Heavy Metal (2006)
- Publication: Total TV Guide
- Date: 2006-05-13
- Author:
- Page: 12
- Language: English
- Notes: Cover image
In the latest Doctor Who adventure, the Cybermen are back - and they're more terrifying than ever!
The cyber factory must be the scariest place in the universe. It's where the evil John Lumic (Only Fools And Horses' Roger Lloyd Pack) brings kidnapped humans and straps them to a production line that turns them into Cybermen.
In a new two-part adventure the robotic baddies return to torment the Time Lord once again. And, as ever, these most fiendish of creatures are bent on taking over the world.
Viewing them up close in the cyber factory (actually a converted industrial warehouse on the fringes of Cardiff), it's clear why these gigantic, impassive automata have sent generations of children running screaming behind the sofa since they first appeared on TV four decades ago.
Nick Briggs, who currently provides the eerie robotic voice of the Cybermen (as well as the infamous Daleks' croak), thinks they are so terrifying because they are 'the opposite of everything that the Doctor is. He is all emotion and passion and compassion. The Cybermen don't have any of that. They have steel hearts - quite literally!' Briggs reckons that their emotionless faces heighten the effect.
'The Cybermen are like animated corpses. They have no facial expressions, so they're like the walking dead. We fear them because they're the negation of everything vital in life. What the most chilling monsters have in common is that they represent the thing we fear most: death.'
Designer Matt Savage, who helped update the Cybermen for this series, agrees. 'They have endured as a concept because of our fear of machines taking us over,' he says. 'You can see the same idea in The Terminator and The Matrix films.
'Daleks are totally alien, but the Cybermen are everyone you know and love converted into your worst nightmare. They're you and me and your mum and dad. That's what makes them really scary'
Caption: Nerves of steel: The Doctor and Rose run into an old and deadly enemy
CYBERSTYLE
A look at how the menacing metal monsters have evolved since the Sixties
1966
The Cybermen make their first appearance in William Hartnell's final story The Tenth Planet set in the far-off future of 1986!
1967
The silver foes get a bit of a redesign in The Moonbase, one of four episodes in which they battle the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton.
1975
Sporting stylish flares in Revenge Of The Cybermen (against Doctor Tom Baker) they try to destroy the gold planet Voga (gold is lethal to Cybermen).
1982
In Earthshock, the cyber race tried to blow up the earth. They failed, but sadly the Doctor's (Peter Davison) loyal assistant Adric was killed.
2006
The Cybermen return after an 18-year absence, with an über-cool new design. The Doctor is trapped on a parallel earth with his old enemies...
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- APA 6th ed.: (2006-05-13). Heavy Metal (2006). Total TV Guide p. 12.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Heavy Metal (2006)." Total TV Guide [add city] 2006-05-13, 12. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Heavy Metal (2006)." Total TV Guide, edition, sec., 2006-05-13
- Turabian: "Heavy Metal (2006)." Total TV Guide, 2006-05-13, section, 12 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Heavy Metal (2006) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Heavy_Metal_(2006) | work=Total TV Guide | pages=12 | date=2006-05-13 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Heavy Metal (2006) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Heavy_Metal_(2006) | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025}}</ref>
