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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 8:49:33 GMT
Okay, random thought that just popped into my head on the way home today. Bear with me:
We all know about latter-day Cybermen and their weakness to gold. Get it into their respirators and it suffocates them. Seems a bit silly on the surface of things. Why not use lead or some other less precious material with the same properties?
Well, what if sticking gold into a Cyberman is like putting gold into a microwave? (Life tip: Never ever put anything containing gold in a microwave, reasons to follow.) Pure gold makes for a very good conductor and could theoretically short-circuit their chest units if the equipment ran hot enough. Might even generate plasma depending on the density, an obstruction that couldn't be removed with a hardy Cyber-sneeze.
Nothing particularly revelatory, but hey, it makes an old and confusing vulnerability all the more credible. Thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 9:03:34 GMT
I always thought it was a communism metaphor.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 9:04:40 GMT
Honestly, I'd rather see the Cybermen overcome it. It's outdated and reduces their power and RTD was right to ignore it.
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Post by theotherjosh on May 21, 2018 12:37:00 GMT
The Cyberman's weakness to gold is part of what I love about being a fan. It more or less made sense in its original context; gold dust clogged their breathing apparatus and they suffocated. Divorced from that context, the weakness makes no sense, but it continues anyway, leading to silly scenes like Ace and her slingshot. (Though I did like the poison-tipped golden arrows from the same story) Thematically, the weakness towards gold is interesting. The gold is very nearly a talisman and it imparts a mythic feel to the entire production.
I can't remember where I read it, but I think that the word from RTD was that the weakness to gold was discovered early in the development process for the Lumic Cybermen and corrected before they went into production.
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Post by barnabaslives on May 21, 2018 17:17:07 GMT
We all know about latter-day Cybermen and their weakness to gold. Get it into their respirators and it suffocates them. Seems a bit silly on the surface of things. Why not use lead or some other less precious material with the same properties? Well, what if sticking gold into a Cyberman is like putting gold into a microwave? (Life tip: Never ever put anything containing gold in a microwave, reasons to follow.) Pure gold makes for a very good conductor and could theoretically short-circuit their chest units if the equipment ran hot enough. Might even generate plasma depending on the density, an obstruction that couldn't be removed with a hardy Cyber-sneeze. I've never really thought the premise was lacking in sensibility. That's essentially what I've been telling myself, is that it probably has to do with the physical properties of gold, like the conductivity and/or gold's status as "noble" metal - other metals might rapidly oxidize into non-conductive materials and quickly lose the ability to short-circuit their workings, or some such? I rather like the microwave angle, works just fine for me. I think gold is great as a story premise, it gives them a weakness that's not very common, but not impossibly rare, so us humans and our glitterguns have at least half a fighting chance even if we have to struggle to stay stocked with ammunition. I think it could also make for interesting historical stories that might be set wherever gold has had historical significance. (Imagine for example the Cybermen secretly trying to start - or stop? - the California Gold Rush because of whatever relevance to our ability to fend off a future invasion). I also like the Cybermen's weakness for gold as a possible political metaphor. (One could probably read into it an anti-socialist or an anti-capitalist message depending on their particular tastes?) |
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Post by Jeedai on May 21, 2018 17:40:30 GMT
I always figured the conductivity of gold was the reason it is effective for blocking Cyber-respirators. Static charges could build up that make the gold dust stick to the breathing apparatus rather than be filtered out by it.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 0:41:15 GMT
The Cyberman's weakness to gold is part of what I love about being a fan. It more or less made sense in its original context; gold dust clogged their breathing apparatus and they suffocated. Divorced from that context, the weakness makes no sense, but it continues anyway, leading to silly scenes like Ace and her slingshot. (Though I did like the poison-tipped golden arrows from the same story) Thematically, the weakness towards gold is interesting. The gold is very nearly a talisman and it imparts a mythic feel to the entire production. I can't remember where I read it, but I think that the word from RTD was that the weakness to gold was discovered early in the development process for the Lumic Cybermen and corrected before they went into production. Strikes a chord in my memory too. One of the new annuals, maybe? Yeah, I do like Revenge's angle with the Vogans. Gold in some circumstances can be a symbol of justice or a balancing of the scales, so it's interesting that we meet them hidden away in their gilded caverns. It wasn't really brought them any prestige in the