Wow; with last week’s The Haunting of Villa Diodati very quickly changing tracks in the second half, we can say now that we are in the endgame for Doctor Who Series 12. Diodati saw the Lone Cyberman finally facing off against the Doctor, whose performance from Jodie Whittaker is what I’ve wanted since she was announced as the Thirteenth Doctor – all over something called the Cyberium, a liquid device which seems to house all the Cybermen’s knowledge.

The trailer for Ascension of the Cybermen has already shown us more of the Lone Cyberman, whose design was excellent and proves that Chibnall certainly has a thing for the body-horror aspect of Cyber-conversion, though the Cyber-Woman from Torchwood might be best left forgotten! But he isn’t the only one as the chunky Cybus-era Cybermen (albeit our versions, first seen in A Good Man Goes To War) turn up behind him.

Another trailer showed us a new version of the robotic meanies, a cross between the Troughton design with the big headphones seen in The Invasion and the Matt Smith, more Borg-inspired design (far above).

Speaking to the Radio Times at their annual-Covers Party, Mandip Gill told them:

“I can’t say much about it, but is so exciting. We filmed it a long time ago but it’s so action packed. Again its a two-parter which is new for us in this series. There are a lot of Cybermen. I know we say this all the time but it was a lot of fun to do. I think it’ll be really exciting for people to watch.

“It’s filled with loads of things, it ties a lot of things up that have happened. There’s a through-arc, basically and that’s a part of it.”

In Fugitive of the Judoon, Captain Jack warned Graham, Ryan, and Yaz about the Lone Cyberman, telling them not to give it what it wants. But in The Haunting of Villa Diodati, the Doctor does just that. It would appear that the Lone Cyberman is going to create a brand new version of the Cyber-race to help them win the Cyber-Wars, something that goes all the way back to Tom Baker’s Revenge of the Cybermen.

With the trailer for Ascension of the Cybermen showing us the Cybus-Cybermen, could we be in for a treat with more old designs turning up? Maybe the Mondasian Cybermen, last seen in 2017? I would personally like to see the campier Cybermen from Revenge of the Cybermen and humans fighting with Glitter-Guns, mainly because Revenge is set sometime during the end of the Cyber-Wars. And we already know that the Matt Smith era Cybermen are a part of the Cyber-Wars, thanks to Nightmare in Silver, which sees the dregs of the Cybermen coming to an end.

With the next two episodes, Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children forming a two-part finale, it hasn’t been ruled out either if Jo Martin’s Doctor Ruth, Captain Jack, or the Master will return. Nonetheless, I think some of these threads will go into the next series. Whatever happens, it seems we’re in for a really good Cyberman story, and I can’t wait to see what happens! As the David Banks Cyber-Leader would say, “Excellent!”