One of the Doctor’s most well-known foes is set to receive a new origin, as Big Finish is set to adapt the upcoming audio dramaDoctor Who: Genesis of the Cybermen. The cyborg foes stripped of all their emotions made theirdebut in William Hartnell’s final story as the First Doctor,The Tenth Planet, in 1966. Despite having several beginnings across the series, their goals have remained consistent as they set out to convert all life and remove anything they see as a weakness, ridding themselves of humanity.
While the Cybermen haven’t been seen on-screen since Jodie Whittaker’s final adventure,The Power of the Doctor, an older, once-scrapped tale has been given new life in the form of a newBig Finishaudio drama set to release in March 2025. Published underThe Lost Storiesrange,Genesis of the Cybermenwill see the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davidson), Tegan (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) come to the aid of a dying king, whose sons Sylvan and Dega are determined to rescue their father and the rest of their people. Read the full synopsis below:
A King lies dying in his castle. His eldest son Prince Sylvan is an artist with no desire to inherit a kingdom, while Prince Dega toils in his laboratory, dedicated to saving their dying people from extinction. They will all burn unless he succeeds.
When the TARDIS arrives, its crew believe they can help. But this planet is Mondas. And this is the Genesis of the Cybermen…
This act by the Doctor and companions is ultimately doomed to fail, as they have landed on Mondas, the original homeworld of the first Cybermen. Set before the impactful events ofEarthshockand adapted from outlines by creature co-creator Gerry Davis,the tale has been reworked by David K Barnes, with Nicholas Briggs returning to voice the creatures.
What Genesis of the Cybermen Means ForDoctor Who’s Wider Lore
No Matter What, When, or Where, The Cybermen Are An Inevitable Tragedy
Genesis of the Cybermenisn’t thefirst exploration of the Cybermen’s origins, as Big Finishfirst tackled the subject of how the citizens of Mondas became foes in the celebrated 2002audio dramaSpare Parts, which also saw Davidson and Sutton reprise their TV roles. It would later inspire the Cybermen’s return in the revival of season 2’sRise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel. Another bleak future for Mondas’s people was explored in 2017’sWorld Enough and Time, where Mondasian colonists were left stranded in space, surrendering their humanity for survival.
Doctor Who: The 10 Best Cybermen Designs, Ranked
Cybermen are one of the most memorable elements of the Doctor Who universe, but how does each design compare to the others?
Despite all these origins coinciding inDoctor Whocanon, no tale truly overwrites the other, even long before current showrunner Russell T Davies took a less intense approach. As stated by the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) inWorld Enough and Time, the Cybermen are a chilling inevitability, no matter whether they come from Mondas or Parallel Earths, ashumanity is prepared to do anything to survive in a terrifying case of Parallel Evolution.
Screen Rant’s Thoughts OnDoctor Who’s New Cyberman Origin
The Monsters Are Some Of The Series' Most Enduring Villains
Alongside the Daleks and the iconic TARDIS,Cybermen are some of the most recognizable pieces ofDoctor Whoiconographyto date. Even in the show’s earliest days, when it faced limitations with what could be done on a television budget, its lack of emotion and uncanny depiction of a bleak future for the species made it stand out among the show’s earliest antagonists.
Doctor Who: The 5 Best Cybermen Stories Of The Modern Series (& The 5 Worst)
In BBC’s Doctor Who, the Cybermen are great villains, but some of their episodes haven’t been the best. Here are the 5 best and 5 worst episodes.
As such,Genesis of the Cybermenis a perfect opportunity forDoctor Whofans to revisit the cyborg’s earliest days from the perspective of one of their co-creators from the company who helped create one of their finest stories in the show’s expanded media. With no certainty on when Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor will face the Cybermen in the main series, Big Finish’s upcomingLost Storiesretelling will be of interest untilDoctor Whoreturns for season 15.
Doctor Who
Cast
Doctor Who: Released on August 10, 2025, this series follows the Doctor and their companion as they journey across time and space, encountering a range of extraordinary friends and adversaries, expanding the universe of the long-running British science fiction series.