traditional sense, far from it. They live in this perpetual fear of a reprisal. Terrified of the Cybermen's return, yet having been isolated for so long they've forgotten the very thing that would protect them. Their walls picked clean of the stuff. It's a nice earthy counterpoint to the pristine cleanliness of Nerva. And credit where it's due, it did show why gold couldn't just be shoved into their respirators. Same with Earthshock, despite common expectations. It's the gun, not the gold that finishes off the Cyberleader when he becomes frenzied. One of the Cybermen's own. Conversely, I really enjoy Ace's skirmish towards the end of Silver Nemesis, but... surely it would have made more sense to give her the bow (quiver collected elsewhere) and have the Doctor threaten to destroy Nemesis's arrow instead? I still enjoy it as a story, but it does seem to carry over the "spectacle over sense" interpretation they got from Attack (two shots from a Beretta to the face is the one that sticks in my memory). I get the impression that they were there pursuing Nemesis more as a kind of placeholder for another faction that couldn't make it into the silver anniversary. Maybe the Roundheads the Doctor mentions to Ace.  |
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Post by jasonward on May 22, 2018 0:54:45 GMT
I know gold seems a strange thing to be a killer of cybermen, and given that they are basically humans in survival suits (ok its more than that, but you get the idea) it seems doubly odd, but consider for a moment all the things humans are poisoned by, such as water, oxygen and carbon for instance, and suddenly gold being the killer of cybermen doesn't seem so strange. Humans are pretty much, if not actually unique in being able to eat and sustain life on a huge variety of food stuffs, we can ingest and digest a larger range of foods than can any other animal, it is one of the things that has allowed us to spread so widely across the world, but there many environments that would posion us (fast or slow). Perhaps the gold thing is the result of a choice, a design which works superb in 99.999% of all use cases, but fails in 0.001% and attempting to add a gold tolerance would lower other tolerances to more common things? So, sure gold seems odd item to kill cybermen, but if you think about it, wouldn't cyberman immune to all environmental factors be even more odd? So why not gold? |
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Post by J.A. Prentice on May 22, 2018 19:09:40 GMT
I'm not really a fan of the weakness at all, to be honest, but Neil Gaiman did do a similar retcon in Nightmare in Silver, where the Doctor says gold disrupts their circuitry, not clogs their air filters. (Which makes sense until you realize that the Cyberman can walk around in space without oxygen in The Moonbase, so why do they need air filters?)
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Post by jasonward on May 22, 2018 20:56:29 GMT
I'm not really a fan of the weakness at all, to be honest, but Neil Gaiman did do a similar retcon in Nightmare in Silver, where the Doctor says gold disrupts their circuitry, not clogs their air filters. (Which makes sense until you realize that the Cyberman can walk around in space without oxygen in The Moonbase, so why do they need air filters?) Perhaps because they can't go without oxygen for ever or without first being prepared for it? |
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Post by J.A. Prentice on May 22, 2018 21:00:22 GMT
I'm not really a fan of the weakness at all, to be honest, but Neil Gaiman did do a similar retcon in Nightmare in Silver, where the Doctor says gold disrupts their circuitry, not clogs their air filters. (Which makes sense until you realize that the Cyberman can walk around in space without oxygen in The Moonbase, so why do they need air filters?) Perhaps because they can't go without oxygen for ever or without first being prepared for it? I'll concede that makes sense. (Still not a gold weakness fan, though, primarily due to how absurd it became by Silver Nemesis.) |
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 23:38:55 GMT
Perhaps because they can't go without oxygen for ever or without first being prepared for it? I'll concede that makes sense. (Still not a gold weakness fan, though, primarily due to how absurd it became by Silver Nemesis.) I am trying with all my might not to say "Tʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ʟᴏɢɪᴄ ɪɴ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴇ sᴀʏs," and I don't think I can quite manage it.  I like the gold weakness for some variants of Cybermen. Thematically it's kind of cool. And I really want to write the line: "A Cyberman's heart beats at 1064 oC." But it has to take the effort to use and if they're going to have a universal weakness, I'd prefer something like hard radiation or the deadliest killing machine ever devised with burster discs and bolts. Maybe Cybermen have their own internal oxygen supply built into the suit itself, like a space-age aqualung? Something they can rely on for extended periods, but would require refuelling? |
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I like the gold weakness for some variants of Cybermen. Thematically it's kind of cool. And I really want to write the line: "A Cyberman's heart beats at 1064oC." But it has to take the effort to use and if they're going to have a universal weakness, I'd prefer something like hard radiation or the deadliest killing machine ever devised with burster discs and bolts.