10 Traumatic Doctor Who Facts You'll Wish You Hadn't Heard

Cyber-conversion is already a pretty horrific process. It’s hard not to be slightly traumatised by the idea of having your body forcibly modified, you brain stuffed into a metal shell, and all of your emotions and free will artificially suppressed, leaving you an unthinking, unfeeling machine.

But if that’s all that happens to you when you’re caught by the Cybermen, you can count yourself lucky, because for some people it’s even worse – sometimes, people are awake and conscious during the conversion process.

The most notable (and spine-chilling) example of this is probably in Rise of the Cybermen, when the homeless “test subjects” kidnapped by Cybus Industries can be heard screaming in agony as the cyber-conversion process begins.

Possibly even more horrific is in 1985’s Attack of the Cybermen, when the Doctor encounters Lytton – a recurring character audiences were already familiar with – midway through the conversion process. Not only is Lytton fully aware of what is happening to him, he is able to communicate, begging the Doctor for to kill him and end his suffering before he finally becomes a Cyberman.

Lisa from the Torchwood episode Cyberwoman is another example of this, with the Cybermen needing soldiers quickly towards the end of the Battle of Canary Wharf, and therefore not having the time to "put people under" before the conversion process began.

We're largely led to believe that Cyber-conversion is fast and painless, but this isn't always the case.