| Cybermen | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who race | |
 A Cyber-Warrior, a Cyberman of the 2020 redesign. | |
| First appearance | The Tenth Planet (1966) |
| Created by | |
| In-universe information | |
| Home world |
|
| Type | Cyborgs |
| Notable members | |
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings (or other similar species) into more Cybermen in order to populate their ranks while also removing their emotions and personalities. They were conceived by writer Kit Pedler (who was also the unofficial scientific advisor to the series) and story editor Gerry Davis, and first appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet.
The Cybermen have seen many redesigns and costume changes over Doctor Who's long run, as well as a number of varying origin stories. In their first appearance, The Tenth Planet (1966), they are humans from Earth's nearly identical "twin planet" of Mondas who upgraded themselves into cyborgs in a bid for self-preservation. Forty years later, the two-part story, "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" (2006), depicted Cybermen invented again in a parallel universe London as a business corporation's attempt at upgrading humanity. Doctor Who audio dramas, novels, and comic books have also elaborated on existing origin stories or presented alternatives. The 2017 episode, "The Doctor Falls", explains the different origins as parallel evolution, due to the inevitability of humans and human-like species upgrading themselves through technology; this perspective resolves continuity differences in the Cybermen's history.
A mainstay of Doctor Who since the 1960s, the Cybermen have also appeared in related programmes and spin-off media, including novels, audiobooks, comic books, and video games. Cybermen stories were produced in officially licensed Doctor Who products between 1989 and 2005, when the TV show was off the air, with writers either filling historical gaps or depicting new encounters between them and the Doctor. The species also appeared in the Doctor Who TV spin-off, Torchwood, appearing in the fourth episode, "Cyberwoman" (2006).
- ^ Parkin, Lance & Pearson, Lars (2012). A History: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe (3rd Edition), p. 444. Mad Norwegian Press, Des Moines. ISBN 978-193523411-1.