Cryon
- ️Wed Feb 26 2025
The Cryons were a humanoid race indigenous to Telos.
Biology[[edit] | [edit source]]
Cryons were, according to ArcHivist Hegelia, predominantly feminine in nature and were "not unaware of the delights of sexuality". (AUDIO: The Cyber Nomads [+]Loading...["The Cyber Nomads (audio story)"]) They were pale and lean, with long fingers and fingernails, enlarged craniums and whitish skin. They moved slowly and had echoing voices. Due to their unusual composition, they could not survive temperatures above freezing and would steam and boil when subjected to heat. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Cryons had reasonably advanced technology, but they especially excelled in refrigeration technology. Their advanced refrigeration technology brought the Cybermen to Telos. They were also able to contact Earth from Telos and knew of the Time Lords. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early history[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Cryons were native to Telos (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) and had a highly sophisticated culture. (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) Unable to survive in temperatures above zero, they built refrigerated cities beneath the surface (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) when the temperature of Telos rose. (REF: The Universal Databank [+]Loading...["The Universal Databank (reference book)"]) They were aware of the Time Lords and the Sixth Doctor once implied that he had encountered them prior to their downfall. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Resistance against Cyber-colonisation[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to some accounts, the Cybermen, seeking somewhere to hibernate following the destruction of Mondas, (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) invaded Telos to acquire the Cryons' refrigeration technology. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) Others, however, claimed that they had been native to Telos, with Mondas being the colony they had been forced to abandon in favour of returning home. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) The Cryons were believed to have been wiped out, but a small number survived in secret and worked against the Cybermen, attempting to frustrate their plans and driving some of those in the cyber-tombs insane. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Toppling Cyber-rule[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Cryons learnt that the Cyber-Controller had acquired a time machine and that he intended to destroy Telos (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) or simply deactivate the refrigeration systems (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) before going back in time and disrupting Earth to prevent the destruction of Mondas. Having accepted what had happened to them, the Cryons planned to thwart this plan despite it meaning that Telos's invasion would have become unnecessary in the new timeline and hired Gustave Lytton to assist them in removing the time machine after picking up his distress signal. He asked for diamonds in payment, which surprised them given how common diamonds were to them.
Flast was captured by the Cybermen (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) and tortured, but she did not betray the Cryons' plans to them. (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) When Lytton arrived on Telos with Charlie Griffiths, Threst prepared them for the mission to steal the time machine whilst Varne and Rost saved the life of Peri Brown and learnt of the Sixth Doctor. Lytton and Griffiths ultimately failed and Varne died ensuring that the Cybermen were not able to use the TARDIS to enact their plans, but Flast destroyed Cyber-Control with vastial and wiped out the Cybermen. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
Rebuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Cryons survived the destruction of Cyber-Control, with Rost listening to the destruction from a cave some distance away, and prepared to rebuild their planet. (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) Over the next ten years, using experimental world engines the Cybermen had been developing, the Cryons moved the planet further out from their sun, so that its surface was once more covered in ice.
In 1995, they invited the Doctor to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their liberation, and informed him that they intended to boost the world engines to allow Telos to travel across the cosmos to serve as a sanctuary for victims of the Cybermen. However, the celebration was interrupted by a faction of rogue Cryons who had become obsessed with Cyber-technology and, upgrading themselves into semi-Cyberman hybrids, hoped to join the Cyberiad. They intended to use the world engines to fly the entire planet into Cyber-territory as a peace offering, and took partygoers hostage in an effort to gain access to the engines' control. (GAME: "Deep Freeze" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"Deep Freeze","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"})
By one account, in the years after surviving the Cybermen, the Cryons formed the most advanced frozen transportation company in the universe. (GAME: We All Scream for Ice Cream [+]Loading...["We All Scream for Ice Cream (game)"])
Further Cyber-hardships[[edit] | [edit source]]
Eventually, the Cybermen returned to Telos, (GAME: The Mazes of Time [+]Loading...["The Mazes of Time (video game)"], "Waifs and Strays" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"Waifs and Strays","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"}, "Telos In Two" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"Telos In Two","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"}, "The Telos Node" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"The Telos Node","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"}) in the form of three separate factions: survivors of the original Telos Cybermen, survivors of the destruction of Mondas, and "shattered remnants of the Lumic Cybermen" left over from their defeats at Torchwood Tower and in 19th century London. The three groups' conflict caused the Cryons to be driven further underground, left to fear the day the warring Cyber-factions would unite and become unstoppable. (GAME: "Telos In Two" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"Telos In Two","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"})
The Cybermen's timeship went on to collide with the Doctor's TARDIS in the Vortex, bringing onboard its apparent passengers: other work camp escapees, what seemed to be the ghost of Lytton, and a pair of Cryons, who explained to the Doctor that the Cybermen had returned to Telos and were killing everyone on the planet. However, the Doctor eventually discovered that a Cyber-Planner hidden in the lowest level of the timeship was attempting to take over his TARDIS from within, calling into question the reality of everyone else the Doctor had encountered. (GAME: "Waifs and Strays" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"Waifs and Strays","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"})
During the Cyber-Wars[[edit] | [edit source]]
At the height of the Cyber Wars, what remained of Telos still existed as the core of the solar-system-sized Cyberiad Tactical Grid, turned into "a processing centre for Cybermen communications". The last few Cryons still existed there, however, fighting a hopeless war in the knowledge that bringing down the Cyberiad Grid, even temporarily, would paralyse the entire Cyberman war effort, perhaps long enough for their enemies to gain the advantage. Just as the Cryon commando unit launched what should have been a doomed assault, the Doctor's TARDIS materialised, giving them much better odds of success. (GAME: "The Telos Node" [+]Part of Attack of the Cybermen, Loading...{"namedep":"The Telos Node","1":"Attack of the Cybermen (game)"})
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Sixth Doctor kept a Cryon pendant in his C chest. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse [+]Loading...["The Carrionite Curse (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Cryons were not initially intended to all be female, with Flast and Varne originally being written as male characters.[1]
- Early versions of the script of Attack of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"] included a colony of Cryons living inside Halley's Comet and had the Cryons hiring Lytton to persuade the Cybermen to use the comet to destroy Earth, allowing the Cryons to ambush them. The Cyber-Controller would have been aware of this.[1]
- The hair near the Cryons' mouths was added at the suggestion of John Nathan-Turner, late in the process, to hide the join between the masks and the actors' skin.[1]