Please help with plot!

[brainsnaffler]

I need help organising my plot!

One of the characters in my game is a robot inventor (a bit like Kamelion). He was built by the Dominators but was abandoned and later discovered by the cybermen. He was responsible for the creation of the Cyber Mats until the Doctor rescued him.

I want a plot that goes into his background further.

The idea I came up with was that the Cybermen are in a Dalek / Movellan style war where they have become too predictable and unimaginative. As a result, they have decided to re-trace the original source of the Robot so they can exploit it once more to break the stalemate. This has led them to attacking the Dominators until they have found the planet where it was constructed.

I wanted to split the group up and have the robot get captured by the Cybermen, ultimately having them hardwire the robot into a Cyber King which will go out of control and be down to the Doctor and Co. to talk him round.

The problem I have is that the plot is fairly straight forward with no twist and the biggest hole is – Why don’t the Cybermen just leave when they capture what they came for (the robot)?

[cliffordjones]

You could borrow some ideas from Resurrection of the Daleks. The robot refuses to cooperate with the cybermen unless it is allowed to remain on the current planet. The cybermen decide it will be easier to humour the robot. Meanwhile the robot is reprogramming individual cybermen to be its personal slaves. So, there are two factions of cybermen, one loyal to the robot, who will inevitably clash.

[Curufea]

There's also a good Cyberman series from Big Finish about the war with the Androids created by Humans.

Anyhow, the usual way to stop someone leaving a scene before they need to is to have something happen to their transport. Next most common trope is to require them to perform some long ritual in order to succeed. In fantasy settings, this is usually a magic ritual with chants and waving of items - in scifi settings, this is usally programming, hacking or building gadgets.