction and Telosian models), this design introduced the "square-headed" or "earmuff" look which stayed with the Cybermen in various forms throughout the classic series. They also had a much smaller chest unit than before and a somewhat more robotic look, also regaining five-fingered hands, which they'd keep going forwards. The metal jointing on the exterior of the suits was fragile, and had a habit of injuring the Cyberman actors on-set.
      • "Revenge of the Cybermen" - Referred to as the CyberNomad, these Cybermen featured a humpbacked silver bodysuit, resembling a diving suit with thick, flexible tubing on the limbs, with the same helmet design from "The Invasion", albeit with thick ribbed tubing in place of the more solid handlebars and a four-barreled gun in place of the light on their heads. These Cybermen also feature redressed versions of "Moonbase"/"Tomb"-era chest units.
    • "Earthshock" - The skin-tight look of the previous designs' external covering is replaced by a baggier, duller silver look, with the external cybernetics/chest pieces of previous designs now built-in to a collar-like unit worn around the neck. This iteration, dubbed the CyberNeomorph, also had a more frown-like mouthpiece and a sleeker chest unit and were apparently the result of a merger between the Telosian and Nomad Cybermen. Early variants (principally seen in "Earthshock") had transparent jaw plates (with the actors' mouths painted silver), in an attempt to suggest organic parts within.
      • "Silver Nemesis" - Same overall design as the Neomorph Cybermen, but with minor changes in detail, such as a slightly redesigned chest unit with smaller hoses, bulkier gloves, modified footwear (silver-painted Doc Martens with the legs of the suit stretched over them), and a very shiny, chrome-silver paint job on the helmets and chest units. Dubbed the CyberIsomorph.
    • "Rise of the Cybermen" - A radically redesigned version hailing from an alternate universe that nonetheless retains the base elements of previous models, despite originating from Earth instead of Mondas. The noticeably far more robotic design saw their bodies covered with jointed metal armour rather than silver-coloured cloth and chest units, with exposed circuitry around the limb joints and belly. They also have a C logo on their chests, representing Cybus Industries, leading to them being referred to as Cybus Cybermen or simply Cybusmen.
      • "A Good Man Goes to War" - Identical to the Cybus Cybermen but without the C logo; implying they’re either a later evolution of the Mondas-descended Cybermen seen throughout the classic series, or the result of them and the Cybus Cybermen merging. Affiliated with the Cyber-Legions active in the future, though a group of them evolved separately on the Mondasian colony ship from the local CyberMondans.
    • "Nightmare in Silver" - A sleeker and less bulky redesign halfway between the classic era Cybermen and the Cybus version; with an even more slim, robotic look and a blue light on the chest. Active during the Cyber-Wars and said to have evolved from the Cyber-Legion Cybermen, though identical Cybermen were created by both Missy and the Cybermen onboard the Mondasian colony ship. This model has been referred to as a "weapons-grade" version by the Twelfth Doctor, and is often called the Cyberiad Cybermen by fans after the hive mind featured in their debut episode.
    • "Ascension of the Cybermen" - A more heavily armoured and bladed design, dubbed the Cyber-Warrior or the "Warrior class", that brings back the classic "earmuff" look and blank face from "The Invasion". It keeps the same chest-plate design as the "Nightmare in Silver" Cybermen (with a few subtle changes) and includes elements from other previous designs as well, along with a semi-medieval aesthetic featuring spikes on their armor.
      • "The Timeless Children" - A variant known as the CyberMaster is introduced, which features the same design as the Warrior Cybermen but with Time Lord headdresses, Gallifreyan engravings, robes, a more angular faceplate, a frown-like mouthpiece, vertical "teardrops" and a duller metal finish. Created on Gallifrey by the Master out of dead Time Lords, they are capable of regenerating.
      • "The Power of the Doctor" - In addition to the regular Cyber-Warriors, this special featured a new variant of CyberMaster which bore a closer resemblance to the Warrior Cybermen, but still engraved with Time Lord iconography and retaining the duller finish as well as their regeneration abilities. While they mostly have the standard handlebars, some of them retain the Time Lord headdress and black robes of the previous CyberMasters.
  • Creepy Monotone: Almost all Cybermen talk in a mechanical, computer-like voice, though they sound more human in "Revenge of the Cybermen" and shift in and out of this from their "Earthshock" appearance until the end of the classic run.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Almost certainly the Trope Codifier. The Mondasians were simply trying to keep themselves alive via cybernetics, at the cost of their emotions, and it worked. Then their new, emotionless, cybernetic selves decided everyone else had to be like them, and set about trying to take over the universe. Going by "The Doctor Falls", something similar happens wherever they're created, regardless of whatever the initial motive was — they see themselves as an improvement over their original species, and decide everyone else must be "upgraded".
  • Demoted to Extra: Due to Terrance Dicks' dislike of them, the Cybermen were absent from the Third Doctor era, only appearing through brief cameos in "The Mind of Evil" and "Carnival of Monsters". The twentieth anniversary special and the Expanded Universe would compensate by having him encounter the Cybermen more frequently.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: In "The Tenth Planet", appalled that the Cybermen have no compassion or care for their victims, Polly poses the question: "Have you no heart?!" The Cyberman believes that she refers to the body part.
    NooOOOoo, that is OOONE of the WEAKnesses that we HAAAVE remoVED.
  • The Dreaded: By "Nightmare in Silver", they inspire so much fear that the standard procedure for seeing one is to destroy the entire planet.
  • Early Instalment Character Design Difference: The Cybermen in "The Tenth Planet" had a much more mixed human-robot appearance with heavy Body Horror implications, while the later designs all look entirely or almost entirely (the 1980s design's chin window) robotic from the outside. Even when these Cybermen reappear in "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls", they look different, with smaller headlights, tighter-fitting masks, and skin-coloured gloves as opposed to human hands.
  • Early Instalment Weirdness: The first Cybermen in the series who appeared in "The Tenth Planet" have individuality and, while incapable of true empathy, are at least not as openly malevolent and conquest driven as they would later become. They were more pragmatic and operated on Blue-and-Orange Morality.
  • Elite Mooks: Cyber-Leaders and Cyber-Controllers for the most part share the same design as the Cybermen they're sharing the story with, but are stronger and more durable, sometimes coming with abilities the regular Cybermen don't - the "Silver Nemesis" Cyber-Leader could detect how much gold Ace had on her without the device its subordinates used.
  • Evil Evolves:
    • At least in "Nightmare in Silver", the main problem with fighting Cybermen is the ability to adapt to enemy weapons on the fly. Using a super laser gun thing Clara and some soldiers completely obliterated one Cyberman, blew up the head on the next and slightly singed a third. It's considered that the only way to really stop a Cyberman invasion is to nuke the entire planet. And even that may not be enough if The Stinger in that episode is any indication.
      Upgrade in Progress.
    • Thanks to time dilation, the Cybermen of "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls" go through accelerated evolution, starting as "Tenth Planet"-like Cybermen and developing into forms resembling the Cybus and Nightmare in Silver versions.
  • Evil Is Hammy:
    • The 1970s and 80s Cybermen, particularly their Cyber-Leaders.
      EXCELLLEEENT!!!
    • Mr. Clever, who frankly considers the scenery an appetizer.
  • Facial Horror: The original Cybermen have their heads wrapped up like mummies, and when they speak, their mouth-flap just hangs open while they speak, and snaps shut when they're done. "The Doctor Falls" changes this a little so that while their mouth does move, it doesn't move like an actual mouth would.
  • Flanderization:
    • When initially introduced, the Cybermen were completely alien but in many ways better than humans, even winning the arguments thrown at them, and offered cyber-conversion as a choice, although they otherwise couldn't care less about mankind. Later on, the Cybermen's main motive seems to completely become "convert everyone into Cybermen", although this could be excused by Early Instalment Weirdness and that their survival motive seems to be intertwined with cyber-converting.
      • In later Classic series stories, the Cybermen seem to be in a weaker state, which could explain their desire for more Cyber-conversion.
    • The second flanderization Cybermen got was the level they displayed their emotions and their weakness to gold, because it clogs their chest-units. In "Revenge of the Cybermen", the weakness was introduced and the writers and actors put much less effort in making the Cybermen seem emotionless like they originally did. When they came back in "Earthshock", their lack of emotions was little more than lip-service and they had a tendency to delve into Large Ham territory, to the point it was suggested that like the Daleks, the Cybermen remove all emotions except for rage. And in "Silver Nemesis", the gold weakness was exaggerated to the point where merely being hit by a gold coin could completely destroy them. By the time of the revival, the gold weakness would occasionally pop back up or be referenced, but later models would evolve past it.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Every emergent Cyberman civilisation starts with some desperate humanoids using technology to enhance their lives. Millions of years later, the combined Cyber-Race has become an unstoppable intergalactic empire.
  • Full-Conversion Cyborg:
    • Starting with their second appearance in "The Moonbase", the Cybermen became this by having all encompassing huge metal bodies and full integrated mechanics. Whilst it was consistently agreed that internally they still retained some organic parts (and that they could convert other humans and humanoids into Cybermen), the exact details were never gone into with them regularly being shown that the majority of them was machine. To the point that they were sometimes mistaken for robots by those unaware of their true nature.
    • The parallel-universe Cybermen created on an alternate Earth by Cybus Industries were described as being nothing more than human brains in completely mechanical bodies.
    • Most of the Cybermen created as a slave army by Missy in "Dark Water"/"Death In Heaven" were cyber-converted human skeletons without even organic brains, inhabited by copies of the originals' personalities with the emotions removed which were created using Gallifreyan Matrix technology.
  • Godzilla Threshold: After the Cyber-Wars, the mere presence of one Cyberman is grounds to blow up a whole planet. During the Cyber-Wars, the only way to stop them was to destroy their entire galaxy.
  • Great Off Screen War: The Cyber-Wars, which ended with an entire galaxy being blown up. They survived.
  • Hive Mind: The Moffat-era Cybermen have the Cyberiad introduced in "Nightmare in Silver", something later brought back in the Chibnall era.
  • Human Resources: It makes fighting them difficult. After all, if they need new troops, they can just take you.
  • Hyperaffixation: They are notorious and sometimes mocked by fans for using "Cyber-" as a prefix for absolutely everything they make or use. For example, using Cyber-guns and Cyber-bombs to fight Cyber-Wars, and travelling in Cyber-fleets consisting of Cyber-ships. However, it can be said that this helps emphasize their Creative Sterility and lack of emotions.
