Great Doctor Who Fan Myth #2
Ask any Doctor Who fan about the Cybermen, and they will trot out the Great Doctor Who Fan Myth #2, that these cyborgs have a different design each time they appear on screen. 
The first appearance of the Cybermen, in William Hartnell’s final story The Tenth Planet was in a costume that was never used again. It was let down by the fact that a race of cyborgs from the planet Mondas, who were driven by pure logic would contemplate wandering around everywhere with an enormous electric fire welded into their chests, a huge car headlight plumbed into craniums and that their mouths would lock open when they were speaking. So, when the Cybermen returned later in 1966 in The Moonbase they had been redesigned , with their NCB miner’s helmets replacing the headlight and with a much smaller chest unit. 
Here is the important bit, the same costume was used again in The Tomb of the Cyberben and again for the Wheel in Space a few months later. So four appearances for these monsters and only one change in appearance, if the Great Fan Myth #2 were to be believed, then there would have been new look for each of these stories. And then we move on to the Cybermen’s last appearance in the 1960’s introducing what I call The Invasion Paradigm, because in every appearence the Cybermen will make for the next four decades, they appear with the same basic design. There are only cosmetic differences between the cyborgs that feature in The Invasion and those who appear their colour debut Revenge of the Cybermen. Even though they have new suits made for Earthshock and the 1980’s, these suits are then reused for the rest of the decade, until Doctor Who disappears from television for sixteen long years.
So along comes the new series in 2005, and plans are drawn up for the Cybermen’s return. Sure enough, the 2006 series sees the first major redesign of these creatures in my lifetime. The Cybusmen design created by John Lumic in the Art Deco isnspired alternative Earth has produced something that is still essentially a Cyberman, but that has moved with the times.
So two changes in the 1960’s and then no change until 2006 is hardly every changing is it. Cybermen in the stories they have appeared in have been very conservative creatures, seeking the unchanging survival of what they know at the expense everyone else. As it is with their characters, so it is with their costumes.
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“…two changes in the 1960’s and then no change until 2006″
It’s one thing to say “same basic design”, an argument, incidentally, you could conceivably put forward for the whole cybermen basic design anyway.
Seriously though, John, if you think no changes at all between Invasion and Earthshock, you’re quite frankly losing the plot.
Like I said in the article, the changes between The Invasion and Silver Nemesis were cosmetic. The silhouette of the Cybermen did not change between 1967 and 2006.
Right, now, let’s get this straight.
By “silhouette” you mean that their shadows are the only thing that were the vaguely the same shape(ish)?
By “cosmetic” you mean what’s generally considered to be the look and design, yes? I might argue that the humanoid Daleks were still actually Daleks, but their different look was merely cosmetic, but wouldn’t seriously try to peddle the myth that the design was the same(!)
In other words they might have changed tonnes more than any other returning monster, and still satisfied your “silhouette” and “cosmetic” criteria.
The changes in the design of Daleks, Sea Devils, Silurians, Sontarans, Autons, Yeti, and any other returning monster (save a couple e.g. Ice Warriors, Sil and Alpha Centauri) haven’t been dismissed as insignificant by fans, yet none of these changes were anything like as drastic at those which befell the Cybermen between between 1967 and 2006.
Why not just admit they changed? It’s not like it matters.
What’s the point in holding onto this delusional nonsense which you cannot seriously expect anyone to swallow?
your argument the difference between the cybemen in the tenth planet and the moon base is not a redesign as such as the basic design therefore, according to your argument, there are only cosmetic changes between the cybermen of the tenth planet and the moonbase. yet this is not the case as the cybermen went from having 5 fingers to 3 i think if i where to lose 2 fingers on each hand i would not call it a coemetic change. I have never heard other doctor who fans say that the cybermen have changed each time they have appeared on screen. the cybermen as a whole seem to change and adapt, presumably as new technology becomes availiable to them or as they own organs fail.
i think what we can say is there are elements of the cyberman design that have been consistent- the handlebars, the use of silver, the round circular eyes, the use of logic and these elements have had cosmetic redesigns ( the handlebars are black for cybercontrollers) the eyes now light up in NSCs as opposed to EarthShock cybermen. In many ways the article skims over the ancient greek concept of the Form:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Forms
by which an ideal could be used to describe the perfect embodiment of a Form – in the case of the cyberman then the handlebars would be the prefect way to describe the ideal of the Form.