Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The Cybermen's old cold chant, "You will be upgraded", gets a bureaucratic bark: killing recast as a computer command, a person turned into a file to be wiped. It fits the Cybus design of faceless, programmed soldiers, and it set up the series' great rivalry, with "Delete" against the Daleks' "Exterminate". It is now the standard Cyberman sound, and fans shout it at one another in jest.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Doctor WhoShow the scene
"Delete" is the battle cry of the Cybermen who first marched in Doctor Who's second revived series, built by John Lumic's Cybus Industries in a parallel Earth. It debuts in "Rise of the Cybermen" (first aired 13 May 2006, written by Tom MacRae), where the Cybermen kill party guests and then surround the Doctor and his friends, declaring them "rogue elements" to "perish under maximum deletion". The doubled shout is best documented in the series finale "Doomsday", when the Cybermen turn on the Daleks at Canary Wharf, chanting it as they fire. Nicholas Briggs supplies the Cyberman voice.
Sources (3)
- Tardis Data Core, Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)Plot summary, end of the story; infobox; cast listReference checked
- Tardis Data Core, Cybermen (Pete's World)Voice and language passageReference checked
- Wikiquote, The DaleksTranscript excerpt where the Cybermen attack the DaleksReference checked
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