  • Iconic Item: The "handlebars" on their heads remain a constant part of their design, even as everything else changes. While in "The Tenth Planet" they seem to be providing power to their head lamps, the other designs seem to have no practical use for them. "World Enough and Time" explains them as being the Mondasian Cybermen's emotional inhibitor.
  • Jet Pack: The version created by Missy in "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven", and the Mondasian ones in "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls", have rocket boots that allow them to fly.
  • Joker Immunity: They've been wiped out several times, but there always turns out to be another batch of them stashed away somewhere on another planet that nobody had ever mentioned before. Or in another universe — and those Cybermen have the immunity, too; at one point, every last one of them was sucked into a featureless void for eternity, and they still managed to come back. "The Doctor Falls" gives some justification to this by establishing them as a repeating pattern — even if they're wiped out, someone, somewhere, will end up recreating them.
  • Leitmotif: "Space Adventure" in the black and white era. "The Cybermen" and The Ascension Shall Begin in the revival.
  • Literal Surveillance Bug: The Cybermats.
  • Long Bus Trip: The original Mondasian version from "The Tenth Planet" didn't reappear until 2017's "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls", though most later models were identified as being descended from them.
  • Loss of Identity: People who are transformed into Cybermen are stripped of all personality and individuality, becoming soulless killers. Once a human is transformed, they're considered dead and all that can be done is to destroy the Cyberman. The process isn't perfect, though, as there have been a rare few exceptions across the series and expanded universe who held onto their individuality through one means or another.
  • Machine Monotone: All Cybermen talk in a mechanical, computer-like voice, though they shift in and out of this in their "Earthshock" appearance.
  • Machine Worship: How the Mondasian Cybermen got started, before deciding that everyone else should be like them too.
  • Malevolent Mugshot: Their logo design in the 60s, and more recently in "Blood of the Cybermen".
  • Multicultural Alien Planet: The Cybermen comic-strip that ran in Doctor Who Magazine said the planet Mondas had its own equivalents to Silurians and Sea Devils.
  • Multiple-Choice Past:
    • While rising on Mondas is the most common origin for them, other media has also claimed they originated on Telos (either colonizing Mondas afterwards or developing separately from the Mondasians), Marinus (sometimes as a past Mondas), Planet 14, Earth and a Mondasian colony ship. "The Doctor Falls" gets around this by claiming the Cybermen rose naturally on all of them — they're the inevitable result of a combination of sufficient technology and insufficient caution, as well as Mondasian Cybermen evolving and conquering other planets.
    • Other media similarly gives them multiple origins on Mondas itself, even leaving aside the Marinus connection. Big Finish audio "Spare Parts" has them created by Mondas's native humans in order to survive, while Doctor Who Magazine backup strip "The Cybermen" has them begin as cyber-augmented ape servants created by Mondas's native Silurians. Alan Barnes, who wrote "The Cybermen", has suggested the possibility that Cyber-civilisation has risen and fallen on Mondas multiple times as a result of its flight through space, so both "Spare Parts" and "The Cybermen" have happened during the course of Mondas's history, and potentially further unseen Cyber-origins too.
  • The Noseless: Although the Cybermen have been through numerous radical redesigns since their first appearance, this has always been a constant.
  • Obliviously Evil: They genuinely think that Unwilling Roboticization is a favour for humanity.
  • Red Scare: In contrast to the Daleks who represented World War II-era (and in the new series, 2010s and early 2020s) fears of Nazism and fascism, the Cybermen exemplify Cold War-era Western fears of collectivism and totalitarian communism taken to the extreme. The fact that the Cyber-Leader in "Doomsday" specifically references the elimination of social class is telling that these themes are still relevant to their concept.
  • Robotic Undead: Cybermen are a race of humanoids that started to change their living parts out for mechanical ones to the point of being more robots than living things. To expand their race, they usually "upgrade" humans and convert them into more Cybermen, all programmed to "upgrade" other living things into them, just like zombies. The versions created by the Master in "Dark Water", "Death in Heaven" and "The Timeless Children" were also created from corpses, making them full-on Artificial Zombie mooks.
    You belong to us. You shall be like us.
  • Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Where the Daleks are an analogy for Nazi Germany, the Cybermen on the other hand are an analogy for Soviet Russia. They are hell-bent on surviving forever through the enforcement of unity by converting all other humanoid creatures into Cybermen like themselves, their only long-term goal being to keep carrying out this directive.
  • Silent Antagonist: The 2013 Cybermen from "Nightmare in Silver" don't say much.
  • Spikes of Villainy: The 2020 versions have small spikes on the shoulders and down the sides of their legs.
  • Stompy Mooks: The 2013 and 2020 versions have this, just like the Cybus Cybermen. Even the original 1966-style variants were given this trait in "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls".
  • Straw Vulcan: Depending on the Writer. The emotionless qualities of the Cybermen are dropped if convenient.
  • Super-Speed: The ones that first appeared in "Nightmare in Silver" can move much faster than anything seen before, effectively graduating into Lightning Bruiser. Matt Smith even commented that was the most scary thing about them in that story.
  • Talking Lightbulb: The new series versions have blue lights in their mouth that flash as they speak, borrowed from their Cybus counterparts.
  • There Is No Cure: Conversion into a Cyberman, once it's occurred, is usually considered irreversible.
    • After Bill Potts is converted into a Mondasian Cyberman but fights off the programming, the Doctor in "The Doctor Falls" vows that he'll fix her. He later admits when she brings this up that he wasn't being entirely truthful: he has hope she can go Beyond the Impossible with what he said, but it's unlikely she'll ever be human again. Bill finds another way when Heather removes her consciousness from her Cyber-converted husk and turns it into a "pilot" (long story).
  • Too Dumb to Live: They once locked the Doctor up in an explosives storage closet... without searching him for items that could be used as a detonator. Guess how he got the door open?
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • In "Nightmare in Silver", where they have since become equipped with an Adaptive Ability, rendering them quickly immune to things that have previously destroyed or slowed them down. And to make it worse, they now have Super-Speed that reaches Bullet Time levels, and it requires special guns to even damage them.
    • And they quickly become immune to even those guns too.
    • Worse for the Doctor, they aren't limited to assimilating Humans anymore, putting Time Lords on the menu.
    • In their next appearance in "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven", they have upgraded again, this time capable of flight, having advanced nanotechnology that can even resurrect and convert the dead, and might finally be capable of time-travel - though this is likely due to being under Missy's control. The nanotech is so advanced that Missy's ultimate plan involves infesting the atmosphere of Earth with it until every living human and every human corpse becomes a Cyberman.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: In at least a couple episodes, forced conversion to Cybermen was announced as the fate for those captives who were "worthy" of the "honour", particularly the Doctor. Most notably in "The Tomb of the Cybermen", where this fate was intended for all of the expedition team, as a "reward" for having re-awakened them.
  • Vestigial Empire: According to Captain Jack Harkness in "Fugitive of the Judoon", the Cybermen have become this, but that could all change if the "Lone Cyberman" gets what it wants. He wasn't kidding; while it's shown there's still some in hibernation to give Ashad a ready-made army, there are very few active in the galaxy by the time of "Ascension of the Cybermen".
  • Villain Team-Up: Since 2014, they have worked alongside the Master no less than four times in the TV series. With the exception of the first and fourth times, these alliances have ended poorly for one party or the other.
  • Vocal Evolution: In their very first appearance, the Cybermen were depicted with an odd, high-pitched sing-song voice due to using Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable. Subsequent appearances began tinkering with this formula, mostly through the use of synthesizing to convey a more "mechanical" tone. Stand-outs include (but are not limited to) the use of an electro-larynx-like buzzing emotionless monotone in "The Moonbase", and the smoothly electronic vocals associated with the Faction, Cybus and Warrior Cybermen from "The Invasion", "Rise of the Cybermen" and "Ascension of the Cybermen" respectively.
    • When the very first breed of Mondasian Cybermen reappeared in 2017, they retained the odd sing-song voices, but with modern day vocal processing added (which had previously been used by Big Finish's depictions of them).
  • Voice of the Legion: Notable with Troughton-era Cybermen, just barely audible under the sound of the Cyber-voice is a second one, a hissing rasp of the original being before they became a Cyberman.
  • Was Once a Man: Wherever they begin, it follows a similar pattern: people use cybernetics to replace organic body parts, then someone decides to go all the way and make the entire body cybernetic, discarding humanity and emotion, and the Cybermen are created anew. The Mondasian Cybermen are the most evident, with human hands, and clearly organic heads behind cloth with only black eyeholes and a mouth slit.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The infamous gold allergy evolved into this over time. It started as "gold dust jams up their works" and eventually became "you can kill them instantly with gold coins fired from a slingshot". This was quietly ignored in the RTD years (a tie-in site mentions that R&D eliminated the Cybus breed's allergy before they even started).
    • However, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation² comic, they were able to mostly defeat a group of Cybus-like Cybermen using gold dust at the Eleventh Doctor's suggestion.
    • In "Nightmare in Silver" it's mentioned as having been useful against older tech, but not even worth trying against new. Despite this, some models such as the Cyber-Planner still contain the flaw deep within the source code for their operating systems, which the Doctor exploits, forcing it to spend time developing a patch. The Cybermen in "The Power of the Doctor" likewise confirm it no longer works on them.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The original purpose of the Mondasian Cybermen was as a way to survive biosphere extinction, when a catastrophe threw Mondas out of orbit. To that end, they sacrificed their humanity to ensure their preservation, genuinely believing it to be the right thing to do. The Cybermen see themselves as a superior species (and they sorta are in some respectsnote ), so they cannot comprehend why people don't want to become like them. Furthermore, it's a very "us or them" kind of situation, and while the Cybermen intend to save as many humans as they possibly can, they acknowledge those they can't will die.

