CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: HISTORY OF THE CYBERMEN - PART 4

Well, we got through a whole slew of late 20th/early 21st Century stories. Now we're off to the far-flung future. We'll go to Telos and deal with the first Great Cyber War.   



PART 4: THE DISTANT FUTURE 

The Cyber Race is in trouble. They were quite the formidable galactic conquerors with their Main Fleet and Mondas - but both were lost during attempts to take over the Earth. Subsidiary Fleets tried to exact a revenge of some sort, but they took damage too. The Cyber Armies are strong and still have power and influence in other parts of the Universe but it is getting harder for them to maintain their grip. They are running low on energy.



THE GREAT RETREAT

After some calculation, the Cybermen decide they must rest for a time. They will disappear from the cosmos in hopes that the Universe will be changed enough to suit them when they re-emerge. They even devise a sort of trap that will indicate to them when the humans of the galaxy are more suitable for conversion.

Of course, the biggest problem is to find a place where they can hide while they rest. After some searching, they discover a world that will suit their needs. The Cryons of Telos have become masters at mass refrigeration. Their planet went through a huge climate change and is no longer hospitable for them so they fashioned gigantic survival chambers that maintained a low temperature for them to thrive in. Uniting all the subsidiary fleets, the Cybermen invade those chambers and more-or-less wipe out the Cryons. They then retro-fit the whole place into a cryogenic suspension system. Or the tombs of the Cybermen - as they came to be known.

Before going into hibernation, the Cybermen wanted to make sure they could acclimatize properly to the ways of the Galaxy when they awoke. They took a massive sweep through all the greatest warehouses of knowledge that were available in the Universe at the time (they couldn't hack the Matrix - they didn't even know Time Lords existed, yet). They would take a second sweep when they arose once more so that they could see just how much things had changed during their slumber. As they gathered all their information, they learnt more about the Doctor. They didn't know how, but he was a man of many faces. As they probed Earth records, they learnt that - with another face - the Doctor was responsible for the destruction of Mondas.

The Cybermen felt they needed an appropriate repository for all the knowledge they had gathered. Up until this point, they had been reliant on Cyber Planners. They wanted something less cumbersome and more mobile. The Cyber Controller was created.

This was their last act before sealing themselves' into a huge underground hibernation chamber. This all occurred just as the 21st Century was ending...





THE GREAT RE-AWAKENING

There was but one more logistical problem to deal with before the Cybermen went into their Long Sleep. While all the subsidiary fleets had been gathered, those Deep Space Scoutships were taking too long to return. So the Cyber Controller ordered them to remain where they were but to change their mission parameters. No longer would they search for new worlds to conquer. Instead, they would commit acts of piracy on any space vessels or small colonies that they had the strength to beat. They would plunder them and amass as much resources as possible for the sleeping Cyber Force to use when they returned to consciousness. Essentially, the scouts became scavengers.

It's difficult to say just how long the Cybermen truly slept for. In Tomb of the Cybermen, the claim of five hundred years gets used several times. This is probably a rounding up of the number for dramatic effect. It's probably more like four hunrded and a bit of change.

Convinced that humans will, someday, evolve into more logical beings that will crave conversion - the Cyber Controller sets up his own hibernation chamber near the surface of the planet. He also leaves several logic puzzles that will need to be solved in order to gain access to him. He is convinced that this will be a kind of screening system that will mean that anyone who does seek him out will be suitable to turn into soldiers in his Army.

Things don't quite go according to the Cyber-Controller's plan. He is, eventually, dug up by a small archaeological team during the early 26th Century who realize they've opened a Pandora's Box. With the help of the Second Doctor (who the Cyber Controller recognizes and attributes the destruction of Mondas to), the tombs are re-sealed.

These are, of course, the events of Tomb of the Cybermen.

One cybermat manages to escape before the main doors of the tomb are closed. Cannibalizing circuitry from the artificial arm of Toberman's fallen body, the cybermat sets up a transmitter that summons a crew of Cybermen that had been successfully scavenging during the centuries that the Main Army slept. They respond to the signal and reach Telos a short while later. The Cyber Controller is repaired and the tombs are properly re-opened. With all the resources the scavengers have amassed, the campaigns of the Cybermen can begin, anew. 



