Guest Column – Four reasons why the Cyberman are superior to the Daleks

Steven King has returned to Popgun Chaos with a great Whovian article! Let’s keep the debate going in the comment section!

The Daleks first appeared in Doctor Who in 1963, and they were undeniably a success. The Daleks are the most popular monsters on Doctor Who. They are the Wolverine of Doctor Who: include the Daleks and your ratings go up; your sales go up. For years afterward, writers and producers tried to come up with another successful monster, one that didn’t require the expensive licensing agreements from Terry Nation, the Daleks’ real-world creator. The Mechanoids, the War Machines, all failed to live up to the glory of the Daleks. But one monster succeeded where all others failed: the Cybermen!

Debuting in 1966, the Cybermen were popular and they constantly locked proverbial horns (or handles) with the Second Doctor. They continue to bring chills to children around the world. And they are far superior to the Daleks.

So here I present the evidence. While the Cybermen have had their share of crap episodes (many of which were in the 80s), they still prove to be the better monster conceptually.

1. The Cybermen are inherently more visibly frightening than the Daleks.

Robotics professor Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley.” This valley refers to the level of comfort humans have for things that appear human but are not. Essentially, at what point does something with a human appearance stop being cool and start freaking us out? Zombies look human but freak us out, thus putting them in the uncanny valley of strong human likeness and strong discomfort for the observer.

The Daleks look nothing like humans. They are pepper pots. They look like they store condiments, at least until they decide you are not useful to them and they blast you. The Cybermen look, by varying degrees, more human. The current crop of Cybermen from “Nightmare in Silver” still look quite robotic, but the Cyberleader inhabiting the Doctor’s body was chilling. He looked like someone familiar but behaved against type. Similarly, the Cybermen in their 1964 debut, “The Tenth Planet,” were some of the most humanoid versions ever created. The design was wetsuit with tech, but the faces were blank and emotionless holes. When they spoke, they opened their mouths and words just came out. Their mouths didn’t move in time with the words, they just stayed open until the words ceased, then the mouths closed. The voices were erratic, slowing down and speeding up. The portrayal was completely unnerving. The design of the Cybermen always has to be conversant with the essential human form, which makes them more frightening when applying the uncanny valley lens. The Daleks are not humanoid, and even when they tried it out in “Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks,” they decided it was too far away from their genetically pure roots. They rejected evolution. The Cybermen embrace it.

 

2. The Cybermen are upgradable.

In 2010 the Daleks were redesigned for the Eleventh Doctor story “Victory of the Daleks.” From fan reaction you would think Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss had kicked a puppy. The redesign changed the Daleks from tarnished copper to bright red, white, yellow, and orange. The Daleks had always had some variation in color to denote function and rank, so this wasn’t a huge deal, but the basic shape of the Daleks was altered away from the largely unchanged design of Ray Cusick in the 1960s to a more hump-back design. Again, foot meets puppy.

The Cybermen, on the other hand, have changed numerous times since their debut. Sometimes they have handles on their heads, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they resemble men wearing wetsuits with tech stuck on. Sometimes they resemble men in silver tunics and trousers and moon boots. Sometimes they eliminate all the trappings of clothing and go straight for a robot aesthetic. And it isn’t just clothes that change; the Cyber-voice has shifted from an erratic cadence to a modified voice box effect to a deep, booming voice that shouts “Excellent!”

The point is that the Cybermen are upgradable. It is in their nature. It is a part of their concept, and that concept is the constant tension between humanity and technology, the question of what constitutes human progress.

3. The Cybermen can become a stand-in for questions about human progress and humanity’s relationship with technology.

When you get right down to it, the Daleks have a single theme: Nazism. The Daleks are about racial purity. Davros even stated in “Genesis of the Daleks” that his creations were the pinnacle of Kaled evolution. Just substitute blob and tentacles for blond hair and blue eyes. The Daleks are always shouting and their speech is usually clipped and emphatic. They are the SS soldiers of the galaxy. In early stories they would even raise their plungers in a salute from time to time. Because of this conceptual theme, their use is quite limited. The obvious theme that accompanies them is genocide or, on rare occasions, fear of the other. While there is a lot of thematic mileage to be had in fear of the other, the mileage for genocide and Nazism is limited. It becomes more about escapism because we can’t really identify with the struggle. Most reasonable people disagree with Nazism, so there is not much of a question there.

The Cybermen, on the other hand, are perfect for asking all those uncomfortable questions about human progress and technology. The original conception of the Cybermen was that they developed technological enhancements to solve health issues. In time, they became obsessed with using technology to improve themselves just because. Once they reached the point where they removed emotions (since emotions obviously hinder logic) there was no turning back.

The underlying concept of the Cybermen forces us to ask what defines humanity. Technology isn’t inherently a bad thing, but at what point does reliance on technology become antithetical to being human? “Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel” asked some great questions with regard to technology that integrates us to one another and dictates how we operate and exist. On some level, we are then at the mercy of those who control the technology, as the alternate Earth in that story was at the mercy of John Lumic. And John Lumic just happened to be an immortality-obsessed mad scientist. His character may have been a bit clichéd, but in our current age of technology, progress is pursued largely for the sake of progress, to see how far we can push and advance and evolve. We can’t un-make technology without catastrophe. When the Cybermen are being written well, they can make us ask how far is too far with technology. They force us to ask hard questions about why we produce certain types of technology: Is it for medical use? Is it for military use? What do we now just accept because it was a good idea at the time?

4. The Cybermen succeed where the Daleks fail.

The Daleks are all talk and posturing. While the Cybermen have had their share of blowhards (again, the 80s), they tend to just lay out the facts and get things done. The Daleks fought against the First Doctor in 31 episodes, and they could never kill him. The Doctor didn’t regenerate in a Dalek episode until the Ninth Doctor, and even then it was Rose’s fault. The Cybermen fought against the First Doctor in four episodes, and then he regenerated because his body just wore out. They hit it out of the park on the first try. And even when it comes to crap plans, the Cybermen succeed where the Daleks fail. In the 1964 serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” the Daleks are attempting to hollow out Earth’s core in order to install engines that would allow them to pilot the planet across the galaxy. They failed in this. The Cybermen, however, were able to do something similar to their home planet of Mondas—which also happens to be Earth’s twin planet. Once more, the Cybermen succeeded where the Daleks failed.

As far as I am concerned, the evidence is clear: The Cybermen are far more versatile and far more successful than the Daleks. Their greatest obstacle has always been short-sighted writers from the 1980s. In an age of rapidly advancing human progress, it is helpful to have the Cybermen to make us ask hard questions about ourselves. Contrary to what the Daleks assert, the Cybermen truly are the superior monster in Doctor Who.