    Audio Tropes 

Tropes associated with Big Finish

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b6d81741_18ab_4931_80fd_113a07f41019.jpeg
Voiced by: Nicholas Briggs; David Banks, Mark Hardy (2018)

From the Earth's long-lost sister planet Mondas, the Cybermen were once not unlike mankind. But as their world became increasingly worse, the people of Mondas were driven to increasingly more desperate means to survive, eventually turning themselves into soulless cyborgs.

  • Arc Words: If the early Mondasian Cybermen show up, expect "we will begin again" to follow.
  • Create Your Own Villain: "Spare Parts" reveals the Fifth Doctor accidentally helped give the Mondasians the means to perfect their Cyberman project - it turns out the Gallifreyan brain structures that govern regeneration are just perfect for ensuring human bodies don't reject their augmentations.
  • Creative Sterility: Mentioned in "Human Resources", where the Doctor informs the local Cybermen he only saved them by accident, before he realised who they were. When asked why he will extend help to all other species but not the Cybermen he answers "Because other species create. You don't."
  • Character Catchphrase: "WE MUST SURVIVE" and occasionally "THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR."
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Spare Parts" takes the communism allegory and runs with it to the horrific end conclusion. The Mondasians in their final days were run by a committee who ruthlessly treated everything as a resource. People included.
  • Emotion Suppression: The original Mondasian Cybermen were fitted with emotional suppressors partly because of the sheer horror of what had been done to them, but also because after living so long underground Mondasians just couldn't take looking at the sky. The sheer shock of it would kill them.
  • Great Offscreen War: The Cyber-Wars. They lost, handily.
  • Meet Your Early Instalment Weirdness:
    • The Cybermen of "Spare Parts" and "The Silver Turk" are based on the very first Cybermen, of "The Tenth Planet", meaning they still have some amount of individuality, even names, and speak in the odd sing-song voices (albeit with modern vocal styling on top). Another one of these Cybermen, who appeared in The Ninth Doctor Adventures, strangely uses a different voice style instead.
    • The ones present in "Return to Telos" use the harsh mechanical buzz of the Troughton-era Cybermen. And in another way, are working with Cybermen speaking in the style used between 2006 and 2011.
  • Reimagining the Artifact: "Spare Parts" gives an origin for their name. On Mondas, jobs started getting the word "man" appended to them (doctorman, electriman). So when the Committee started "upgrading" Mondasians with cybernetics to survive on the planet's blasted surface... Cyberman.
  • The Remnant: After their defeat in the Cyber-Wars, the remaining Cybermen were scattered and divided. More alarmingly, with the death of the Super-Controller, they became angry, and started wanting revenge (explaining the more... "emotive" Cybermen of the 80s.)
  • Tragic Villain: "Spare Parts" really rams this home for the original Mondasian Cybermen by showing the appalling conditions on Mondas, the shadowy and draconian government, resultant slow decline into extinction of the natives and beginning of Cyber-conversion as a desperate means of survival.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: The very first Cybermen turned against the first Cyber-Planner, because the personalities that comprised it were selfish and unstable. Once that was done, the Doctor left, hoping that Mondasian society would sort itself out. But the Cybermen simply began again.
  • The Virus: The Cybermen in "Return to Telos" are able to infect any tech they get cyber-matter into, and convert people by touch. Even poor K-9 turns out to have become infected.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: During "Spare Parts" the Doctor tries using gold on the early Cybermen. It doesn't work.

Other Branches

    Cybus Cybermen 

Cybus Cybermen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CyCyber_2751.jpg
"YOU WILL BE DEL-E-TED."
Voiced by: Nicholas Briggs (2006–2010),note  Tracy-Ann Oberman (2006)

The parallel Earth Cybermen (better known as Cybus Cybermen or Cybusmen, after the evil corporation that created them), are a race of Cybermen who come from a parallel universe. Have been around for a while, first appearing in "Rise of the Cybermen" in 2006. They eventually get sent into the Void between dimensions, from where they neatly spill over into the regular timeline, and would apparently encounter and merge with the Mondasian Cybermen at some point down the line.


