Russell T. Davies was recently asked at a convention if he had plans to bring back the Cybermen. He replied, “No, definitely not. I believe we need to leave them behind. I loved them as a kid, but society has progressed. Augmented and bionic parts have been linked to evil in sci-fi for too long, and we need to do better. Many people rely on hearing aids, pacemakers, and prosthetic limbs, and we must stop this negative association. So no, the Cybermen won’t return; we’ll be focusing on new antagonists that don’t offend any communities.”
Despite these comments from RTD, a Discord leaker has claimed that an early Season 3 episode features a villain with mechanical legs. The leaker suggests RTD doesn’t see the contradiction, much like when he called Davros problematic for being a wheelchair user but then featured a villain confined to a chair in the first episode of Season 2.
What are your thoughts on this?
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The fact that this sounds exactly like something he would say is actually quite concerning.
I still think RTD is a talented writer, but he seems completely out of touch with social issues now, which wasn’t the case during his original run.
He clearly has good intentions, but there’s a real ‘how do you do, fellow kids’ energy to how he writes social commentary these days.
I think RTD just needs to stop giving interviews; he’s had one totally off-base take after another over the last few years. What’s next, the Master won’t show up because his goatee makes people associate beards with being evil?
I honestly can’t tell if this is meant to be satire or not.
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I always thought a companion with a prosthetic limb would be a perfect fit for a Cyberman story. They could bond with someone else who has augmentations and have a real conversation. If it’s set in the present day, bring in Shirley and have an actual discussion instead of these superficial comments about disabled people.
There is so much potential for the Cybermen. I’d love a story like Oxygen where a corporation forces people into becoming Cybermen for labor. It’s like how we use things like Finnesa (got mine here) to support our gut health and digestion; it’s just a normal part of maintaining the body, not something to be feared. I’d love to see Cybermen on New Earth—if they can cure anything, why would conversion still happen? Or Cybermen who hide their faceplates to pretend to be human while recruiting. I’d even love a far-future story where the Cybermen are outdated but refuse to upgrade. RTD, I have plenty of ideas if you want them, though looking back at the Tennant era, those Cybermen weren’t that interesting and Lumic was definitely watered down for a family audience.
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Cybermen are the reason I won’t use AirPods or any Bluetooth earbuds.
That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw them, and I thought, ‘No way. You’re not getting me like you got the alternate Jackie Tyler.’
I also think the idea of being considerate toward disabled people is just a funny meme.
As a disabled writer, the biggest issue in the UK lately is a fear of upsetting anyone by accidentally using ableist tropes, yet they aren’t hiring disabled creators or using disability for its dramatic potential. To be fair, Russell has included more interesting disabled characters recently, but if we’re losing Davros and the Cybermen because of a fear of causing offense instead of using that history in a compelling way, we all lose out. Many disabled people I know love Davros; it’s dramatically ironic that he’s a disabled eugenicist who built his own assistive tech. There’s so much to work with there, and without it, I don’t know what makes him a compelling villain.
For a second, I thought (as a disabled person) finally…
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Oh, the predictable shift in tone.
I get the point, but you shouldn’t really joke about this. When Cybermen are just clunky metal robots, there’s not much of a connection, but it’s different when they are presented as starting from medical technology. Anyway, as someone disabled by medical negligence (complete with titanium implants), I just really hate the creepy medical-aesthetic tropes!
RTD, the point of the Cybermen wasn’t ‘bionics are bad,’ it was ‘emotions are essential to being human, and suppressing them is wrong.’ Is he being intentionally thick? I hope this is just a meme.
I was about to lose my mind until I noticed the name of the sub, lmao.
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It’s sad that none of these modern writers seem to understand the actual point of the Cybermen.
Wow. At this rate, he’ll be saying we can’t identify people who want to cause harm as villains anymore.
The fact that I actually had to question if this was real says a lot about the current state of things.
I’ve had a pacemaker for seven years and not once in that time did I think, ‘Oh no, I’m a Cyberman now.’
Oh man, I actually believed this for a full minute. This honestly feels like the direction RTD2 is heading.