THE NEED FOR UNIFORMITY

Once restored, the Cyber Controller sees there must be some serious revision to the Cyber Race. He has only revived a small force but there is a need for greater delegation of orders. Cyber Leaders are created to help with the decision-making process. They confer and decide that the scavengers who came to save them should be sent back out into deep space. Attributing a Cyber Leader to the scavengers, they are sent off to commit more acts of piracy.

Other scavengers are contacted and they bring in their hauls, too. They are sent back out once their cargo is delivered. The Cyber Controller sees he can do a lot with the resources the scavengers provided. But he needs an even larger governing force so he also creates Cyber Lieutenants to help with the issuing of his orders.

A second sweep of all the great data bases of the Universe is done. More is learnt about the Doctor and his many faces. Some visual records are even obtained. In the process of acquiring more knowledge of their greatest foe, the Cybermen also discover the existence of Time Lords.

After creating new ranks in his forces, the next big decision the Cyber Controller makes is to take all the different models of Cybermen that are sleeping in their tombs and assimilate them into one form. This conversion occurs while many of them are still asleep. The latest model is meant to be the most streamlined and efficient of all the Cybermen. Easy to build so that the army can grow as quickly as possible as they go back out into the cosmos and begin, anew, their plans of conquest. This particular branch of Cybermen came to be known as the Neomoprh.

Full Disclosure: I am, technically, breaking my own rules with the naming of this model. I had said in my first entry that I would only use information from transmitted episodes. The term "Neomorph" is never said onscreen. It's something that's really only used in David Banks' book on Cybermen (a great read with very pretty pictures!). I've decided to employ this title when I discuss this particular model because it sounds better than the more commonly used: "80's style Cybermen".

While the Neomorph Cybermen do have their advantages, there are some shortcomings, too. The earliest models seem to be some of the most vulnerable. They aren't even immune to bullets. Also, because the conversion was done on so many hibernating Cybermen, it's created complications in the revivification process. Many Cybermen are waking up and acting in an irrationally violent manner. They are dubbed Rogue Cybermen. The Cybermen working under the Cyber Controller's authority study the problem but can find no way to repair it. Rogue Cybermen are simply eliminated any time they awaken.




TIME TRAVEL

At this point in time, the Cybermen have one of the greatest strokes of luck. They just happen to capture a time vessel and the fundamentals of time travel are opened up to them. Ruthless, logical creatures that they are, they try to exploit their new-found technology to its fullest potential.

Deciding that it all went downhill for them after they lost Mondas, the Cybermen of Telos undertake a mission to alter the course of history. They will go back to 1985 and take advantage of the fact that Halley's Comet will be passing by the Earth. They will divert its course and cause it to collide with the planet. The devastation it will cause will weaken the Earth enough so that when Mondas arrives in 1986 they will absorb the planet effortlessly.

Just to better understand the effects of such devastation, the Cybermen start lacing the surface of Telos with explosives. The Time Lords get wind of what they're up to and dispatch the Doctor to stop them. The events of Attack of the Cybermen take place, here.


ANOTHER SOMEWHAT IRRELEVANT SIDENOTE:  Some might think that Attack of the Cybermen takes place entirely in 1985 since Lytton sends out a distress beacon that year that gets received by the Cryons. How can he send out a transmission that finds its way into the future? I say that Lytton's previous experience with the Daleks and their time corridor in Resurrection of the Daleks gives him that ability. He managed to glean a bit of temporal physics off of the Daleks and built a transmitter that could emit into the future. He wanted to return to his own time (somewhere around the 27th Century) but could only get the transmitter to project so far. The transmissions made it to the 26th Century - which was good enough. He could probably work out a way to jump ahead one more century once he got there.


Cyber Control does get destroyed at the end of Attack but it was largely abandoned by that point. When the Cybermen came to Telos in the late 21st Century to go into hibernation, they landed their armada on Telos and hid it in an underground complex. Their ships were waiting for them five centuries later when they emerged from their tomb. Since Telos was scheduled for demolition, they evacuated the planet.

Once more, the Cyber Fleet was haunting the heavens.



THE FIRST CYBER WAR

The Earth soon learnt about that Cyber Fleet and grew concerned. They had suffered enough at the hands of the Cybermen back in the day. They decided that, rather than wait for an attack that they knew would come, they would take the fight to them.