  • Always Second Best: "Doomsday" rather conclusively proved that if you put them in the same story as the Daleks, they'll inevitably be shoved aside as being weaker and less ruthless. It's even lampshaded by the Daleks, with Sec regarding an invasion of five million Cybus Cybermen as "pest control" for him and his three followers.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Because the "C" on their chest was removed after "The Pandorica Opens", it makes it hard to tell if the Cybermen that carry the design are actually the same branch as the Cybus ones, or the original counterparts. Not helping the case is that after they came from their universe, they use different ways to convert others. At least one group of these Cybermen were distinctly Mondasian in origin, but they evolved separately from the Cybus ones or their lookalikes.
  • Assimilation Plot: They might get there by different means from story to story, but it's inevitable that "upgrading" everyone is their end goal.
  • The Assimilator: Coupled with the Unwilling Roboticisation trope.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: With the Cult of Skaro for the Series 2 finale, "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday".
  • Big Bad Wannabe: They're quickly overshadowed by the Daleks once the Cult of Skaro reveal themselves.
  • Body Horror: The Cyber-conversion process is... not pleasant. The details aren't given in full, but the general gist is most of the human parts are sliced away, and the remains welded to a metal exoskeleton.
  • Brain Theft: Unlike the regular Cybermen they cut out the middleman and just take the brain itself, with an artificial nervous system used to connect it to the rest of the body.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": Due to their more corporate origins.
    The Doctor: A logo on the front. Lumic's turned them into a brand.
  • Character Catchphrase: "You will be deleted", or simply "DELETE".
  • Chest Insignia: They have a "C" on their chests. Mondasian Cybermen that have copied their template do not share this feature, instead having something more akin to an inverted XANA symbol.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Like the main universe variants, the only way to distinguish a Cybus Cyber-Leader from its brethren is the black handlebars on its head. The one in the "Next Doctor" added a black faceplate as well.
  • Creative Sterility: The Doctor describes them with this trope in their debut arc.
    The Doctor: The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stay like this forever! A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes human beings so alive: People!
  • Creepy Monotone: All Cybus Cybermen talk in a mechanical, computer-like voice.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Deliberately invoked and played with; the Cybusmen have "emotional inhibitors" because any human who can truly grasp what has happened will Go Mad from the Revelation and then explode.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Bizarrely. The Cybermen occasionally show a little bit of sass to their enemies. It's very rare, but it happens.
    Dalek Thay: Daleks have no concept of elegance!
    Cyberman: This is obvious.
  • The Dreaded: Note the Doctor's reaction when he first sees them. He's utterly terrified, and doesn't even bother fighting them, he just tries to surrender.
  • Enemy Mine: At first, it was just a case of Evil Versus Evil with the Cult of Skaro, as the Daleks had no plans of playing together. But eventually, once Sec got the Genesis Ark opened, the Cybermen had no choice but to ally with Torchwood and the Doctor to fight them off. Subverted in that the Doctor didn't hesitate to suck them into the Void alongside the Daleks as soon as he could.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: In "The Next Doctor", their voices are much deeper than usual.
    • The Japanese dub of their stories gave this trait.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Becoming a Cybus-Cyberman is a fate so hideous, so inherently traumatizing, that they depend on their emotional inhibition to survive; any Cybus-Cyberman who has their emotions restored becomes overwhelmed by pain and body dysphoria, invariably committing suicide.
  • Forgot About His Powers: In "The Next Doctor", they've oddly lost the lasers they had in "Doomsday" - which would have been extremely handy for eliminating the Doctor (or Ms. Hartigan) from a distance instead of relying on their electro-hands. It's implied this is another symptom of their technological regression due to limited resources since arriving in Victorian London, like their usage of info-stamps.
  • Humongous Mecha: They build their own in "The Next Doctor", called a Cyberking. The fact that the Doctor is familiar with these and has a lot of knowledge about them suggests that the Mondasian Cybermen have used them at some point, and the Cybus Cybermen, being a parallel version, inevitably came up with the same idea.
  • Immune to Bullets: What with being made of metal. They're not immune to rockets or particle guns, though.
  • Join or Die: They offer two choices: Upgrade, or refuse. Refusal means you're irrelevant, and irrelevant elements are deleted. However, they might decide someone's not worth upgrading, and kill them anyway.
  • Joker Immunity: Sucked into the Void between dimensions, with no hope of escape? They were back within a few seasons.
  • King Mook: Their first Cyber-Controller, a converted John Lumic, who has a slightly modified design and sits on a massive throne.
  • Leitmotif: Bwaah-BWAAH-bwaah-bwaah-bwaah-bwaaaaaah! It's so memorable that the six-note theme has carried over to almost every appearance of the Cybermen in the revival series up until "The Doctor Falls", long after the series shifted back to the main universe Cybermen.
  • Machine Monotone: The Cybus Cybermen regain the ability to speak in a constant and unchanging machine-monotone after gradually losing that trait in the eighties, but as Deadpan Snarker shows, they bizarrely lose it too occasionally.
  • Motive Decay: The way they convert people after their initial appearance changed. The Russell T. Davies era was pretty consistent in having the brain removed from the human body and transferred to the empty Cyber-suit, infused with an artificial nervous system to make it move. The Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman" muddied the waters, showing the partially converted Lisa Hallett retaining most of her organic parts (albeit with numerous cybernetic implants) - though in her case, it's mentioned that they converted as many people as they could in a hurry while fighting the Daleks, so didn't have time for the full process. Likewise, when a decapitated Cybus-head from "The Pandorica Opens" was opened, it revealed a skull.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The way their "mouth movements" are done behind the scenes are similar to how the original Cybermen move their mouths. The only difference is that there's a switch in the mask that lights the "teeth".
    • Their original voices from their initial appearance to "The Next Doctor" are based on the Cybermen voices from "The Invasion", only a bit lower.
    • In the Cybus notes, they originally had the gold weakness until it was improved much later.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: More or less justified as they're not so much an individual species, as a recurring motif across time and realities - and they've had access to time travel at various points.
    • They get new powers or "upgrades" with each appearance. At first they killed by electrocuting through direct contact, then they could fire lasers.
    • The Cyberman in "The Pandorica Opens" shows several abilities that never appear before or after; the ability for the head to move and operate on its own, use cables as tentacles, shoot tranquilising darts, split open the face plate, and survive without any living organic components.
  • Noodle Incident: Cybermen and the Daleks have compatible technologies in "Doomsday". Precisely how is never brought up, though given that Daleks have no trouble interfacing with practically anything, it might be because of that.
  • Obliviously Evil: They genuinely think that Unwilling Roboticization is a favour for humanity.
    Cyberman: We think of the humans. We think of their difference and their pain. They suffer in the skin. They must be upgraded.
  • Psycho Electro: Their original method of killing was to electrocute victims.
  • Robo Speak: They have a tendency to use more technical terms when speaking.
  • Stompy Mooks: They constantly march in formation while making as much ominous noise as possible... so the Doctor is very surprised when they manage to sneak up on him in "The Next Doctor".
    Tenth Doctor: D'you have your legs on silent?
  • Talking Lightbulb: They were the first version of the Cybermen to have flashing blue lights in their mouths when speaking.
  • There Is No Cure: The Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman" reveals Ianto has been keeping his half-converted girlfriend Lisa alive in the hopes of getting her restored to full humanity. Jack outright tells him, "there is no cure. There never will be. Those who are converted stay that way", although it should be noted Jack was speaking based on his knowledge of the Mondasian Cybermen native to the main universe from The Future. Lisa sort-of gets around this by using the Cybermen's tech to transplant her brain into a fully-organic body, but her brain's Cyber-programming sticks.
  • Uniformity Exception: Cyber-Leaders have black handlebars, compared to the rank-and-file's grey. Likewise, the lead Cyberman in "The Next Doctor" has a visible brain, like the Cyber-Controller, and a black face plate.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: Even more so than the Mondasian Cybermen; those of Mondas had no choice but to convert into Cybermen to survive, but the Cybus-Cybermen were forcibly converted against their will by John Lumic, who used brainwashing technology to make people literally walk into the conversion chambers.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Their idea of a utopia, at least.
  • Villain Team-Up: Amusingly defied: the Daleks were NOT keen on the Cyber-offer of an alliance, and gunned the emissaries down on the spot.
  • Was Once a Man: All Cybus-Cybermen were humans, originally. Now, with rare exceptions like Lisa, they're nothing but brains and perhaps a few other organs/nerves stuffed into cybernetic shells.
  • We Can Rule Together: They offer an alliance with the Daleks. Fortunately (for the rest of the universe), the Daleks decline.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: As mentioned in the Obliviously Evil entry, while the motives behind their creation are a lot more selfish than the Mondasian versions, these Cybermen genuinely believe they're freeing humans from class, gender, race and so many other divisions by converting them.
  • Your Head Asplode: They make a habit of this when their emotional inhibitors are deactivated.
  • You Are in Command Now: When a Cyber-Leader is destroyed, it's mentioned that the Cyber-Leader designation is downloaded to another Cyberman, implying it's a program rather than distinct individuals.
  • You Are Number 6: Cybus Cyber-Leaders have numbered designations.

    CyberMasters 

CyberMasters

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/85274e68_5609_47ef_87f6_8e28e399a5ae_1_201_a.jpeg
"For Gallifrey! For the Time Lords! For the end of the universe itself!"

Cyber-converted Time Lords created by the Master after he ravaged Gallifrey. Unlike typical Cybermen, they are capable of regenerating.


  • Artificial Zombie: Unlike most Cybermen, the CyberMasters were converted from deceased Gallifreyans rather than living people.
  • Badass Cape: As standard issue for the Time Lords.
  • Elite Mooks: Superior in every way to plain old Cybermen, the CyberMasters serve as the Master's immortal henchmen.
  • Fashion-Victim Villain: invoked They retain the Time Lords' questionable dress sense, with their design including gaudy robes and the infamous high collars on top of Cyberman armour decorated with Gallifreyan runes. Considering that it was the Master that made them, this was likely intentional. Later CyberMasters would notably bear a closer resemblance to traditional Cybermen.
  • Invincible Villain: They retain the Time Lord ability to regenerate but indefinitely, making them so dangerous that Ko Sharmus sacrifices himself and Gallifrey to destroy them with the Death Particle.
  • Killed Off for Real: Yaz, Vinder and a hologram of the Fugitive Doctor drain their regenerative energy into to force the Master to regenerate back into Thirteen. This seems to have permanently killed them.
  • Leitmotif: One that combines four different Whittaker era themes. It's a combination of the theme for the standard Cybermen, the Time Lord theme, the theme for the first regeneration, and the Master's theme. It has to be heard to be believed.
  • Motive Decay: They have no adherence to usual Cyberman doctrine about converting all other lifeforms, instead obeying only the Master's commands. They even appear to be slightly more spiteful when speaking.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The Master, as Missy, previously commanded an army of obedient undead Cybermen in Series 8's finale. Series 10 saw her (and her past self) try to enthrall some Cybermen, but that attempt went much worse.
    • Their existence seems to serve as one to the Titan Comics storyline Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen, which also saw Cybermen, under the leadership of Rassilon, invading Gallifrey and converting Time Lords.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They are undead Cyberman-Time Lord hybrids that serve the Master.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Carried over from the 2020 Cyberman design, though less prominent under their robes.
  • Too Powerful to Live: invoked They are apparently destroyed by Ko Sharmus in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom before they have a chance to get out into the universe. The Master does end up escaping with them and builds more, but they would later be annihilated in their next appearance.

Notable Leaders and Commanders

    Cyber-Controller 

Cyber-Controller

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyberman_attack.jpg
"Emotion is a weakness!"
Played by: Michael Kilgarriff (1967, 1985), Paul Kasey (2006)

"We will survive. We will survive. Now you will help us."

