With the news of a Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover series from IDW, we decided to have a look in depth at the Cybermen and how we felt they had been handled by various producers over the years.
Referencing everything from Tenth Planet to Earthshock, Rise of the Cybermen to Closing Time, we attempt to establish where the Cybermen have gone wrong – if at all.
After all, the Borg could be described as being “Cybermen done right” – they weren’t conceived as basic storm troopers and have a fascinating, developed back story, something latterly ignored in the case of Cybermen.
On the other hand, it could be argued that the Borg degenerated into “insert threat here” antagonists in their later appearances in Star Trek. It could be that the whole Cybermen vs Borg argument is a lot tougher than we first thought…
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How do the Borg have a better back story than the Cybermen? Both the original Mondasian Cybermen and the new Parallel Universe Cybermen have pretty clear cut origin stories where as the Borg o not. Just saying!
Hi Brian: the difference here is between the Borg having a developed, explored back story – mainly via Picard and Seven of Nine in Voyager – as opposed to DW mainly ignoring the origins of the creatures throughout the original run (re-inventing them on each occasion) and then offering a watered down reinterpretation of Spare Parts in 2006.
We certainly haven’t said the Borg have a better back story.
I do agree on the re-inventing bit and may have confused back-story with origin story. I just never felt even via Seven of Nine / Picard that the Borg ever got an actual origin story. Always wish they had although I do like the mystery of it. That being said I haven’t watched STNG since its original run and may have missed/forgot some key points about our Borg friends. On a side note. I wish some original less clunky looking Cybermen would return. It would be nice to see them vs the current ones.
Love this site! I always get intelligent responses to any of my comments and it is always a joy. Some other sites and forums can be a little lacking especially one site who will remain nameless that actually use to bash a particular Dr. a little to much. Thanks for having a great site which allows for intelligent debate and quality info!
Thanks for your kind words Brian! Let us know what you think of the discussion on the podKast if you get the chance 🙂