By Pete Pachal2013-05-11 13:39:15 -0300If Doctor Who has anything to say about the dark side of technology, the show speaks loudest through its recurring cybernetic monsters, the Cybermen. Once human, the Cybermen have replaced their body parts with mechanical components. The only exception is the brain, which undergoes a slight modification: all emotions are purged.
They call it "upgrading."
The Cybermen were persistent villains in the classic series after they first debuted in 1966. They returned many times to threaten the Doctor, but while their menace was dependable, their fashion sense wasn't. It seemed every Cybermen story featured a new design for the creatures, with only a couple of consistent emblems — handlebars on the sides of their heads and an almost comically blank face — to make them recognizable.
Not that the costume changes are necessarily a negative. They give viewers something new to see, and a new look can represent a rebirth — a fresh take on an old idea. And after all, anything mechanical can be improved with engineering, so it would make sense that the Cybermen would augment themselves over time.
Within the new series, however, the Cybermen have been stubbornly uniform since they were re-launched in 2006: In every story they're shown as bulky steel men, each footstep resulting in a loud clank. While the look is certainly effective at depicting the Cybermen as formidable soldiers, why doesn't a creature that prides itself on upgrading people ever upgrade itself?
Doctor Who fans will get their answer in Saturday's "Nightmare in Silver" episode on BBC America, which finally updates the Cybermen design for the first time in the new series. The story is penned by none other than renowned science fiction and fantasy author Neil Gaiman, who wrote the story determined to re-invent the Cybermen.
"My phone doesn't look anything like what it looked like five years ago," Gaiman said in a teleconference with reporters. "My computer looks nothing like it looked like 15 years ago. Cybermen talk about upgrading — let's watch them upgrade."
Like a software update for your smartphone, the Cybermen's upgrade brings with it new abilities. And, according to Gaiman, a new level of threat. (Warning: minor spoilers ahead.)
"What would an upgraded Cyberman do?" he asks. "Well, one of the things it would do is move pretty fast. I also love the idea of a Cyberman that was essentially so dangerous that if you find one on your planet, you blow up the planet."
Gaiman says Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat gave him a simple task: making the Cybermen scary again. While his story shows how powerful the new Cybermen can be, the essence of their terror stems from a simple fact: They're us.
The idea of a person not just enhanced, but dominated by technology is merely the logical end point of real-world ideas such as Oscar Pistorius' carbon-fiber legs and connected gadgets like Google Glass.
"The Cybermen started with Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis looking at things that were happening: heart transplants and artificial limbs," Gaiman says. "And they did that wonderful science-fictional thing by asking: Where does it go? How many pieces can you replace in a person and still be a person?"
Wherever that line is, the Cybermen are way over it. Now that Gaiman has re-launched the warrior cyborgs as a powerful villain for the series, he hopes that future writers run with the (steel) ball.
"Somebody else can come and take these Cybermen — we have a new costume, a new look, something much, much, much more dangerous. If one of these things shows up people will be much more worried than the old 'cyber-stomp' Cybermen."
Let us know in the comments what you think of the new-look Cybermen.
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