A unique Cyberman who directs the Cybermen's central base of operations on Telos. Larger and more autonomous than the standard Cyberman, the Controller is primarily preoccupied with formulating plans to preserve its species in the aftermath of Mondas' destruction, and rarely sees action in the field. For the individual Cyber-Controller in charge of the Cybus Cybermen, see John Lumic below.


  • Adipose Rex: It's a bit larger than an ordinary Cyberman by default, but it's rather heavyset in its 1980s appearance. Rather oddly, this appears to have been deliberate, as portraying actor Michael Kilgariff was not overweight at the time.
  • All There in the Manual: The New Adventures novel Iceberg has the first Cyber-Controller created via implanting a Cyber-Co-ordinator (as seen in "The Wheel in Space") in the Cyber-converted body of a very tall human.
  • Big Bad: Of "The Tomb of the Cybermen", "Attack of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel", as well as various stories in the Expanded Universe.
  • Brain in a Jar: Implied with the "Tomb" version having visible veins stretching up its dome, but not as explicit as the Cybus incarnation.
  • Colony Drop: How it plans to destroy Earth in "Attack of the Cybermen".
  • Costume Evolution: The "Tomb" version resembled the Cybermen of that story, but taller, lacking a chest unit and with a large glowing braincase at the top of its head with no handlebars and visible veins. By "Attack of the Cybermen" it's more heavily resembling the Cybermen of that era, but bulkier and with an entirely metallic braincase at the top of its head.
  • Creepy Monotone: Speaks in a menacingly cold voice.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Has a voice that's deeper, colder and more mechanical than the Cyber-Leader.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: As the highest-ranking Cyberman seen, it presumably is this for any stories which feature a Cyber-Leader or Cyber-Planner as the Big Bad.
  • King Mook: Is higher on the food chain than the Cyber-Leader, but isn't much more difficult to kill. Or so it seems.
  • Legacy Character: Mostly defied in the main series; despite very different appearances, the Telos Cyber-Controller featured in "Tomb" and "Attack" is stated to be the same individual. However, the one featured in "The Age of Steel" (John Lumic) is a totally separate person from the one on Telos, and Craig Owens was almost converted into a new one in "Closing Time".
    • Played straight in spin-off media where there's been several of them, including a cape-wearing one from Mondas and a highly advanced one in "Supremacy of the Cybermen" - "The Isos Network" in particular features one identical to the "Tomb of the Cybermen" version but explicitly a different individual.
  • My Brain Is Big: Requiring a special domed cranial casing.
  • Not Quite Dead: The Telosian one from "The Tomb of the Cybermen" ended up surviving, and was upgraded into a more advanced form before being defeated once again in "Attack of the Cybermen". The short story The Powers Behind the Throne implies they survived the events of that serial, too.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Doesn't usually leave the Cyber-Tombs, so is rarely encountered by the Doctor.
  • Playing Possum: Can take more punishment than the average Cyberman, so pulls this quite a few times.

    Cyber-Leader 

Cyber-Leader

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/banks_leader.JPG
"EXCELLENT!"
Played by: Reg Whitehead (1968); Harry Brooks (1968); Christopher Robbie (1975); David Banks (1982–1988); Paul Kasey (2006); Ruari Mears (2010); Jon Davey (2011)
Voiced by: Nicholas Briggs (2006-present)

Formally introduced in "Revenge of the Cybermen" (but retroactively introduced in "The Tenth Planet"), a Cyber-Leader would appear in every Cyberman serial throughout the 1980s. Although each Cyber-Leader was a different unit, they were all played by the same actor during the John Nathan-Turner eranote  and were functionally the same character. They can typically be distinguished by having black handlebars on their helmets.


  • Big Bad: Of "The Tenth Planet", "Revenge of the Cybermen" and "Earthshock". A variant known as a Cyber-Lord also serves as the Big Bad of "The Next Doctor", before being overtaken by Mercy Hartigan.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: In "Silver Nemesis" and "Doomsday", competing with Lady Peinforte and Nazi leader De Flores to capture Nemesis in the former and competing against the Cult of Skaro to take over Earth in the latter.
  • Brain in a Jar: Not as often as the Controller, but some Cyber-Leaders such as those in "The Next Doctor" and "A Good Man Goes to War" have this along with a black faceplate and the standard black handlebars.
  • Character Catchphrase: "EXCELLENT!"
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The main way to distinguish a Cyber-Leader is through the black colouring most of them have - the "Revenge of the Cybermen" Leader had a black helmet and handlebars, while the variants from "Earthshock" on always had black handlebars. The Leaders seen in "The Next Doctor" and "A Good Man Goes to War" have an exposed brain window similar to that of a Cyber-Controller.
  • Creepy Monotone: In "Attack of the Cybermen", it's a lot less scenery-chewing, which makes it sound very intimidating.
  • Dark Is Evil: The way it's usually distinguished from its brethren is by its handlebars being black. Occasionally, it's helmet or faceplate will be black as well.
  • The Dragon: To the Cyber-Controller in "Attack of the Cybermen".
    • Dragon-in-Chief: It's implied that this is its normal role, but the Controller so rarely appears onscreen that this story is the only time we see it actually depicted.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Speaks in a lower register than its troops, with David Banks seemingly channeling Darth Vader at a few points.
  • The Heavy: For most of the Cybermen stories in which it appears, it is the face of the Cybermen threat.
  • Informed Attribute: Cybermen are supposed to be emotionless, but the David Banks incarnation is very emotive. Perhaps it’s less emotionless than it believes.
  • Large Ham: David Banks was clearly enjoying himself. Every syllable is relished. The Doctor even lampshades this:
    "Compared to some, this one's positively flippant."
  • Legacy Character: Any time a Cyber-Leader is destroyed, another Cybermen is simply promoted to a new Cyber-Leader.
  • Mook Lieutenant: Lead teams of Cybermen and usually are the ones overseeing operations.
  • Noodle Incident: We never find out where (and when) the "Earthshock" Leader had met the Fifth Doctor.
  • Out of Focus: Scarcely appear onscreen after "A Good Man Goes to War". After the redesign in 2013, the Cybermen have been led by Mr. Clever and later the Master, though Ashad has been referred to as "Leader" and had black tips on his handlebars, implying he held the rank. A Cyber-Leader appears in "The Power of the Doctor", leading a squad of CyberMasters and wearing a golden Time Lord headdress instead of black handlebars.
  • Smug Snake: Particularly in "Earthshock", where the Leader is convinced nothing can stop the Cybermen's plans, and "The Five Doctors", where it's arrogant enough to think it can control the Master, of all people.
  • We Meet Again:
    "So, we meet again, Doctor!"
  • You Are in Command Now: Implied; all their 80s appearances feature a credited Cyber-Lieutenant, with it being assumed that it takes over on the death of the Leader. This is shown more explicitly in "Doomsday", where once Cyber-Leader One is destroyed, its files are downloaded into the mind of another Cybermen so it can take over.

    Cyber-Planner 

Cyber-Planner

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyber_planner.jpg
Voiced by: Roy Skelton, Peter Halliday

Cyber-Planners are learning computers used by the Cybermen to create and direct battle plans and strategies.


  • All There in the Manual: The audio "Spare Parts" had the first Cyber-Planner created when the (still human) Intelligencia of Mondas abandoned their individual personalities and funneled their collective intelligence into a mechanical shell.
  • Armchair Military: Given how it is a computer that cannot move on its own (outside of Grand Theft Me), it doesn't really have much of a choice.
  • The Assimilator: Can take over the mind of organic lifeforms and use their knowledge to expedite its plans.
  • Big Bad: Of "The Wheel in Space", "The Invasion" and (as Mr. Clever) "Nightmare in Silver".
  • Brain in a Jar: Implied to have some organic components.
  • Complexity Addiction: The plan it formulates in "The Wheel In Space" has shades of this: Capture the Silver Carrier and have the Servo-Robot pilot it towards the Wheel. When nearby, it releases tiny pods across space that go into the Wheel and hatch Cybermats. The Cybermats then consume the Wheel's stocks of bernalium. Meanwhile, the Cybermen ionise a star to (somehow) divert an asteroid storm towards the Wheel. The crew of the Wheel will notice this, but be unable to use their defensive laser without bernalium. They will then discover that the Silver Carrier has plenty of bernalium on board, so will go over to get it. Concealed in the bernalium are large egg-like pods which, when on the Wheel, will hatch Cybermen. These Cybermen will then deactivate the Wheel's oxygen supply, killing the crew. The Cybermen will then be able to use the Wheel as a beacon for their fleet. All of which raises the question: if they want a beacon, why not just build one?
  • Costume Evolution: Inverted. The Planner featured in "The Invasion" looks less advanced than the one seen in "The Wheel in Space" (which takes place a century later). Justified, as for the first half of the narrative, it had to look like a machine that Tobias Vaughn could have conceivably built himself.
  • Evil Doppelgänger: One of them essentially becomes this for the Eleventh Doctor (see the entry for Mr. Clever).
  • No Kill like Overkill: In "The Invasion", after its fleet is destroyed, the Cyber-Planner intends to destroy all life on Earth with a super bomb.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Being completely immobile with no defensive capabilities, it obviously can't fight.
  • The Strategist: Its purpose is to devise complex battle plans and other strategies for the Cybermen.
  • We Have Reserves: Thinks nothing of sacrificing its own troops in "The Invasion".
    Cyber-Planner: You are of no further use to us. The Cyber-invasion must succeed. The bomb will be delivered.
    Vaughn: But if you do, you'll destroy everything here. Even your own Cybermen!
    Cyber-Planner: The sacrifice will be small.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Sees the minds of children as prime targets for assimilation because of their imaginative potential.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: If you're not a Cyberman you will eventually find yourself on the receiving end of this. Even if you are... see the entry for We Have Reserves.

