Box for Cyberman alien scalemodel from Dr Who

Box for Cyberman alien scalemodel from television series Dr Who made by Sevans, Trowbridge, c.1987

Cybermen are a race of cyborgs that feature in the BBC’s flagship science fiction television series Doctor Who.

They were created in 1966 by the story editor Gerry Davis and Dr. Kit Pedler, the unofficial scientific advisor to the show. Pedler had the idea of the Cybermen after a conversation with his wife, who was also a doctor, about what would happen if a person had so many mechanical body part replacements that, they could no longer tell if they were human or machine.

Cybermen have several different origin stories within Doctor Who mythology, but one constant is that they are a race of emotionless cyborgs incapable of compassion or free will. They ‘convert’ other races by forcibly adding cybernetic implants onto them. They are uncompromising and have terrified children since the 1960s. Along with the Daleks they are Doctor Who’s enduring nemesis.

Items like this Cyberman model can inform and inspire not just science fiction fans but real-world science. Life-changing prosthetics robotic arms with both sensory and motor components are being developed. The next generation of prosthetics includes cutting-edge design, AI, and robotics fusing with muscles, bone and the nervous system, creating ever more useful bionic limbs. Some users of prosthetics claim the term cyborg as a positive label.