No, That Wasn’t A Cyberman Tease In Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary
Doctor Who's first 60th-anniversary episode, "The Star Beast," hinted at the return of the Cybermen — or, rather, it cleverly made it seem so.
Doctor Who loves bringing back its most feared villains, the Cybermen and the Daleks, quite often, and it looks like the first 60th-anniversary episode, “The Star Beast,” has just teased the potential return of the former. Ever since the Cybermen’s first appearance in Doctor Who season 4, serial 2, “The Tenth Planet,” the Doctor has established themselves as their number one enemy, a sentiment that has only intensified with each encounter between the Time Lord and the Cybermen. The good thing is that, so far, the Doctor has managed to beat the half-human, half-machine creatures whose only goal is to convert people into Cybermen.
Despite the fact that the Cybermen are among Doctor Who‘s smartest villains, they haven’t exactly been missed much since their last appearance in the 2022 specials. The CyberMasters, a subspecies of the Cybermen, and their Master have just caused chaos in Jodie Whittaker’s swansong, “The Power of the Doctor.” Yet, Doctor Who is seemingly eager for the Doctor’s iconic enemies to come back, possibly within the next two anniversary specials, if the opening scene in “The Star Beast” is to be taken at face value. In the scene, David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor finds himself next to Cyberdog, a mysterious store with two Cyberman-like statues in silver positioned at the entrance.
Cyberdog Is A Real Shop In Camden, Not A Doctor Who Reference
Doctor Who‘s 60th-anniversary special, “The Star Beast,” opens with the Fourteenth Doctor landing his TARDIS in London, near Donna Noble’s house, as he soon finds out. When the Doctor is looking around, a little store called Cyberdog is visible in the background. Its name and two silver robotic statues seem to be an obvious Cybermen Easter egg at first glance, but in fact, the store has nothing to do with the Time Lord’s vicious cyborg enemies. Cyberdog is an actual network of stores that sell futuristic clothing. One of the branches is located in Camden, London, next to Donna’s house in the Doctor Who universe.
Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Does Include 1 Cyberman Reference
Even though Doctor Who has cleverly played the Cyberdog scene for laughs, Doctor Who‘s first 60th-anniversary episode ending does include a reference to the Cybermen. Donna has passed the Doctor-Donna metacrisis to her daughter, but Rose hasn’t had access to that part of herself until the events of the episode. However, certain details have seeped through the memory wipe — Rose’s toy-making shed resembles the TARDIS, and the toys she’s made are miniature copies of aliens. One of the toys featured in the scene is a Cyberman, but that is hardly a hint at their return. After all, the Cyberman is joined by a toy Dalek, Ood, Adipose, and many more.
With two more Doctor Who‘s 60th-anniversary episodes to go, more of the Doctor’s enemies might still appear to cause trouble for him and Donna. However, it is unlikely that the Cybermen will be making their comeback in either “Wild Blue Yonder” or “The Giggle,” as they were the main villains in the Thirteenth Doctor’s last story, which only aired in 2022. The cunning newcomer to on-screen Doctor Who, the Meep, has managed to be a worthy adversary to the Doctor, and the creature’s enigmatic boss has yet to show up, so there will be plenty of charismatic villains in the anniversary specials, even without the Cybermen.