    Mr. Clever 

"Mr. Clever"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleverboy_6992.jpg
"Good news, boys and girls. THEY'RE HERE!"
Played by: Matt Smith (2013)

Mr. Clever is a particularly insane Cyber-Planner that was operating out of the brain of the Eleventh Doctor. As a result, there was a much more flamboyant, emotive, and outlandish personality than one would ordinarily associate with Cybermen.


  • The Chessmaster: Holds his own in a game against the Doctor. Or so it seems. The real match, at least for the Doctor, was taking place off the board.
  • Demonic Possession: He does this to the Doctor after the Cybermen tried to convert him into a Cyber-Planner. The Doctor spends most of the episode trying to resist him.
  • Expy: Of Mr. Hyde, which fits the motif considering when you put the two together it's "The Doctor and Mr. Clever".
  • Grand Theft Me: The Doctor is partially converted into a Cyber-Planner. Mr. Clever would like very much to make it a full conversion.
  • Hyde Plays Jekyll: Tries to impersonate the Doctor in an attempt to fool Clara, but she sees through his act when he tells her he thinks she's pretty, something the real Doctor would never be upfront about.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Chastises the Doctor on the uselessness of emotions, in a rather emotional display. Also a far more emotive Cyber-entity than we usually see.
  • Jerkass: Mr. Clever is extremely unpleasant. He cruelly mocks Clara by telling her she's going to die pointlessly and very far from home and he tries to have Angie and Artie killed simply to spite the Doctor. It's very satisfying when the Doctor defeats him.
  • Large Ham: Even beyond Matt Smith's usual hamminess while playing the Doctor.
  • Spot the Imposter: An unusual case, as both the Doctor and Mr. Clever are operating out of the same head at the same time.
  • That Liar Lies: The Doctor says that if the Cyber-Planner loses the game of chess, he'll break his promises and kill them all anyway.

    John Lumic 

John Lumic

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/72322988_pack_who.jpg
"This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace."
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_controller.jpg
"This is the age of steel and I am its creator!"
Played by: Roger Lloyd-Pack (2006)

The CEO, director and co-founder of Cybus Industries, John Lumic was the brilliant — and insane — creator of the parallel universe version of the Cybermen (Cybus Cybermen). He was dying from a terminal illness, and made efforts to upgrade himself — and eventually all of humanity — into a higher lifeform.


  • Arc Villain: Of the "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" two-parter.
  • Big "NO!": Once the Doctor kills all of his Cybermen stationed in London, he shrieks "NOOOOOOO!" and personally chases after the Doctor.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Harry Potter exists within the Whoniverse, as shown by "The End of the World" and "The Shakespeare Code". Lloyd-Pack played Barty Crouch Snr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Hilariously, in the two-parter, he's going up against his son Junior.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: He owns Cybus Industries, which from the looks of it, pretty much owns the entire internet. Via his Cybus earpods, which just about everyone wears, he can remotely control anyone to achieve his ends. It's safe to say that not only is he corrupt, but pretty evil to boot.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Averted; unlike the other Cybermen he doesn't seem to have an emotional inhibitor as he's unaffected by it being turned off and displaying obvious emotion even as the Cyber-Controller. Of course, it's not like he had much of a soul to be chewed away.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: He was literally on life support prior to his conversion in the Cyber-Controller, after which he's sat on an immobile chair with various tubes hooked up to him.
  • Disney Villain Death: Due to Pete Tyler of his world using the Sonic Screwdriver on the rope ladder, coupled with his own weight as a Cyberman, Lumic ends up falling to his death into the exploding building.
  • Evil Brit: He is identified as being a British native (in fact, Britain being his homeland is why he decided to start upgrading there).
  • Evil Cripple: He's wheelchair bound and has a wealth of life-support instruments hooked up.
  • Evil Genius: This man created the Cybermen, albeit a parallel universe version.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: "A remark about 'crashing the party' might be appropriate at this point, sir!"
  • Evil Is Hammy: Roger Lloyd-Pack was clearly having a blast as Lumic; his delivery of the following line became practically legendary in the fandom.
  • Exact Words: Lumic may be determined to Cyber-convert humanity, but insists he'll retain free will over his own transformation. After his life support is damaged by a renegade employee, his creations invoke this to turn him into the Cyber Controller whether he likes it or not.
    John Lumic: I've told you... I will upgrade... only with my last breath!
    Cyberman: Then breathe no more.
  • Expy: What if Tobias Vaughan (a Villain with Good Publicity who has a fascination with technology and association with the Cybermen) was Davros (crippled and hammy evil genius who's the de facto ruler of his society and turned his people into inhumane cyborgs)?
  • Faux Affably Evil: From the get-go, he's depicted as a very unpleasant man. So any charm he does display is entirely transparent and superficial.
  • Freudian Excuse: Suggested. Based on when he asks the Doctor if he's ever known grief, rage and pain (with an angry tone), it's possible Lumic himself may have experienced these things earlier in his life, and they hardened him into the man he's seen as, and instilled in him a desire to rid himself of his emotions.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Unlike regular Cybermen whose eyes are ominous black pits, the Cyber-Controller Lumic has dazzling lights for eyes.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: As the one who oversaw the creation of the Cybus Cybermen, he's this for any stories that have them as the specific Cybermen serving as antagonists.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: He was upgraded much sooner than he had planned on, due to Crane's unexpected attempt on his life, and was visibly panicked when a Cyberman took him away against his will. It's ultimately subverted though, as he not only got everything he wanted, but became the Cyber-Controller in the process.
  • Hypocrite: While Lumic planned all along to become a Cyberman, he was visibly panicked at the thought of it happening sooner than he imagined, never once considering that this was how all of his victims felt.
  • Immortality Immorality: Lumic seeks to become immortal via cybernetics, and is willing to forcibly convert countless unwilling subjects to a terrible fate to secure that immortality.
  • Immortality Seeker: He's terminally ill and determined to stay alive at any cost. His quest for eternal life leads him to develop a way to replace body organs with cybernetics, which inevitably results in the Cybermen.
  • It's All About Me: John Lumic is dying of an unspecified illness, and therefore decides to find a way, any way, to save himself, no matter how many people he has to kill, or worse. Unlike the Cybermen, who think they're genuinely doing people a favour scooping their innards out, Lumic's only motivation is ever himself and his legacy.
  • Jerkass: Outside of a public relations advertisement, Lumic is shown to be perpetually bitter and elitist. He can't even give Jackie Tyler a birthday present without making it seem like the gift was too good for her.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: After forcibly converting hundreds - if not thousands - of unwilling subjects, Lumic is forcibly converted by his own creations against his will.
  • Mortality Phobia: All ambition aside, Lumic is nothing more than a weak old man deathly scared of dying.
  • No-Nonsense Nemesis: He doesn't really play around. The second he doesn't get what he wants, he sends in a horde of Cybermen. Even small-talk is beyond him.
  • Not So Stoic:
    • As it turned out, Lumic was afraid of being turned into a Cyberman, mostly due to the circumstances being completely out of his control.
    • Cyber-Controller Lumic does retain his emotions. When the Doctor short-circuits the rank-and-file Cybermen, Lumic reacts with surprise. As he prepares to chase the Doctor, he snarls with rage.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Similar to Davros, John Lumic tries to sell and justify turning humanity into Cybermen as a means of preserving the human brain and ensuring immortality, but at the end of the day all he cares about is using the Cybermen is preserving his legacy and his brain, not caring how anyone who's not a Cyberman would consider it a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Not only does he ignore the Genevan Bio-Convention in creating the Cybermen, but the Cybus tie-in website has him admitting to committing multiple murders in an interview, then murdering the interviewer and publishing the entire interview on the Cybus official website for all to see.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Much like Davros, his invention would later be a big impact to the Doctor. Though it's mostly in regards to Rose's departure, some sources indicate his Cybermen would later merge with the ones originating from Mondas; creating the more advanced Cybermen seen from the Eleventh Doctor's era onwards.
  • Visionary Villain: Foresees a world of Cybermen as one without grief, rage, or pain... the Doctor, of course, points out how that means a world without happiness, calm, or pleasure, too.