But they also knew they couldn't do it alone. While the Cyber Fleet wasn't as large as it once was, it was still formidable. Earth's military forces were not sufficient to win in a war against the Cybermen. Fortunately, other worlds remembered the threat they once posed to the galaxy. Various interstellar governments began to confer with Earth. An alliance was forming..

Our Neomorphs do make an attempt to stop the alliance by trying to blow up the Earth during a vital conference that would have banded the different governments together once and for all. Again, some time travel shenanigans are going on, here. As we reach the appropriate moment in the Cybermen's timescale, we'll discuss it in further detail.

The second attempt by the Cybermen to pervert history fails. A short while later, the First Great Cyber War erupts.

The war was long and bloody. Even with so many forces combined against them, the Cybermen were still showing signs of a possible victory. The Neomorphs had managed to overcome those early design flaws and were, now, impervious to most forms of weaponry. However, in achieving their near-invulnerability, they develop a single great weakness: they are allergic to gold. If it gets into their chestplates, it clogs up the breathing apparatus and suffocates a Cyberman. The Alliance Against the Cybermen, eventually, learn of this Archilles' Tendon and use it to their advantage. Voga, the planet of gold, is approached by the Alliance and their assistance is requested. Military scientists invent the glitter gun. A weapon that can coat a Cyberman with gold (or, at least, a part of the Cyberman - you probably have to aim for the chestplate) and kill him.

This represents a huge turn in the tide of the First Great Cyber War. The Cyber Forces are driven back in a vicious onslaught by the Alliance. There is a Final Great Skirmish where, to all intents and purposes, the Cybermen appear to get wiped out. However, in that final battle, the planet Voga also appears to be destroyed.

The Cybermen do still appear to have their time vessel throughout the Cyber War. As it looks like they are doomed, a crew embarks upon the ship and disappears into the future.

We'll hear more about them later....





REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED LOGICAL 

Once more, the Cybermen seem to disappear from the Universe. Many believe they could be gone forever.

However, the Alliance has overlooked one or two important matters. Firstly, they did not realize there were still Cybermen working in the remote parts of space. They had originally been scouts and were now scavengers. They were staying hidden from the eyes of the Alliance while they were re-building supplies and hatching a scheme to create a new Cyber Fleet.

One group of scavengers does make a play at re-asserting themselves' into a more central part of the Universe. They are, quite possibly, the same group that received the transmission from the cybermat on Telos and re-awakened the main forces. They have amassed all that they need for a new army - they just want to make one important strategic move. Voga, it seems, was not entirely destroyed in the Cyber War. A chunk of it is still floating about near Jupiter with an actual population staying hidden beneath its surface. The Cybermen know they will be defeated, once more, if they try to conquer the galaxy before Voga is destroyed.

They attempt to blow up Voga during Revenge of the Cybermen. The campaign fails.

It should be noted that the Revenge-style Cybermen are one of the few models in existence at the time that weren't Neomoprhs. Not all the scavengers underwent Neomorphic conversion during the Great Re-Awakening. While the Cyber Wars were waging, however, they were still receiving minor upgrades from the dominant model. One of those upgrades causes the Cyberleader to take on very aggressive characteristics so that he's more intimidating to humans. They also sought that high level of invulnerability that the Neomorphs had. Which meant that, at the same time, they inherited the weakness to gold. However, the allergy wasn't quite as acute. The gold really needed to get into their system to cause harm. Which may explain why the guns the Vogans were using against them didn't seem to have any effect (one would presume the bullets in their rifles were made of gold - since just-about everything else on Voga is golden). But, when the Doctor loads a cybermat with gold-dust, the attack works. The sting of the cybermat injects the gold deeply into a Cyberman's body. Whereas the bullets can't quite penetrate their armor.

With the attack on what remains of Voga repelled, the Cybermen do seem to be well-and-truly extinct. But we all know that can't truly be the case.

They will be back.





And we end the entry, here. I thought I could do this whole saga in four installments but the tale is proving longer to tell than expected.  So we'll return again, soon, with the Second Great Cyber War and a series of cameos that seem to indicate that the Cybermen will keep surviving for thousands of years to come....



Part 1: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html

Part 2: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_9.html

Part 3: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_13.html