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Cybermen
I'm pretty sure that part of the reason that I am the way I am is because I cut my speculative fiction teeth watching episodes of Doctor Who on PBS from Michigan every night at 7:30 while growing up.
Back then we had a huge TV antenna with rotor and got a total of 5 channels: CBS - 10, ABC - 8, CBC - 7, PBS - 6, CTV - 3. On nights when we were blessed with extraordinary atmospheric conditions we may have been lucky enough to see an hour or two of NBC on channel 4 and later on, TVO was introduced on channel 2, if you had a UHF antenna.
Of these 5 original channels, only 10, 7 and 3 were clear on a regular basis, 8 was around 80% of the time and the beloved home of Doctor Who was always a 50/50 crap shot.
But still, as fuzzy as PBS was and as much as it faded in and out of existence I used to watch Doctor Who religiously every night, which means I was absolutely thrilled when the series was resurrected with such panache in 2005.
Both seasons of the new Doctor Who have been excellent; while not following the original episodic format of the original version instead follow the more modern format of having 13 individual or 2 part episodes, combined into one large overshadowing plot.
I don't think there are real spoilers below, but don't read on if you are sensitive to such concepts.
Notable episodes have been "The Girl in the Fireplace", which is classic speculative fiction at its best, "Love & Monsters", which is just hilarious, "The Unquiet Dead", which introduces a subtle, yet recurring plot point and "The Empty Child", which introduces my favorite new character: Captain Jack Harkness!
The overshadowing arc of the second season combines points from the both seasons, but is mostly told in the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen", "The Age of Steel", "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday". This story arc introduces a secret organization called "The Torchwood Institute", Torchwood being an anagram of Dr. Who that was used by produces before the resurrection of the series was public knowledge.
The Torchwood Institute has been given it's own spinoff series, featuring none other than Captain Jack and revolving around the city of Cardiff, who's "special" properties have been hinted at in episodes like "The Unquiet Dead" with a format that is quoted as being like "The X-Files". (Which reminds me that I need to do a post some time about the movie that I'm in with X-Files creator Chris Carter.)
Obviously the second season arc revolves around the Cybermen, one the most nefarious groups of baddies from the annals of Doctor Who lore. (Although, any group of baddies that's responsible for getting rid of that little prig Adrick, can't be all that bad!)
The Cybermen have evolved in concept, look and history through the over 40 years that Doctor Who has been around. Earlier this year, Fortean Times had an excellent article about a gentleman named "Kit Pedler", who was the doctor and scientist that originally created the half-man/half-machine menace of the Cybermen.
At this point you may be asking yourselves about the point of all this, well, here it is. I was inspired to write this post because of this news article.
It is about a man who is today 100% alive, but who has no discernable pulse or blood pressure. What's keeping him alive? A tiny mechanical heart, about the size of penlight battery, because it causes his blood to flow constantly, he has no pulse. One top of that, this "heart" is designed to last for 10 years without replacement.
I still recall stories on the news growing up of people who received artificial hearts and who's lives were measured in terms of how many days they lived, not in terms of how many years they would live before requiring a tune-up!
And how does this link back to the Cyberman and Kit Pedler? Well, beyond the awesome metaphorical imagery of a man who is literally living without a pulse through the use of modern technology, Kit Pedler, was, according to the Fortean Times article, inspired to create the Cybermen partially from the emerging medical technology of the time, including the first artificial hearts.
Hey asked himself, as perhaps should we all, where does the human end and the machine begin and how do we know we are human if we no longer have hearts?
Badwolf
Posted by Dylon on December 16, 2006 5:51 PM |
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April 2008