    Mercy Hartigan 

Mercy Hartigan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/miss_hartigan.jpg
"Behold, I am risen. Witness me, mankind, as CyberKing of all."
Played by: Dervla Kirwan (2008)

A matron from Victorian London who ends up allying with the Cybus Cybermen and aiding them with the creation of their CyberKing, a giant robot and Cyberman factory. To nobody's surprise but her own, they double-cross her, and convert her into the Cyber-Planner at the heart of the CyberKing. She has the last laugh, however, as she is so intelligent that her mind takes control of the Cybermen and their technology.


  • Ambiguous Situation: Did the Cybermen have an influence on her before her full conversion into the CyberKing? Once the Doctor blasts her with a beam that breaks her connection to the CyberKing robot, she acts horrified and screams at the Cybermen, which leads him to speculate that she hadn't truly "opened her mind" in a very long time. It's more likely that she had simply been so wrapped up in her selfish ambitions that she unwittingly became more monstrously Cyberman-like in nature without even needing to be converted.
  • Assimilation Backfire: The Cybermen's attempt to upgrade Miss Hartigan fails to remove her emotions, and allows her to rewrite their programming.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Her eyes become completely pitch black when she becomes the CyberKing.
  • Child Hater: She views children as nothing but a disposable workforce, reflective of Victorian workhouse culture.
  • Does Not Like Men: Can barely go a few sentences without showing contempt for men and the patriarchy.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Despite appearing to be a mere human lackey, Hartigan is the one pulling the Cybermen's strings and even takes control of their ultimate doomsday weapon to destroy London. The Doctor similarly underestimates her and assumes that she must be a victim under their control, only to discover to his dismay that they're obeying her.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As the CyberKing, she's somehow confused as to why the people of London run for their lives from the massive bloody robot stomping and shooting everything rather than rejoice at it.
  • Freudian Excuse: It's implied, and confirmed behind the scenes, that she was sexually abused, giving her a hatred of men and the patriarchal society she exists in.
  • Humongous Mecha: She becomes the control node for the CyberKing, a colossal dreadnought-class warship shaped like a Cyberman. Inside its chest is a Cyber-factory in which even more Cybermen can be spawned.
  • Ironic Name: Upon being asked her name, she responds "It's Mercy" before setting the Cybermen on a priest and some funeral presiders.
  • Lady in Red: Wears a bright red dress while crashing a funeral and responds to a cleric's criticism with "Is it too exciting?" Given the time period, such bright outfits were commonly worn by prostitutes to attract the attention of potential clients, hence their outrage when she should be wearing something more sombre.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: After being freed of her connection to the giant robot, she lets out a bloodcurdling sonic scream at what she has become which destroys all the Cybermen around her (and herself).
  • My God, What Have I Done??: When the Doctor frees her from the Cyber conditioning, she is so horrified by what she has become that she destroys herself and the Cybermen.
  • No Body Left Behind: When she dies, her body (bloodlessly) bursts like a red balloon.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Shows shades of classism and racism when speaking to Jackson Lake's companion, Rosita.
  • Ret-Gone: If you ever wonder how a Humongous Mecha stomping around Victorian London doesn't appear in the history books of the Doctor Who universe to the point of being common knowledge, the reason is that the cracks in time caused by the TARDIS explosion in Series 5 erased the CyberKing from existence, or so the Eleventh Doctor theorises. Though its possible she was brought back afterward.
  • She Is the King: Sees delicious irony in a woman taking the title of king, or in this case, CyberKing.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: She's one of the most intelligent humans to ever walk the Earth. Her mind is so powerful that when she is converted, she is able to override the Cybermen's equipment, destroy the CyberLord when it attempts to intervene, and take complete control of the Cybermen.
  • Wicked Witch: Her design and personality evoke the image of one, especially with her contempt for children and Christmas. The way her Cybershade minions flock around her is reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the West's Flying Monkeys.

    The Lone Cyberman 

The Lone Cyberman / Ashad

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/05a77f6d_9509_4914_94be_457893341b6f.jpeg
"I did spare your son... because he's a useless runt, sickly and weak! And I did have children. I slit their throats when they joined the resistance"
Played by: Patrick O'Kane (2020; 2022)

Originally a fanatic of the Cyber-Empire known as Ashad, this half-converted, insane Cyberman loathes organic life and aims to retrieve the Cyberium database and rebuild the Empire in the aftermath of the Cyber-Wars.


  • Artifact of Doom: Possesses the Cyberium, a database containing all the knowledge of the Cybermen, and the Death particle, capable of wiping out any organic life if released.
  • Ax-Crazy: Kills most people who cross his path even if they don't get in his way.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Partly inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Serves as Series 12's Arc Villain alongside the Master until the Master, far from being one to share the spotlight, usurps him completely.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: He has a good run as an Arc Villain, but he gets a little too careless with the Master, who hijacks his plan.
  • Blood Knight: Takes great pride in the Cybermen's reputation as a mighty warrior race, a spiel you'd sooner expect from a Sontaran, and he takes sadistic pleasure in hunting down the remaining humans.
  • Body Horror: Ashad's conversion was only half completed, not even having an emotional inhibitor and leaving several body parts exposed including the left side of his face and left arm. The human parts we can see are deathly pale and covered in deep scars.
    The Doctor: Interesting look. What happened? They get bored halfway through or something?
  • Breaking Speech: Delights in intimidating Kate Stewart in "The Power of the Doctor", telling her the Doctor is not coming to save her and she's going to be the first to be Cyber-converted into a new army.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Zigzagged. Ashad is completely nuts, but given his lack of an inhibitor, it's unclear how much of this is due to the conversion or his personality before then. He appears to have been a willing recruit for the Cybermen in the first place.
  • Dark Messiah: Ashad appears to have an almost religious zealotry for his cause: wanting the Cybermen to become completely cybernetic and viewing it as the ultimate ascension, removing the organic components from several he finds to turn them into his own army. His speeches on the ascension have a similar zealousness to the Dalek Emperor.
  • Demoted to Dragon: The Master clones him to serve as his key lackey during events of the centenary special.
  • The Dreaded: Enough so that Captain Jack Harkness hams his way back into the show for an episode just to forewarn the current companions about the destruction the Lone Cyberman will bring in the future. When Ashad eventually appears, the tone of the show gets significantly bleaker.
  • Evil Laugh: Lets out a subtle, creepy one when Mary Shelley says she can see a soul in him.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Appropriately for a monster menacing the author of Frankenstein, Ashad is a mismatch of parts from several Cyberman designs; a unique helmet, the chest and right arm of the "Nightmare in Silver" design, the legs and stomach covering of the Cybus design, and an undersuit/left arm reminiscent of the original "Tenth Planet" design. Shelley even wondered if he had body parts from other people when studying him.
  • Hate Sink: Cybermen, by their nature, think mechanically. They wish to convert and "upgrade" all organic life because they genuinely believe it's for the best. Ashad wants to exterminate all organic life simply because he just hates it that much. He's full of nothing but rage and hate, and loves nothing more than to inflict pain upon others - with a healthy heaping of gloating and talking down to his victims. His one almost human-like moment turned into a giant Bait the Dog when he reveals that the only reason he didn't kill or convert an infant was because it was too useless to bother. Then there's the fact that he volunteered for upgrading and slaughtered his entire family for refusing to do so. Not a joy to be around, this one.
  • Killed Off for Real: Meets his end at the hands of a furious Tegan Jovanka, who declares "This is for Adric!"
  • Knight of Cerebus: His appearance marks a distinct tonal shift for Series 12 as his threat forces the usually chipper Thirteenth Doctor to get truly serious and resort to using almost militaristic tactics against him.
  • Large Ham: Think David Banks' Cyber-Leaders on crack. Justified, as it is acknowledged In-Universe that Ashad lacks an emotional inhibitor.
    Ashad: "You irritate me!"
    The Doctor: "How very human. Still feel things then? No inhibitor yet."
    Ashad: "I do not need to be STABILISED!"
  • MacGuffin: His debut sees him pursuing the Cyberium, an ethereal entity that contains all Cyberman stratagems, and it is later revealed that Ashad himself is a Living MacGuffin, or rather the Death Particle within him. After the Master kills him with the TCE, Ashad's shrunken, action-figure sized body is used as a weapon by the Doctor and Ko Sharmus.
  • Mix-and-Match Man: Because he is an incomplete Cyberman, Ashad has various parts from the differnt eras of Cyber-history. His chest-plate, thighs and right arm are from the 2013 redesign, the left arm and exposed tubes are from the original Mondasian Cybermen and the lower legs and stomach covering are from the Cybus Cybermen. He also has an original helmetnote  and right shoulder pad, as well as makeshift legs that he briefly wore before replacing them with the aforementioned Cybus parts.
  • Motive Decay: As the Master points out, if Ashad's plan is to remove all organic components from the Cybermen, he may as well just build robots, and the Doctor Who universe is certainly not already lacking them. While it is the logical conclusion to the Cybermen's nature, Ashad is the first to explicitly want to take conversion that far.
  • Pater Familicide: He proudly claims to have murdered his own children for joining the resistance against the Cybermen and then allowed himself to be partially converted into a Cyberman, ending his own humanity.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: When he said that he held the death of all things within him, he meant literally. His chest compartment hides the Death particle, a weapon with the potential to destroy all organic life on an entire planet (at least).
  • The Remnant: Alongside two similarly degraded Cybus-like Cybermen, he is one of the last active Cybermen in the galaxy by the end of the Cyber-Wars, and is relentlessly hunting down the very last vestiges of humanity.
  • Sadistic Choice: Makes the Doctor choose between giving him the Cyberium to doom the future or let him destroy the Earth in 1816. She gives him the Cyberium.
  • Shadow Archetype: He can be considered a dark mirror to characters such as Yvonne Hartman, Craig Owens, Danny Pink and Bill Potts, in that he manages to retain his human personality after conversion, but unlike those characters, chooses to embrace the Cybermen and their ideology regardless.
  • Slasher Smile: He has an utterly disturbing grin on his face when the Cybermen are about to convert Kate Stewart.
  • Tempting Fate: Says to the Master that the Cyberium won't leave his body as long as he lives. The Master immediately kills him.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: Inverted: only partially converted compared to regular Cybermen, Ashad's goal is to "ascend" from his organic form, becoming fully robotic - something he desires for all Cybermen. The Master finds this highly underwhelming given the many, many other robots in the Whoniverse, partially inspiring him to turn on Ashad later.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Seems to be his default emotional state.
  • Villain Team-Up: The Master gives him a belter of an alliance offer by inviting the Lone Cyberman's forces through the Boundary to the ruins of Gallifrey and allowing them access to the vast data stores within the Matrix. Of course, the Master is using him and the alliance quickly dissolves.
  • Wicked Cultured: When he figures out that Percy Bysshe Shelley has the Cyberium Ashad quotes his poem Queen Mab, a story about a time travelling fairy who shows a man a future Utopia free of tyrants, greed, and religion.
    "There's not one atom of yon Earth, But once was living man... The sword that stabs his peace; he cherisheth, The snakes that gnaw his heart and he raises up the tyrant whose delight is in his woe."
  • Would Hurt a Child: Averted for William Shelley, but not for any compassionate reasons. He only spares the baby because he's a "useless runt" not worth converting or murdering.
  • You Are What You Hate: The Doctor accurately summarises that for all his evangelising about the superiority of the "Cyber race", Ashad is far from a model Cyberman himself because not only was his physical conversion incomplete to the point that half of his face is exposed, he retains his human emotions and memories due to his lack of inhibitor. Surprisingly, he's already quite accepting of the contradiction, but it doesn't change his mind at all.

