Doctor Who Series 12: Ten Huge Questions After Ascension Of The Cybermen
9. Why Did The Cybermen Reject Ashad?
It was a shock to discover that the reason Ashad is not fully converted is because he was rejected by the Cybermen. His motivation for recreating the Cyber-race is to prove that he was good enough. There are clear allusions to Christianity here which likens Jesus’s story to this line from the Psalms “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Ashad is the believer who will restore the fallen Cyber-kingdom. More than that, he speaks about ascension as if the material cybermen need to undergo some kind of apotheosis. The embracing of pain seems to be an important part of this, the antithesis of what the Cybermen are about.
We will surely find out next week why exactly the Cybermen rejected Ashad half-way through his conversion. Maybe the process itself went wrong, through no fault of his own, or maybe there has been some interference to prevent it from happening, whether by the Doctor or another party. But what is important is the narrative of the rejected one taking matters into his own hands. This backstory will help to explain his goal and shape the outcome.
The Doctor does a slightly better job than Mary Godwin when it comes to psychoanalysing Ashad. She doesn’t bother trying to appeal to his better side, instead she reminds him that he hates what he has become, and isn’t it ironic. Is she planting a seed that will cause him to turn back on his quest and even destroy his creations? Just as Yoda had serious reservations about Anakin being trained to be a Jedi, do the Cybermen know that Ashad will turn on them?