Mondasian Mondasians , also called Mondans ( PROSE : " Iceberg " ) or , especially among themselves , simply humans ( TV : " World Enough and Time " ) were the natives of the planet Mondas who eventually created the technology that gave rise to the subspecies known as Cybermen . ( AUDIO : " Spare Parts " ) Biology . Just like their planet was Earth ' s twin , the Mondasians themselves were also very close genetically to the Terran human s and were described by the Eighth Doctor as humanity ' s " closest cousins " . According to the Doctor , the two species were the only ones on which the process of cyber - conversion originally worked ( COMIC : " The Flood " ) , although some Cyberman groups later developed technology that allowed them to convert other species as well . ( TV : " Nightmare in Silver " , COMIC : " Assimilation² " ) Etymology . Amongst Cybermen , the term " Mondan " had a peculiar meaning . According to at least one account , it referred to those Cybermen who stayed on Mondas and were philosophically opposed to the Faction . ( PROSE : " Iceberg " ) Mondans , according to the Faction , were not fully dedicated to the pursuit of logic and retained a bigger portion of their biological systems after conversion . Mondans , in this sense of the word , were eventually wholly eradicated after Mondas exploded . Thus , in this narrower sense of the word , Mondans were the form of Cybermen that the First Doctor encountered shortly before his regeneration . ( TV : " The Tenth Planet " ) However , this usage was not widely used or even known by other species . For most races , " Mondan " or " Mondasian " simply meant " the species that formed the biological core of the Cybermen " . Like many names , both " Mondasian " and " Mondan " were sometimes used as s to mean " a thing which came from Mondas or was produced by Cybermen " . For instance , the android Sara once told the Seventh Doctor that " there [ were ] android agents scattered all across the galaxy , scouring space for Mondasian relics " , because the androids thought that Mondasian technology would give them an advantage in their war against human ity . ( AUDIO : " Kingdom of Silver " ) Culture . Mondas was ruled by the Central Committee of Mondas , a gestalt of twenty individuals . In relation to their occupations , individual Mondasians held a title before their first names . These included " doctorman " for scientist , " sisterman " for nun or " electroman " for electrician , and eventually , " Cyberman " or " Crewman " for Cyberman ( the entire population ) . As with the humans of Earth , Mondasians celebrated Christmas , although they dressed their trees for symbolic reasons : the tinsel represented their journey through space ; the baubles symbolised planets , and the star at the top represented their home system , Sol . ( AUDIO : " Spare Parts " ) Technology . For a reason of which the Doctor was unclear , ( TV : " Attack of the Cybermen " ) Mondas was equipped with a propulsion system that could drive the planet out of its orbit . Aging people often had cybernetic enhancements , comparable to pacemakers . They also made use of cybermat s for security and for detecting energy . Their cities were domed , the surface of their world considered inhospitable . However , fully converted Mondan s had sufficient life - support to perform work on the surface . ( AUDIO : " Spare Parts " ) History . One account claimed that the Constructors of Destiny created the Mondasians in an experiment , as a deliberate parallel to human ity , to act as a control in an experiment . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) Another identified Mondas as Marinus , and the Mondasians as the descendants of the Voord after they used a Worldshaper for cyber - conversion . ( COMIC : " The World Shapers " ) This was contradicted by the Twelfth Doctor , who stated that the Cybermen of Marinus developed independently from those on Mondas . He also encountered a group of Mondasians aboard one of their colony ships . While the majority on the lower floors like floor 1056 had more or less been fully converted in to Cybermen , those living on Floor 0507 and above were still in their natural state . ( TV : " The Doctor Falls " ) At the time that the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa encountered it , before the entire population was fully converted , Mondasian society was comparable to 1950s Great Britain . ( AUDIO : " Spare Parts " )