Associates and Collaborators

    Eric Klieg 
Played by: George Pastell (1967)

A member of the Brotherhood of Logicians who seeks to reawaken the Cybermen in the hopes they'll help him seize power.


  • Bald of Evil: He's almost completely bald.
  • Evil Genius: He's a member of an order of intelligent humans, so this is a given. Then again, he also thought releasing the Cybermen was a good idea. At the very, he was smart enough to decode how to get into the Cybermen's tomb.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Thinks that the Cybermen will help him and the Brotherhood conquer Earth once he releases them. The Cyber Controller is quick to set him straight.
  • Large Ham: George Pastell is clearly having the time of his life playing Klieg.
  • Too Clever by Half: Smart enough to figure out how to unearth the Cybermen, but too foolish to see that allying with them is a bad idea.
    Tobias Vaughn 

Tobias Vaughn

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tobiasvaughn.png
Played by: Kevin Stoney (1968)

The founder of International Electromatics, who met the Cybermen and formed an alliance with them, and then masterminded an invasion to take over the Earth. However, he plans to backstab them as he knows their intentions too well.


  • Control Freak: While his identical offices are mostly the result of cheap budgeting, it does say something about him that all his offices are exactly alike, and adds to his characterization as someone who sees order and uniformity as part of rejecting inferiority.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Vaughn is very much a corporate Blofeld, who runs his company as a private fiefdom and allows his security guards to murder anyone who gets in his way.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Averted! Unlike the vast majority of other convertees, Vaughn's new cyber-body affects neither his will nor his personality, and doesn't even seem to come with an altered appearance or inability to feel sensation, even as it means he doesn't have to blink and is Immune to Bullets.
  • Emotion Bomb: His Cerebration Mentor weapons, which inflict extra-strong emotions on people. Notably, because Cybermen are not properly equipped to handle any emotions, let alone the incredibly intense ones caused by the Mentors, they are either killed or driven insane by these weapons, which is a cornerstone of his eventual attempt to destroy his "allies" once they've conquered the world for him.
  • Enemy Mine: Ultimately allies with the Doctor to prevent the Cybermen from destroying humanity, but primarily to take revenge on them.
  • Evil Genius: Even setting aside his association with extraterrestrial intelligences, Vaughn is a legitimate genius, with a company whose products exist all over the world.
  • Expy: He's similar to Mavic Chen from "The Daleks' Master Plan", another character Kevin Stoney played. They work with the Big Bads, then betray them for their own purposes.
  • The Quisling: He plans to ally with the Cybermen, but betrays them once they succeed in their mission.
  • Sadistic Choice: Somewhat zigzagged. His initial intent once the Cybermen take over was to use the Cerebration Mentor to destroy his allies and take over the world for himself. But after learning about the TARDIS, he tries to take it from the Doctor, but that fails after he and his companions escaped. He then decides to go to the original play, but that fails after Watkins escaped as well. So the only choice left was to bargain with the Cybermen, which even then didn't worked out, so he allies with the Doctor to kill them.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When the Cyber-Planner finally loses patience with him and decides to just nuke the planet.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: He runs a business, and no one aside from his workers know his intentions.
  • Visionary Villain: He believes his conquest of the world will allow him to sweep away all the messy disorder and competing ideologies that cause so much suffering, chaos, and death in the world, and instead let him use his superior intellect to impose a single world order where mankind will not be divided any longer.
  • You Don't Look Like You: His animation model for the recreation of episodes 1 and 4 lacks Kevin Stoney's distinctive half-closed right eye. (Probably because the animation models need to be mirrored and they didn't want to cause continuity errors.)

    The Master 

The Master / Missy

Throughout several incarnations, the Master has teamed up with the Cybermen or created their own subspecies of them to serve as their private army of pitiless minions.

For the Tremas and Spy incarnations, see their general character page. For the Harold Saxon incarnation, who took on the disguise of Mr. Razor, see here. For Missy, see here.

The Hospital Staff

A group of workers stationed at the Mondasian Colony Ship's Conversion Hospital.
    In General 
  • Lack of Empathy: With the exception of Mr. Razor (but not really), all workers at the hospital seem to be apathetic towards the cries of pain emitted by the patients, justified in that it's the only way for the inhabitants of Floor 1056 to survive their harsh conditions.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: They are the workers in charge of mantaining the Cyberman Conversion process aboard the Mondasian Colony Ship.

    The Surgeon 

The Surgeon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_08_27_at_171752.png
Played by: Paul Brightwell (2017)

A Mondasian scientist and the lead surgeon in charge of Cyberman Conversions.


  • False Reassurance: What he gives to Bill before her conversion.
    Bill: But look at them! They're screaming every second they're alive!
    Surgeon: But we've got something for that now! [holds up Cybermen handlebars] This won't stop you feeling pain, but it will stop you caring about it. It fits over your head.
  • Lack of Empathy: Played Straight with his attitude towards the extreme pain suffered by conversion patients, then later subverted with the introduction of the pain inhibitors.
  • No Name Given: He is not officially given a name.
  • Red Herring: Seems to be the main villain of the episode, but the Master is superior to him.
  • Skewed Priorities: Rather than come up with a way to fix the cyber-conversion so that it doesn't inflict unimaginable pain, he just comes up with a brain-manipulating implant that stops the Cybermen from caring that they're in pain.

    The Nurse 

The Nurse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_08_27_at_171804.png
Played By: Alison Lintott (2017)

The Surgeon's assistant, who is tasked with overlooking the patients after the lights go out.


  • Battleaxe Nurse: She is an asshole to her patients and doesn't care when one is in pain. Also a bit abrasive to Bill when she starts working at the hospital.
  • Lack of Empathy: Particularly emphasised with the Nurse, as her reaction to a patient's repeated screams of pain is to mute his volume dial.
  • No Name Given: She is not officially given a name.

Others

    Cybermats 

Cybermats and Cybermites (Second, Fourth and Eleventh Doctors)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2few.jpg

Silverfish-like cyborgs used as minions by the Cybermen. They appear to be converted from small animals and are known for being able to drain electricity and poison targets. A smaller variation, known as Cybermites, would later be developed that can partially upgrade victims and bring them under Cyber-Control.


  • Adorable Evil Minions: The Cybermats seen in "Closing Time" actually do look kind of cute... until the teeth come out. The Doctor even adopts one, which he names 'Bitey'.
  • Face Hugger: It attacks people and converts them into Cybermen.
  • Killer Rabbit: Or rather, killer mechanical silverfish-rodent-like-thing.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The model encountered by the Eleventh Doctor have a set of both organic and metallic teeth.
  • Plaguemaster: Sometimes the Cybermen use them to spread diseases.


Alternative Title(s): Doctor Who Cyberman

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