Cybermen!!!

Okay I had to write a post for this. I saw this pic on the BBC News website today (though it was posted a couple days ago apparently). Now for many people the Daleks are the best villains from Doctor Who, not for me though. For me, that honour goes to these creatures. The Cybermen.

I'm not sure what exactly it is about them that scared me as a kid (and still gives me goosebumps now). I think it is because they were once human (or close to it). Residents of the planet Mondas (and later after Mondas was destroyed, the planet Telos), they were an advanced society that became afflicted with a plague. As the disease ate away their bodies, so they replaced the parts that failed with metal and wires, until only their brains remained. Devoid of feelings, they now seek to make others in their own image. The Borg from Star Trek are directly inspired (copied) from these earlier inventions.

Next year is the 40th anniversary of them first appearing on TV screens, and fittingly it marks their return to television (they were last seen in 1988), in a 2 part episode to be shown on BBC1 next spring. The picture is their redesign for the new millennium... and hot damn they look good. Easily recognizable as a Cyberman, and as an evolution of past models (every time they have appeared on Doctor Who, they have had a slightly different look, which is fitting as they are continually upgrading and improving themselves). Yet there are other influences in the new design, most notably from the robot in Metropolis (shoulders and tops of legs). Sure is gonna be fun seeing these soulless automatons back on the box.