The Committee finds itself divided with regard to the Doctor’s usefulness; realizing that division is their greatest problem, they eliminate their individuality and combine their minds into one, and become the first Cyber-Planner.

They could also be disabled with electric charges, although this weakness seems to have been eliminated later; one was used to siphon electricity from power sources instead. In the aftermath, the Doctor and Nyssa help Allan formulate a plan to reverse some aspects of the processing, making the Cybermen potentially more human. I would have liked to see the Doctor’s earlier visit to the Detsen Monastery, which is referenced but not shown; it brings up the interesting question of how long the Doctor and Susan travelled after fleeing Gallifrey and before meeting Ian and Barara.

We do reserve the right to refuse complaints or levy appropriate charges for issues raised after this period. This Cybermat had black, teardrop-eyes, like most Cybermen, and an opening mouth with organic teeth. They had needles which injected poison into humans, but they could also inject gold dust into Cybermen.

However, there’s some contradiction; the subway maps seen onscreen are accurate for 1968, but don’t display the Victoria Line, which opened in 1969.

Following the first invasion of Earth, Gareth Arnold uncovered a Cyber-ship that had crashed in Cambridge many years beforehand and experimented with the technology that had survived.