In the episode, Lisa Hallett (Caroline Chikezie), a half-converted Cyberman, attacks the base of the alien hunters Torchwood after secretly being housed there by her boyfriend Ianto Jones to make her fully human again.
Chibnall originally intended the episode to appear sometime midway through the series, but was ultimately brought forward to the fourth slot.
It was seen by almost 1.4 million viewers after its original broadcast and received generally mixed reactions from critics, though the producers regard the episode as one of their favourites in the series.
When Tanizaki brings Lisa back down to the basement, her Cyberman influence takes over and she kills him by attempting to upgrade him, causing the power to flicker.
Believing the Hub is under attack, Jack sends Gwen and Owen to the basement where they find the abandoned conversion unit.
Jack buys Toshiko time to go to the surface to recharge the emergency power cells by allowing himself to be electrocuted twice by Lisa, though he survives due to his immortality.
[2] When Chris Chibnall was appointed head writer for Torchwood, Davies asked him to write an episode about a cyber girl in the basement of the Hub.
[1] Chibnall originally intended for the episode to become the sixth or seventh in the series, but was brought forward to the fourth because some of the other scripts were not yet completed.
"[3] In writing the beginning, Chibnall envisaged Ianto meeting Tanizaki at an airport and then escorting him to a hotel before entering the Hub, however that was cut from the final draft as it would be an expensive sequence to film.
[1] The line where Ianto calls Jack the "biggest monster" was intended to be cut out, but Chibnall decided to keep it because of its impact to the audience.
In the audio commentary for the episode, both Chibnall and actor Gareth David-Lloyd stated the reasoning behind the cut being there is because Jack's immortal powers would only deal with life-threatening wounds and not minor injuries.
[3][citation needed] Director James Strong wanted to film the episode in a sort of real time format.
Because it was filmed in only a handful of locations, mostly in the Hub set, and there were only a few guest cast members, "Cyberwoman" was considered one of the cheapest episodes in the first series.
[3] The fight scene between Lisa and Myfanwy was difficult to shoot, as the actress had to interact with a visual effect creature that would not be added until post-production.
[1] The visual effect of the tools used to create Cybermen were reused from the Doctor Who episode "The Age of Steel", while the UFO footage when the Torchwood team return from the drinks was a tin foil-covered frisbee on a fishing line.
[citation needed] Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy of Den of Geek reacted positively towards the episode, stating "surprisingly, it was absolutely brilliant – a mini-tragedy of sorts about secrets, obsession and corruption that finally gave both Gareth David-Lloyd something interesting to do and the series some much-needed focus.
"[8] Seb Patrick of Noise to Signal thought, "despite a strong - and somewhat morally ambiguous - ending [the episode] really should have delivered in more spectacular fashion than this."
[3] In an essay on evolving symbolism with the Cybermen, Lincoln Geraghty of the University of Portsmouth argues that in "Cyberwoman", "we see the first female Cyber character on screen; unable to control her programming she attempts to assimilate her ex-boyfriend and his teammates.
Like Maria in Metropolis and the suburban threat seen in The Stepford Wives (1975), technology is seen here as even more threatening when linked with the possibility of female reproduction.
Fans had asked how the eponymous Cyberwoman was not sucked into the void along with the rest of her kin during the climax to the Doctor Who episode 'Doomsday' (8 July 2006) and the site retroactively explained away the problem: 'The only exceptions were those being converted with material entirely derived from this side of the void', which allowed the events of 'Cyberwoman' to take place without contradicting what viewers originally saw in the episode.