Cyberman

:This article is about the Doctor Who villains. For the movie about Steve Mann, see Cyberman (movie).

Physical characteristics

The Cybermen are humanoid, but have been cybernetically augmented to the point where they have few to no organic parts. In their first appearance in the series, the only portions of their bodies that still seemed human were their hands, but by their next appearance, their bodies were entirely covered up in their metallic suits. It is presumed that underneath their suits there still exist organic components and they are not true robots, but this has not been confirmed.

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Early Cybermen had an unsettling, sing-song voice, constructed by placing the inflections of words on the wrong syllables. In their first appearance, the effect of this was augmented by the special effect of having a Cyberman abruptly open his mouth wide and keep it open, without moving his tongue or lips, while the separately recorded voice would be playing, and then shut it quickly when the line was done. Later the BBC used special effects from its Radiophonic Workshop by adding first an electropharynx, then a vocoder, to modify speech to make it sound more alien. In later stories of the original series and in the audio plays, two copies of the voice track were pitch-shifted downwards by differing amounts and layered to produce the effect, sometimes with the addition of a small amount of flanging. In some stories the actors provided the voices themselves, using microphones and transmitters in the chest units.

Related Topics:
BBC - Special effects - Radiophonic Workshop - Vocoder - Flanging

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Cybermen have a number of major weaknesses, of which the most notable is the element gold. Initially, it was explained that, due to its non-corrodable nature, gold essentially chokes their respiratory systems. For example, the glittergun, a weapon used during the Cyber-Wars in the future, fired gold dust at its targets. However, in later serials, gold appeared to affect them rather like silver affects werewolves, with gold coins or gold-tipped bullets fired at them having the same effect. Other weaknesses include solvents and excessive levels of radiation.

Related Topics:
Gold - Respiratory system - Silver - Werewolves - Bullets - Solvent - Radiation

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